Weekly Torah Reading: Yisro - Climbing the Mountain

Okay, so we're in Pash Yisro, and we want to look at the Sedra. Now, obviously, the centerpiece is going to be the Seres Adibris, the Ten Commandments. But there's a very long introduction and a short kind of postscript. And the long introduction has two parts. The first part is the arrival of Yisro himself, Moshe's father-in-law, who comes with Moshe's wife and children.

And the interesting thing about this is during that episode of Moshe honors him, he then looks out the next day and sees Moshe with all the people lined up for judgment. And he says, what is this? It's going to ruin you. It's going to ruin them. And he proposes a whole different system of intermediaries. The difficult questions they'll go to Moshe with to hear the word of Hashem. But everybody else, you know, you go to kind of your local rabbi or your local

judge or whoever exactly it is. and a whole chain of, if they can't answer, you go up the chain, up the chain, up the chain until eventually the most difficult questions will go to Moshe. Very interesting because when you look at the Gemara in Zavachim, in Kofta Zion, in 116, it's actually a debate based on texts of the Torah itself. When this episode took place, it's not clear that it took place here, that we're just reading it in chronological order.

It's very, very likely, very plausible, it actually took place after the Torah was given. Maybe it's late. In fact, Rashi brings Vahimei Mocharos, it was the next day, it means the day after Yom Kippur, just to get the chronology, right? The Jewish people, we come out of Egypt on Pesach, the golden calf is done on almost the day, Shavuot, the 17th of Tammuz.

So Matan Torah, the Torah is received on roughly around by Shavuos, and then the Mocharos, I think I'm more exactly which day, but let's say 6th or 7th of Tammuz. Then golden calf, 40 days later, 17th of Tammuz. Then for 80 days, Moshe's interceding and begging eventually comes down. That is after the Torah is given. And that's when Yisra is talking or possibly even later. There's all different discussion. So if that's true, then what is it doing here?

Literally, we just had the war against Amalek, the war about doubt and self-doubt and doubt of Hashem. They've raised their hands to heaven.

Everything's now cleared and they understand. They're ready to receive Torah. and go and tell us about the torah and another time we'll hear about when yisro arrived and and we the judicial restructuring what's that got it why do we stop the story to introduce an element that seems to be not very relevant to the story chronologically happened much much later on and.

The whole century gets named yisro gets named after this this intersection is in this interjecting that doesn't seem to have anything to do the main story so what is obviously is really critical to what the Torah wants to give us. Otherwise, it wouldn't be here. Then when all that's finished and Hashem said, yeah, Yisrael is right.

And then we do, we restructure the people that way. After all this episode, then we get the story of actually arriving to get the Torah. And there's a long preamble backwards and forwards. Moshe has to go to the mountain. Hashem calls him up and tells him, go down and warn the people and they should stay a certain distance. And it's backwards and forwards several times before we actually get to the Ten Commandments themselves. themselves.

Then we get to the actual Aseret HaDibris, the Ten Commandments. This is what we've been waiting for, the national revelation of Hashem to all the people. But here also it's not so clear exactly what happens. The overt reading of the text is pretty clear. Hashem said all these things in all the Ten Commandments. The first two are in second person. Hashem speaks directly in first person to the people in second person. The others are in third person.

But if we listen carefully, it's unclear, was more given at Sinai, was less given at Sinai. So, well, first of all, let's give them why it was more given at Sinai. The Gemara in Brachos says that, quotes a passage actually next week, etc. V'yom Hashem, a moshah, alei alay, a harar, climb up, come up to the mountain. V'yisham, and be with me there. V'etna l'chas el luchas, I'll give you these tablets of stone with the commandments on.

However, and the stone was v'a Torah and the Torah, v'a mitzvah and the mitzvah, that I've written to teach them and Rish Lakish says quotes the name of Rish Lakish what are all these words it's saying how much was given at Sinai the Torah.

They're the ten commandments Torah that includes all of Mik all the texts of the Torah, Mitzvah that includes all of Mishnah the oral Torah the oral law that I've written that includes prophetic texts again when Moshe came down when I do the book of Isha interesting, to teach them that's Gemara which Rashi explains means that they didn't have the Gemara text, but they had the questioning and answering and logic.

