Torah at the Intersection/ Revelation Born from Deep Listening

Yitro and the Ten Commandments/Instructions/Vibrations

This week’s Torah story introduces and leads us to the transmission of the 10 Vibrations (commonly translated as the Ten Commandments) as the people stood with great vulnerability in the desert wilderness at the base of thundering Mount Sinai.

We are all represented by the people standing together fearfully at Sinai. Torah prepares us for the revelation of her path to true liberation by introducing the teachings of wise elder Yitro/Jethro, Moses/ mentor, teacher and father in law.

The portion is called Yitro/Jethro and begins with the words, “Yitro heard all.” Yitro, the high priest of the free Midianite desert dwellers, has mastered the art of Deep Listening, introduced here as the precondition to revelation of individual and collective freedom and liberation. The Torah verses recount how Yitro heard, received and was affected by his Deep Listening.

Inclusion, Presence and Receptivity : The Fruits of Deep Listening

Freeing our Listening from the Shackles of Perception

How do we hear “all, “ as Yitro models for us? Torah introduces Yitro as the high priest of a very old free people. They have mastered living freely in places that others experience as desert or wilderness. Because he lives in abundance in this spacious freedom he was able to listen, embrace and learn from the experience of another people who likely were considered beneath the free dwellers. He hears what the god of Torah has done for the Israelites. The Israelites, a people who have not yet learned to live in their own, promised land, subjected to domination for hundreds of years. Yitro listened to their experience as a free person, freed from perceptions limited by the duality of “othering” that leads to demeaning and discounting the wisdom and experiences of others. He listens freed from false distinctions of superior/inferior, worthy/unworthy, better/worse.

Being Affected by Seeing and Hearing the Experiences of Other Peoples

Directly after hearing “all”-in Torah’s world “all “ means what Universal Beingness has done- Yitro finds a way to live from the place of “allness.” He begins by reunifying the masculine and feminine energies and including children, bringing Moses’ family to join them in the desert. He is teaching that liberation is for everyone in our lives, can only happen when everyone is included.

Offering Full Presence

Yitro then offers his full presence to Moses by deeply listening to Moses recount his own experience of everything that happened. He understands the necessity of making space to hear and integrate other people’s experiences. He is not limited to one narrative. Torah a/ready has told us that Yitro has heard all. And now Yitro listens deeply to hear more, to hear Moses’ experience of what has happened. He doesn’t elevate what he heard over what Moses heard. He makes space for everyone’s narrative, everyone’s experience.

Yitro is supporting Moses’ healing by being present with him, listening to his retelling, developing trust by creating a resonant space with another, especially a leader and teacher. This prepares Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and receive instructions for bringing down the Ten Vibrations.

This is just the beginning of how Yitro prepares Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and return to the community to hold space for the people to experience the collective revelation of the 10 Instructions for Living in Loving Awareness.

Leadership as Receptivity

Yitro explains to Moses that leadership is a state of receptivity not domination. These 10 Instructions are about organizing our lives and our societies in a new way, outside of the Pharoahic system of domination. This means that you as a leader must create space by sharing power with the collective. Shifting to the paradigm of power-sharing from power-over or power-under is a great and essential leap in consciousness for humanity. Thus on the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from enslavement, and entered the wilderness of Sinai, the consciousness of “ALL” invites Moses to ascend Sinai and receive knowledge of how to fortify the people to stand together in vulnerability before a trembling, thundering, smoking mountain and receive the deepest wisdom of liberation.

Deep Listening to Receive The Ten Instructions /Vibrations/World-Creating Words

The first two of the Ten Vibrations revealed at Sinai are: see clearly that we all come from one Life Source and free yourself from valuing what separates you from that Source. Torah relies on Yitro to teach us ways of listening to ourselves and others that offer this understanding and connection so we can return to a heart of love rather than the constricted hearts of pharaoh and the human-created domination pharaohic systems of society.

The Vulnerability of Deep Listening

Listening deeply is not easy when your perception is that the words you hear are against you, threaten your safety and vision of the world you want. To you, these words are false, dangerous, scary. How do we hear “all,” rather than only our own understanding, perception and beliefs? This is the challenge in our own families, with parts of ourselves that we want to manage, and with others in the world.

How do we hear these messages (Trigger Alert):

Someone says, Free Palestine, Stop Genocide, and all you hear is hatred of the Jews.

Someone expresses concern for the Israeli hostages and all your hear is, I don’t care about the Palestinians.

Someone says send them all back to where they came from, and all you hear is racist supremacy.

Yitro heard more. Yitro made space for the others’ experience. Yitro built his life on including his own ways and the ways of others.

Hearing more is what fortifies us to stand vulnerably, with fear and confusion, at the base of an exploding mountain and not get consumed. In each of those messages, that can easily trigger me, I can listen in more deeply and hear something completely different.

I am guided by two of my teachers. Thich Nhat Hanh said, people say what they say because they believe it will end their suffering. I can listen and hear their suffering. Marshall Rosenberg said, everyone is either saying, please or thank you. I hear a cry of please, please hear what scares me, what is important to me, in each of these expressions.

When I can reestablish myself in the value of connection and understanding, in the Oneness that was revealed at Sinai, I can listen in this way. Messages that scare me become my “bells of mindfulness,” reminding me to take refuge, then and there, in the One loving awareness that soothes me. I can lean back in and listen deeply.

To read more from Torah at the Intersection about the powerful leadership and freedom modeled by Yitro, and this week’s Torah portion’s introduction to shabbat, click here: https://torahattheintersection.com/yitro-heart-mind-and-body-together-at-sinai/ and

Torah Defying Racial Supremacy and Xenophobia/Yitro

For more stories from Israel/Palestine relating to Yitro and the Ten Instructions, and their connection to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, click here: https://torahattheintersection.com/yitro-belonging-othering-receiving/

NVC Practice
TAKING 100% RESPONSIBILITY YOUR INTERPRETATIONS and THOUGHTS

Approach someone with whom you’ve had a miscommunication you’d like to clear up. Ask them if they’d agree to sit together and hear each other, you first and then them? If they say, yes, try this:

When I heard.../saw...( describe a specific action you observed without commentary)

I told myself … [I gave it a meaning] (take responsibility for how you interpreted what you observed)

Because I felt ... / and when I think that I feel... (instead of blaming the other person or shaming yourself for your response, speak compassionately of your own feelings)

Because I have a history of …

And/Or

Because I want... need....value..... ( creating understanding by sharing vulnerably about yourself with self compassion)

And I want to check in with you now... (creating connection and checking that blame and shame arent being expressed) ,)

. Would you tell me what you heard me say?

Or

• Would you tell me if you have the story I have...

Or

• Would you tell me how you feel hearing what I said?

• Go back and forth a bit with the other person until you are satisfied that your feelings and needs were heard in the way you meant to express them. Now open to the other person’s meaning and experience:

NOW I LISTEN

Roberta Wall www.steps2peace.com