YISRO 1997

In the Torah portion Yisro we learn how the very Torah portion in which the Ten Commandments was given was named after a non-Jew at the time: Yisro.  This is to teach us a very important principle.  We Jews are to accept the truth no matter where it is found, as long as it does not impinge upon our values.  The organizational skills that Yisro brought to the Jewish people stood us in good stead and allowed us to keep the Ten Commandments and follow the mitzvahs of the Torah in a much better fashion.
Today, too, when people try to claim that we have no need for other peoples' wisdom, they are one hundred percent wrong.  The Talmud teaches us over and over again that we are to take the truth no matter what its source and use it.  I remember hearing years ago criticism of the Hertz Chumash because Rabbi Hertz quoted non-Jewish authorities.  These people were completely wrong.  It might be true that a new, more thorough and up-to-date commentary was needed, but we did not need a new Chumash because Rabbi Hertz quoted no-Jewish scholars.

In this Torah portion we learn how the Jewish people were asked by G‑d to accept the Torah and how they all answered and said, "All which G‑d speaks we will do."  We are all acquainted with the phrase, when the Jewish people were asked to accept the Torah, "We will do and we will understand."  This phrase, though, was not stated before the Jewish people accepted the Ten Commandments and the Torah.  It was stated later on in the Torah portion Mishpotim.  In this Torah portion the Jewish people stated, "We will observe the commandments of the Torah," but that was not good enough for G‑d.  G‑d wanted more from us.  He wanted us not only to do the mitzvahs but to understand them.  In fact, when He first broached the subject of the Jewish people accepting the Torah, He said, "And now if you will listen to My voice and if you will observe My covenant and you will be to Me a treasure from all the nations and you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy people."  To this the people answered, "We will do."  G‑d, however, wanted more from the people.

That's why in the next sentence G‑d said, "Behold, I am calling to you in a thick cloud in order that the people shall listen and understand when I speak to you."  Later on in the Torah portion Mishpotim, the people there, after Moshe had told the people the laws that were written in the Torah portion Mishpotim, they again answered, "We will do."  G‑d was not satisfied and Moshe took the book of the covenant "and he read in the ears of the people and they said, 'All which G‑d spoke we will do and we will understand'."  The rabbis tell us that, of course, the basis of Judaism is doing.  We must observe the commandments, especially the commandments between man and man.  That's why the first commandments that were really given after the Ten Commandments were the commandments that had to do with civil law, with interpersonal relationships.  In fact, Rabbi Akiva said that before he could even pray before G‑d he had to say the phrase, "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."  However, doing the commandments is not enough.  We also must understand how they connect us to G‑d and connect us to our family and our people and our community.  Rabbi Soloveitchik explained that when G‑d said, "You will be to Me a treasure from among the nations," this meant that the Jewish people would be unique and special because they would be distinguished by the different moral and ritual observances that they are performing.  However, this is not enough.  G‑d wanted us also to be a holy people and a kingdom of priests.  Even the lowliest maidservant, the rabbis say, at the Red Sea had a vision and closeness to G‑d which was greater than the greatest prophets of later generations.  G‑d wants us to connect with Him and by being able to connect to him, be drawn closer to each other.  This we can only do if we understand how the commandments brought us closer to each other and to G‑d.

That's why Jewish learning is so important.  After all, when we study the Talmud, most of what we study does not apply anymore.  Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the Sanhedrin gave up most of its powers, but the study of the Talmud teaches us how to relate one to another and to G‑d.  It shows us how the mitzvahs fit into things.  After all, when we study Torah we are not just studying law.  The word Torah was translated into Greek as "law", but that is not what Torah means.  Torah means "teaching".  More than half the Talmud is concerned with Agadata, which has to do with teaching about faith and morality and things of the spirit and the emotion.  I remember talking to young people about why they do not think keeping the mitzvahs is important.  They tell me, "Rabbi, the reason I do not keep these mitzvahs is because they are not relevant."  If they would study Torah, they would see how they are relevant.  I remember talking to a young man who was raised in a small town in which there were only three Jewish families.  These families made a special point of keeping kosher.  It was very difficult for them to keep kosher.  Meat had to be shipped in by bus, etc.  Others made their own bread, but every time this boy ate he knew he was connected to his people and to his G‑d and to his family.  No one from these three families intermarried or assimilated.  We all know that Jews who are raised in big towns with thousands of Jews have no trouble assimilating because they have not been taught how the mitzvahs connect them to G‑d and to their people and to their families.  Doing the mitzvahs is only half the job.  They alone will not allow us to become a holy people and a kingdom of priests.  They alone will not even keep us as Jews.  We need to have more.  We must not only just do; we must also understand.  We Jewish people are the descendants of prophets.  Everyone at the Red Sea were prophets.  Everyone can get close to G‑d and each other.  The mitzvahs are the basis for allowing us to do this, but we must understand how they do it.  Observance is half the story; learning is the other half.

I am reminded of the story they tell about two kids who were talking.  One little boy said, "Do you know what happens when you cross the Atlantic with the Titanic?" The other boy replied, "No, what happens when you cross the Atlantic with the Titanic?" The first little boy said, "You get half way."  Just doing without understand will only get us half way there.  Let us all hope and pray that we will not only do but understand so that the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.