B"H

Friday, Shevat 17, 5778 / February 2, 2018

This Shabbat we read Parshat Yitro. The highlight of the Parsha is about G-d’s giving the Ten Commandmants to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.

Although only the Ten Commandments are mentioned, our sages say that all 613 mitzvot of the Torah are contained in the Ten Commandments and are equally important as the Ten Commandments.

The following parable explains this; A young man in the shtetel (village) wanted to go into the textile business to provide for his family.  Not being familiar with business dealings, he decided to attend the fair in the big city to see how the ways of commerce are conducted.

He went to one of the wholesalers and watched as store retailers entered one after the other to buy material and cloth.  He saw the sellers showing the buyers strips of different kinds of materials, in all kinds of quality and colors.   After inspecting the material, the buyers and sellers would agree on a price. Then the buyers would hand over quite a large sum to the seller to close the deal.

The young man was amazed.  Business looked so easy!  In his mind, it shouldn't take him long to become rich.   He decided to do exactly as he had seen the store keepers do.  He immediately went out and bought various materials,  went to his hotel and cut them into many strips.  Then he took a table at the fair and spread out his material.

Merchants approached him, inspected his material and asked for prices.  He quoted them prices like the other wholesalers.  When the potential buyers asked when they can pick up the merchandise, he looked at them wonderingly, "What merchandise?  These strips are all the merchandise I have."  Naturally, they laughed at him.

"But the other wholesalers also showed you only strips of material?" he asked. 

They replied, "The strips are only samples of what each wholesaler has to sell.  He has hundreds and hundreds of yards of each material in his warehouse.  Only a fool would think that all he had to sell were the strips he showed us."

The same is with the Ten Commandments. They include and remind us of all the rest of the mitzvot. For this reason, after the Ten Commandments were given, Moshe stayed on the mountain for 40 days, to receive the rest of the Torah and mitzvot to teach the people. All 613 mitzvot of the Torah are contained in the Ten Commandments and are equally important.

SHABBAT SHALOM

Montrealcandle lighting time: 4:44 / Shabbat ends: 5:50