Questions - Parshat Yitro

Chapter 18

1)  How does Yitro hear about what has been happening to the Israelites?

2) Why does Yitro wait until this moment to come to visit?

3) How does Yitro know that God has done these things for "Moses and His People?"

4) Why are the names of Moses' sons first mentioned here? At the time of the "bridegroom of blood" Moses seems to only have one son. The full explanation of Eliezer's name seems fitting only after the crossing of the Reed Sea. When was Eliezer fathered? Could it be that Eliezer went un-named until Zipporah and Moses are united after time apart?

5) How does Yitro find the Israelites?

6) How do you picture Moses' description of the events of the deliverance and exodus to Yitro? Is there an intimacy to their relationship or does Moses recite an already solidifying sacred narrative to Yitro? Doe Moses speak in his own words or does he tell the story as God would tell it?

7} 18: 11 is an unusual verse. It seems to be incomplete or perhaps it is being implied that Yitro is unwilling to fully express the idea that he has started on. He says, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, yes, by the result of their very schemes against..."NJPS closes the sentence off by designating the object as "the people." In the commentary NJPS mentions that the traditional commentators [who inspire their approach to translating the verse] believe that the implication that Yitro is making is that the punishment of the Egyptians is measure for measure. Is this the only way to read this verse? If not, how else could it be read? Should it bne read in a way that resolved the ambiguity of the verse or not?

8) Where and how does Yitro make his sacrifices and offering to God? Aaron and the elders " "partake of the meal before God." Is Moses with them or not? If not, why not?

9) Other than the difference in the logistics that comes from Yitro's system of delegation, what other fundamental difference is there is the way Justice is administered?

10) Is Yitro's idea derived from the Kenite practice or is it a revolutionary idea? How does it come to him?

11) Are those to who work is delegated to also communicating directly with God or not?

12) Moses accedes to Yitro without getting explicit permission from God to administer Justice according to Yitro's guidance. Does God's failure to object constitute agreement? Why did God not offer this instruction to Moses?

13) Yitro describes the work of all of the magistrates as a mediated conversation between God and the people (individually or in groups). What does this mean with regards to the closeness to God of those magistrates? Are they in a special relationship or do they piggyback on what Moses has learned from his interactions with God? How would that happen?

Chapter 19

1) Why is it important that Mount Sinai is in "the Wilderness of Sinai"? What is the rabbinic understanding of a "wilderness"?

2) Does a mountain really have a front?

3) What does it mean that God calls to Moses "min ha-Har"? (from the mountain). Moses has already gone up to the mountain. Is God calling from the top of the mountain, within the mountain, throughout the mountain?

4) The first clause of God's speech, "Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel," uses parallelism which is one of the fundamental devices of Hebrew poetry. From this we know that God will be speaking in that register. How should we understand then, "you shall be My treasured possession," a few lines down.

5) In rabbinic interpretation there is an idea that there is no repetition in Torah. Parallelism is a challenge to that idea. The rabbinic response is the claim that one learns two things from a verse that uses parallelism. What two messages might be derived from verse 19:3?

6) God says in 19:6 "you shall be to Me  a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Priests not prophets also priests and not priests and prophets. If God were truly treated as as the Israelites only king and there were no human king over the Israelites would prophets be necessary?

7) Is the act of saying "All that the Lord has spoken we will do," an act of hubris? Is it even approaching the level of Averah?

8) God tells Moses that he will come to him in a cloud so that they can "see" God speaking to Moses cloud to face. Is Moses' reliability still in doubt among the people? If so, will one instance cement the people's trust as God seems to think it will?

9) God warns the people not to approach the mountain. There seems to be a line that they can clearly see of what is mountain and what isn't. It makes sense within the biblical realm of Kedushah that contact with extreme Kedushah would bring on an extreme transformation, in this case death specifically, the normal way things play out." However, they are then told, "When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain." How will they survive? Has the mountain changed in some way? Are they? What is more important, God's will or God's presence?

10) God speaks of various preparations. Moses seems to add on his own, "do not go near a woman." How could a woman obey this instruction? Rhetorical question. God's instructions seem to bar no one and make no divisions among the people. Why does Moses do so? Is there an alternative direction to take in considering Moses' statement. Is he speaking for God or himself? Is he assuming authority he doesn't have? Does he have the authority to exceed God's instruction?

11) What is the source of the blast on the ram's horn? Is it the blast of a real ram's horn or a sound like one?

12) Moses leads the people out of the camp towards the mountain. What does this say about the people and their state of mind at this moment?

13) "The smoke rose like the smoke of kiln." Is this just poetry or should we interpret this image?

