Yithro: To the Core

Yithro:  To the Core

As I read the parsha this year was impressed by the various layers that surround the center of the parsha: the 10 commandments.  These terse statements are the nucleus of montheism.  The kernel is a single sentence: 

12 Thou shalt not murder. {S} Thou shalt not commit adultery. {S} Thou shalt not steal. {S} Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. {S}    Four of the ten in one sentence.  The four that are most universal and most comfortably understood ( although here too, Chazal have non-obvious  interpretations) . Six commandments surround these. 

The Ten Commandments are surrounded by their giving.  A spectacle of thunder, fire and earthquake.  A Rock show.  We are subsequently told that the spectacle was for the sake of Nasos (20;16), a word that means miracle (nais) and sign and test, but Rashi says that here it means elevate; JPS translates it as prove; and its  root letters are in Sinai.  It is all of these.  

The spectacle of the giving is surrounded by the preparation.  The people prepare themselves for 3 days.  This preparation seems to be a complex process, requiring several conversations between Moshe and Gd, Moshe and the people.  The gemarrah  (Shabbath 87a)  says that the duration of the preparation was extended  a day by Moshe and Gd approved. .The interaction is significant.  The Judge  is not  passive in the law.

It is the relationship between  Gd, and Moshe, and  other judges, and the law  that surrounds the Ten Commandments. The sound and light show demonstrates the validity of the source (20;18) Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven -  this is what GD tells Moshe to tell the people after the event.  And the product, the ten commandments, are written in stone, immutable and must be respected by all.  ( Note that another of Moshe's decisions validated by Gd  is the breaking of the tablets)

On the other side, prior to the event, motivating it, Jethro sees Moses counseling the people all day  and advises him to set up a hierarchy of justice.  But the system needs justification, it needs the connection to heaven - It needs a sign, miracle, test to prove and elevate it.  It gets Sinai.  The eternal proof of Gd's communucation. 

The tablets are entombed in the Ark,  but the event is never forgotten