Objective Truth-Justice and the Revelation at Mount Sinai - Delivered on Parashat Yitro 5777 at Baron Hirsch Congregation

This week’s parasha presents ma’amad Har Sinai – the Revelation at Sinai.  All of b’nei yisrael stood at the foot of the mountain and heard the Almighty proclaim, “Anochi”. Thunder and Lightning. An elaborately orchestrated choreography.

The author of the Akedat Yitzchak – Rabbenu Yitzchak Arama (I heavily consulted the translation by Rabbi Eliyahu Munk) – is bothered by a problem.

This elaborate scene at Mount Sinai is unparalleled in human history.  It would seem to have been aimed at conveying a purpose completely beyond anything man had ever experienced.

When we look at the Aseret HaDibrot – The Ten Commandments – we do not see any new philosophic insights. On the contrary, says Rabbi Arama, most of these commandments could easily have been legislated by human legislators of average intelligence interested in a well-functioning society! Murder, theft, adultery, honoring one’s parents. What great purpose is behind such an extraordinary event?

One might have expected the answers to the mysteries of the universe – but the Ten Commandments do not purport to address that topic.  Rabbi Arama says that even the first two commandments – postulating the Oneness and uniqueness of Hashem – could even be arrived at by human intellect – and these two utterances were made directly from the mouth of Hashem – kaveyachol.

What is the purpose of this whole experience, if not to teach new philosophical insights?

Rabbi Arama answers that many false philosophies had been circulating widely in that time. Although the acknowledgment of the existence of Hashem was widely accepted, many denied His ability or willingness to guide the fate of man or the history of mankind. Like the message of the plagues in Egypt, the revelation at Mount Sinai was intended to impress upon the Jewish People and, by extension, the world, the presence and involvement of Hashem in the fate of the Jewish People and in reward and punishment. It was not a legend but a living experience shared by the entire nation. 

We each engage this living experience on each of our holidays. I have told my children that when I was a child, my grandfather told me that he had heard from his father that our forefathers were present at this living experience.  This experience at Har Sinai continues to shape our people.

Hashem revealed to the Jewish People and to the world an objective fact, an essential truth – Hashem maintains a providential relationship with the Jewish People.   

Objective facts and essential truths are scarce commodities in our time. Fake news, false media and alternative facts rule the day.  In politics and especially on our college campuses, even the concept of objectivity is under assault.

One of my favorite stories illustrates the extent to which an un-objective and totally personal perspective can radically affect one’s thinking process. I first heard this story about Rav Chaim Soloveitchik from my Rosh Yeshiva and I subsequently saw it written up in Listen to Your Messages: And Other Observations on Contemporary Jewish Life by fellow Seattleite, Rabbi Yissochar Frand.

Rav Chaim Soloveitchik was a great rav in Brisk. The chief judge of Rav Chaim's beis din, his rabbinical court, was a great scholar named Rav Simchah Zelig.

It once happened that a butcher came into the beis din with a question regarding an animal he had just slaughtered. He had found a lesion on one of its internal organs and he wanted to know whether or not the animal was kosher.

Rav Simchah Zelig looked at the evidence and then considered the question very carefully. In those days, there were no real options for disposing of non-kosher animals. Thus, declaring an animal non-kosher was no simple matter - it involved very great financial loss, very many rubles. Unfortunately, however, Rav Simchah Zelig could not find any basis for declaring the animal kosher.

"I'm sorry," he said. "This animal is not kosher. It can't be used."

The man sighed as he heard the ruling. He nodded in acceptance and walked out without a whimper.

Three months later, the same man appeared before Rav Simchah Zelig once again, this time to litigate a dispute between him and another person. The disputed amount was a paltry 75 rubles. Rav Simchah Zelig ruled against the man, and it cost him 75 rubles. 

The man exploded in anger shouting at Rav Simchah Zelig and cursing him. The screams were so loud that Rav Chaim heard him and came running. Afraid that he would become violent, Rav Chaim ordered him to leave. 

