Exodus 18

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Convergence of Science and Torah

The Torah portion of Yitro (Ex. 18), is the high point of the story of Exodus—the giving of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai.  In a strange digression, the progressive narrative of the Exodus from Egypt is interrupted by the side story of Jethro (Yitro), the father-in-law of Moses, who comes to Sinai desert to join the Jewish nation.  After hearing Moses’ account of all the miracles G‑d performed for Jewish people, Jethro exclaimed: Now I know that the Lord is greater than all deities. (Ex. 18:11) Jethro said confidently, “I know,” because, as the chief priest of Midian, he indeed knew all pagan cults and all deities worshiped in his time.  Moreover, in antiquity, priests were expected to possess all secular knowledge as well (sadly, it is no longer the case).  They needed to [...]

It’s the Time, Stupid!

There is a continuous thread about the mastery of time that weaves through the last chapters of the book of Genesis (Bereshit) and continues through the beginning of the book of Exodus (Shemot). The story of Joseph’s incarceration ends with his successful interpretation of the dreams of the Pharaoh’s chief butler and the chief baker. Joseph's genius was not only in interpreting ordinary objects (tendrils of grapes and baskets of bread) as symbols of the units of time but in understanding that the engagement in time (manifested in the chief butler’s personally squeezing the grapes into the cup and placing the cup in Pharaoh’s hand) symbolized life for the chief butler and the passivity of the chief baker (who dreamt of baskets of bread sitting on his head, with birds eating from the baskets) [...]

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