14) The ram's horn continues to blow rather than simply blasting once. Why does God need to be so intimidating in this moment? Does God correctly understand the people or not, or is this manipulation on God's part?

15) God calls Mose to the top of the mountain in order to tell him to go back down and warn the people not to break through in order to "see" God. Why can't God tell this to Moses where he was?

16) God also says, "the priests also, who come near to the Lord, must stay pure." What priests? How would like become impure in the midst of the theophany?

17) Why does God not say "I"?

18) God continues to insist on additional warnings about the people coming on the mountain and of God's own contradictory statements. Moses replie's that the people are not going to do that because they were warned. He has complete faith in the people at this point. What is going on?

19) For the first time God invites Aaron onto the mountain. What will Aaron's role be?

Chapter 20

1) What is the first commandment?

2) 20:2 is in the form of the normal Middle-Eastern treaty form between a high king and a vassal. Does the full verse remain in this form or does it exceed it? Is there something un-spiritual about this introduction even though we read it as highly spiritual? What is the role of the first word of the introduction "Anochi"?

3) Why "other gods"? Are other gods potentially real? Is God "speaking in language that the understandings of the people require" or is something else going on. What would be the problem if God objected to "false gods"?

4) Is the second commandment a ban on all art? Is representation completely preventable? For young boys at play anything longer than it is wide is a gun. We see representation even when it isn't intended. Is intention a necessary element of art? Does the qualification "You shall not bow down to them or serve them" excuse art which is intended for something other than religious art. Can we decorate our places of worship? If God is beyond representation is non-representational art prohibited as a form or representation of the actual God? Is our inevitable failure to represent God a backdoor permission to try?

5) Why does God self-describe as "an impassioned God," or zealous or jealous depending on the translator's nuance? Why is God's passion particularly inflamed around this commandment?

6) We look down on the idea that children should be rewarded or punished for the action of their parents or ancestors, but in action we do little to prevent it and sometimes insist on it. Should the ancestors of enslaved people receive reparations only from those who are the current beneficiaries of the income derived from their enslavement or is this the responsibility of society as a whole? Is there a way out of this contradiction? Can we look down on God for claiming to do what we certainly do?

7) Are false statements without an oath without a punishment? Do they receive a punishment only when they are a different type of Averah other than a false statement?

8) What constitutes an oath and thus also a false oath?

9) Again, what do the Israelites already know about Shabbat coming into this moment?

10) "Six days you shall labor and do all your work..." Is this parallelism? do the two clauses mean something different? The second says all you work. Is there a difference between regular work and labors that can be entirely completed and non-recurrent?

11) How do you define "work" for cattle. Is it work only if we make the animal do something? Is the animal barred from any actions than an animal might do for its own reasons?

12) Is the Sabbath the Lord's Sabbath, our Sabbath, or both?

13) Can we bar the strangers within our settlements from working? What about the Shabbes Goy? How much power can we employ to make others obey God's laws?

14) What constitutes "honoring" you father and mother? Do we honor them individually or as a unit? If we are not in the land is this commandment still binding on us. Would it be binding if no Jew lived in the land of Israel at all?

15) Why do you think the commandment not to murder is so often mistranslated as "Thou shalt not kill?"

16) Is it fair that what constitutes adultery is not the same for women and men? How can polyamory be shoehorned into Halakhic Judaism? Has it always been? Should it be?

17) Beyond the obvious case where one takes directly from another something that belongs to them, what is stealing?

18) Coveting is in the manner of a thought crime. Is is a violation of the commandment if one covets something or someone unintentionally. Wouldn't that make us all sinners against our will? Is it wrong to covet something that is ownerless? Is offering to purchase something that someone else owns but has not intended to sell coveting?

19) The people ask that they be allowed to communicate with God through Moses and not directly. Does Moses agree to this? How do you feel about the request that the people made?

20) Does God's address to Moses right afterwards constitute an agreement with the people or just a return to a normal modus operandi?

21) Why does God need to invoke the second commandment when calling for the construction of an altar? Why does God preface this with a recap of recent events and a self-description?

22) God mentions two kinds of sacrifice that the people might make and two animals. Is this what the Israelites already know about sacrifices? Do they know it from the lore of the forefathers? From broad Near Eastern cultural norms? Is God calling for a form of sacrifice which is distinctive to the Israelites?

23) Why an altar of earth? This is not what happens later even in the portable Mishkan.

24) Are places of sacrifice the only placed where God's name would be mentioned and the only places where blessing can be had of God?

25) What is wrong with hewn stones? How could one make a stable of flat altar without them?

26) The verse says "your tool," not "your tools." What is the tool? Is there only one tool or is there one tool per person?

27) Why is inadvertent nakedness barred but not intentional nudity?