Yisro in Thought . . .

Pole Joke of the Week:

A Pole walks into the office of an optometrist and is asked to read the eye chart:

RZACJEKO

The Pole exclaims in disbelief,
"Can I read it? I know the guy!"

Steven of the Week

Two letters of thought on this weeks Parsha:

A. Moshe was Dor Hashvi'i -the Seventh in a direct line of Jewish leaders who helped bring down G-d's presence in the world . . . and who did he marry? The daughter of Yisro, a person who had tried every extant idolatry in the known world . . . Who needs Gezhe?

OK . . . . that was a joke . . . calm down . . .
Now for the real stuff.

B. The giving of the Torah was an epoch not only in Jewish history but world History . . .
-It was the only time that G-d revealed Himself in all of His essence to a people until Moshiach comes.
-It was the beginning of Judaism as it's known -a religion which would later effect the whole of world history.
-Most importantly: Until the giving of the Torah, G-d had decreed that what was spiritual and holy would remain in the domain of the Divine, what was physical would be solely relevant to the mundane . . . At Mount Sinai the two were allowed to merge together as a new whole, an unprecedented event. From that point on, a physical cow . . . one that says 'Moo' and eats grass, could be taken and uplifted . . . Even today after the destruction of the Holy Temple and the cessation of the daily Sacrifices, a Cow can be taken -it's skin used to make Tefillin and Mezuzos, a Torah Scroll and it's flesh eaten as part of the Mitzvah of enjoying Shabbos . . .
Why? Because only the physical is able to truly bring out the infinite Essence of G-d . . . that even down here where His Presence is hidden -it can be revealed.

A certain Jew once said that religion is the opiate of the people . . . if so, then Chassidus must be the anti-depressant. Think about it for second . . .
Here I am, a shvantz, concerned with little more then my own yeshus, my Ego . . . and what? I am able to connect myself with the Creator of all, in His sublime and infinite essence! That before the world was created, G-d took into account that I would live in the year 5766 (2006) and that I would be such and such a person etc. etc. and therefore He created all of reality just so that I would be able to do one more Mitzvah! Egad! G'valld! If I am here, it can only by because I have an ability that no one else since the existence of time nor anyone after will be able to do what I do . . . If we could both do the same thing then there would be no need for us to both be here!

By the giving of the Torah, the Decalogue was said in a voice that had no echo . . . no THX "Boom"! Why? Because an echo is 'the repetition of a sound caused by reflection of sound waves'
. . . with an echo, the sound bounces back, it doesn't stick . . . By the giving of the Torah, every facet of reality was permeated with G-d's essence -there was nothing to bounce back, because there was nothing to bounce back . . . no place is devoid of Him . . .

Wow!