So something great more was given at Sinai. Maybe they're cryptically contained in the Ten Commandments. But if Sajjigan, when he has his Sefer going through all the mitzvahs, breaks them into the Ten Commandments. So maybe you can see everything in there. But then when you listen to Rashi, oh, sorry, then let's see what else. We also know that So the version given to us in parishes Yisro is not identical to the version given in parishes for Eschanan.

Famously, Shamar and Zachar, when it comes to instruction for Shabbos, there's a few other differences. When it's not Shabbos, it's mostly Vavs and things. When it comes to Shabbos, for example, there's certain very important differences. In Yisra it says, Be conscious of Shabbos. In Vayashan it will say, And there'll be other differences too. And Rashi, in fact, says, quotes over here. He says,

Both of these were given in a single Vathema. It gives other things also. also. And this Hushanem, this is what the Pasuk says, Achas diber elekim shtayim zu shamati. But this is a Pasuk, this is a verse from Psalms from Tehillim, Psalm 62, and where Hashem says one thing, and he gives other examples in Torah, and somehow we hear two things. So something's going on that Hashem is saying one thing, and what's being heard, contains more information, or more words, than what's actually being said.

And if If we go all the way back, we hear something even more unbelievable, where Rashi says, where Rashi says that is, Hashem said all these things Lameh are saying. By the way, you see, it's not just to Moshe, because usually it says Hashem said to Moshe. This is to the whole people. But all these things saying, just say Hashem said and list the things. I'm Hashem, your God, who took me out of Egypt, says Rashi, quoting the Medrash over here.

It teaches you that he said all these things in one single voice. Where no human being could possibly do such a thing. Amazing. So, Yeah, so let's just have a look over here. And then what happened after? So why do we then have all the specifics?

He went back and repeated each one of them individually. There's all the Matilda by this, all the Madrash on the Shema saying all this. So that's amazing. So one second, there's now seems like there's a lot going on.

On the one hand, there's a single voice contains everything. then a repetition but when it's repeated again 40 years later there'll be a new revelation of the fact there was actually more words that you could say about sinai and somehow contains all of torah the rambam goes even further by the way the rambam in the moan of ulam the guide to the perplex in the second section when he talks about prophecy in the 33rd chapter

he says really there was a voice and he tries to prove from the psukim it also is based on his whole philosophy of how how prophecy works. It's not the most natural reading of the text, but he says there's a voice that everybody heard, everybody understood this was contact with something beyond the natural. Everybody could immediately connect to the oneness of God and they could connect. In fact, there's a message, but they couldn't quite work it out. And Moshe was able to work it out.

Now, the Rambam's view is maybe more extreme, but all the views seem to be saying that somehow the speech of Hashem on the one hand contained less, and on the other hand contained more than the Ten Commandments. So we need to understand how this works. Now again, Ein HaMikra Yetzim Dei Pshuto, the text never leaves its primary

meaning. The primary meaning is these ten. And that's clearly, so we need to make all these other views. How do they work with this? Right? And how does this all fit together with Yisra at the beginning? And finally, after all this is finished, we then have a very brief set of mitzvahs. That includes in particular, you saw that Hashem spoke to you from heaven, don't make any idols, etc. And if you're going to, when you build an altar, right?

There's no commandment at this stage to build a Mishkan. This is a separate discussion. The rabbi is to build a house of God. It seems plausible because the passage says. Wherever my name is mentioned, I'll come and bless you. It could well be that at this phase,

days Hashem's presence was going to rest everywhere but you could build a Mizbech an altar but it mustn't have steps so that you don't reveal your nakedness which actually explains that you don't take if you take steps and you're wearing kind of a skirt for someone was you know for whom the steps are very large it'll be too revealing okay in a discussion about that but that's like what's that got a little anti-climax there at the end and obviously

these are all thematically related and we need to understand them. So let's start with the centerpiece over here. Let's start with the As-Taras Ad-Dibbas, the Ten Commandments, what's actually given us Sinai. And I want to suggest something that I think will help reconcile all these different views. You see, what's going on is that Hashem is revealing Himself and His will.

