/Yitro ר ו תי

This Week’s Torah Portion EXODUS 18:1-20:23

In this week’s guide…

The OVERVIEW is a new addition that highlights this week’s reading from the Torah in a concise and encouraging format. This is an excellent way to get a sense of main thrust of the portion and prepare your heart for what the Lord may want to speak to your heart through it! COMMENTARY #1 unpacks a mystery that you may have never known existed: did God actually speak all of the commandments or just the first two? The answers to this question have deep implications for the way we think about God and how we live before Him.

COMMENTARY #2 looks more deeply into the details surrounding one of the more mysterious characters in Scripture: Jethro (aka Hobab), the priest of the Lord from Midian. He also happened to be Moses’ father-in-law and played a key role in shaping the Israelite experience in the Wilderness.

This week our NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN looks into an Old-New connection that is nearly word-for-word. What is true of us – because of the work of Yeshua-Jesus – is nothing short of exceptional! We have an incredible identity that we live from and that gives us a framework we can live for.

BY THE NUMBERS attempts to solve a riddle that is created by the alphanumeric value of the word “Torah” (it seems wrong!), which is given to the Children of Israel in this week’s portion.

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OVERVIEW

This week’s Torah portion is Yitro, which means “abundance or plenty” in Hebrew. It is a fitting name because the Lord was in the process of completely transforming the Israelites from slaves who lived out of scarcity into Children of God who lived out of His abundance. Last week’s Torah portion focused on the Children of Israel being freed physically from bondage in Egypt during Passover. This week’s reading focuses on the giving of the Torah in the form of the Ten Commandments, which is also known as Pentecost or Shavuot. Passover and Pentecost are inextricably bound. Passover is about redemption, and Pentecost is about revelation.

It is critical to understand that redemption is incomplete without revelation. Physical redemption without personal revelation will often lead to regression back into slavery. It is not enough to be freed from your negative past. To truly experience the freedom that leads to life-changing transformation, you also need a revelation of your new identity and purpose. Otherwise, there is a tendency to return to Egypt due to immaturity, a lack of knowledge, and negative spiritual influences.

Before you came to faith in Messiah Yeshua, you were a spiritual slave, living in spiritual bondage. But after receiving Yeshua, you received a new identity and purpose, as Israel did in this week’s portion. You’ve gone from being a sinner to becoming a saint who is part of “the commonwealth of Israel” with a royal identity and a priestly calling like God’s Chosen People. As the New Testament declares: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

It’s so easy to forget your new true identity in the Lord! But without a new purpose, a renewed mindset, a fresh identity, we can easily slip into slavery to “pharaoh” again. Egypt can take many forms – our careers, our bank account, even our families. We are redeemed, set free, absolved, saved so that the revelation of who we are in God’s divine plan can be made known to us…more than made known - understood! You are a royal priest, so live like it!

FUSION GLOBAL WITH RABBI JASON Weekly Torah Portion – Parashat Yitro

Exodus 18:1-20:23

COMMENTARY #1 by Rabbi Jason Sobel

Although the Torah does not explicitly state that God communicated only the first two commandments, there is biblical support for this view. The grammar of the Ten Commandments itself seems to support this conclusion. The first two commandments are spoken in the first person (I am the Lord your God – Commandment One; you must not have any other gods before me – Commandment Two), whereas in the other commandments, God speaks in the third person (You shall not…). The fact that the first two commandments are placed together in the same paragraph while all the others are separated also alludes to the unique way in which they were communicated (Meam Loez).

How many of the Ten Commandments did God directly speak to the children of Israel at Sinai? Did they hear all of them directly from the mouth of God or only some? What is this meant to teach us?

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Our Sages disagree on the number of commandments that our ancestors heard at Sinai. Maimonides, for example, says that Israel only heard God directly speak the first two commandments. The midrash teaches that they heard all Ten Commandments. Which is correct? According to Rashi, both are.

In Exodus 20:1, we read, “God spoke all these statements.” The phrase “all these statements” seems to be entirely unnecessary if God had only spoken the first two commandments. Thus, Rashi teaches that God miraculously spoke all of the Ten Commandments in one incomprehensible utterance. Then, God clearly articulated the first two commandments word for word. After hearing God speak the first two commandments, the people feared that they could not continue to listen to the voice of God and live, so they asked that Moses communicate the rest of the commandments to them.

