From the very first verse, all of the parshios we have read thus far may be seen as a long process culminating in matan Torah. The unimaginable fire of parshas Yisro, reminiscent of a tremendous gush of love and yearning toward Hashem finds expression throughout the parsha from the very beginning to the very end. The parsha opens with Yisro, professional idol-worshiper, abandoning the impurity of his old ways to jump to the greatest levels of holiness in joining the…

“If a man gives his friend money or vessels to watch and they are stolen from his house, if the thief is found he shall pay double.” One of the foundational ideas of Yiddishkeit is that avodas Hashem takes place on the battleground between the forces of the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara. We are constantly caught in the mighty struggle between our earthly nature and our heavenly essence, fighting to reveal Hashem from behind the great concealment. Chazal…

Parshas Yisro ends with the halacha that the Kohanim must ascend the Mizbeach using a ramp instead of stairs. The reason for this is that the motion required for climbing stairs would cause their nakedness to be revealed, disrespecting the holiness of the Mizbeach. The Midrash poses two questions. First, why does the verse say that climbing stairs would cause the Kohein’s nakedness to be revealed – one of the bigdei Kehuna was “michnasayim”, pants! Second, what is the correlation…