Yitro, Yithro, Yisroi, Yithre, Yisrau, or Yisro (, Hebrew for the name "Jethro," the second word and first distinctive word in the ) is the seventeenth weekly Torah portion (; ) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Exodus. The parashah tells of Jethro's organizational counsel to Moses and God's revelation of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
The constitutes Exodus 18:1–20:23. The is the shortest of the weekly Torah portions in the Book of Exodus and is also one of the shortest in the Torah. It is made up of 4,022 Hebrew letters, 1,105 Hebrew words, and 75 verses.
Jews read it the seventeenth Shabbat after Simchat Torah, generally in January or February. Jews also read part of the , Exodus 19:1–20:23, as a Torah reading on the first day of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments.
Readings In the traditional Shabbat Torah reading calendar, the is divided into seven readings, or ().
First reading—Exodus 18:1–12
In the first reading, Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, hears all that God had done for the Israelites and brings Moses's wife Zipporah and her two sons, Gershom () and Eliezer (), to Moses in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. Jethro rejoices, blesses God, and offers sacrifices to God.
Second reading—Exodus 18:13–23 In the second reading, the people of Israel stand from morning until evening waiting for Moses to adjudicate their disputes. Jethro counsels Moses to make known the law, and then choose capable, trustworthy, God-fearing men to serve as chiefs to judge the people, bringing only the most difficult matters to Moses.
Third reading—Exodus 18:24–27 In the third reading, Moses heeds Jethro's advice. Then, Moses bids Jethro farewell, and Jethro goes home.
Fourth reading—Exodus 19:1–6 In the fourth reading, three months to the day after the Israelites left Egypt, they enter the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, and God tells him to tell the Israelites that if they will obey God faithfully and keep God's covenant, they would be God's treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
Fifth reading—Exodus 19:7–19 In the fifth reading, when Moses tells the elders what God said, all the people answer: "All that the has spoken, we will do!", and Moses brings the people's words back to God. God instructs Moses to have the people stay pure, wash their clothes, and prepare for the third day, when God will come down in the sight of the people, on Mount Sinai. God tells Moses to set bounds around the mountain, threatening whoever touches the mountain with death, and Moses does so.
At dawn on the third day, there is thunder, lightning, a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn. Moses leads the people to the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai is all in smoke, the mountain trembles violently, the blare of the horn grows louder and louder, and God answers Moses in thunder.
Sixth reading—Exodus 19:20–20:14 In the sixth reading, God comes down to the top of Mount Sinai and calls Moses up. God again commands Moses to warn the people not to break through.
God speaks the Ten Commandments: "I the am your God." "You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them." "You shall not swear falsely by the name of the your God." "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." "Honor your father and your mother." "You shall not murder." "You shall not commit adultery." "You shall not steal." "You shall not bear false witness." "You shall not covet ... anything that is your neighbor's."
Seventh reading—Exodus 20:15–23 In the seventh reading, seeing the thunder, lightning, and the mountain smoking, the people fall back and ask Moses to speak to them instead of God. God tells Moses to tell the people not make any gods of silver or gold, but to build an altar of earth for sacrifices. God prohibits hewing the stones to make a stone altar. God prohibits ascending the altar by steps, so as not to expose the kohen's nakedness.
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading may read the according to a different schedule. Some congregations that read the Torah according to the triennial cycle divide the parashah into three sections, with the Ten Commandments in years two and three, while other congregations that read the Torah according to the triennial cycle read the entire with the Ten Commandments every year.See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah", in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418.
In ancient parallels The has parallels in these ancient sources:
Exodus chapter 20 The early third millennium BCE Sumerian wisdom text Instructions of Shuruppak contains maxims that parallel the Ten Commandments, including: Do not steal anything; do not kill yourself! ... My son, do not commit murder ...
Do not laugh with a girl if she is married; the slander (arising from it) is strong! ... Do not plan lies; it is discrediting ... Do not speak fraudulently; in the end it will bind you like a trap.Instructions of Shuruppak (Sumer, early 3rd millennium BCE), in, e.g., Bendt Alster, Wisdom of Ancient Sumer (Capital Decisions Ltd, 2005), pages 60–69.
Noting that Sargon of Akkad was the first to use a seven-day week, Gregory S. Aldrete speculated that the Israelites may have adopted the idea from the Akkadian Empire.Gregory S. Aldrete, "From Out of the Mesopotamian Mud," in History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective (Chantilly, Virginia: The Great Courses, 2011), lecture 2.
In inner-biblical interpretation The has parallels or is referenced in these biblical sources:
Exodus chapter 20 Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4 refer to the Ten Commandments as the "ten words" ().
