Yitro
Exodus 18:1-20:23

By Jen Smith

I can’t believe we are already here! Parashat Yitro is my favorite Torah portion (doesn’t everyone have one?)  It is often remembered as the moment of the Israelites’ revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai. But buried inside the spectacle of thunder, lightning, and earth shaking, is a single, and confusing (reckless?) sentence spoken by the newly freed Israelite slaves. Moses presents the 10 commandments to the people, and the Israelites respond in unison:

Na’aseh v’Nishma – We will do, and we will hear.

From a rational standpoint, this makes no sense. As humans, we typically insist on understanding a task before committing; we want clarity before responsibility, meaning before action, and sometimes, certainty before faith.

And yet, standing at Sinai, the Israelites seemingly jump the gun. From a mystical perspective, committing to observe the Torah before fully understanding is everything.

Jewish mysticism teaches that there are multiple layers of reality: outer and inner worlds, revealed and concealed wisdom. Hearing belongs to the world of intellect, interpretation, and analysis; while doing belongs to the world of embodiment, where holiness takes form through action.

Na’aseh comes first because Torah is not meant to be understood from a distance. Our rabbis taught that that to begin to understand the Torah, we must live Torah. In Kabbalistic language, this moment represents a realignment of the soul. The Israelites are not saying, “We understand and therefore we agree.”  They are saying, “We trust the mystical Source and feeling of this moment enough to step forward without full comprehension.”

This is not blind faith – it’s more like covenantal courage. Mystical tradition teaches that we all stood at Sinai: every Jewish soul – past, present, and future. Not just bodies, but souls. And souls perceive and remember differently than brains. The soul can understand what the mind has not yet processed.

So when the people say Na’aseh v’Nishma, they are speaking from the deepest part of themselves. They are responding from their souls to a resonance, not an argument. This is why our Jewish mystic tradition understands revelation as God awakening something within the Israelites, rather than simply speaking to them.

There’s another layer here, deeply tied to Jewish values. The Israelites have just left Egypt, where choice was stripped away and obedience was enforced through fear. At Sinai, the Israelites choose commitment freely.

Paradoxically, the ultimate act of freedom is saying yes to responsibility. Na’aseh v’Nishma is not submission so much as it is self-authorship. It is the moment the people say: We are ready to create and shape our lives through sacred obligation.

Judaism teaches that meaning is to be found through the practice of the mitzvot, not in waiting around for some kind of obvious divine inspiration. We create meaning in our lives by showing up even when clarity comes later, and we trust that the clarity will come.

We live in an age obsessed with explanation. We want everything justified, proven, and optimized. And yet, the most transformative moments in life, like becoming a parent or falling in love, always demand a leap before full understanding.

Na’aseh v’Nishma invites us to ask: What if doing is the divine catalyst for understanding? What if commitment is the key to unlocking eternal wisdom?

Judaism insists that the path to spiritual depth runs through action; we light candles before feeling sacred, we pray before believing completely, and we choose community before certainty. Every time we act with integrity before clarity, choose responsibility over comfort, and say yes to something larger than ourselves, we are standing once again at Sinai.

Na’aseh v’Nishma is not just what our ancestors said once. It is the posture of a People who believe that the soul hears truths before the mind catches up. And sometimes, the bravest spiritual act is not understanding first, but trusting enough to begin.

Shabbat Shalom.