Again, I spoke.

It was a busy weekend, beginning with the end of a busy week and the Lay-Led service.  On Saturday I had a lot of errands and a theater company board meeting.  Many of the errands involved delivering treats to friends and baked goods to BiCi Co.  I wanted to get rid of some packaged items, so made fancy cupcakes for the holiday:

Clearly my decorating skills need a LOT of practice.

I also tried baking a recipe from a video I watched.  I think the biggest problem is that there isn't enough leavening.  The baker said she did a version off-camera with the "emptins", or liquid yeast, and it didn't do much.  Same as I found when I baked, making a quarter of the recipt:

   

Before baking on the left, after (the bottom) on the right.  No raisins, just seeds, as the raisins I have are fairly large and I didn't want to chop them.  It was fairly solid, not completely a brick, but tasty.

And of course I baked challah for the service.  Everybody seems to like the snack and this week several took an extra piece for later.  I tried a fancy braid as I did last month, but the dough was not cooperative so I reverted to a very simple three-strand braid, which resulted in a very long loaf:

   

On the left, before baking, with the sample roll.  The roll was done and eaten by the time the loaf came out.  I didn't glaze the loaf this time due to lack of milk and not wanting to deal with a partial egg.

I finished the weekend watching the Super Bowl, with just a few snacks.  Having friends and colleagues supporting both teams, I declared myself for Team Guacamole then forgot to pick up an avocado or any packaged stuff so didn't have the iconic snack.  But I did have another iconic snack, this from Chicago:

I also had a sausage for my main course, during the second half.

A friend offered to lead the services this month and next, as long as I do the drash or d'var Torah - the sermon.  This week it's a tough one because while Yitro is short, it is full of elements including two of the key items in Jewish belief.  Because it was a busy work week, and even my evenings were busy with things, I didn't have the time I wanted to take to think about what to say and I felt my drash was unfinished when I gave it.  There was some revising on the fly, and this is the result:

Yitro is a fairly short parasha but it is full of events.  Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, brings Moses’ wife and children to him, and they have a reunion, including a big dinner with Aaron and other leaders.  Jethro talks to Moses about creating the court system for settling disputes, distributing the responsibility to others to help judge while keeping the communications from and to G-d for himself.

There are the two main elements of this parasha that people usually focus on: the story of how the people gather at Mt. Sinai, how they prepare for the event, and how they are given the first instructions and the promise to be the chosen people.  For many people, standing at Sinai is the key part of this parasha.  We refer to it frequently in our services and our traditions.  “We were all at Sinai” is something you hear regularly in worship and blessings at events.

The other key point is the giving of the ten rules.  G-d says to Moses, in 19:5, “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My convent, you shall be My treasured possession among all the people.”  This is the essential bargain that G-d makes with the Israelites: Follow the rules I give to you, and I will make of you “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  (19:6)  Instead of being slaves and on the lowest rung, as they were a few weeks ago, the Israelites will be the most revered category of persons.

But can all the people really be priests, or is it just Aaron and his Clan?  Or, as suggested in the opening scenes when he speaks of taking G-d’s words to the people and their prayers and questions to G-d, it is just Moses?

When Jethro asked Moses what he is doing, sitting there with people coming to him all day and night, Moses said (18:15-16) “It is because the people come to me to inquire of G-d.  When they have a dispute it comes before me, and I decide between one party and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of G-d.”  While Jethro helps Moses find a way to distribute responsibility for the middle one, by creating a series of courts and sharing the responsibility to make decisions and resolve disputes, for the other two, however, there is no distribution by Moses.  He continues to be the only one who speaks to G-d and who informs the Israelites about G-d’s laws and teachings.

I posit that this changes at Mt. Sinai.  All of the people prepare, not just the priests, and all gather at the foot of the mountain.  The people see the power and majesty of G-d in “the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking.” (20:15)    They are afraid, though, and ask Moses if he will “speak to us, and we will obey; but let not G-d speak to us, lest we die.”  Moses reassures him but the people hang back while he does to explain things to G-d.  The people are afraid of direct communication, and it is as though the noise of the horns and thunder prevent them from hearing G-d.  They continue to need an intermediary – Moses – to communicate.

It is for G-d to change this.  In the last few lines of this parasha, G-d seems to take worship from the hands of Moses and the priests, and hand it to the individuals.  G-d tells Moses to instruct the people how to worship, and specifically says in 20:21 that “in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you.”  This makes it clear that the Israelites can pray anywhere.  They are instructed how to make an altar, and that the altar can be different types.  This means that each of us can enter into a direct relationship with G-d, by making our own offerings.  We no longer have a single source of messages from G-d, or one person who can take our prayers to G-d.  Just as Moses distributed the responsibility to adjudicate disputes to others, here G-d distributed the ability to communicate to the community, to each individual standing there.

In the centuries since, we have come to recognize that we don’t need to meet in a single large group for worship, we can meet in smaller groups.  We can each have our own relationship with G-d.  We have a space for our own prayers, directly to G-d, in our services, and instead of thunder and the bleating of horns we recognize “the still small voice within”.

Just as we believe we each stood at Mt. Sinai to hear the words of G-d, so do we believe that we each may continue to hear those words for ourselves.  We don’t need priests to interpret or intervene: as the men of the tribes began to interpret the laws and settle disputes for themselves, so do we individuals have the power to enact our own contract, our own covenant, to follow the terms offered by G-d.