Parashat Yitro (Exodus 18:1–20:23) describes Israel’s transition from miraculous rescue to the capacity to live with revelation. Freedom has been achieved, but the structures required to sustain it are not yet in place. The portion opens with the arrival of Jethro (Yitro), Moses’ father-in-law, whose name is rooted in yeter, “addition” or “abundance.” His role in the narrative is precisely this: to add what is missing so that what already exists can endure.

Jethro rejoices upon hearing of Israel’s deliverance and acknowledges the supremacy of YHVH. Yet his most lasting contribution comes not through praise, but through observation. Watching Moses judge the people alone from morning until evening, Jethro declares, “It is not good.” The phrase deliberately echoes the first time something was declared “not good” in the Torah: when the human being was alone. Moses is doing exactly what he was always meant to do, judge, discern, mediate, but he is doing it in isolation. His capacity has unfolded abundantly, but abundance without structure becomes unsustainable. Jethro’s wisdom is not to remove Moses from judgment, but to step it down, distributing responsibility so that leadership can last. Limitation, here, becomes the source of increase.

Immediately afterward, the people arrive at Mount Sinai. God reminds them that they were carried on “wings of eagles,” rescued not only from Egypt but toward covenantal purpose. Israel agrees to become a “treasured possession” (segulah) and a “kingdom of priests,” committing themselves even before fully understanding what this will demand. Revelation then breaks forth with overwhelming force, thunder, fire, smoke, and sound made visible. The people recoil in fear, convinced that direct exposure will kill them, and ask Moses to approach God on their behalf.

This moment reveals Moses’ deeper role. His name, Moshe, “one who draws out”, now comes fully into focus. Moses can bear the weight of revelation and draw its goodness (tov) into a form the people can live with. Mediation is not a failure of faith, but a condition of survival, a truth already learned by the previous generation. The world of Noah collapsed not because evil was external, but because the human heart had no internal structure to hold tov. Sinai, by contrast, introduces boundaries, translation, and gradual integration, allowing divine encounter to sustain rather than destroy.

The Ten Utterances that follow unfold as a progression: from divine identity and liberation, through social and relational boundaries, and finally inward. The final word, prohibiting chamad, craving, addresses the inner world itself. Torah’s destination is not only correct action, but transformed intention, standing in deliberate contrast to a generation whose thoughts inclined only toward destruction.

The portion ends with laws of a simple earthen altar, unshaped by weapons, grounding worship in humility and life. Parashat Yitro teaches that revelation requires preparation, leadership requires structure, and true abundance emerges not from excess, but from forms that allow the good to endure.