The rabbis tell us the word Anoiki, I am, which He begins the Ten Commandments with, a very powerful, assertive, existential word for I am present. If I just want to refer to myself in Hebrew When I want to really give my presence to you, I say, there's a real sense of self and presence. And the rabbi states that he can read as an acronym. I took my soul, my inner will. The Rambam always says soul, where God refers to it means, I took my inner hidden will and I wrote it out and gave it to you.

It's like I poured my heart and desire out to you. In human terms, we would say this is vulnerability. vulnerability. This is Hashem's presence now coming into earth and we are vulnerable with people and we trust them and we expect relationship and we expect them to be able to build with this a depth of being in relationship. And of course, when we look very closely, we realize that this is central to the whole Sedra.

Hashem revealing that which normally cannot be revealed for the sake of relationship. In fact, when we get this theme of relationship, we'll notice something else very, very intriguing that in the run up to Mount Sinai itself, when Hashem gives an introduction of what Moshe should tell the people. So Moshe goes up to God, this is before the revelation itself, and Hashem calls him to the mountain. He says.

This is what you should tell the women and tell the men. Atem re'isem, you saw, asher ha'sisi le'mitzraim, that which I did to Egypt. V'esor esrem alka'am fe'nisharim, I carried you on wings of eagles, v'avi esrem e'la, and I brought you to me. V'atam nam, sh'mayatish mu'bukoyli, if you'll only listen to my voice. V'shamaratim esbrissi, and listen to my covenant or relationship. Be'isem li'segul ha'mikol ha'vim, you'll be a treasure to me, from all of humanity.

Gini kol ha'rit, right? V'atem tilium ilmam lachas ka'anim, you can be a nation of priests. priests. Right now in the ancient world, priests were usually privileged, had more land or whatever. In Torah, a priest has less land, but they have responsibilities. You'll take responsibility for transmitting my word. You'll be my partners to reveal my word to the world.

This is what you should tell them. And if you think about it, there are things that seem to be missing. You or I would say, I'm about to give you a law. I've got a purpose here. You must keep my law and you owe my existence to me. None of that. You know, the Rambam has a phrase, a person who keeps the mitzvahs at the highest level. Does truth because it's true. It's in the last chapter of Hilchot Shuvah, the laws of Teshuvah, of repentance. But like here, it's not about, here's the laws.

In essence, it's not about do them it's actually embedded in the context of love the Rambam's describing somebody who's an over there who serves Hashem with an ava with a love that's admitted is really true and he describes as overflowing like greater you know greater than a love a man might have who's obsessed about a woman whose love's sick and can't stop thinking about her when he gets up and goes to sleep and call shasher moshalinian zest

of the Rambam the whole song of songs is all an analogy for this and in the middle of that he says is oysa amos manesha amos does truth because it's true. In other words, it's the context, this relationship, not religion. It's an amazing thing that the Hebrew word for religion, das, does not appear in Torah. I heard this many years ago. I think it was Rav Weinberg giving a share in the old city who made this point.

His point of the emphasis in this context is that we don't introduce ideas of religion. We use the word bris. There's going to be a covenant. There's going to be a loving relationship. And later on, God will make himself, as it were, his will vulnerable. And he's saying, I want you to be a treasure. I want her to be a bris. The word das, modern Hebrew word for religion and used elsewhere throughout rabbinic writings does not appear in the Torah, right?

Maybe you could say it's in the middle of a word, esh das, the fiery law at the end, very end of the Torah. Certainly does not appear here. The word bris, covenant and relationship. God is seeking relationship. But here's the problem. If God

wants to transmit his will, his will is not graspable to any human being. Nobody is capable of engaging in that depth of relationship. And so there's two plans. Plan number one is, yes, there is. Moshe Rabbeinu Moses, come the closest you can come to it. And how can the people absorb what's going on? They can't do it individually. As an individual, no human is going to be great enough to grasp the mind of God, even at the level of Moshe, but they can if they're collective. We can do it together.

