The seventeenth portion of Torah might be shorter than some, but its ideas and impact changed the world. Jethro helps Moses to organise the Israelite people's affairs so that their concerns, problems and disputes could be settled. But if that seemed like a significant intervention, G-d wasn't going to be outdone. After a brief, fiery and smoky conversation on the top of Mt Sinai, Moses returned with the core rules, the socio-legal architecture that would bind Jews and gentiles throughout the ages. The Ten Commandments are relatively simple in their constructions, and readily undrestood. Moreover, they are almost impossible to dispute - the fact is that they simply make good social and ethical sense. And yet, humans being what we are, we will need external supervision and arbitration to make them work, and this is Jethro's great contribution.