{"id":70140,"date":"2020-02-13T10:13:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T08:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70140"},"modified":"2022-05-10T19:09:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T16:09:32","slug":"yitro-the-mighty-majestic-and-fearful-theophany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/yitro-the-mighty-majestic-and-fearful-theophany\/","title":{"rendered":"Yitro: The Mighty, Majestic, And Fearful Theophany"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[368,541],"acf":{"old_id":"70140","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46171,"related_cahpter":"1083","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The people saw the voices and the flames\r\n\r\n","content":"<p>The Israelites have left Egypt, have miraculously crossed the Reed Sea, and are about to meet God and establish the Covenant. After three days of preparation, they bear witness to the spectacular theophany, and it is this incredible moment that Avner Moriah chooses as the subject of his painting for <em>Parashat Yitro<\/em>. What special features does the artist emphasize in describing this miraculous event and how does he visualize them? Why does he choose to accent those particular aspects of the day?<\/p>\n<p>This colorful and impressive painting is divided into four registers. At the bottom is a stretch of desert sand: \u201cThey entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped\u2026there in front of the mountain\u201d (Exod. 19:2).<\/p>\n<p>The next register shows the people of Israel after Moses had led them \u201cout of the camp toward God and they had taken their places at the foot of the mountain\u201d (Exod. 19:17). They are dressed in their finest clothing, facing but not approaching the mountain, as Moses had said: \u201c\u2026Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it\u201d (Exod. 19:12). Thus gathered near the holy mountain they hear the words: \u201c\u2026If you will obey Me faithfully and keep My Covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples\u2026a kingdom of priests and a holy nation\u201d (Exod. 19:5\u20136).<\/p>\n<p>The mountain is engulfed in purple smoke: \u201cNow Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the Lord had come down upon it in fire.\u2026&#8221; (Exod. 19:19). The mountain, painted green, has a \u2018treelike\u2019 shape, with its \u2018trunk\u2019 reaching upward like the axis of the world bursting into brilliant foliage, the flames and smoke marking the point of contact with the Divine, forming a bridge between Heaven and Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The tongues of fire burning fiercely on top of the mountain are the artist\u2019s rendition of the theophany. The painting visualizes the overwhelming grandeur of the event. The image of the newly freed slaves standing at the foot of that fearful-looking mountain gives us a sense of the enormity of the task of teaching them about the sanctity of God, Whom they cannot actually see or encounter physically. The smaller flames that look like horns (<em>shofarot<\/em>) among the yellow tongues of fire help us understand the ambiguous Hebrew expression \u201cAll the people saw the voices and the flames\u201d (Exod. 20:15). Although God remained unseen, He was present in the sound that came out of the fusion of the sublime fire and the horns blasting from within it.<\/p>\n<p>The painting, then, visualizes the mighty, majestic, and fearful theophany, which led to the Israelites\u2019 plea to Moses: \u201cYou speak to us\u2026but let not God speak to us\u201d (Exod. 20:16). They \u201cremained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was\u201d (Exod. 20:18). Moses is not figured in the picture, but we know that he continued to deliver God\u2019s words to the people from within the cloud.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70145,"id":70145,"title":"17 Yitro","filename":"17-Yitro.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/17-Yitro.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/yitro-the-mighty-majestic-and-fearful-theophany\/17-yitro\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"17-yitro","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70140,"date":"2020-02-13 08:00:21","modified":"2020-02-13 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