Parshat Yitro  22 Shevat 5763, 25 January 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Yitro    Exodus 18:1-20:23

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - Undoubtedly, the most stirring, supernatural and significant event in the entire Bible is the Divine Revelation at Sinai, the "Ten Commandments" which provided Israel and the world with a quintessential message of morality necessary for the transformation - and salvation - of humanity. When we attempt to analyze the content of these "ten commandments," the first three speak of G-d (the Lord who took the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, Who shall have no other gods before Him, and whose name shall not be taken in vain), the fourth commands us to remember the Sabbath to sanctify it, the fifth enjoins honoring our parents, and the next five deal with universally accepted ethical principles: Thou shall not murder, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:1-4). One could not imagine a more finely crafted and relevant moral code for our post-modern, ethically perplexed, nuclear empowered era - and we can only stand back in amazement to think that these words were uttered close to 4,000 years ago!

If we understand that the G-d in whom we are enjoined to believe - to the exclusion of false idols idealizing materialistic and even bestial end goals - is a G-d of love, compassion, graciousness, patient tolerance, loving-kindness and truth, then nine of these commandments deal with ethics and morality. After all, our religion is not only monotheism; it is ethical monotheism, believing in a G-d who demands justice, mercy and peace! But then the one commandment of the ten which stands out as being different is the fourth command, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;' the Sabbath is a day dedicated to ritual, to prayer and Torah study. It seems to be an exclusively Jewish religious expression, devoid of universalistic or even moralistic messages. How does the Sabbath fit into the universal design of the decalogue?

I would like to even compound the question. The Decalogue was given barely six weeks after the splitting of the Reed Sea following the exodus from Egypt; and when the Torah tells us that G-d gave the Israelites at Mara a fore-taste of the Divine commandments, our Sages teach that this "Biblical introduction" consisted of the Sabbath laws, parental respect, and civil laws of business and neighborliness (Exodus 15:25, B.T. Sanhedrin 56b and Rashi to the Bible, ad loc). Moreover, the Bible then records how the Israelites complain about the lack of food in the desert, and receive the special heavenly supply of manna: one sufficient portion each day for every family member, with a double portion for each on Friday in order that no one would have to gather the manna on the Sabbath. As the Bible expresses it, 'See that the Lord has given to you the Sabbath; therefore He gives to you on Friday a sufficient portion for two days. Let every person dwell under him ("under himself", within his own four cubits, - Rashi -or within his own tent - Ibn Ezra). Let no individual go out (or take out) from his place on the seventh day' (Exodus 16:29). Why this emphasis on the Sabbath only weeks before the central commandment will be given to the Israelites at Sinai as the fourth commandment? And what is the literal meaning of the rather difficult verse just cited?

I would argue that the single most revolutionary concept in the entire Torah is the concept of the Sabbath. After all, every totalitarian ruler, every slaveholder, insists that he controls - nay, owns - his citizenry or his slaves. As a result, it is the ruler or slave owner who determines the hours and out-put of his servants. As a result, the Israelites worked in the slave-labor camps of Pharoah building Pitome and Raamses for 210 years - and could not even get three days off for a religious celebration in the desert. Comes the Almighty and demands that every Israelite refrain from any kind of servile work on the Sabbath. In effect, G-d is insisting that He, and not Pharoah, is the Employer! Indeed, G-d is teaching that He is the Ultimate Employer because He - and not Pharoah - owns the Israelites. He owns us because He created us, as the fourth commandment in the Decalogue teaches (Exodus 70: 10,11 The seventh days is the day of rest before the Lord your G-d... For in six days G-d created the heavens and the earth.. And He rested on the seventh day). And since G-d created all of humanity, He owns everyone. Hence, no human being dare enslave any other human being; we are, all of us, owned only by G-d, and therefore only He can determine when, and how, we are to work! The G-d of the Sabbath is the G-d of human freedom.

Therefore, immediately following the exodus from Egypt, we are already commanded at Mara the laws of the Sabbath, the consummate expression of the lesson of human freedom from enslavement which the Almighty taught in Egypt. Even Pharoah himself learned this costly lesson at long last. When he summons his charioteers to overtake the fleeing Israelites, the text reads, 'And he (Pharoah) harnessed his chariot, and he took his nation with him'(Exodus 14:6) Rashi explains the 'sea-change' in Pharoah's mentality: he, himself harnesses his own chariot, he is willing to lead his soldiers in the charge, endangering his own life first, and he even agrees to share the spoils of victory evenly with them- Rashi ad loc.

And the manna continues to emphasize this important lesson. Sustenance ultimately comes from G-d; no self-appointed patron has the right to demand enslavement in return for providing food. Since G-d is the ultimate employer (as well as benefactor), no human being - even if he be under orders from another human being,- may leave his four cubits to gather food on the Sabbath day. The sacred Zohar even understands the phrase 'Let every person dwell under him to mean "Let every person dwell under Him," that is only in fealty to the Divine Presence. Then he will not go out to work on the Sabbath day. Then he will not even carry an object from place to place on the Sabbath day. After all, such transporting of objects connotes transference of ownership according to Talmudic law- and the Sabbath teaches that the only true owner of the entire universe is the Almighty G-d.

The Decalogue opens, ' I am the Lord your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt, the House of bondage.' No law in any Book of Statutes expresses this revolutionary and universal truth with greater clarity than does the Sabbath, the fourth commandment of the Decalogue.

Shabbat Shalom.

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