For the nine members of our 2020 Adult B’nei Mitzvah class (two were absent), looking at the Torah Scroll opened this past Sunday to this week’s portion, Yitro, with the Ten Commandments prominently displayed, was to look into the future. While their event is still months away, this is the part of the Torah they will be reading from, when it is repeated on the holiday of Shavuot. The power of the words shone on all of our faces. We then read the text together, some in Hebrew, some with transliteration, united in our shared mission for the months ahead.
Before our dramatic reading, we had a chance to look at the text in English. What gives this particular section of Torah so much power? Perhaps, it’s the audaciousness of a minority culture proclaiming to the world who we are and what we stand for. And, while we struggled with the idea of a jealous God and a stratified society, with the thousands of years that separate us from the society the words were intended for, we were able to still experience the core of the words. The Ten Commandments, at their best, represent a world full of fairness and kindness, a world where anyone, novice or expert, is deserved of love and respect. And, that is something we could all agree.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
Last Updated on 03/20/2020 by Marc Slonim