Ten Utterances

As Shavuot draws near and Jews all around the world prepare themselves for the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai (note it was actually on Monday but this post just got finished), I thought I'd share with you a little something about the holiday and the significance of those ten well known utterances. Straight out of Shemos aka Exodus Chapter 20 with my own elucidations in between:

God spoke all these words, to respond:

1. "I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

This one is somewhat straight forward I am your god the same one who released you from bondage in the Land of Egypt, Yup, that’s me.

2. You shall not have the gods of others in My presence.You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth. You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, the Lord, your God...

This asserts the oneness of god, gods name in Hebrew yud hey vav hey represents is, was, and will always be.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days may you work and perform all your labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities. For [in] six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

Appreciate the creation by not creating once a week, why does the Torah say we were created in the image of god? Because we just like god have the ability to consciously create things. Nothing else in the known universe has this ability just us and its what makes us godly. So appreciate the miracle but not doing it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, in order that your days be lengthened on the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you.

The first five commandments are all about man’s relationship with god now the next five; all deal with man’s relationship’s with one another. On a topical level it seems as though this one should be grouped with the next five but its not. Our parents are the closest thing we as human beings have to god in our day to day lives. They existed before us, they created us out of an act of love and they don’t need anything from us. Our relationships with are parents serve as a model of our relationship with god. If we honor our parents there is a very good chance we’ll honor god.

6. You shall not murder.

If every person was created in the image of god, murdering another person would be like killing god.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

Be faithful to one another, make commitments and stick with them. Moreover respect one another.

8. You shall not steal.

Stealing is an interesting one first off when you steal things your basically saying I don’t trust god, in fact I think I know better then god because obviously he hasn’t given me everything that I need, so I think I’ll take something that’s not mine.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor."

This last one is on a higher level then the other nine now god is asking seemly the impossible, with his last commandment he’s trying to govern not just how we act but how we feel, by telling us it’s not just that you have to act honestly but also feel honestly first make the decision not to murder or not steal or be honest in business but now you have to feel good about it. Don’t do it begrudgingly and be content with what you have. And that seems a little absurd to think that you can do that, but really when you begin to think about it when you change your actions your mindset will follow and I think anyhow that this is what the last one is getting at.

15. And all the people saw the voices and the torches, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain, and the people saw and trembled; so they stood from afar.

And with that the microphone went dead and god fell silent. You can say what you want about this whole affair, I certainly believe there is a lot to be questioned. However I feel without dispute that is was the most pivotal point of human history with this event and the subsequent spread of one god morality was introduced into the world and like it or not (and believe me I definitely fall into the later category a lot of the time) this is where it all came from this is the source from which it all emanated. I hope everyone had a wonderful Shavuot I stayed up all night learning, then davened for tow and a half hours which was nutty everyone was falling asleep and then spent the rest of the day fighting off exhaustion until I finally passed out. What a crazy experience, I can’t wait for next year. Shalom and of course Eretz Israel.