EXODUS XVIII:1-XX:23

WORTHY OF THE TORAH

These chapters lead to the central event of the narrative: the giving of the Torah (Pentateuch) at Mount Sinai. Egyptian slavery and the triumphant exodus at the conclusion of two hundred and ten years of servitude serve as a framework for Divine revelation. Considering that the Torah is a document with a highly moral content, the stay in Egypt was a necessary episode to sensitize the Hebrew to the suffering of others. 

This event will be mentioned in every celebration because the moral ingredient, the willingness to defend the rights of people who had been “forgotten by history” that is manifested in empathy for the pain of others. This attitude that was imprinted on the spirit of the Hebrews for their own suffering under the Egyptian yoke, prepared them to be the spokesmen for the Word of God.

From the first episodes of Bereshit (Genesis) we observe the selection process that God imposed to identify people worthy of being the spokesmen of the moral message, of ethical behavior that obliges solidarity with one’s neighbor. Why did God not give the Torah to the first couple? In this way, Humanity would have had a Magna Carta with specific guidelines for moral behavior. 

In fact, the first generations were subjected to various tests to see if they were fit to receive the Divine message, as Professor Dov Landau argues. Adam’s disobedience may not have consisted only in the bite he gave to the forbidden fruit. The serpent had seduced the first couple with the notion that “in the day they eat of this (tree) their eyes will be opened, and they will be like God, knowing good and evil,” unlike the Divine admonition that death will be the consequence of disobedience. 

The couple’s audacity was not a one-off disobedience, but a rebellion, a challenge to God’s sovereignty. Many other biblical characters were subjected to different tests to prove whether they were suitable to receive God’s Law. According to the Torah, the first ten generations were degenerating until the days of Noach (Noah) when God ordered the flood, an event that will serve to recreate Humanity through this individual, who also demonstrated moral weakness with his first action after the universal disaster: he planted a vineyard and then became drunk with his wine. He had already shown that his conviction was weak, because he had not been able to attract any other individual to his cause. Although he worked for decades in the elaboration of the ark, no other person was willing to accompany him.

Kayin (Cain) did not pass the exam because he murdered his brother Hével (Abel). Lot preferred material abundance, even though the cities of Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorrah) would expose him to amoral behavior. Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and Potiphar‘s wife  was willing to give herself to Yosef (Joseph), regardless of the fact that this fact constituted a betrayal of her husband’s trust in her.

Avimelech and Pharaoh wanted to marry someone else’s wife, and so on, each of the characters who parade through the pages of the Torah demonstrates cracks in their character, deep personality flaws. The arrival of Avraham (Abraham) marks the beginning of a new stage for humanity. This time God found anindividual who cared about the fate of others, who had the doors of his home open to receive those who were thirsty or hungry, who defended his nephew Lot with arms.

Avraham could be the father of a nation deserving of the Torah. There even had to be a later selection in Avraham’s offspring, because not all were fit for the task. Finally, serfdom in Egypt served to purify the people, because only a fifth were willing to follow Moshe (Moses), leave Egypt and venture into the sands of the desert, because they recognized that freedom was one of the fundamental principles of human dignity. The long decades of slavery sensitized their spirits so that in the future they would become protectors of the persecuted, defenders of the weak. 

The basis of the Torah is the consideration of the rights of others, the recognition that every human being has been formed in the image and likeness of God himself. Only a people that can fulfill Veahavta lereacha kamocha, “to love one’s neighbor as oneself,” can be a transmitter of the moral values contained in the Ten Commandments, expanded, in turn, in the Torah.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 3  POSITIVE MITSVOT AND 14 PROHIBITIONS

25. Exodus 20:2 Believing in the Existence of God

26. Exodus 20:3 Not to believe in any god other than God

27. Exodus 20:4 Make neither graven weights nor images (of gods)

28. Exodus 20:5 Do not bow down or serve these images

29. Exodus 20:5 Do not worship an idol according to the way you are accustomed to worship it (or worship it in any other way)

30. Exodus 20:7 Do not swear in vain (pronouncing the Name of the Lord)

31. Exodus 20:8 Verbally keep Shabbat holy

32. Exodus 20:10 Doing no work on Shabbat

33. Exodus 20:12 Honoring father and mother

34. Exodus 20:13 Do not murder an innocent person

35. Exodus 20:14 Do not commit adultery

36. Exodus 20:15 Do not kidnap a Jew

37. Exodus 20:16 Do not bear false witness

38. Exodus 20:17 Do not covet what belongs to another

39. Exodus 20:23 Do not make sculptures in human form, even as ornament

40. Exodus 20:25 Do not build an altar with hewn stones

41. Exodus 20:26 Not to go up to the altar by steps (but by a ramp)