YISRO, EXODUS 18:1-20
Beginning at Chapter 20 at Mt. Sinai we hear the 10 Commandments spoken by Hashem. It is not until much later in Chapter 31 that Hashem inscribes the 10 Commandments into two stone tablets and gives them to Moshe to bring down to the people.
Most
likely they were written in a script called Paleo-Hebrew and not in the square script
that we today are familiar with called Ashura script. Paleo-Hebrew was the script used through out
the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age, about 1,500 BCE when the Ten
Commandments were given. Ashura script
developed much later, perhaps a thousand years later and originated out of Mesopotamia
and not Canaan.
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In Parshas Yisro we receive the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, a high point in our relationship with Hashem.. The third one of these Commandments at 20:6-7 is:
לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת-שֵׁם-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לַשָּׁוְא: כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה, אֵת אֲשֶׁר-יִשָּׂא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.”
What does this Commandment mean to you?
It seems to me that in our common culture, taking God’s name in vain has been much trivialized…perhaps a sign of the times where things are taken casually or made light of.
לַשָּׁוְא which appears twice means “for nothing” or a misuse.
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The Ten Commandments begin at 20:2 with Hashem stating his bonafides: “I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”.
Then there is a list of
responsibilities and obligations, things that we are required to do or not to
do through verse 20:14. In turn if we do
our part Hashem will do His as stated previously in Chapter 19:
19:5, וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים,
“…you shall be My own treasure from among all peoples…”
19:6, וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ-לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים, וְגוֹי
קָדוֹשׁ
“you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation”.
This clearly a contract between a sovereign and a people, not between a sovereign and an under lord, but between a sovereign and a multitude.
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In the Parshah at 18:2: וַיִּקַּח, יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה, אֶת-צִפֹּרָה, אֵשֶׁת מֹשֶׁה--אַחַר, שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ
I want to focus
on what “to be sent away” may possibly mean.
Not only is the phrase found at 18:2, but it is also found at 18:27 –
וַיְשַׁלַּח מֹשֶׁה, אֶת-חֹתְנוֹ; וַיֵּלֶךְ
לוֹ, אֶל-אַרְצוֹ.
“And Moses sent his father-in-law away; and he went to his own land”.
To be sent away has an emotional connotation of finality or divorce or banishment. At Genesis 21:14 where Abraham sends Haggar away, there is no question as to his intent:וַיַּשְׁכֵּם
אַבְרָהָם בַּבֹּקֶר וַיִּקַּח-לֶחֶם וְחֵמַת מַיִם וַיִּתֵּן אֶל-הָגָר שָׂם
עַל-שִׁכְמָהּ, וְאֶת-הַיֶּלֶד--וַיְשַׁלְּחֶהָ; וַתֵּלֶךְ וַתֵּתַע,
בְּמִדְבַּר בְּאֵר שָׁבַע.
“And Abraham arose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away; and she went, and became lost in the wilderness of Beer-sheba”.
Getting back to Moshe and the Parshah, it is only in 18:2 and not before that we learn that Zipporah had been sent away. They had started out together from Midian on their way to meet Aaron at Mt. Sinai. The family stopped at a lodging and there was the incident of Zipporah circumcising one of the children. The Chumash is silent regarding her until she rejoins Moshe in the Parshah. We have to read into the text in order to make sense out of 18:2.
The verse regarding Moshe and his father-in law at 18:27 is a little more, but not much, explicit regarding the intentions on the part of Yisro and Moshe.
Some verses from the Book of Numbers 10: 29-32
shed some light on what may have transpired in the Parshah:
Moses says: “…We are traveling to the place about which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us and we will be good to you, for the Lord has spoken of good fortune for Israel.
Yitro replies: He said to him, I won't go, for I will go to my land and my birthplace.
Moses answers: He said, Please don't leave us, for because you are familiar with our encampments in the desert and you will be our guide. And if you go with us, then we will bestow on you the good which God grants us.
There is another clue as to what is happening. At 18:24, Moses seems to comply with what Yitro is telling him:
וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע משֶׁ֖ה לְק֣וֹל חֹֽתְנ֑וֹ וַיַּ֕עַשׂ כֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר אָמָֽר
"Moses understood his
father in law, and he acted to all that he said".
וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע means that Moses heard or
listened or understood. On its face this conversation seems to refer to setting up of a judicial
system.
But it might mean something more, and Moshe got the picture. His father-in-law was a Midianite who had no desire to throw in with the Jews.
And in our Parshah: “And Moses sent his father in-law away; and he went
to his own land”.
We all know that Moshe had a temper. I’m thinking
that Moshe understood and was so upset with Yitro’s response, that Moshe threw
him out never to return.
Sam Cooke, not Rav Kook, has a different point of view:
https://youtu.be/tcrU3ddNeIg
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The Haftorah portion concerns parts of Chapters 6, 7 and 9 (for Ashkenazim).In this week's Haftarah portion at 6:1-3 we read the Prophet Isaiah's vision of heavenly beings:
“Seraphim stood above for Him, six wings, six wings to each one; with two he would cover his face, and with two he would cover his feet, and with two he would fly. And one called to the other and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."
Isaiah saw a Seraph which is a
heavenly being that flies around the Throne of God exclaiming:
קָד֧וֹשׁ | קָד֛וֹשׁ קָד֖וֹשׁ יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת מְלֹ֥א כָל־הָאָ֖רֶץ כְּבוֹדֽוֹ
Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole
earth is full of His glory”.
These words are the Kedushah, probably
the most important part of the Amidah where we attempt to emulate the
Angels. The Kedushah is also said in the
first prayer prior to reciting the Shema and towards the conclusion of the
morning service as part of the Uva L'tzion prayer and at the conclusion of
Shabbat.
Then at 6:5 the Prophet exclaims that
he is not fit to have seen what he has seen:
“Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips...Then one of the seraphim
flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs
from the altar. And he touched my mouth
with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken
away”,
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At 7:1 Isaiah introduces us to the Judean King, Achaz. Most of us do not know him, but are familiar with his son Hezekiah and his great-great grandson Josiah. Ahaz ruled in Judah between 734–714 BCE.
He is viewed as a wicked King, but from a historical perspective, Achaz was one of the strongest and most determined leaders of the kingdom. In the north the Assyrian Empire was on the rise, and two local kingdoms, Aram and Israel (that’s right Israel, the northern kingdom) tried to force Achaz to join an alliance in opposition to Assyria.
According to Isaiah 7:6, when Achaz refused, they attempted to force Judah to join their anti-Assyrian coalition, or annex it and put their own man on the throne.
נַעֲלֶה בִיהוּדָה וּנְקִיצֶנָּה, וְנַבְקִעֶנָּה אֵלֵינוּ; וְנַמְלִיךְ מֶלֶךְ בְּתוֹכָהּ, אֵת בֶּן-טָבְאַל
“Let us go up against Judah and provoke it, and annex it to us; and let us crown a king in its midst, one who is good for us.”
Long story short: Achaz appealed to Assyria for help; Assyria complied and whips Israel and Aram, but in turJudah loses its independence and becomes a vassal kingdom of Assyria. For the next 600 years until after the Maccabees, we were a subject kingdom or province of Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Ptolemy, Seleucid and lastly Rome.
It sure is good, now, to be free in our Land and not under the foot of a foreign power.
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