Friday, January 25, 2019

Parashah 17: Yitro (Jethro) Exodus 18:1 through 20:23

Shabbat shalom, mishpocah!  As always, an synopsis of this week’s Torah portion can be found on our website.

In this parashah, we see the Israelites receiving the Ten Commandments! But first, we are told that Moshe's father-in-law, Yitro (whose wise counsel Moshe cherished) brought an offering (Exodus 18:12) - which once again shows that Torah has always existed, and that it existed before Moshe received the "Ten Commandments" and before the giving of those "613" Levitical commands found scattered throughout the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Note that Moshe was not a "Jew". (He was from the Tribe of Levi, not of Judah.) But the fact remains, he was Torah observant! All believers since the beginning of time obeyed YHWH's Torah; not just "the Jews" as many people suggest.

There were no "Jews" until Jacob had fathered one of his 12 sons, Yehudah (Judah) who became one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Note that ALL believers up until then - including the Egyptian Gentiles who had followed Moshe out of Egypt - obeyed YHWH's Torah.

Remember, even Cain and Abel knew to present animal sacrifices (Genesis 4) and Noah knew the difference between "clean and unclean" animals (Gen. 7:1-3); and at the end of Genesis 4 we see that people had begun to "call on the Name of YHWH". The Tribe of Judah was chosen to teach the world about Torah (Genesis 49:10, Micah 4:2) and: YHWH caused Yeshua to be born into the Tribe of Yehudah/Judah....

Anyway, for a synopsis of this Torah portion, please click on this link to read the Parashah.

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