The Weeky Portion: Yitro

This week we Jews are reading the chapter where the African  priest Yitro visits Moses and Zipporah and the grandchildren. The Jews are torturing Moshe with their moral questions, so the old man advises: Write down the Law and appoint judges. So Moshe went up the mountain and after fasting and consulting with God, produced two tablets with ten simple rules. From then on there could be no more doubts what was to be considered politically correct.

Commenting on the chapter, Rabbi Tarfon asked himself why is that only the Israelites received God's commandments? Why not the "Children of Esau" tribe? Obvious, answered Rabbi Tarfon, those Esau people are warlike, "You shall not murder" is not for them. What about the sons of Ishmael, the Arabs? "You shall not steal" was not for them since they live robbing caravans in the desert. Presumably, the Greeks would never accept a bodiless god having beautiful naked marble statues of their nubile goddesses and muscular athletes? Having run out of worthy candidates, God noticed Moshe starving on the hilltop and offloaded his stone tablets on him. On us. Left: Hebrew tablet found in the ruins of Gezer.