Shabbat Yitro

Thursday, 16 February 2006

Parashat Yitro

This week’s Torah portion Yitro describes the revelatory experience that takes place between the Israelites and God on Mount Sinai. This Covenantal relationship that forms the core of the Jewish religion gives us the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments: Ten religious principles that have shaped not only Judaism, but all of Christianity, Islam and modern Western Civilization as a whole. So important is the Ten Commandments that during its reading, the congregation traditionally will stand for this portion of the Torah reading.
You may think such an important portion of the Torah would be all about the experience of revelation and but in fact the portion begins with an apparently unrelated account of Jethro’s visit to his son in law Moses. Jethro (Yitro) was Moses’ father-in-Law, a Midianite Priest who comes to visit the wandering Israelites in the desert. Only then follows the account of the giving of the Law on the mountain top. This record of revelation resulting in the formation of the Jewish religion is therefore contained within a portion that is named after a non-Jew! Jethro notices the strain upon Moses of all the peoples’ needs and offers advice on how to run things better. Moses had been answering all the people’s questions himself ‘from morning to night’ and was exhausted. Jethro suggests in good management consultant style that Moses gets some help through delegation of responsibilities. He advises Moses to appoint leaders to listen to the smaller questions while Moses deals with the larger issues. Jethro then leaves the Israelite camp and the People arrive at the foot of Mount Sinai for the giving of the Ten Commandments.
The rabbis have often wondered, what is the connection between Jethro’s visit and God’s revelation? Ibn Ezra, a medieval commentator (1093-1167 Spain) argued that Jethro’s visit must have occurred after and not before the Giving of the Law noting that Moses was receiving so many questions because of these new Commandments that were yet to be fully understood and implemented. Ibn Ezra based his argument on the talmudic notion that the Torah does not necessarily follow a chronological order. The question then can be asked, why did the Torah put the story of Jethro at the beginning of the portion? In doing so, Jethro’s name becomes the first word and thereby the entire portion is named after him. We thereby inherit a tradition that places the core of our religious teaching within the context of a wider perspective. The Jewish people may have received the revelation experience at Mount Sinai but it took a non-Jew to teach Moses and the People how to administer and communicate its wisdom to all. This idea that no one religion can exist exclusively by itself, especially in a world torn by religious strife like ours, is perhaps the most important challenge facing us members of a religious tradition and may be the defining factor in all of the global issues of our time.
Religion is a hugely significant factor in global conflict. Hans Kung, the famous Catholic theologian has pointed out that there can be no solution to the clash of civilizations without a corresponding religious reconciliation. Rabbi Bayfield has written ‘We have not made progress on what is best for the good of the globe because we cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge the limitations of our own theologies’.

At Leo Baeck College, we engage positively with Christians and Muslims across Europe even to the extent of sending our rabbinic students to an annual weeklong conference of Jewish, Christian and Muslim theological students that takes place annually in Germany. Last year, Leo Baeck College invited Karen Armstrong, noted author and religious commentator, to give the keynote address at our annual dinner. She spoke controversially of the violent tradition in each of Chrisitianity, Islam and Judaism. Karen, a former nun and adjunct lecturer at the College was severely criticized in the international press and through hundreds of emails to the College, for putting the case for the dangerous and conflictual nature and history of religious traditions. The hatred of the Other is as much a part of all our religious traditions as is the love and compassion and inclusiveness. Christianity and Islam have certainly had their full share of religious persecution and intolerance; we have only to mention the Crusades and the Islamic wars of conquest. Since the end of the Israelite kingdoms which attempted to wipe out all of the Canaanite nations, it may be debated whether Judaism has had a similar history but then again we never really had the opportunity. Now we do wield sovereign power over others and I do not think we can say that we have an unblemished record. In the rabbinic tradition, it is Aaron, Moses’ brother who is identified as the one who is ‘ohev shalom v’rodef shalom’ – a lover of peace and pursuer of peace and we are enjoined to follow his example. So too other religions must take account of their geopolitical responsibilities.
May we always be reminded that Jethro represents the Other, the one who is not us but whom we need to fulfill our task. We can only exist in relation to the Other. Rabbi Leo Baeck, survivor of Thereisenstadt concentration camp, emerged from the nightmare of the Shoah having demonstrated that the power to overcome evil in the camps was through recognizing the humanity of the other and thereby affirming the humanity of oneself. Let us live up to the compelling and powerful Divine imperative of creating a just and fair society with the many true religious ideals that have been received by all humanity.