Sensitivity as the Supreme Value

      As everyone knows, it is on this Shabbat, the weekly Torah portion of Yitro, that the ten commandments first appear. It is in this context that the Torah chooses to accentuate the utterly indispensable value of sensitivity to one's fellow man. The name of this week's parsha, Yitro, is after all the name of Moshe's father-in-law; in the merit of Yitro's attuned consciousness towards the values of kindness and truth, he had the great honor of having Moshe rabeinu, Moshe our preeminent teacher, as his son-in-law.

After the parting of the Sea of Reeds and the carnage afflicted on the Egyptian ranks- people, horses and chariots alike- Yitro sojourns to the encampment of the Jewish people. What though was Yitro's emotional response to the events that had transpired, the demise of the Egyptian people as a mighty world power? The interpretations shared by Rashi are two-fold and diametrically opposed, the first referring to Yitro's elation on the demise of the Egyptian army, and the second, his horror in seeing his fellow man in a sceen reminiscent of Picasso's Guernica, limbs and corpses of the Egyptian army strewn about on the seashore. Regarding the latter, Rashi relates that another Medrash teaches that Yitro's skin became full of goosebumps, his skin ceasing to remain smooth but rather becoming prickly and sharp, from the root of the Hebrew, vayichad, with chad simultaneously meaning sharp, and one, i.e. individual goosebumps. Rashi expounds that one should exercise extreme caution to never disparage a non-Jew in front of a convert to Judaism, even for a duration of ten-generations, because this person's heartstrings will be plucked if one puts down one who was his former kinsman. It should be noted that one best never disparage another human being but clearly the situation Rashi is relating to is one where the non-Jew acted inappropriately in a given situation and it would be legitimate to express disdain for his actions yet nonetheless one is forbidden to do so in the presence of a convert.

Likewise, the last commandment in this week's Torah portion relates to sensitivity one must express to the stones leading up to the sacrificial altar. The Torah shares, "And you shall not ascend on stairs to my altar, lest you bare your nudeness upon it." The cohen or priest serving in the tabernacle wore pants and yet that notwithstanding, relates Rashi, were he to ascend to the altar on stairs, then when he lifted his legs that would create an extra or superfluous distance between his legs that would shame the inanimate stones. Thus, a sloped ramp was used so that the Cohen could take the most minimal steps possible and not disparage the stones leading to the altar.

Adds Rashi, we can easily understand that if we must express such thought and caring towards inanimate objects who do not have the mental capacity to protest shame they feel, all the more so must we express thoughtfulness and the utmost sensitivity to human beings, created in God's image, who have the ability to protest against insult and hurt they bear. The bare stones, elaborates Rashi, serve a purpose vis a vis human beings and therefore must be accorded the proper respect and stature.