This is the Torah portion where Yitro Moshe’s father-in-law advises Moshe to set up a multi-level judicial system in order to address the needs of the multitude. Phillip Ratner’s illustration addresses this subject of this week’s weekly reading.
Also, in this weeks portion is the giving of the “Ten Utterances” Aseret HaDibrot. In short here is the list of the ten:
I am YHWH your God,
who brought you out
from the land of Egypt, from a house of serfs.
You are not to have
any other gods
before my presence.
You are not to make your self a carved-image
or any figure
that is in heaven above, that is on the earth beneath, that is in
the waters beneath the earth;
you are not to bow down to them,
you are not to serve them,
for I, YHWH your God,
am a jealous (livid?) God,
calling-to-account the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, to the
third and the fourth (generation)
of those that love me,
of those that keep my commandments.
You are not to take up
the name of YHWH your God for emptiness,
for YHWH will not clear him
that takes up his name for emptiness.
Remember
the Sabbath day, to hallow it.
For six days, you are to serve, and are to make all your work,
but the seventh day
is Sabbath for YHWH your God:
you are not to make any kind of work,
(not) you, nor your son, nor your daughter,
(not) your servant, nor your maid, nor your beast,
nor your sojourner that is within your gates.
For in six days
YHWH made
the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in it,
and he rested on the seventh day his blessing, and he
hallowed it.
Honor
your father and your mother,
in order that your days may be prolonged
on the soil that YHWH your God is giving you.
You are not to murder.
You are not to adulter.
You are not to steal.
You are not to testify
against your fellow as a false witness.
You are not to desire
the house of your neighbor,
you are not to desire the wife of your neighbor,
or his servant, or his maid, or his ox, or his donkey,
or anything that is your neighbor’s.
(The Five Books of Moses. The Schocken Bible:Volume I, commentary and notes by Everett Fox. Schocken Books, N.Y.)
Illustration appearing on Israelseen courtesy of international artist Phillip Ratner ratnermuseum.com
Yitro by Phillip Ratner
