Yitro (“Jethro, the minister of Midian”)

Exodus 18:1 – 20:23

All the tribes gathered at Mt. Sinai for what surely was the most significant moment in their history where they all at the same time experienced a spiritual revelation.  All the letters and words of the Matan Torah – the giving of the Torah  – and the ten declarations or ten commandments happened simultaneously as a synesthetic event they heard what

hey heard what they saw and saw what they heard and were so awed and astounded that they uttered as a unit “we will do and we will hear.”  Even the unborn children in their mothers’ were aware of this miracle.  All were crowned for their commitment to the truth of the Oneness of the Creator.

As Moses stepped onto the mountain to receive the revelation, the mountain itself was ablaze with fire and smoke and it rose up and would soon hover over all the people gathered there. The fires are known as spiritual fire and don’t create any smoke and here they have formed the structure of two triangles with one heading up and the other down and together they combine to be the “mogen dovid” – the star of David.  At the base of the mountain are altars for each of the 12 tribes and one in the center that represents the four worlds Kabbalah speaks about.  As the sky was lit up with lightening and thunder and hail, thousands of angels seen here in purple on the arcs of blue as they shouted the praises of Hashem.   The letters in the thick cloud are the first words of the first commandment “I am (yud heh vov heh – the unpronounceable name of Hashem indicating endless mercy and wisdom) elohim (the deity associated with judgment).  From the smoke emerge the ram’s horn whose center is a series of concentric circles which is another representation of the sephirot.