Parshat Yitro
Overview
Hearing of the miracles
- Believe in
G-d - Don't worship other "gods"
- Don't use
G-d 's name in vain - Observe Shabbat
- Honor your parents
- Don't murder
- Don't commit adultery
- Don't kidnap
- Don't testify falsely
- Don't covet.
After receiving the first two commandments, the Jewish People, overwhelmed by this experience of the Divine, request that Moshe relay
Insights
The Servant of Two Masters
“And now, if you will surely listen to My voice…” (19:5)
Why is it only now after all the plagues and the Exodus that
The Talmud Yerushalmi explains that a Canaanite slave is exempt from the mitzvah of saying “Shma” because he cannot honestly accept the yoke of Heaven (the purpose of this mitzvah) since he already has another yoke — that of his master.
A true servant cannot serve two masters. To the extent that he serves one, his dedicated service to the other is lacking.
Only now, after breaking the enslavement of Egypt, bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt and raising them far above the Egyptians on eagles’ wings,
This should give us pause.
How much of our own lives are spent serving “other masters”? The masters of honor, of wealth and prestige, of frivolous entertainment and needless worry?
To fly with the eagles a Jew can have no other master than
- Sources: based on the Shem MiShmuel in Mayana shel Torah