Parshat Yitro
Overview
Hearing of the miracles
The Bnei Yisrael arrive at Mt. Sinai where
- 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 with the Divine, request that Moshe relay
Insights
Going Halfway to Others
“Moshe brought the people forth from the camp towards
I got into a taxicab the other day and sat next to the driver. From his outward appearance it was impossible to tell whether he was religious or not. He was clean shaven and wore a khaki forage cap. We started to talk. “I give rides to soldiers and I give lifts to yeshiva students,” he said. “I’m not prejudiced. Come on, tell me. Am I religious or Chiloni (secular)?” “No Jew is Chiloni,” I replied. “He just hasn’t connected yet to his heritage.” “Very good!” he said. “I can see you are a student of the Berdichever.” (The Berdichever Rebbe’s love of every Jew and the lengths to which he would go to justify even the most egregious Torah transgressions are legion.) I replied, “Halevai! (I only wish!)”
“No, but why are people so nosy?” he continued. “The other day I was coming back from Tiberius, and I stopped to pick up some yeshiva students. Anyway, they’d been in the car for about five minutes and the one in the front says to me, ‘Where do you live?’ ‘Jerusalem’ I say. ‘So you just finished a job taking someone to Tiberius?’ he asked. I didn’t answer. ‘It must be quite expensive to go from Jerusalem to Tiberius by car.’ ‘Yes, it is.’ ‘How much is that then?’ ‘500 Shekels’ I replied. I felt like saying to him, ‘Would you like a printout of my bank account?’ But I just kept silent.”
I suggested to the taxi driver, “Maybe he wanted to know what it cost so he would have an idea of the how much gratitude he owes you.” He smiled and said, “I knew you were a Berditchever!” He carried on and said, “Then he started to ask me where I lived in Jerusalem. I practically said ‘Would you like to know how many square meters my apartment is?’ ” So I said back to the taxi driver, “Maybe he just wanted to know what sort of a person you were. After all, if you’re someone who lives in a rich neighborhood, so maybe you’re more than just an average taxi driver, and he should show you even more gratitude and honor than before!”
“Okay! You are a Berditchever! I caught you! But you know something? That’s the only way to live. When you look for the good in people, you create a power of good in this world.”
Ever since Korach, the Jewish People have often been plagued by machloket (rancorous dispute). And, in our own times we have preserved this “custom” in all its minutiae. Dissent and disapproval dog the heels of our efforts to bring Mashiach. We are too divided and divisive. On one end of the spectrum, efforts to turn the Orthodox world into a hermetic bastion and the wholesale rejection of the modern world have caused many youngsters to flee their homes and their religion as from a prison. And at the other end of the spectrum even the Orthodox world seems to bend over backwards to accommodate the latest fads in gender identification — behavior the Torah explicitly condemns as abomination.
Where do we go from here? Love our neighbor as ourselves, and hate the sin, not the sinner. As it says: ”As I live, says
“Moshe brought the people forth from the camp towards
At the recent royal wedding, some enthusiasts camped out for six days before the event to get a prime spot to see the procession. Rashi says that it is the way of the world -that first the crowd gathers and then the monarch appears, but such was
If