Parshat Yitro contains within it the story of the Revelation
at Sinai. Prior to that experience, Hashem speaks to the Jewish Peopole about
His expectations: I took you out of Egypt in order for you to become My
treasured People, assigned with a unique role and special task in My world. If
you choose to accept and fulfill these expectations then I will consider you to
be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (19:4-6) Hashem does not speak
directly to the people, but rather through Moshe. This is a common role for
Jewish prophets: they serve as God’s spokesmen. For not everyone deserves / can
handle hearing the voice of God, as we read about once Hashem begins talking to
Bnei Yisrael at Mt. Sinai. When the people hear God’s proposal, they
immediately respond in the affirmative and say “Naaseh- we’re in!” We would
have expected the people to speak directly to God. After all, that is one of
the nice things about Judaism: we believe that everyone has the ability to
speak directly to Hashem.
A joke: President Carter is invited to the Vatican to meet
with the pope. On the Pope’s desk are three phones: a black phone, a red phone
and a white phone. Carter asks the Pope: what’s with the three phones? The pope
explains: the black phone is for calls inside Vatican City, the red phone is
for calls to foreign leaders and the white phone is a direct line to God.
Carter is impressed and asks if he can use the white phone to seek guidance
from God in his quest for Middle East peace. The pope agrees but tells Carter
that he has to pay the charges associated with such a call- $25,000. Carter
feels it’s worth the price, pays the money and uses the phone.
The
next month Carter is invited to Israel by Menachem Begin. Here too Carter
notices three phones: black, red and white. This time the president doesn't ask
for an explanation. Rather, he immediately asks Begin if he can use the white
phone for a quick talk to God. When Begin agrees, Carter has his Secret Service
pull out a wad of hundred dollar bills to pay the charge. Begin stops him in
his tracks and tells Carter the fee is 25 cents. Carter asks: but at the
Vatican, the pope charged me $25,000. To which Begin responds: Mr. President,
from Jerusalem the call to God is a local one.
Prophecy is when God speaks to man- that only occurs to a
person who is worthy of prophecy and nowadays not at all. Prayer is when Man
talks to God, and that is available to anyone at any time, so long as they
approach the endeavor with Kavanah.
Which
makes the next part of this story so difficult to understand: Moshe
conveys the People’s response to God, instead of God simply hearing what the
people said (19:8) Why does Moshe convey our words to Hashem in this instance?
I have
considered some possible answers to this question, but this week I invite you to study and think about the
issue and come up with your own answers. From the question we are reminded of
the fact that for us Jews- talking to God is always a local call- we just need
to pick up the phone
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