And that's why when it comes to camping at the foot of the mountain, it says, Israel camped, and it uses a singular verb, they camped. And Rashi says famously, like one human being with one beating heart. The vision here is an unbelievable thing. You see, it's like in a human body. Each individual cell has no particular meaning or purpose. If you're you extracted it from the human body, you wouldn't even notice it. Took a bit of tissue, you'd think it's a piece of dirt and chuck it out.

But if every cell behaved the same way, the body would die. It wouldn't be a body at all. It would just be one long thing, right? It's a bit like the human being always has this dilemma. You know, am I an individual or am I part of something greater? If I'm an individual, so I feel me, but I'm just meaningless. I'm just a homo sapien floating around planet Earth.

And if I'm a part of something greater, then I may connect to meaning and purpose and family and community and nation and religion and whatever.

But then aren't I just part of somebody else and the answer is like one human being with one beating heart in the body every part of the body has to be different and yet it lives for the same single vision this is the depth right and that means I need you the liver needs the kidney and within the liver the sub parts and the sub parts of the kidney and the sub organelles within the heart and each part needs the other to be individual.

I need you to be different to me and yet you need me to be different to you, but all to the same, what we call today DNA, the same vision, the same dream. If we're like one, with one heart, then just like when you put cells together, you get the human being with all our awareness. It's an amazing thing. We're made of cells. Most cells on planet earth are single cellular organisms, bacteria.

If you take all the the cells of planet earth they dwarf the human by factors we can't even imagine and yet as far as we can tell between all of them they might not even have a shred of consciousness they certainly couldn't perform a single cognitive process like two plus two equals four put a tiny fraction together given different roles but to the same plan and you get the human with a mind capable of understanding the mathematics of the entire universe relating to

the idea of a creator educator moral order i mean it's amazing now take the humans together and bring them as one and what could they suddenly chief certainly minds that connect to one another and are open to grasp something powerful that a level of understanding of god that the individual can't have alone and in that level of revelation and openness is now the possibility of god to pour pour his will into that.

Individually, humans can't fully make sense of what's going on, but collectively they can. They sense, they know they're in contact with God. And yet, and what happens at that moment is that the vessel is able to somehow receive God's light. But at a certain moment, the people kind of lose that level. Some say it's only after the second commandment. They say to Moshe, we need you to be the intermediary. We can't quite hold it.

Now, what is it they hear at that moment? They hear something that transcends words. And here I want to turn to Maharal we referred to a few weeks ago in Parashat Shamos. And the Maharal actually speaks about this in more than one place. He says, you know, how does Moshe Rabbeinu undergo this transition? In the beginning, he can't speak. And later, after Sinai, he can speak. In fact, he's going to dictate the whole book of Devarim. Because Moshe Rabbeinu was on a level beyond words.

Words a level we normally call the coil the voice of hashem words are things that you and i share together as shared experiences that's what language is we each see a camera a zoom right so we develop a word that we all share we each fear love and hate so we have words that we share right if i have an experience you don't have or you have an experience i don't have you can't put it into words because words are the experiences we all have there's depth to reality that transcends words.

Words are also finite. They relate to things a human brain can connect. Reality's got an infinite depth. Moshe, from the moment he encountered God at the burning bush, could not put that experience into words. And that's why he says, I'm heavy of mouth. I'm unactivated of my lips. I'm not a man of words. I'm on a level transcendent. And he says He says that many different times. And Hashem in the end says, yeah, you'll be like an Akim Lefarah. You'll be like a divine compared to Pharaoh.

And Aaron Achiti Yenavieh, Aaron your brother will be your prophet. You mumble and try to do your best. Your brother will understand what you're trying to say and put it into words. You'll bring down to whatever level you can. He'll get the bottom of the level. You've got to bring it down a bit more. It won't all get through, but enough of the message will. That changes Moshe's inability to speak changes at Sinai.

