This Shabbos we discussed Parsha Yitro, including commentary by Rav Yeager. We discussed the holiday of Purim, including commentary by Rav Malamed. We discussed the idea of applying spirituality to the physical world. David Schlesinger led discussion.
We discussed how in this week’s parsha, we receive the Torah from Hashem at Mt Sinai. In particular, we receive the 10 commandments. Rav Males spoke about the commandment to honor our parents. Rav Males shared that we should honor parents that may not be our biological parents, in the case of adoption. He also spoke about honoring parents who may have not been good parents if we can, because the honoring is for us to do a mitzvah, and not just for our parents. Rav Males pointed out that honoring our parents is one of those mitzvahs that will contribute towards giving us a long life. We can continue to honor our parents after they pass away, by observing yeirzeits, and being inspired to do mitzvah by their memory. This is something we have discussed at our kiddush.
Dave W brought up the interesting question of why the parsha would be named Yitro, when the receiving of the Torah seems to be the main important event that took place. Dave pointed out that Yitro came to meet with Moshe and our people, but soon returned to Midian thereafter, so why is he given such great importance? The parsha is named after the first important word that appears, which is Yitro, but could have been written so that the first word had to do with us receiving the Torah. It may be that all the parsha’s are us receiving Torah, which is why this particular parsha doesn't have to be named as this. Rob pointed out that Yitro took Judaism with him back to Midian, so it wasn't necessarily desirable that he stay with us.
We discussed how Yitro came from Median to join us and talk to Moshe about setting up a system of courts and judges. We discussed how Yitro told Moshe that he was trying to do too much. Rob shared his thoughts about how having just a single court and making litigants wait long periods of time to have their case heard, causes injustice. Rob brought up the case of a defendant who may have been innocent but pled guilty to a crime and was sentenced to 1 month, rather than sit in jail for 3 months waiting to go to trial. Rob also commented how the courts in the time of the parsha did much more than the secular court systems we have today in modern life.
David shared about an article that was written in the Young Israel newsletter this week, on the topic of elevating the mundane. The article talks about how as Jews we do not reject the physical world. We should not consider the physical world a necessary but undesirable place. We should consider the physical world, part of what is needed to carry out our purpose. As Jews, our mission is to elevate the physical world, by applying the Torah and our relationship with Hashem. We have referred to this in our Kiddush as “elevating the sparks of kidusha”.
One of the important ideas we discussed this Shabbos is that our relationship with each other is important as well. We apply spirituality in teams. We discussed how the phrase “lo tov” appears in the Torah in cases where it is not good that someone tries to do everything by themselves. The phrase appears in this week’s parsha, that it is “lo tov” that Moshe was trying to deal with so much on his own. The other place it appears, is when Hashem says it is lo tov that Adam be by himself in the Garden of Eden.
We discussed the upcoming holiday of Purim. David remarked that this is the hardest holiday to observe properly. We discussed how this holiday is actually very holy. On this holiday we engage in physicality to the max, enjoying a lot of food and drink and dancing. It is very easy to get lost in all of this, and lose awareness of the meaning of the holiday which is this elevating the sparks of kiddusha. The physical world provides for us the opportunity to enjoy a lot of pleasures, especially on Purim. As we enjoy the pleasures, it is important to realize that all of it comes from Hashem with a purpose.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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