"Nash Papyrus" - one of the oldest manuscripts of the Ten Commandments

The way God communicated the Ten Commandments to us at Sinai reveals several critical spiritual truths about the Torah. Based on God’s miraculous, singular utterance of all the Ten Commandments, we learn that the Torah is a unified, integral whole. The Ten Commandments cannot be separated from the rest of God’s mitzvot. All are equally God’s word and will for our lives, and, as such, we should strive to understand and live out all of them. As Rabbi Yehuda says in Pirke Avot, “Be as scrupulous in performing a minor mitzva as you are in performing a major one, for you do not know the reward for each.” We cannot, therefore, conclude that it is acceptable to keep only the weightier matters of the Torah while disregarding the lesser aspects - even if we believe it is humanly impossible to keep all of them (Matthew 23:23; James 2:10)

Synagogue in Tripoli

COMMENTARY #2 by Dima Birman

Before we go deeper, we must note that the Torah narrative is not necessarily chronological; it is more topical. We also encounter a conversation between Moses and Jethro in Numbers 10:29-31. There we read that Moses was speaking to his father-in-law (here called "Hobab son of Reuel, the Midianite") and asked him to stay with the Israelites to be their "eyes in the wilderness." Again, questions abound. Why is Jethro called differently here? And what are these "eyes in the wilderness?" Was Moses afraid of getting lost and needed a guide? After all, YHWH's pillars of fire and cloud guided Israel! Why are we reminded that Jethro is a Midianite? We already know this detail.

Jethro’s advice to appoint the elders might appear to merely be a matter of common sense, but there’s something supernatural at work. In Numbers 11, we also see that the Spirit of God descended upon those seventy elders, empowering them to share the burden with Moses. Why seventy? Consider that seventy is the number of the children of Israel that came down to Egypt with Jacob. Seventy is also the number of nations that were born from the sons of Noah. It is stated in Deuteronomy 32:8 that God set the boundaries of the nations by the number of the children of Israel. In addition, YHWH called the children of Israel to be a "kingdom of priests" - a priest for every nation. Curiously, Exodus 2 describes Jethro as having seven daughters, making him an ideal representative of the nations. He is also a priest of Midian, just as it says in Isaiah 66:21 that God will take for Himself priests from the nations.

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Map that locates Midian in the region

God’s direct articulation of the first two commandments teaches us to be especially mindful to cultivate faith and trust in God alone and to be on guard against creating and worshipping idols. Thus, the first two commandments had to be heard clearly by Israel, for they are the foundation and bedrock of the Torah. This truth is evidenced in the words of the Shema, “Hear O’ Israel, Lord is God, the Lord alone.” Believing that there is one all-powerful Creator and Redeemer who alone is worthy of worship is the prerequisite for obeying God and keeping all of God’s commandments. As the author of Hebrews writes, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

In Exodus 18:13, we read about the common-sense advice that Jethro the priest of Midian gave to his son-in-law Moses. Jethro saw that Moses was judging the people by himself all day and concluded that it was grossly inefficient. In response, he suggested that Moses delegate the responsibility of answering the smaller questions while fielding only complex matters of the law. The question that comes is: were Moses and those around him unable to see the obvious? And even if they could not see this, then what made this episode so significant that it had to be included in the Torah?

Details in the text always matter. It tells us that Jethro was from Midian, a foreigner. Of course, the chances of noticing things that have been overlooked entirely are always better if an outsider with a fresh perspective gets involved. Could this be the meaning of the biblical narrative, to teach us about organizational efficiency and common sense?

NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN

The deep chasm between the ideals we’re supposed to “live up to” and how we actually live can be a cause for even deeper disappointment. Being a “kingdom of priests” might have sounded thrilling, but its “terms” (i.e., obedience) probably complicated matters. Scholar Robert Alter suggests that this chasm between the “ideal and the actual behavior of the people will continue to preoccupy the biblical writers, through the Prophets.”1

“Building” is a striking biblical metaphor that helps us grasp this notion of personal transformation. In his first epistle, Peter describes Yeshua as the “living stone rejected by men but chosen by God.” He then goes on to tell those 1st century believers that they are “living stones” and are “being built up as a spiritual house—a holy priesthood” (ii.5). That section of 1 Peter 2 concludes with those words that echo what Adonai said at the foot of Mount Sinai, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” (v. 9)

We take heart that our kingdom priesthood rests on the foundation, not of our obedience, but that “chosen, precious cornerstone” Yeshua-Jesus. The call to be a holy nation and a kingdom priesthood may be a daunting one, but we can respond to it in this hope. Unlike the Hebrew slaves who built structures for the wicked Pharaohs in Egypt, the children of God are themselves “being built up as a spiritual house.” The foundation of our priesthood rests on that Cornerstone who perfectly obeyed, the faithful Israelite who prayed to His Father, “I glorified You on earth by finishing the work that You have given Me to do.” (John 17:4) 1 Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses a Translation and Commentary (New York: Norton, 2004), 423.

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In Luke 10, Yeshua-Jesus sent 70 disciples ahead of Him. They went into every town with an assignment to heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom, which is the kingdom of priests. Yeshua appointed those "priests" for Himself by the number of the children of Israel. They declared that people could now see the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven with their own eyes. Indeed, as Yeshua then said to the 70 who returned: Luke 10:23, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see...!"

Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod by James Tissot

This “chasm” is why the words of Yeshua-Jesus offer so much comfort to us, “Those who are healthy have no need for a doctor, but those who are sick do. I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinful to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) Our repentance is grace-fueled movement towards the purposes God has for us, and the end result is radical transformation. Salvation isn’t a mere conversion experience, it’s the transformation of ourselves into the image of Jesus as we run the race of repentance. We become someone, something new.

In Exodus 19:6, we see these words from Adonai, “So as for you, you will be to Me a kingdom of kohanim [priests] and a holy nation.” These words must have stunned the nation! After four hundred years of being slaves, not only were they free – God Himself was calling them to be priests! There is the sense, though, that this calling is contingent upon the Israelites’ ability to listen closely to God’s voice and keep His covenant (see v. 5). The call of God in this passage merely intensifies the expectation of how the children of Abraham are supposed to live in this world. It was clear in Genesis that Abraham’s seed must do justice and righteousness, but now there was a priesthood tied to it.

BY THE NUMBERS This week’s Torah portion is traditionally considered the most important. The reason being is that in it, God comes down on Mt. Sinai on Pentecost/Shavuot and begins to give the Torah to Israel in the form of the Ten Commandments. This foundational spiritual event is known as Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah.

“Law” is a poor translation of Torah, which literally means instruction. “Torah” in Hebrew has a numerical value of 611 (Torah = 611). But it would seem to make more sense for the numeric value of Torah should equal 613, which is the total number of commandments found in the Five Books of Moses (the Torah).

Why would the word Torah equal 611 and not 613? The rabbis are a bit bothered by this reality because they believe, as do I, that there is a mathematical symmetry and beauty to the Torah as well as the whole Hebrew Bible. We can find at least one possible explanation for this apparent discrepancy in this week’s Torah portion.

When God addressed Israel from Mt. Sinai, the people were overwhelmed by the fear that they would die if the Lord spoke all of the Ten Commandments. So, in Jewish tradition, the Lord only spoke the first two commandments, which are the most foundational to their faith. Thus, the Children of Israel received two commandments directly from the mouth of the Lord and 611 through Moses.

While this is interesting, I think there is another explanation that is even more significant. The first word of the Torah begins with the letter bet, which has a value of “2.” The rabbis would have preferred the first letter to be aleph since this is the Hebrew letter that most represents God’s name and oneness. Why then does the first word of the Torah begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which has the value of “2”?

The letter bet represents the son, Ben, in Hebrew. The first letter of Genesis (ב/bet) and the last letter of the book of Revelation (the “n” in “amen” is ν/nu) spell the Hebrew word for “son”: Ben! These lexical connections teach us that from the first letter to the last letter, the Bible points to the Son.

So then why does Torah equal 611, which is 2 less than 613? Because the purpose of the Torah is to point to the Son, and it is incomplete without the Son! The letter bet has the numerical value of two, representing the Son, the second person of the Godhead! Great truth and wisdom are in the Torah, but it is incomplete without the Son of God, the Messiah.

Messiah is central to both Torah and Creation as the Jewish sages state: Rabbi Yochanan says, all the prophets prophesied only for the days of the Messiah.

-Sanhedrin 99aRav said the world was created only for the sake of the Messiah.

-Sanhedrin 98b

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The numerical value of “Messiah son of Joseph the redeemer” (in Hebrew, Mashiach Ben Yosef haGoel) is also 611. God created the world because “Messiah, the son of Joseph” was willing to suffer and die in order to redeem it! Everything was created by Messiah Yeshua and for Him, and the primary purpose of the Torah was to point to Him in order to prepare God’s people to know Him! May the Lord open your eyes to see the wonder of Messiah in his word!

Hebrew is “alphanumeric” letters = numbers

“Torah” = 611 Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” [TLV]

“in the beginning” = תיִׁשאֵרְּב // b = 2“) ב”)Revelation 22:21 – “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” [NRSV]

“amen” = ἀμήν // n = ν

b_n = ben/ ןֵּב = son (“2”)

THOUGHTS for REFLECTION

Take some time this week to prayerfully consider and discuss with friends: § Rabbi Jason said that in the 10 Commandments, the first two are

foundational. In other words, failure to live them out will lead a failing inregard to the others. Have you broken those “others” (e.g., lying), and if so,how could that have been connected to a failure to obey the first two?

§ As a kingdom priest, you’ve been sent into the world with a holy assignment.When was the last time you thought about this? What are the challenges youface as a kingdom priest in your “village”? Ask Yeshua-Jesus for a freshtouch of His Spirit to empower you this week!

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NEXT WEEK’S READINGS

TORAH

Sunday: 21:1-19

Monday: 21:20-22:3

Tuesday: 22:4-26

Wednesday: 22:27-23:5

Thursday: 23:6-19

Friday: 23:20-25

Saturday: 23:26-24:18

PROPHETS

Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-9:6

NEW COVENANT

Matthew 19:16-26

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