Maureena’s Torah Reflections
Parashat Yitro. Exodus 18.1-20:23
“Now when all the people saw the thunder” (Ex.20:18).
Literally, the text reads, “Now when all the people saw the voices (kolot)” .
The Sefat Emet, a Hasidic rabbi, asked, “What did they see?” He replied, “The voice was the voice which said, “I am YHWH, your God,” (verse 2 in the singular), meaning that each one had an “experience of God.”
With their very eyes each one saw God. They had no need to “believe.”
Prepared by Prof. Sr Maureena Fritz
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4