On the Weekly Torah Portion of Yitro

This week’s Torah portion, yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23), tells the story of the revelation of the Torah to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. It is said that this was a collective revelation, witnessed by more than half a million people.

Famously, Moses goes up the mountain and returns with the Torah inscribed in stone. Ancient lore has it that he received not only the written Torah (torah shebikhtav), but also the oral Torah (torah she’be’alpe), a tradition of interpretation of the written text which was initially passed on orally. (more…)