Belief in G-d- The First Two Commandments

(1) And God spoke all these words, saying: (2) I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. (4) Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (5) thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; (6) and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments. (7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. (8) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; (10) but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; (11) for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (12) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (13) Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (14) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. (15) And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off. (16) And they said unto Moses: ‘Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ (17) And Moses said unto the people: ‘Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.’ (18) And the people stood afar off; but Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. (19) And the LORD said unto Moses: Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel: Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. (20) Ye shall not make with Me—gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. (21) An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come unto thee and bless thee. (22) And if thou make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast profaned it. (23) Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.

(1) The foundation of foundations and pillar of wisdoms is to know that there is a Primary Cause and He causes to exist all that exists. And everything that exists from Heaven to Earth and everything in between would not exist except from the truth of His existence.

(2) If it should come upon your mind that He does not exist, then nothing else could exist.

(3) If it should come upon your mind that nothing besides Him exists, He would still exist. And He would not be negated by their non-existence. Everything that exists has need of Him; and He, Blessed be He, has no need of them, not even one of them. Therefore, His existence is not like the existence of any one of them.

(4) This is what the prophet [Jeremiah] said, "And the Lord God is true," (Jer. 10:10). God alone is the truth, and nothing else is true as is His truth. This is what the the Torah says, "There is none beside Him" (Deut. 4:35), meaning there is no true existence beside Him which is like Him.

(5) This Cause is Lord of the World and Master of the Earth. And He directs the sphere with a strength that has neither end nor limit, and with a strength that has no disruption. For the sphere revolves continuously, and it is impossible that it revolve without [a force] that makes it revolve.

(6) The knowledge of this matter is a positive commandment, as it says, "I am the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:2). And anyone who brings upon his mind that there may be another god beside Him violates a negative commandment, as it says, "You shall not have other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3). And this [thought] is complete heresy. For this [knowledge of God] is the greatest principle upon which everything else depends.

(1) all these words: [This] teaches [us] that the Holy One, blessed be He, said the Ten Commandments in one utterance, something that is impossible for a human being to say [in a similar way]. If so, why does the Torah say again, “I am [the Lord, your God (verse 2)]” and “You shall have no…” (verse 3)? Because He later explained each statement [of the Ten Commandments] individually. — [from Mechilta]

Rebbi Simlai expounded, Six hundred and thirteen mitzvos were told to Moshe. Three hundred and sixty five prohibtions in accordance with the days of the sun. And two hundred and forty eight positive commandments in accordance with the limbs of a person. Rav Hamnunya said what is the meaning of the verse (Duetermony 33,4) "Moshe commanded us a law ("Torah"), an inheritance"? "Torah" has a numerical value of six hundred and eleven. "I am..." and "There should not be to you.." were heard directly from The Mighty. (A mnemonic: Dmasma"k Sa"k)

Dovid came and established them on eleven, as it is written, (Psamls 15,1) "A psalm of Dovid. Hashem, who shall dwell in your live? Who will dwell upon your holy mountain? One who walks upright, and works righteously, and speaks truth in his heart, That has no slander upon his tongue, nor does evil to his fellow, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those that fear Hashem; He swears to his own hurt, and does not changes; one who doesn't lend out his money on interest, Nor take a bribe against the innocent. He that does these things shall never falter.

Yeshaya came and established these on six, as it is written (Issiah 33,15) "He who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; He who despises unlawful gain, who shakes his hands from accepting a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil."

Micha came and established them on three, as it is written "It has been told to you, O man, what is good, and what does Hashem require of you?: Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk discreetly with your God." "To do justly", this refers to laws. "To love mercy", this refers to kind deeds. "And to walk discreetly with your God" this refers to bringing out the dead and bringing in the bride.

Yeshaya returned and established these on two, as it is said (Issiah 56,1) "So says, God, guard justice, and do righteousness".

Chabakuk came and established these on one as it said (Habakkuk 2,4) "The righteous shall live by his faith."

(1) IT is clear to me that what Moses experienced at the revelation on Mount Sinai was different from that which was experienced by all the other Israelites, for Moses alone was addressed by God, and for this reason the second person singular is used in the Ten Commandments; Moses then went down to the foot of the mount and told his fellow-men what he had heard. Comp., "I stood between the Lord and you at that time to tell you the word of the Lord" (Deut. 5:5). Again, "Moses spake, and God answered him with a loud voice" (Exod. 19:19). In the Mechilta our Sages say distinctly that he brought to them every word as he had heard it. Furthermore, the words, "In order that the people hear when I speak with thee" (Exod. 19:9), show that God spoke to Moses, and the people only heard the mighty sound, not distinct words. It is to the perception of this mighty sound that Scripture refers in the passage, "When ye hear the sound" (Deut. 5:20); again it is stated, "You heard a sound of words" (ibid. 4:12), and it is not said "You heard words"; and even where the hearing of the words is mentioned, only the perception of the sound is meant. It was only Moses that heard the words, and he reported them to the people. This is apparent from Scripture, and from the utterances of our Sages in general. There is, however, an opinion of our Sages frequently expressed in the Midrashim, and found also in the Talmud, to this effect: The Israelites heard the first and the second commandments from God, i.e., they learnt the truth of the principles contained in these two commandments in the same manner as Moses, and not through Moses. For these two principles, the existence of God and His Unity, can be arrived at by means of reasoning, and whatever can be established by proof is known by the prophet in the same way as by any other person; he has no advantage in this respect. These two principles were not known through prophecy alone. Comp., "Thou hast been shown to know that," etc. (Deut. 4:34). But the rest of the commandments are of an ethical and authoritative character, and do not contain [truths] perceived by the intellect. Notwithstanding all that has been said by our Sages on this subject, we infer from Scripture as well as from the words of our Sages, that the Israelites heard on that occasion a certain sound which Moses understood to proclaim the first two commandments, and through Moses all other Israelites learnt them when he in intelligible sounds repeated them to the people. Our Sages mention this view, and support it by the verse, "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this" (Ps. 62:11). They state distinctly, in the beginning of Midrash Ḥazita, that the Israelites did not hear any other command directly from God; comp. "A loud voice, and it was not heard again" (Deut. 5:19). It was after this first sound was heard that the people were seized with the fear and terror described in Scripture, and that they said, "Behold the Lord our God has shown us, etc., and now why shall we die, etc. Come thou near," etc. Then Moses, the most distinguished of all mankind, came the second time, received successively the other commandments, and came down to the foot of the mountain to proclaim them to the people, whilst the mighty phenomena continued; they saw the fire, they heard the sounds, which were those of thunder and lightning during a storm, and the loud sound of the shofar: and all that is said of the many sounds heard at that time, e.g., in the verse, "and all the people perceived the sounds," etc., refers to the sound of the shofar, thunder, and similar sounds. But the voice of the Lord, that is, the voice created for that purpose, which was understood to include the diverse commandments, was only heard once, as is declared in the Law, and has been clearly stated by our Sages in the places which I have indicated to you. When the people heard this voice their soul left them; and in this voice they perceived the first two commandments. It must, however, be noticed that the people did not understand the voice in the same degree as Moses did. I will point out to you this important fact, and show you that it was a matter of tradition with the nation, and well known by our Sages. For, as a rule, Onkelos renders the word va-yedabber by u-mallel ("and God spake"); this is also the case with this word in the beginning of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, but the words ve-al yedabber immanu elohim, "let not God speak to us" (Exod. 20:19), addressed by the people to Moses, is rendered vela yitmallel immanu min kodam adonai ("Let not aught be spoken to us by the Lord"). Onkelos makes thus the same distinction which we made. You know that according to the Talmud Onkelos received all these excellent interpretations directly from R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, the wisest men in Israel. Note it, and remember it, for it is impossible for any person to expound the revelation on Mount Sinai more fully than our Sages have done, since it is one of the secrets of the Law. It is very difficult to have a true conception of the events, for there has never been before, nor will there ever be again, anything like it. Note it.

(1) To know that the Lord God exists. Ex. 20.2.

(1) To know that the Lord God exists. Ex. 20.2.

(1) The foundation of foundations and firmest pillar of all wisdom is, To know that there is a First Being, that He caused all beings to be, and that all beings from heaven and earth, and from between them, could not be save for the truth of His Own Being.