Yitro: An Aleph and (Still) a Blank Canvas

You know the Ten Commandments? You've heard of them, I assume? Most of us could surely name a few of the laws in there, and we might even know them in order. Perhaps you can list them all. In some ways,

they represent the whole Torah, if not all of Jewish history, including our understanding of law, commandedness, morality, behavior, and ritual. In this week's parashah, God dramatically speaks these Ten Utterances to the Children of Israel; it is THE moment of Revelation with a capital R. But what did God actually SAY? And how do we know? That's right, folks. I'm going super-theological on the blog this week! Take a deep breath, and let's jump in.

Biblical scholars have debated this question for centuries. The most traditional readers of the Torah, of course, tell us the whole thing is the LITERAL word of God. At the other end of the spectrum, some maintain that there is no God

and the Torah is an entirely human composition. I would argue that each of those extreme positions are somewhat easier to hold, and that the real struggle lies in the middle; for those of us who see the Torah as a Divine-human partnership. In the Conservative Movement especially, we frequently ask the question: "What happened at Sinai?" How you answer can dramatically change nearly EVERY aspect of your personal theology. Let me offer one possible response, and briefly demonstrate its potential consequences:

I recently read a Torah commentary written by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, who was the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary when I began my studies there. Rabbi Schorsch cited a provocative midrash (story

or interpretation) by an 18th Century Chassidic master, Rabbi Mendel of Rymanov, who posited that "All that Israel heard at Sinai was the first letter of the first word of the first Commandment, that is, nothing more than the silent aleph of "Anochi" - "I am (Exodus 20:2)." Rabbi Schorsch explains: "with his daring statement that the actual revelation to Israel consisted only of the aleph, Rabbi Mendel transformed the revelation on Mount Sinai into a mystical revelation, pregnant with infinite meaning, but without specific meaning."

According to this midrash, human beings wrote the actual commandments... but God spoke the first letter to get things started. There's just one problem: Aleph is a silent letter! So what could that possibly have sounded like?!? That, of course, is the beauty of this mystical interpretation. It was the Divine Breath, a still, small wisp of air; but one that inspired the entire Torah, and changed the course of all of human history.

On our last synagogue trip to Israel, we visited a Masorti/Conservative congregation in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Above their Ark they had a representation of the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, just as you can see in many synagogues around the world. Theirs, however, was incredible. Only one letter was inscribed on it - the Aleph - while the rest of the tablet was blank. It was, I believe, an artistic rendering of Rabbi Mendel's fabulous commentary. And to me, it holds a tremendously powerful message: God has given us the start, the initial push, but the rest remains unwritten. We fill in the letters with our actions and our behaviors. All of us, throughout our history, must partner with God and add meaning and content to the tablets of our heritage. It is not for God or even Moses to carve the words or the mitzvot; we must do it ourselves. And there's no time like the present!

Photos in this blog post:

1. CC image courtesy of Ji-Elle on Wikimedia Commons

2. CC image courtesy of Cherubino on Wikimedia Commons

3. The first word of the first commandment: "Anochi" - "I am"

4. The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, but with just the Aleph, the first letter of the first word of the first commandment, depicted. (Sadly, this is not the artistic piece from the Tel Aviv synagogue. We were there on Shabbat, so I did not take pictures, and I couldn't find an image of it online. Sorry.)