Yitro Ex. 18:1-20:23

Last Shabbat was Shabbat Shira, the Sabbath of Song, as the Torah portion includes the song which Moses, Miriam, and the Israelites sang as they crossed the Sea of Reeds and tasted freedom from Egyptian bondage for the first time. But because we so often focus our attention on that song, which includes the well-known Mi Chamocha, we tend to forget about the little story that comes right after it.

Three days (72 hours) after witnessing the miracle at the sea, some of the Israelites begin complaining bitterly to Moses because they cannot seem to find enough fresh-tasting water in the desert. And, roughly 40 days after that, other groups of Israelites grumble against Moses and Aaron again, this time saying they do not have enough to eat, and blaming Moses for taking them out of Egypt where, they insist with an embarrassingly selective memory, life was much easier.

This divisiveness continues into this week’s portion, Yitro, as each individual Israelite vies for Moses’ attention, and as Moses wears himself out trying to attend to every detail of every person’s concerns.

And then, all of a sudden, the story shifts. In chapter 19, verse 2, the text reads: “The Israelites encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain.” While the English translation gives us no real reason for pause, reading it in Hebrew does. “VayachaNU ba’midbar vayichan-SHAM.”

The first time this verse tells us that the Israelites encamped, the plural form of the verb is used: vayachaNU. But the second time, the verb “to camp” is written in the singular: vayichan.

For the first time on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the Israelites have become a single, unified community. And, as Rabbi Dan Levin writes in his Torah commentary on this portion: “In the moment when Israel becomes one, something happens that never happened before— God decides to appear before all the Children of Israel—to greet this people. The mountain, the place, the time: all are basically unimportant. What is important is not where the people are physically, but where they are spiritually.”

But when a Torah portion includes divine revelation—the giving and receiving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai—the rest of the story tends to get overshadowed. It’s unfortunate, though, because learning what the Israelites came to understand in the ordinary moments along their journey can teach us just as much as, if not more than, the list of Thou Shalts, and Thou Shalt Nots we receive.

What we come to understand is that while Torah is of vital importance, we only received Torah when we were able to create sacred community; when numerous individuals were able to join together to become a single people.

The Israelites may have been camping together since they crossed the sea to freedom, but they did not fully come together until they stood face-to-face, gathered at the foot of the mountain, sharing a unity of purpose and expressing their enthusiastic willingness and desire to move forward as one.

Our portion this week teaches us that while Revelation was certainly about law, it was just as much about relationships—with God and with one another. And it reminds us that God is present and that revelation can happen anytime and any place we come together.

Rabbi Larry Hoffman translates this beautifully into our own congregational lives in saying: “Our synagogues are not just buildings, but rather sets of sacred relationships that constitute community and the equally sacred acts that flow from them.”

Through our actions, through our connections, and through our shared experiences we become a true kehillah kedosha, a sacred community, in whom the past endures and the future shines brightly. .