Parashat Yitro: Still Standing Still at Sinai

Last week the Israelites were on the move, travelling through the Red Sea and on through the desert. As the Hasidic master Sefat Emet points out, the human being is a mahalakh, “a walker.” We are in constant motion, striving for improvement by moving from one step to the next.

This week’s parsha, though, does not deal with movement, but with standing still. The experience at Mount Sinai is known as a ma’amad, “a stand.” Deuteronomy, in referring to this incident, says yom asher amadeta, “The day on which you stood” (4:10), and here, in Exodus, the Torah uses a different root with the same meaning, Vayityatzvu, “They stood at the foot of the mountain” (19:17). If anything, this second root, yatzav, also the root for the word matzevah, “statue,” has an even more fixed feel to it. While the people at the Sea are mobile like the sea, here at Mount Sinai, the people stand still and grounded like the mountain itself.

What does this emphasis on standing mean? The Sefat Emet says that at Mount Sinai we were like angels, and angels are known to be standers, not movers. At Mount Sinai, we were like them, perfect and complete, with no need to climb any further steps.

For one brief moment at Sinai, we experienced the divine presence; we heard God say Anokhi, “I am the Lord your God,” and understood that such an awareness of divinity is the aim of our whole existence. For one brief moment, we escaped the human struggle forward to become, and were part of an eternal Being. We were present, not worried about past or future.

We are always trying to return to Mount Sinai, to that experience of total presence and total being. The Amidah prayer offers one such opportunity as in it we literally stand like angels – with our feet together – and attempt to concentrate on something other than our workday obligations and responsibilities.

Shabbat offers another such opportunity, as on Shabbat we stop our weekday work of becoming and concentrate just on being. It isn’t easy. Concerning the Shabbat commandment in this week’s parsha, the Torah says, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (20:8). The midrash Mekhilta comments: “Is it possible for a human being to do all of his work in six days? Rather, rest as if all your work is done.” Humans are not angels; we can and should be out walking, working and changing. At the same time, though, every once in a while, we need to take a moment to stand still and be present, not because our work is done – it never really is -- but in order to rekindle the feeling of total divine Presence we had at Sinai.