WHO WAS STANDING AT SINAI: A COMMENTARY ON YITRO
The parashah Yitro centres on the account of what happened at Mount Sinai – an event that is both shrouded in mystery – the mystery of the presence of the Eternal One, dramatically evoked with thunder and lightening and blasts of the Shofar – and captured in the voice of the Eternal One: Aseret ha-dibbrot; the ‘ten utterances’, better known as the ‘Ten Commandments’. Whatever we make of the narrative we find in the Torah (Exodus 19 & 20), it was the defining moment when the descendants of Jacob, together with the ‘mixed multitude’, who made a dash for freedom with them (Exodus 12:37-38), assented to the covenant with the ineffable One and became the Jewish people.
Because it was the defining moment, we are bound to ask, did the Eternal One address everyone – or only the males? Just prior to Revelation the Eternal One declares to Moses: ‘Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel’ (Exodus 19:3). Interpreting what looks like repetition, we find this comment in Mechilta, a collection of rabbinic midrash: ‘The house of Jacob refers to the women; the children of Israel to the men’, indicating that both women and men were included. But then something curious happens. We read (19:10-11): ‘The Eternal One said to Moses: “Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, / and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Eternal One will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai”’. But then, when Moses is repeating this instruction, he only addresses the men (19:15): ‘Then he said to the people; “be ready for the third day; do not come near a woman”.’
So, did the women enter the covenant with the Eternal One, or were they simply onlookers? Did the Eternal One address all the people, or were they excluded? The comment in Mechilta suggests inclusion – but if we examine the comment more closely, we see that it also suggests segregation – again: ‘The house of Jacob refers to the women; the children of Israel to the men’. Rabbinic teaching makes it clear that while men are responsible for the public realm of Jewish life, women are confined to the home, where, exempt from prayer and study, their main obligations centre on lighting the Shabbat and festival candles, dividing the challah dough, and maintaining the laws of family purity – taharat ha-mishpachah. Women are included, but their role within Jewish life, defined by men, is privatised and limited (see, for example, Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 33b-35a).
So, from Moses onwards, men have shaped Jewish teaching. During the past century, women have begun to notice – and lay claim to the covenant between the Eternal One and Israel on equal terms.
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah