Parashat Yitro

Jewish tradition places great emphasis on the way in which we hear and how we interpret the messages we receive.

Raising questions about our complex relationship with God.

Establishing an equitable human judicial system is the necessary condition for receiving the divine moral wisdom of the Torah.

Holiness derives from encounters with God in Torah study; it is not intrinsic to locations like Mount Sinai.

Jethro's position at the outside of the Jewish people allowed him to understand how to make the Torah work for a multiplicity of people.