Sensitivity Training
Torah is about sensitivity to G-d and to others. Sensitivity to one entity should never cause us to be insensitive to the other. PARSHAS YISRO PARSHAS YISRO
The Anti-Climax Climax
Without question, the most distinguishing factor of this week’s parsha is the Ten Commandments.
(Parenthetically, it should be stated that the correct phrase is “Ten Statements.” The total number of commandments in the Torah are actually 613. These “Ten statements” reflect the first set of G-dly teaching that serve as the foundation of all of Judaism.)
The giving of the Ten Commandments (or: Ten Statements) was the world’s single most spiritual experience. Never before and never since did G-d reveal Himself to the world as He did at Mount Sinai. With this revelation, PARSHAS YISRO the world was exposed to the most lofty G- dly experience.
So powerful was this event that the Torah relates that the Jewish nation begged Moses to take over and relay G-d’s words to them. They could not endure the powerful G-dly light that accompanied the giving of the Torah.
Yet, when we juxtapose the sublime nature of the revelation of Sinai – described in the middle of this week’s Torah reading – with the very end of this week’s Torah portion, a tark contrast emerges.
The very last verse deals with a rather mundane commandment concerning the building of the altar in the Temple. To climb onto the altar in the Temple, the Torah commanded them to build a ramp and not a staircase. The Torah provides the reasoning that using a staircase would require taking large and “immodest” looking steps. By contrast a ramp would allow them to take shorter and more modest appearing steps.
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The question begs to be asked. What connection does this unusual commandment have with the revelation at Sinai. And secondly, why would the parsha conclude with this commandment as if this was the end result and objective of Sinai?
Sensitivity to Rocks!
To answer these questions it would serve us well to know the reason for this commandment concerning the altar.
Our sages comment that the reason for not alighting on a staircase is to teach us sensitivity to others.
“If the tones of the altar – which do not feel any shame – should not be disgraced by taking wide immodest strides while alighting the altar, certainly a person who is fashioned in the mold of His Creator, should not be subjected to any shame.”
In simple terms, the objective of this commandment is to condition us to always PARSHAS YISRO be sensitive to the feelings and dignity of others.
When we think about the objectives of Sinai, we might incorrectly conclude that G-d desires us to be pure and spiritual, to the extent that we become oblivious to our surroundings and the needs of others. After all doesn’t G-d want us to rise above this physical world and become like angels?
But our parsha concludes by teaching us to what degree we must be sensitive of another’s feelings. And while it is true, G-d wants us to rise above the constraints of the physical world, He doesn’t want us to achieve that goal by ever losing touch with the feelings of others.
Thus, by concluding with the theme of sensitivity – that even when one walks onto the stones of the altar they must not denigrate their honor – our Torah portion demonstrates that no matter how high one can go – even if he or she climbs onto G-d’s altar in the Temple and is soaring to the PARSHAS YISRO heaven’s – one must never lose sight of another’s needs and feelings.
Never Too Engrossed in Study
A story is told of Rabbi Dovber – the second leader of Lubavitch – who was once deeply engrossed in his studies. His young baby who was sleeping nearby fell out of his cradle and started to cry. Rabbi Dovber was so engrossed in his studies that he was oblivious to the child crying just a few feet away. His father, Rabbi Schneur Zalman – the founder of the Chabad Lubavitch dynasty – who lived in an upper story and who was also deeply engrossed in study, heard the baby’s cries, descended, picked up the baby, and rocked it back to sleep.
Thereupon, he rebuked his son and told him that no matter how deeply engrossed in one’s studies, one must never be deaf to the cries of a child, literally and figuratively.
The objective of Sinai is also to be sensitive to the cries and needs of those Jews who – because of circumstances beyond their PARSHAS YISRO control – remained children in terms of their Jewish knowledge. We must be sensitive to their needs and the silent cries of their souls.
Our sages tell us that the experience Jews had at Sinai was but a temporary one. It will become permanent, however, during the Messianic Age. Just as the parsha that deals with the giving of the Torah at Sinai concludes with teaching about sensitivity while on the heights of holiness, it is certainly applicable today as we stand on the threshold of the redemption. It behooves every one of us to hear the cries and cater to the needs of our fellow Jews and indeed the entire world.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Yisro by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
