Parashat Yitro--Back and Forthing

There are some days in which I take three trips from my home to my car before I remember everything I need.  No sooner do I have the key in the ignition then I remember my forgotten cell phone, iPod, lunch, office key, jacket.  This is the way I am in the world.  My mind is so often filled with plans and ideas three steps ahead that I have a hard time remembering what’s supposed to be in my hands at the moment.  I take comfort in the fact that there is holiness in the back-and-forthing of life.

In Genesis, Jacob falls asleep on a rock.  In the middle of the night, he awakes to find angels climbing up and down a ladder.  Commentators ask: Why up and then down?  Why moving at all?  Good questions!

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Yitro, in which our people receive the Ten Commandments (aka Decalogue, Ten Utterances, etc.) at Mount Sinai, we once again are treated to Torah’s love of back-and-forthing.  I invite you, before you read my count, to click here http://www.jtsa.edu/Conservative_Judaism/JTS_Torah_Commentary/Yitro.xml, re-read Exodus 19 from the Torah portion, and count how many times Moses goes up and down the mountain.  My tally is below:

19:3--Moses goes up the mountain
19:7--Moses goes down to mountain
19:9--Moses goes up the mountain
19:14--Moses goes down the mountain
19:16--Moses leads the people out of the camp and toward God.  They take their place at the foot of the mountain.
19:20--God comes down onto Mt Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain
19:25--Moses goes down the mountain
20:1-14--God delivers the 10 Commandments

First of all, I think it is important to say that this is not the image I have of our encounter on Mount Sinai.  My view is much more majestic.  The stuff of real myth.  With Moses on top of the mountain, with thunder and lightning, and great drama.  And, yes, in the real narrative, the fireworks and dramatics still exist, but with this odd subtext: This running back and forth from car to door before the day can start.  What’s with God and Moses?  Why not just stay still?

A few thoughts:

1. Moses in his back-and-forthing is modeling important leadership skills for us.  It is only a few parashot later that Moses ascends the mountain and stays up there again for forty days, enveloped in a cloud with God, while the people lose faith, hope, and any sense of guidance.  They break into open revolt and buil a golden calf to worship.  We often cite that part of the story in our Torah study, but how often do we check back here to Exodus 19, when Moses gets it right?  Sometimes the work of process and consensus building feels exactly like this:  Running up and down a mountain, again and again, talking, securing, easing, and explaining.  Yet, we see here, this work is sacred.  And critical.  When Moses and God skip it later on, secure in their own roles and status as leaders, they lose their people.
2. I see in this a spiritual message.  There are moments to stay up on the mountain and there are moments to come back down to our people on solid ground.  This parasha reminds us that it is in the balance between the two that we encounter the divine. 
3. There was a time in American political debate in which being “wishy washy” was viewed as a negative characteristic.  Let us remember, though, that we are a people who have never been satisfied with first impressions, initial conversations, or singular encounters.  We are a people who go back and forth, who wander, who question God, and who challenge authority.  We may be a stiff-necked people, but we have no problem with ascending and descending ladders, mountains, and deserts.  Let us take comfort in this legacy and know that the possibility to choose and choose again, to learn and learn again, to grow and grow again is always before us.

Shabbat Shalom!