Yitro Text Study

The Word Made Animate

Seeking the living soul of our sacred texts.

Yitro

Exodus 18:1-20:23

Preparing To Receive God’s Message

Unlike the first tablets, the second tablets, which were hewn by human hands, endured.

Money Is Tainted

Yitro tells Moses that only people of integrity, who themselves would never engage in legally questionable business dealings, are qualified to serve as judges.

Parents Make It To The Top 10

The complex ways in which parents serve as our bridge between God and the world.

Parashat Yitro: Summary

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law suggests a system for establishing lower courts to settle disputes; God speaks the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel amidst fire, smoke, and the sound of the shofar.

How We Hear

Jewish tradition places great emphasis on the way in which we hear and how we interpret the messages we receive.

I Know Who You Are

Raising questions about our complex relationship with God.

A System of Justice and the Details of a Moral Life

Establishing an equitable human judicial system is the necessary condition for receiving the divine moral wisdom of the Torah.

Portable Holiness

Holiness derives from encounters with God in Torah study; it is not intrinsic to locations like Mount Sinai.