Parshat Yitro
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Though the parsha begins with a story of Yisro, the chronology of this story with the rest of the Exodus narrative is debated by the commentaries. If we ignore this particular tale for a moment, we would easily see that the events in Refidim rounding out last week’s parsha – drawing out water at Masah U’Mrivah, as well as the war with Amalek – are what preceded chapter 19. The Torah does say in 19:2 that they traveled from Refidim to arrive at Sinai.
Kli Yakar looks at the name Refidim, noting it has the same letters as “Peridim” – which means they were divided. The event at Masah U’Mrivah (water) also refers to fighting. The name Refidim can be read to as Rafu Y’deihem, that they removed their hands from the Torah, another indicator of non-unity.
And yet, when they were attacked by Amalek, they were unsurprisingly forced to band together militarily to fight a common enemy. And yet, it did not last in the continued sojourn through the desert, until they got to Sinai, a place which caused them to come together as one. As Kli Yakar puts it “the seeking of honor and appointment was the reason behind every fight and plague,” but now that they realized how small Sinai actually was, “then they saw that God chooses the humble.”
Seeing Sinai caused them to embrace the feeling of submission – in other words, to avoid strife – so that they could embrace peace. The essence of the mountain, modesty and humility, is what brought about the peace among the factions of Israelites.
The Torah speaks in the plural: 19:1 – they came to the Sinai Wilderness. 19:2 – they traveled from Refidim, they came to the Sinai wilderness, and they camped in the wilderness. Then the singular Israel camped at the Mountain.
Wilderness-wise they were still many people, many opinions, not united. But when they got to the mountain, realizing God would reveal Himself on this particular and specific mountain, they realized the key ingredient to accepting the Torah was humility! Then they were "as one heart, as one man.”
The Talmud (Shabbos 89b) gives a number of explanations for why the mountain and its surrounding wilderness were called Sinai, rejecting each suggestion, one by one.
Rav Kahana – it’s a play on words. Sinai reflects Nissim (miracles) don’t for Israel.
The Talmud responds, “In that case, it should be call Mt. Nisai!”
The next suggestions is that Sinai almost sounds like Siman Tov – it’s a place where good things happened to Israel. Well, in that case, the Talmud recommends it should be called Mt Simanai!
The last suggestion is that Sinai reflects the place where Sinah (hostility) was descended toward the nations at this mountain. (see below)
Another argument of the Talmud is that the mountain’s real name was Horeb, reflective of the Hurbah (desolation) which descended to idolators from that place and time.
Rashi explains the “hatred” or the “destruction” to the nations of the world as meaning their moral compass was demonstrably skewed because they did not accept the Torah! I do not believe this means that people who are not guided by the Torah can’t live a moral life – of course they can! Nor does it mean that those who live by the Torah can’t be immoral. There are exceptions to any rule. It just means that the moral compass has a different source.
And yet who did accept the Torah? Not the Israelites as individuals, each with their own very personality, but the Israelites as a group.
They arrived at Sinai and they were united because the mountain demonstrated for them that the Torah isn’t just for the mighty and lofty and powerful. The Torah is for everybody. And everybody has a personal challenge, to ask oneself, how am I making the Torah mine?
The Ten Commandments are written in the singular. It is as if God was speaking to every Jew, tete a tete, so that each Israelite could internalize the message, take the lessons, and apply the Torah as an individual mandate – as part of the collective Am Yisrael.
The Kli Yakar’s lesson was that the seeking of honor is what causes strife, and that the lesson of humility that was learned merely from looking at the mountain is what brought the Jewish people together.
It was called Sinai, because from there “Sinah went down upon the nations” – it doesn’t mean hatred. It just means there’s a difference between “us” and “them” – and that difference is that all of us received the Torah. And so, it is so important to remember that while “loving one’s fellow Jew” is meant to lead us to love all Jews regardless, we should certainly have such feelings towards those who identify with Torah, and who struggle to do their best in their dedication to it and in their dedication to the Master of the World.
Don’t be judgmental, don’t view others as lesser people or lesser Jews, stop looking over shoulders to see what others think, or even worse, to be nosy in order to bring others down.
Remember that the Torah is the great unifier, and humility is the ingredient that allows for such unifications to take place.
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