Yitro: Unification above and below

 

Yitro is a priest of the other side meaning the 'evil inclination.' His words acknowledge the greatness of Hashem all the while Moshe acknowledges Yitro's power by prostrating himself before him.  

 

Zohar Yitro 9. Come and behold: in the secret doctrine of Holiness, there is a king and a priest who serves under him, both above and below. The King above is the secret of Holy of Holies. He is the King above; and under him there is a priest, the secret of primeval light who ministers before him. He is the priest who is called 'great', at the right side.

 

Yitro represents the harvesting of those sparks of holiness that heretofore have resided in the other side.  It is Yitro's acknowledgement of Hashem's greatness that puts those sparks back into their proper place.  It is a transformation that takes place.

 

Keep in mind that all of this occurs at the beginning of Yitro by way of a preface to the camping out at Sinai and the giving of the Torah that soon follows.  What happens here is that a circuit is being established between above and below or as the Zohar describes between the King above and the priest above as well as the same combination taking place below.

 

Although Yitro's appearance is brief his part is to be understood in terms of the priest below from the other side along with the king below who is Pharaoh.  When their power has been humbled what remains is Hashem above and below in unity completing a cycle.

 

Zohar Yitro 15. When the king and that priest acknowledged the Holy One, blessed be He, and were humbled before Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, was then above everyone in glory, above and below. And before the Holy One, blessed be He, rose in glory before these acknowledged, the Torah was not yet given. It was only after Jethro came and acknowledged Him by saying, "I now know that Hashem is supreme over all other Elohim." "Blessed be Hashem, who has delivered you." Then the Holy One, blessed be He, rose in glory above and below. And only afterwards was the Torah given in full, expressing His sovereignty over all.

 

In order for there to be a unified Consciousness there must first be a transformation of everything that blocks our awareness of such a state of being.  We all have come to terms with the complexities of Consciousness perhaps having one thought another emotion or even still another underlying thought that is contradictory in its nature to the surface thoughts.  When Consciousness is unified thought, emotion and yes the underlying impetus are all the same thing.  The awareness is then clear, focused and certain of its unity.

 

The culmination of this crystal clear clarity of vision is the experience that takes place at Sinai where the unity of Consciousness is expressed with the first of the ten sayings

 

Shemos 20...3. You shall not have the gods of others in My presence.

This is the central tenet of Consciousness that all must come from One and that there is nothing else besides this One.  This theme we will see now repeated again and again speaking plainly in the SHMA, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one," found in Deuteronomy 6:4 .

 

In a sense then what we are being asked to connect to is the One thought out of which all thoughts come from.  It is that we are asked to remember to bless and be blessed by, B"H.