The Ten Commandments.  We see them everywhere, the two tablets.  On synagogue buildings and over the aron kodesh, the ark containing the Torah scrolls.  In pictures of Moses across the history of biblical art.  At courts of law.  The tablets are so familiar we might stop noticing them. And the words on the tablets.  In Continue reading

There are two distinct stories in Parashat Yitro, and we usually think about them entirely separately.  The most important part of the parasha are chapters 19-20 of Exodus, known as Ma'amad Har Sinai, the revelation "standing at Mt. Sinai."  Here, God offers the Israelites as a whole a covenant, and when they agree God speaks Continue reading