Congregation Beth Meier

This week's Torah Portion is definitely in the "top ten" of the year. Parshat Yitro contains the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments. Only recently freed from slavery in Egypt, the Jewish people take on a new identity, as a people in a covenantal relationship with God. It the recognition of that relationship that is the dramatic turning point in the life of the Jewish People and in human history as well.

For the underlying notion behind the story of the Jews accepting the 10 Commandments is the fundamental idea behind being a living human being. You are born into relationships - not just with your parents or family, but with the whole world that existed before you were born and from which your existence came. And if we accept that, by definition, being alive means being in relationship with the people and world around us, then that means we "owe" something to all those with whom we are in relationship - whether we like it or not, that's the case.

And therefore Judaism's great contribution to human existence is to elevate that sense of relationship and obligation into something holy. Through the mitzvot, we carry out the duties of that relationship in the world and towards the Creator of the world.

May we reflect on the blessing that is being alive and also on the relationship that each of us has to the world around us. And may we strive, through the mitzvot, to make it a holy relationship.