Parashat Yitro

In Parashat Yitro, we have Aseret Hadibrot, “the ten words” – not as the world tries to teach, “Commandments”. They teach how to live a proper life. We also have Moses’s father-in-law, a “Kohen Midyan” – a priest of Midian – a non-Jew who did not suffer the slavery of Egypt, nor the plagues that afflicted the Egyptians, coming to meet Moshe Rabeinu, the leader of a large nation – and the leader goes out to meet his father-in-law. (To those of us who have sons-in-law, as I do, this is a welcome lesson in Derech Eretz for a father-in-law.)

Having heard and seen the miracles that God wrought for the Children of Israel, Yitro now comes to join the Children of Israel. One of the first things that he does is to tell Moses that what he is doing is not good, and he gives him advice on how to set up a court system.

First of all, Moses is to choose judges. Who should these people be? The Torah tells us that Yitro instructed Moshe, “And you shall select from among the entire people, men of accomplishment, God-fearing people.” How do these two things connect? What does accomplishment have to do with being God-fearing? Ibn Ezra explains that one who genuinely fears God does not fear people or what they will say. Therefore a judge who sublimates himself to Divine Authority is not going to be subject to either bribes or threats. Basically what Yitro was saying was that in addition to the evidence that one hears in a case, one has to have the Fear of Heaven to adjudicate it properly, as this person must recognize that he, too, shall have to face judgment at a future date.

The question may be asked: what does the court system have to do with Aseret Hadibrot? The answer is that Aseret Hadibrot are the way to act bein adam l’adam – between man and man. A good example of this is the words “You shall not take the Name of Hashem, your God, in vain.” Simple, isn’t it? Don’t swear falsely. Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky z”l (my Rosh Yeshiva and teacher) once taught this to us in a different way. He said “do not raise up God’s Name to that which is false. Do not use the name of God to destroy another person under the guise of L’Shem Shamayim – in the name of Heaven”. What this means is that there are people who in the guise of l’shem shamayim will denigrate other people or institutions with which they disagree and feel that they may do so because they are doing the work of the Ribono Shel Olam. These words come to tell us that their use of God’s name to hurt others, because they think that those others are wrong, is a violation of these words in the Torah.

May this Shabbat, which begins with the story of a non-Jew praising God and continues with the words by which the Ribono Shel Olam wants us to live, be a beacon of light to all of our Jewish brethren so that we may all respect one another and live together in Shalom.

Shabbat Shalom!