Yithro: Danger

The Ten Commandments, the centerpiece of this weeks's parsha, are preceded by preparations.  Three days of purification and  clean clothes will be required.  There is a warning of the danger of approaching Gd. Even touching the mountain, the site of revelation, is a fatal error for man or beast. Why is Gd so dangerous? 

This revelation comes in the context of the new judicial system suggested by Jethro. A hierarchy of courts are to be established with more difficult cases advanced to higher levels, up to Moshe, who can ask Gd. The authority of the system depends upon the power of the entity at the top.  The awesome, vital, power that stands behind the decisions prevents the idea of deviation from its ruling. The drama shows that a breach  can be fatal.

Gd's recent, prior demonstrations of domination over the predicted: the palgues, the splitting of the sea, the Manna- they were not sufficient.  The relationship between omnipotence and   the law needed demonstration.  Violations of the (arbitrary) rules of purity , crossing an arbitrary boundary,  could cost one's life in the context of receiving the law.  The relationship between the law and its consequences was unpredictably severe.

Gd's wrath is always justified. Not so human violence. 

The last of the 10 commandments  is the prohibition of coveting.  The parsha ends with a coda involving the construction of sacrificial altars. The altars are not to be made of cut stone.  The application of the sword, the cutting tool, is inappropriate to the instrument of worship. Here is the irony.  The first murder ( violation of commandment 7)  was based upon Cain's envy ( #10)  of Hevel.  This is in contrast with Moshe's killing of the Egyptian taskmaster to rescue his kin,  the slave.  That killing eventually leads to Moshe  being the intimate of Gd.   Cain killed for the ritual, Moshe did what the law should have prescribed.