Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, gives him important advice: it is not beneficial to a community to rely on a single leader – a leader who can burn out. Furthermore, spreading the responsibility of leadership facilitates the Israelites’ growing away from their past slavery.
Rabbi Richman describes this parashah – Matan Torah – as the central point of the entire Torah. There was no parallel to this event in the world – a God who cares about the world. The events of Joseph and Jacob going down to Egypt and all that followed were for the sole purpose of the giving of the Torah. God, in fact, at the time of Creation, conditioned it upon the ultimate acceptance of the Torah by Israel.
During the time of the Temple Cult, the Ten Commandments were incorporated into the Shema section of the daily service. However, at a certain point the rabbis opposed this practice. According to the Talmud, it was because of the “claim of the sectarians” – possibly early Christians, who claimed that only the Ten Commandments—received directly from God–were binding whereas the rest of the mitzvoth, which were received through Moses, were not binding.