Yithro: the outsider

Yithro: the outsider

Contrast the beginning of Beshalach with the beginning of Yithro.  Beshalach begins with Pharaoh sending out the Israelites. Yithro: Yithro heard of all  that Gd had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, how that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. The actor for the Israelites was Pharoah.  For Yithro, it was Gd.  Two perceptions of the same event. 

The fact that Yithro is an outsider allows him to see the events as acts of Gd.  Those who experience the Exodus see it as a  battle between  Pharaoh and them. The miracles were  what had become of the natural world for them.  An exercise in Relativity. 

Yithro also sees that the absolute, unshared monarchy of Moshe is not sustainable.   He suggests a hierarchy.  Gd and Moshe accept the outsiders suggestion.

To validate the basis of this court system, there is a sound and light show  ... and a product - the word of Gd hewn in stone. A set of laws that come from a place outside the  human realm.  Laws that cannot be questioned, enforced by the ultimate, unrepresentable outsider.