Questions for Preparation and Self Study
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Shiur #1: Ma'amad Har Sinai
Shiur #2: When Did Yitro Come?   (Ein Mukdam U'm'uchar Ba'Torah)
Shiur #3 - Yitro, Tzipporah's father or brother?
Shiur #3 - in PDF format
Shiur #4: Haftarat Parshat Yitro - Yeshayahu 6:1-13
The Four Stages of Ma'amad Har Sinai

Despite the historical prominence and centrality of Ma'amad Har Sinai as perhaps the most important event in Jewish history, we are surprisingly unfamiliar with the chapter in Chumash that describes the specific events thereof. Simply ask yourself, have you ever gone through Shmot perek 19, pasuk by pasuk, in an attempt to follow its progression? Unquestionably, the primary purpose of Ma'amad Har Sinai was Bnei Yisrael's receiving of the Torah. Nevertheless, their experience during that revelation is no less important. In this week's shiur, we show how the Torah's presentation of this event reflects the dialectic nature of our relationship with God.

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When Did Yitro Come?   (Ein Mukdam U'm'uchar Ba'Torah)

In Parshat Yitro, Chumash enters a new phase - it slowly becomes a book of laws, for its primary focus now shifts from its ongoing narrative (i.e. the story of the Avot and Yetziat Mitzraim) to the mitzvot that Bnei Yisrael receive at Har Sinai. Nonetheless, the study of how the Torah presents these laws, i.e. their sequence and progression, as well as the manner in which these laws are given, will be no less significant than the study of the mitzvot themselves! This shiur provides an overall introduction to this topic, which will serve as the basis for our study of the remainder of Sefer Shmot.

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Haftarat Parshat Yitro - Yeshayahu 6:1-13

The opening pasuk of this week's Haftara - "b'shnat mot ha'melech Uziyahu..." - mentions the precise year when Yeshayahu received this nevuah, i.e. the year in which King Uziyahu died. Considering that most of Yeshayahu's prophecies do not begin in this manner, we must assume that a thematic connection exists between that unusually explicit date and the "nevuah" that follows. In the following shiur, we attempt to find that connection by considering the time period of Uziyahu.

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