Reprinted with permission from an article written by Rabbi Bernstein Moshe for all, including non-Jews. This issue is about this week’s Parashah, Yitro.

In this Torah portion, Yitro, we read about the revelation on Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai is situated in a desert. The desert has no owner. By giving the Torah in the desert, G‑d showed that everyone regardless of what he has can accept the Torah. The Jewish people accepted the 613 commandments while the 7 Noahide commandments were given to all the nations with no exception. Torah was given with the 7 laws on mount Sinai in order to enable man below to build G‑d a dwelling place in the lowest levels of creation. G‑d gave us the task of revealing the true essence of the world, and transforming its darkness into light, into an environment in which G‑d’s Presence is felt.
The first Noahide commandment, The Prohibition of Idolatry also includes the belief that there is no supreme entity except the creator. The Essence of G‑d is totally independent of any other existence. All other existence depends on G‑d, but He does not need or depend on any other existence. He may therefore be defined as the true existence. It is a principle of our faith that G‑d is One, a belief that not only means a singular being but also that G‑d is everything and everywhere. He was, is, and will always be. He has no beginning and no end. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him. It is a principle of our faith that G‑d is One, a belief that G‑d is everything and everywhere. The Divine light undergoes stages of constriction, in order for Him to create the finite world. There is a concealment of His infinite light, however, there is no concealment of His true essence.
“The purpose for which this world was created is that the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to have a dwelling place in the lower worlds,” says the Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.
This revelation on Mt. Sinai was an introduction to the Era of Redemption where all of mankind will be able to comprehend that the world is G‑d’s dwelling place. May this happen in the immediate future.