Parashat Yitro marks one of the most consequential moments in human history.

The Exodus is complete.
The sea has split.
The people are free.

And yet the Torah does not linger on freedom. It does not pause to celebrate liberation. Instead, it moves swiftly to Sinai.

The message is unmistakable: freedom alone is not enough.

Without moral law, liberation collapses into chaos. Without boundaries, power becomes destructive. Sinai is not a spiritual flourish—it is a divine reset.

Why Sinai Comes When It Does

The Torah’s sequence is deliberate.

In Bo, the Jewish people are freed from bondage.
In Beshalach, that freedom is tested—fear resurfaces, resentment grows, and Amalek attacks.
Only then does Yitro arrive, and only then is the Torah given.

Miracles rescue, but they do not guide. The splitting of the sea inspires awe, but not direction. Between redemption and responsibility lies a dangerous gap—and into that gap enters Amalek.

Amalek does not attack strength.
Amalek attacks confusion.

From Fate to Covenant

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks framed this distinction with enduring clarity:

“Fate is what happens to us. Covenant is what we choose.”

Egypt and the sea are fate.
Sinai is covenant.

At Sinai, the Jewish people cease to be defined by what was done to them and become defined by what is demanded of them. They move from survival to responsibility.

That movement—from fate to covenant—is precisely what Amalek resists.

October 7 and the Collapse of Moral Language

October 7 did not only expose the brutality of Hamas. It exposed something deeper and more disturbing: a world that has lost its moral vocabulary.

Babies were murdered.
Women raped.
Civilians burned alive.
Hostages taken.

And yet the global response was not clarity, but confusion. Not condemnation, but contextualisation. Not moral outrage, but moral inversion.

This was not a failure of information.
It was a failure of values.

Parashat Yitro speaks directly to this moment. Sinai is given because humanity........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)