From Mt. Sinai to New Jersey

Yitro

Exodus 18:1 - 20:23

Précis: Following last week’s trip through the Red Sea, Moses is reunited with his father-in-law Jethro (“Yitro”), his wife Zipporah, and with his two sons. Yitro acknowledges God, gives sage advice to Moses about delegating responsibility, and Moses appoints assistants (judges). The Israelites come to the foot of Mount Sinai where, in the definitive transcendental experience, we read the story of Revelation, as the “Ten Utterances” (Commandments) are spoken to the People by the very Voice of God.

Exodus 20: 9 – 10 "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God."

My family is blessed with owning a country house, in the mountains of Northern New Jersey. (Aside: to those who don’t know it, the Poconos of Pennsylvania don’t join directly with the Catskills in NY. New Jersey sits between the other two states!) There are mountains in that short section of New Jersey connecting the two “chains” called the Kittitinnys. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittatinny_Mountains.) It is a place where we find remarkable peacefulness and wholeness. It’s a healing place where spending Shabbat is particularly enjoyable. Reciting kiddush at our mountaintop home is a wonderful and warming reminder of what the celebration of Shabbat can be like.

Former JTS Chancellor Schorsch (Chancellor’s Parasha Commentary, 1/29/94) taught that the verses I cite above can be considered “the linchpin” of both the Ten Commandments and of Judaism itself. He suggests that we focus on the simple word “all.” Is it ever really possible to finish “all” of our work? Clearly not. We must assume, as do the traditional commentators, that what the Torah is teaching us is that we should act on Shabbat “as if” we were done with all of the worldly concerns of work. As Schorsch nicely puts it, Shabbat is “our country home which we can reach easily without hours of hard driving." (Here's the connection to the Kittitinny Mountains!)

When we act “as if” we had completed “all” of our work, we expand our inner world. We find an island in time. We slow down and renew connections with those we love, with our community, and if we are fortunate enough, with God.