Up till then Hashem always says lift up your hands lift up your hands lift up your hands and you do it from Sinai onwards everything will change Moshe loses the inability to speak because he sees how God himself takes the infinite depth and translates it into finite words at first it comes as a voice that is not even in words at first it comes with all 10 commandments in one saying and then he shows and then it becomes it crystallizes into these

words words that once you see them you understand how these words capture the entire experience of the contact with the will of God. They have layers and layers of depth, hidden meanings or whatever exactly it is and somehow these finite words can capture the infinity of the infinite will of God and once Moshe sees how to do that he's able to do it himself. Let's understand as we go through now how this explains and starts to answer

some of the questions that we touched upon. on. One was given a C9. Everything.

Contained within that single voice was everything, all of God's will. Every scenario that will ever happen in the world where a new technology emerges and a rabbi has to rule on it, they have to be connecting back to that which was originally contained in that single revelation at Sinai. By the way, as we say in the Gemara, you can have Eilu ve'eilu divre'le'kim chaim. You can have opposing opinions that are both consistent with that voice of Sinai.

That voice can transcend the simple question of it permitted or it's forbidden. Something could have aspects of permittedness, aspects of forbiddenness, and both opinions can connect back on a very deep level to the one. Just like if you shine a light through a prism, it comes out in seven different colors, the way the human eye processes it. Is it red? Is it blue? At its core, it's neither and both. It's a light that transcends all.

Refracted, if you're so small, you can only see one of those there's light, that's blue here, it's red here, but it's all contained in that voice. So that voice is like a light that shines and then splinters. In fact, the Chazal, the rabbis actually use this analogy. They say like a hammer that hits and then sparks, splinter, takes that single energy of the blow and becomes 70 sparks, 70 faces and so on.

If you ask the people themselves to repeat what had happened, right, they would give you some of of the 10 commandments. Maybe all of them, maybe the first two, right? They would certainly give you the, as soon as Moshe puts it into the commandments, they immediately get it. But if you also wanted to fully get it, you would actually have to give both lots of commandment.

Maybe we'll come when we speak, if we're still doing the weekly shi'a and we get to Vaischanan, I'll explain exactly why some was given, some was described 40 years later and some now. In essence, it's because the people have fallen and now you need what's going to be in Vaischanan as the stepping stone back to the level in Yisro. I'm not going to go into that too much now, but the point is it's when you see it as the pyramid of revelation like this.

This is the level they're conscious of from here downwards. This is the level they were put into words. This is a level that was going on even above, and these are the levels that are emerging below. There's a level they're conscious of in hearing the word of God. They're conscious that it's from God. They're conscious it's the will of God. They're conscious of many of the words that are being said. That's why the Torah puts in the Ten Commandments. If you would have said to

them straight away, is that what you heard? They would have immediately gone, yes, that's exactly what it meant. But contained within that is a level of depth that can unfold into every single other mitzvah the Torah will ever have. And that's what Rish Lakish means. It's all there. All the future unfolding of Torah, all the rabbinic analysis, it's all contained in that single revelation.

And by the way, it means when we study Torah today, we are literally studying all the way back to the revelation, to God's will, my pouring out of a will to you. And when we study Torah, we want to understand its depth and we want to put it into action. We are reconnecting to Sinai, reconnecting to that revelation. And the Gemara speaks often about every day, there's an echo coming out of Mount Sinai, right?

Saying, I've woe to those who don't learn my Torah. But that's because it's the same call. Now you'll stop me there and go, okay, fine. but the way we study Torah today is very different. Ours is very granular. We start from a technical halacha, a law. We try to work our way backwards. Yes, because we could not stay at the level of Sinai. The golden calf came and we dropped in level and we never really got back up there.

Even at Sinai itself, Moshe's understanding of the revelation was far higher than everybody else's. But everybody else's understanding was far, far higher than ours is today. We have their memory preserved. We know the story. We know the words to say. That was contained in the national consciousness of the people and now it's written in the Torah and so on. But what we don't have is the ability to grasp on the level that they did.

But it's okay because it filters down the mountain and we now climb. And so now the people were all gathering to Moshe saying, can you tell us? I know that when we stood at Sinai, if we'd have retained that consciousness, we would know what to do in every situation, but we don't. So they came to Moshe with questions. What should we do now? What should we do here? How do we maintain the echo of that voice and apply it to this situation? How do we take God's will and apply it to that situation?