The Sabbath Exodus 20:8–11 refers to the Biblical Sabbath, which known as Shabbat in Rabbinic Judaism. Abraham Millgram notes that the Hebrew Bible repeats the commandment to observe the Sabbath 12 times.Abraham E. Millgram, editor, The Sabbath Anthology (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1944, reprinted 2018), page 203. Genesis 2:1–3 reports that on the seventh day of Creation, God finished God's work, rested, and blessed and hallowed the seventh day.
The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. God, in Exodus 20:8–11, commands the Israelites to remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy, and not do any manner of work or cause anyone under one's control to work, "for in six days God made heaven and earth and sea," and rested on the seventh day, blessed the Sabbath, and hallowed it. In Deuteronomy 5:12–15, God is again recorded commanding the Israelites to observe the Sabbath day, keep it holy, and forgo any manner of work (or causing other humans or animals in Israelites' household to work)—the intent being for the Israelites to remember that they were previously slaves in Egypt, and God brought them out "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm".
During the incident of the manna in Exodus 16:22–30, Moses told the Israelites that the Sabbath should be a solemn rest day; before the Sabbath, they should complete their meal preparations and lay up food to last through the day. Additionally, God told Moses to let no one leave their home on the seventh day.
In Exodus 31:12–17, just before giving Moses the second Tablets of Stone, God commanded that the Israelites keep and observe the Sabbath throughout the ages as an eternal sign between them and God, "for in six days God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, God rested".
In Exodus 35:1–3, just before issuing the instructions for the Tabernacle, Moses again told the Israelites that no one should work on the Sabbath, specifying that they must not kindle fire on the Sabbath. In Leviticus 23:1–3, God told Moses to repeat the Sabbath commandment to the people, calling the Sabbath a "holy convocation".
The prophet Isaiah is recorded in Isaiah 1:12–13 teaching that wickedness is inconsistent with the Sabbath. In Isaiah 58:13–14, the prophet teaches that if the Israelites turn away from pursuing or speaking of business on the Sabbath and "call the Sabbath a delight", God will allow them to "ride upon the high places of the earth" and "feed them with the heritage of Jacob". Finally, in Isaiah 66:23, Isaiah is recorded teaching that in times to come, from one Sabbath to another, all people, including non-Jews, will come to worship God.
The prophet Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 17:19–27, is recorded teaching that the fate of Jerusalem depends on whether the people abstained from work on the Sabbath, including from "carrying burdens" outside their houses and through the city gates.
The prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 20:10–22, teaches that God gave the Israelites God's Sabbaths to be a sign between God and them, but the Israelites rebelled against God by profaning the Sabbaths, provoking God to pour out God's fury upon them, but God stayed God's hand.
In Nehemiah 13:15–22, Nehemiah recounts how he saw some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and others bringing all manner of burdens into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, so when it began to be dark before the Sabbath, he commanded that the city gates be shut and not opened till after the Sabbath and directed the Levites to keep the gates to sanctify the Sabbath.
Commandments Murder, prohibited in Exodus 20:13, is also condemned in Deuteronomy 5:17 and 21:7–9; 1 Samuel 19:5; Isaiah 59:7; Jeremiah 7:6 and 22:3; and Proverbs 6:17.
Bearing false witness, prohibited in Exodus 20:13 (20:16 in the Christian King James Version), is also condemned in Deuteronomy 5:17 (5:20 in the KJV); 19:18; Psalm 27:12; and Proverbs 6:19, 14:5, and 25:18.
The Altar Exodus 20:22, which prohibits building the altar from hewn stones, explaining that wielding tools upon the stones would profane them, is echoed by Deuteronomy 27:5–6, which prohibits wielding iron tools over the stones of the altar and requires that the Israelites build the altar from unhewn stones.
In early nonrabbinic interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:For more on early nonrabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Esther Eshel, "Early Nonrabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible: 2nd Edition, pages 1841–59.
Exodus chapter 20
The Sabbath 1 Maccabees 2:27–38 told how in the 2nd century BCE, many followers of the pious Jewish priest Mattathias rebelled against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus's soldiers attacked a group of them on the Sabbath, and when the pietists failed to defend themselves to honor the Sabbath (commanded in, among other places, Exodus 20:8–11), a thousand died. 1 Maccabees 2:39–41 reported that when Mattathias and his friends heard, they reasoned that if they did not fight on the Sabbath, they would soon be destroyed. So they decided that they would fight against anyone who attacked them on the Sabbath.Jonathan A. Goldstein, translator, I Maccabees (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1976), pages 5, 234–35.
In classical rabbinic interpretation The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud:For more on classical rabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Yaakov Elman, "Classical Rabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, pages 1859–78.
Exodus chapter 18