"I don't understand," said Rav Simchah Zelig when he was finally alone with Rav Chaim. "Three months ago this man comes into my court, I rule against him and it costs him 1500 rubles, but he doesn't say a thing. Today he comes into my court, he loses 75 rubles, and he goes wild. It doesn't make any sense."

"The money has nothing to do with it," Rav Chaim replied. "It's all about winning and losing. In the case of the animal, there were no winners and losers, just a question about a piece of meat that had to be resolved. But today was a different story altogether. Today he lost and someone else won. That was unacceptable."

What essential truth does this story uncover? 

On the surface, the story speaks to the subtle power of one’s subjective world-view – losing a competition with another is more painful than losing your own money. In fact, so painful that one acts irrationally.

On a deeper level, this story communicates the power of justice and the power of a judicial system to support our personal reorienting of our subjective frame of mind. The butcher in the story missed the opportunity for personal transformation.  On a more personal scale, true justice, like the revelation at Mount Sinai, is a living experience. True justice is blind and objective. True justice offers an objective point of reference upon which each person can calibrate his or her opinions.  

The discussions of ma’amad Har Sinai and the system of justice are so related that the revelation is bookmarked in the Torah by two different presentations of justice – Yitro’s suggestion to Moshe of how to create an efficient court system and the Torah’s presentation of civil law in Parashat Mishpatim which we will read, be”H, next week.

In summary, together with Mishpatim, Parashat Yitro presents the existence of an objective moral law – a system of justice given by an eternal Lawgiver Who forged an on-going providential relationship with the Jewish People.

If so, why is this week’s parasha called Yitro? Yitro was Moshe’s Midianite father-in-law. On what merit is his name associated with this essential truth?

Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik, the Rav, of blessed memory, addresses a different, but related, question. The Torah records that Yitro suggested to Moshe that his system of one court for all of Israel was too taxing. As the Rav says, “why didn’t Moshe intuitively feel the need for a well-organized judicial system? Why didn’t it occur to Moshe and it did to Yitro?"

The Rav argues that the Torah was particularly interested in linking the proper implementation of the judicial system with Yitro. It wasn’t necessarily that Moshe didn’t consider it – instead, the Torah wanted to connect the novel idea for ideal justice with Yitro. 

Why?

The Rav answers in the following way:

Many of us are undoubtedly familiar with the following Midrash in the Sifri. Before Matan Torah, Hashem sent agents not only to b'nei yisrael but to other nations, as well. After seeing a sample of the Torah, each nation rejected the offer.

Eisav saw lo tirtzach – thou shalt not murder – and said no thank you.

Yishmael was shown lo tignov – thou shalt not steal – and said no way.

Amon and Moav learned lo tin’af – thou shalt not commit adultery – and responded with a flat no.

This Midrash points to an existential pessimism that must have gnawed at b'nei yisrael. Will the world ever be redeemed by the values of Torah?

Imagine their doubts after their treatment in Egypt – by Pharoah who had an inkling of Hashem. Imagine their absolute skepticism after their treatment at the hand of Amalek!

Is there hope for mankind?

The Rav offers an unbelievable insight. The Torah had to present Yitro exactly at this time. In the Rav’s own words, “Yitro is the representative of mankind, non-Jews, of people who are ready or they will be ready to accept the Torah and live in accordance with its law. Intuitively, Yitro was a Jew.”

The Torah purposely sidestepped Moshe and shined the light on Yitro and his understanding of proper organization of justice to answer the lingering doubts that the Jewish People had – regardless of their interactions with Esav, Yishmael, Amon, Moav, Mitzrayim and especially with Amalek, mankind can experience true enlightenment. This is why Yitro’s name is affixed to our parasha.

In Moshe’s days there were doubts and in our days there are doubts. Yitro reminds us that the light of objectivity, truth, justice and chessed will one day, hopefully soon, permeate all of the inhabitants of the world.