Rabbi Corey Helfand
This week’s Torah portion is Yitro: Exodus 18:1 — 20:23
My fifth grade Torah teacher in Jewish day school, Mrs. Tkatch, used to ask our class to guess how old she was. As fifth graders, our answers used to range from the comical to the ridiculous: things like 20 years old (clearly not the case) or 200 years old (obviously ridiculous). But for Mrs. Tkatch, she had a very specific answer in mind: She was “as old as the Torah,” she used to tell us. How was that possible?
Mrs. Tkatch was referencing a famous Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 28:6), a rabbinic story, that suggested that when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, everyone was present. This included not only those people who were alive at that moment in time, but everyone who had already passed away, our ancestors, as well as everyone who had yet to be born. I know what you’re thinking, a bit farfetched right? Though maybe the Midrash (and Mrs. Tkatch) were on to something.
As I’ve studied Torah throughout my life, I’ve come to understand Mrs. Tkatch’s answer and reasoning in a different way. Whether we were physically present or not is not what’s important. Rather, it’s the idea that the same level of holiness that transcended Mount Sinai on that very day when God gave us the Decalogue, the “Ten Statements,” has transcended and continues to transcend throughout all time.
To highlight this reasoning further, we should look at the special Haftarah from the Book of Isaiah that’s paired with Parashat Yitro. This is probably one of the most well-known prophetic readings in the Bible. Our Haftarah quotes the famous words of Isaiah: “Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Hashem Tzevaot M’lo Chol Ha’aretz Kevodo” — Holy, Holy, Holy! The Lord of Hosts. God’s presence fills all the Earth (Isaiah 6:3). These same words have become an integral part of our daily, Shabbat, and festival liturgy.
Contemporary bible scholar Michael Fishbane explains that the threefold repetition of kadosh represent three different kinds of Kedushat Ha-shem, holiness or sanctification of God, found in prayer. The first is Kedushah de-Yotzer (Holiness of Creation) recited in preparation for saying the Shema, our declaration of God’s oneness. The second is Kedushah shel Amidah (Holiness of Standing as Community). This is the Kedushah recited during the weekday Amidah as well as in Musaf on Shabbat and holidays. Lastly, there is Kedushah D’sedra (Holiness of Study). Combined, these elements of holiness and sanctification touch on our basic tenants of Jewish tradition: God, community and study/Torah.
Fishbane notes that every time we say the words “Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh,” we do so together, as a community, and out loud. Fishbane beautifully notes that “human beings say these words in sacred unison with God’s angels as we unite in a heavenly ritual of divine enthronement, one that binds heaven and earth into a chorale of sanctification.” I imagine that some of us experience this when we recite the Kedusha or maybe when we recreate a mini-revelatory moment as we take the Torah out of the ark to experience our tradition in a public setting, to study it, to chant it and to grapple with its meanings the way that our ancestors did so many thousands of years ago. For me, this is perpetual revelation, the idea that this holiness has been with us since that time at Sinai, when God first gave us the Torah.
I believe that it was at that moment, Revelation at Sinai, that God entered us into a Divine brit, covenant, that would begin our path toward becoming a Goy Kadosh — A Holy Nation (Exodus 19:6). It was in that moment that the kedushah transcended the world and it is that kedushah that we were all a part of and continue to experience today as a Jewish people. Together, through our love of God, our devotion to community, and our passion for Torah study and learning, may we forever benefit and experience the transcendent nature of God’s holiness so that M’lo Chol Ha’aretz Kvodo — God’s presence fills all the Earth.
Rabbi Corey Helfand is the rabbi at Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
