Parashat Yitro: Clearing Time to Go up the Mountain

Very strange. We always imagine that God called Moshe to come up the mountain and that’s how he knew it was the time and place for the big event. But if you read the verses, actually what happens is that the people camp across from the mountain and Moshe goes up on his accord, without any call from God. Only after Moshe takes the first step does God then call to him and begin the process (Exodus 19:3).

This makes me wonder: Perhaps God was there on the mountain waiting for many days, years, generations even, for someone like Moshe to come up and want the Torah. Perhaps God is always simply there waiting for us to reach out, to uncover Him, to ask for His Torah, for His Presence to be revealed to us in the world. We think we are waiting for Him to show Himself. But perhaps it is for us to begin the climb up the mountain. There is a famous midrash that says that God’s voice calls out every single day from the Temple Mount: “Return, My children!” The fact that we don’t hear it has to do with our own inability to tune in. The voice is there; the Torah is there; God is on the mountain; we just have to go up.

What is it that allowed Moshe to tune in at that particular moment? The Torah tells us in its prelude to Mount Sinai. Yitro comes and sees his son-in-law serving as a judge from early morning until nightfall every day, dealing with every little squabble in the camp. Up till now Moshe was too frenetically busy to climb the mountain in search of God, to hear God’s call, or to receive His word. A person needs to open herself, to free herself, at least a little bit, in order to hear God.

What Yitro advises is that Moshe get auxiliary judges to do most of the judging so that Moshe’s time is free to serve as an emissary between God and the people, bringing their issues to God and bringing God’s laws to them. In other words, Yitro tells him – you are too busy to serve your real purpose right now! Your real job is with God! You can’t do it all. Only if you free yourself up from all of these other daily responsibilities will you be able to do the real service you are here to do – to serve as a bridge between God and the people. At the end of his advice, Yitro says to Moshe, “If you do this thing,” then vetzivekha Elokhim, literally, “God will command you (Exodus 18:23).” In other words, if you do this thing, if you free yourself in this way, then you will make yourself into a vessel for His commandments.

There are two take-aways from all of this. First, we shouldn’t be waiting for the “call.” We should start the climb, take the initiative in our relationship with God, in our search for His Torah and for His presence. He is waiting for us to approach.

Second, we need to make the time to hear God. If our lives are filled with frenetic rushing and details, we will not be serving our real purpose as a divine vessel. Obviously not everyone is Moshe, but we all have a particular divine purpose in this world, and somewhere inside us, we know what it is. Often, though, what happens is that we let life with all its details and busyness dictate how we should spend our time, rather than being clear about what our particular role is meant to be and setting our own agenda and priorities so that we can actually do it. May we find the time to set out up the mountain!