B'nei Israel Congregation - San José, Costa Rica |
YITRO 5765
Exodus 18:1 - 20:23
TORAH'S MESSAGE - by Rabbi Daniela Szuster
This week’s parashah begins with the meeting of Moshe and Itro. Itro was Moshe’s father-in-law and leader of the Midian people. He looked at Moshe’s exhausting job, judging his people day and night, and he advised him to organize a judicial system. Until that moment, Moshe was the only one who knew the law and the only one who had the authority to judge the people. Itro proposed to him to split the work, to give his knowledge to others and guide them to be leaders and judges of the people. In this way, the simplest issues would be solved by these judges and the complex ones would be resolved by Moshe. According to the Torah, Moshe listened to this counsel, made such an organization. Doubtless, Itro’s advice teaches us a very important life message.
How many times do we exercise different roles in life - in our home, in our job or in different activities in which we participate? We convince ourselves that not only are we very apt for a certain role but that we are the only one who can do it successfully. How many times do we see how all kinds of leaders, with the urge to appear on the media’s front page, being the owners of absolute power avoid sharing their knowledge and abilities with others wishing to participate in the task?
Doubtless, the good leader cannot grow and develop his leadership alone; he requires a team of people to whom he can delegate tasks. If one day this leader is absent, we should not fall apart, and the system should keep on functioning, without his presence. Here is where his true leadership resides.
If Moshe had not divided the work, with his death there would have been nobody who could continue judging and the people, without justice, would have disappeared.
Shabbat Shalom
SERMON - by Para-rabbi Gonzalo Vega
This week, we read from our Torah the well-known passage of the 10 commandments. It is notorious that this is the only parashah named after a person, and this honor falls upon a non-Jew: the Midianite priest Jethro, Moshe’s father-in-law. This is an interesting fact, and it should not go unnoticed. The very first word in the parashah is Vayishmah – and he heard. Since this characteristic of Jethro, of his being “a listener”, is placed at the very beginning of this portion of scripture, it suggests that his habit of listening is even more important than his high political position, or the status of his son-in-law, which are expressed only later. We are to understand that hearing and listening attentively is a key to one’s success in this world. Jethro heard about the miraculous events of the liberation from Egypt, and based on his hearing he decides to come to Moshe, and in fact, according to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 94a) it is Jethro, and not Moshe, nor Aaron, nor Miriam, nor any of the other 600,000 Israelite souls, the first in blessing G-d for the liberation from Egypt.
Vayomer Yitro baruch Adonay asher hitsil etchem miyad Mitsrayim umiyad Par'oh asher hitsil et-ha'am mitachat yad-Mitsrayim.
“And Jethro said: Blessed be the L’rd, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of the Pharaoh; who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians”. (Ex. 18:10)
So our story goes into the delivery of the Two Tablets of the Law: our tradition speaks of two tablets, one (the first 5 commandments) dealing with the obligations of the human before G-d (Bein Adam L’makom) and the other dealing with the obligations of human with his/her fellow human beings (bein Adam L’chaveroth).
It is remarkable that the first tablet is profusely explained, and in big detail every one of the five obligations is exposed in its causes, rationale and justification (these five commandments are, according to our tradition: Recognition of the Sovereignty of G-d, the Unity and Spirituality of G-d and prohibition of idolatry, prohibition of Perjury and Profane Swearing, the Sabbath and the Honor of Parents).
When we reach the second tablet, though, no explanation is given. The five commandments set forth Bein Adam L’Chaveroh (obligation of human towards fellow humans) are thought of as requiring no further elucidation (Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, Thou shalt not covet (...) anything that is thy neighbor’s). They stand by themselves. No further ado required. These obligations have their root in the principle “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, so the author implies that we are not required to get these explained, since it is just natural to us to avoid mistreating our brethren, lest we be also mistreated.
Now, is that true? Do we really need not to be reminded of our obligations towards our fellow human beings?
This week we commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, the very symbol of the genocide. We should have learned our lesson, more than half a century ago, right? We should have learned that hatred, bigotry and intolerance are to be casted off from our world, and that no one, no where and no when should be mistreated (let alone put to death) for his or her being different. We should have learned that, right?
The answer seems to be a depressing “No, we have not”. We have Rwanda, Bosnia, the Kurds, to prove it. We have the increasing number of children dying of hunger in the streets, putting their bodies in the flesh market of children prostitution to prove it. We have the lives of lots and lots of women, suffering from sexual harassing and domestic violence to prove it. We have the acts of anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, anti-Arab, anti-Hispanic, anti-gay violence happening day after violence-loaded day in our world, to prove it.
But we are not to be anesthetized with the false conviction that violence is something that happens “out there”. I think we have to carefully peruse our own attitudes towards the others, towards those who are not like us. What do we think about and feel towards the people with a different skin color than mine, with different religion than mine, with different sexuality than mine, with an ID issued in a country other than mine? What is my stand when someone rallies against Nicaraguans, homosexuals, Arabs, blacks? Do I laugh at racist/sexist jokes? Do I need to be remembered of my obligations bein adam l’chaveroth (from human to fellow human)? Do I listen to myself?
Jethro listened. He listened carefully. And his listening brought him to bless G-d. I consider it a fitting prologue to the Decalogue story to be reminded of the importance of listening, before beginning to take a stand in the issue of morality. Listening to our family, listening to ourselves.
May G-d grant us the wisdom to listen attentively, and to act accordingly.
|
Address:
700 meters West of Pops in the Sabana, on the old road to Escazu, corner building at your left. |