Yitro

Exodus 18:1–20:23

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Peter S. Knobel; Reprinted from ReformJudaism.org

Do We Still Remember?

On Rosh Hashanah night we read the following in Gates of Repentance1:

Remember
The words You spoke in stone and thunder
The mountain smoked
And the dismayed multitude
Stood off, hearing the first time
The words they could not refuse,
Fearing the burden and the God that set
Them in history.
And there are mountains still. We are the Jews.
We cannot forget

In my mind's eye I picture the scene at Mount Sinai. I imagine that I am standing at the bottom of the smoking mountain with more than six hundred thousand former slaves hearing the blast of the shofar and experiencing the Presence of God and responding, Naaseh v'nishma, "All that the Eternal has spoken we will faithfully do!" (Exodus 24:7; see also 19:8, 24:3). In the midst of my reverie, I look out at the congregation and I wonder: What is my congregation thinking? Do they feel the awesome power of the moment? Does the ancient experience draw them into the covenantal promise?

This week's parashah, Yitro, describes the confusion and fear surrounding the giving of the Torah. God and Moses engage in a strange dialogue. There is a scurrying up and down the mountain. God tells Moses that the purpose of God's descent is, "that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after" (Exodus 19:9). This implies that only if the people experience God's Presence themselves will they believe Moses. But the people are also warned not to come too close: it is dangerous to be too close to God. The people are so frightened that they beg Moses to speak to God for them and tell them what God wants.

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