New Commandments

Recently a friend sent me this article written by Christopher Hitchens, and asked me what I thought, so lets get going...

In his opening he states with all due humility that the Ten Commandments are due for a rewrite. Before I go any further lets restate them now they are: No other God, Do not worship false images, Do not use my Name in vain, Keep the Sabbath holy, Honor thy father and mother, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness and Do not covet.

To start, I’ll say this taking advise from Christopher Hitchens on theology is a little like listening to your local holy man about particle physics, he might be a smart guy but ultimately he’s spent most of his life learning about an unrelated subject. Also I must say I find his style contemptible, he is snotty and dismissive of anything he does not understand. He has no problem lambasting the words of people that he makes no attempt to understand, he takes the Ten Commandments as an end point rather than a beginning point, which is precisely what they are in the Torah. Does he ever for a moment in this article stop and ask himself; is there something I could be missing? No, not for one second, and I find his conviction in knowing absolutely and without question the answers, admirable if not misguided. Unfortunately its people like Hitchen’s, people who are so convinced that they and only they know what this world is really about who are the most dangerous. In my travels in my explorations I have only become convinced of one thing that certainly is for the simple minded. For the rest of us the truth lies somewhere in the gray areas.

I’ll spare you the details of the article and instead jump to his conclusion which he starts with this line: “I am trying my best not to view things through a smug later prism. Only the Almighty can scan matters sub specie aeternitatis: from the viewpoint of eternity.” Then he offers his own set of commandments: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color. Do not ever use people as private property. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature. Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly. Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions. Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above.

Not bad but to me it looks a little like the seven Noachide laws (the laws g-d gave to Noah and his sons after the great flood) which are: no idolatry, no murder, don’t steal, don’t be sexually perverse, do not use g-ds name in vain, don’t eat the flesh of an animal taken while it was still alive (a remarkably relevant law, given the nature of most slaughterhouses in this age) and set up a just governing body. He ends with this statement: Do not swallow your moral code in tablet form.

That’s a great ending line and I agree it should be followed. Do not be so arrogant to believe that any one system can give you all the answers, expect life to be messy, and expect to constantly be confronted with situations that test your own moral compass. Above all else think for yourself, allow yourself to be guided by those who care about you, not some journalist writing an article directed at people who already agree with him. Be an individual and love all people even those who make no attempt to try to understand you.

L'shalom