And Yisrael came along and said, this is terrible.

Terrible you and them it's bad for you Moshe because you can't do this all day but it's bad for them because they aren't connecting to the voice they're down here on the mountain you're up at the top of the mountain right even at Sinai God kept telling Moshe you climb the mountain, and the Rambam explains that when you physically God asks you to physically climb a mountain he's asking you to conceptually and emotionally and spiritually and mentally climb the mountain

too and that's emotionally you're ready to go on this level they're not ready to go on this level but whatever level they were ready to be on at the foot of the mountain we're no longer there we're now lower and lower and lower and lower and lower and no longer is it good for us to call up the mountain and find out what you see at the top of the mountain we have to be able to start climbing ourselves and that's why Yisra says Moshe you need judges

here and judges are teachers of Torah and over here and over here and over here and over here and let the people connect to the people above them and once they've got their teachings and they can now ask questions they they can't answer, then they'll go higher, and then they'll go to the next level, then they'll go higher, then they'll go to the next, they'll go higher, and we'll always be climbing back up the mountain.

At the time, the story may not even, that may not even chronologically have happened, but now that we have dropped down that level, now before we can even hear about the revelation at Sinai, the Torah wants us to know, before we get there, how we're meant to climb this mountain. That's why it changes the chronological order, according to the opinion that it does, and puts the episode of Yisro at the beginning.

And the whole Seder is called this. And his very name, remember, Yisro's names are love names. Chovav, Beloved, Reuel, he's got many names. The Beloved of God. But the Yisro, the adding an extra dimension to Torah, that's the name we use for this week. Why? Because what he did is, his Yisro, he increases the Vav, the connection between God and man. Just like he himself, his conversion had been a journey of climbing a mountain.

Mountain he can show us how the heights of sinai can go all the way down to us below the foot of the mountain tactics are under the mountain and how we can have a rope to climb up now let's learn the story of sinai and in the lead up to the story how much god was saying up and down and be careful no way you stand on the mountain don't come too close because if you try to grasp what you can't grasp you'll make terrible mistakes with it so you have to work out

your position learn the torah and climb a bit more than a bit less. And then we get the revelation of Sinai and all the multiple levels of it. Everything in one word, then spelled out into 10 that the people could understand. The Rambam says they could only understand when Moshe said it. The simple meaning is they could understand those 10, but in fact, ultimately, it contained more and more and more and more and more.

And the final part of Torah, wherever you are, I can come wherever you're studying Torah. Remember, it means, as the Shah Kaddish tells us, studying Torah means studying for the the sake of understanding God's will and desiring to put it into practice. Hashem, you've bared your will to us. You've given us the privilege to invite us into a relationship with you, though you are ungraspably greater than us.

Individually, I can't grasp you, but as a part of the collective, studying together, and that's why we say, have a study partner or die, right?

Together with all the texts of thousands of years of the Jews struggling to understand you, together with the yeshiva full of people learning and the rabbis and the teachers and the together i get a little bit i can my glimpse and i go beyond and then i hear this opinion and this of it and together we start to build the details as our consciousness refines itself and refines itself and we climb the mountain but when you want to serve god don't use somebody else's

steps it's your steps that's how the setra finishes you've got to find your way of climbing some people could take large steps some people can't take large steps it reveals their nakedness what what it means is it's a jump to a level of shame and embarrassment because they're going to jump to a level where they can no longer understand. Take the steps that you do understand. God is not looking for religion, which is a set of commandments, just do them like automatons.

He's looking for a relationship. He wants you to be his partner. He wants you more than anything else to understand him to the best of your ability, to enact his will and to be the conduit through which his holiness enters the world. So these are some of the beautiful things, just, again, a beginning of a layer of making sense of someone's impassioned history. I hope as we study it together individually or you study with your chavrus, we gain more and more and more of its grasp.

I wish everybody a wonderful Shabbos and a wonderful climbing up the mountain.