Yitro

What makes sense with regards to the writing of the tablets is that the five first ones are on one tablet, which are about Honoring the Creator, as I have mentioned, and the second set of five on one tablet, which makes five against five, as they mentioned in Sefer Yeztira (1:3), with regards to the ten sefirot, which is also like the number of ten fingers, five against five, and a personal covenant is meant in the middle, and from this it is made clear why there are two, because until Honor Your Father, which corresponds to the Written Torah, and from here onwards, they correspond to the Oral Torah, and it seems that our Sages hinted at this when they said; Two tablets corresponding to Heaven and Earth, and corresponding to Groom and Bride, and corresponding to two wedding attendants, and corresponding to two worlds. And all of this is one hint, and the enlightened one will understand the secret.

(2) אנכי ה' אלוקיך, “I am the Lord your G’d.” This is a positive commandment to believe in and feel absolutely certain of the existence of Hashem as a primordial force that preceded any phenomenon which is part of the material universe, and that He is the sole Creator of the entire universe, that He is our G’d, and that we are His people. We are obliged to serve Him, and He has taken us out of bondage in Egypt. The historical fact that He took us out of Egypt serves as eternal proof of His existence and His express desire to guide our fate. It proves that our Exodus was the product of His will. It also proves that He must have been the original cause in this universe, seeing that once the universe, i.e. the laws of nature had been formulated, no radical changes such as the taking out of a completely assimilated nation such as the Israelites from the midst of another nation was conceivable according to what is considered “normal” in our world. The Exodus was not only testimony to His power, but also to His uniqueness. For all the above reasons, G’d did not commence to identify Himself as the One Who had created heaven and earth, but He identified Himself as the One who had taken us out of Egypt, a visible historical fact witnessed by millions. [No one had been around to watch the universe come into existence. Ed.] Some commentators understand the emphasis on the word אנכי here as meant to draw attention to Hashem saying that He is the One Who had already told Avraham “I will also judge the people who will enslave your descendants and they will depart from that country with great riches” (Genesis 15,13) At the beginning of the Decalogue, G’d introduces Himself as the One who had fulfilled that promise of over 400 years ago. The first two commandments of the Decalogue which were addressed to the people in direct speech, i.e. “I have taken you out, etc.,” were distinct from the other eight in which G’d appears to refer to Himself in the third person, were spoken by G’d to the people directly, whereas the others were relayed to the people by Moses. The fact that our chapter commences with the words: וידבר אלוקים את כל הדברים האלה לאמר, “G’d spoke all these words to say,” as well as the verse in Deut. 5,19 את הדברים האלה דבר ה' אל כל קהלכם בהר, “the Lord spoke these words to you at the Mountain, etc.,” certainly gives the impression that the people had heard all the Ten Commandments directly from G’d’s mouth. Moses adds that all these words were inscribed on the two Tablets, which proves that as G’d was saying the words He simultaneously was inscribing them on the Tablets. Nachmanides claims that there is no question that G’d addressed all of the Ten Commandments to the whole people directly. The problem was that the people did not understand what they were hearing. Moses therefore needed to explain the text to the people, with the exception of the first two Commandments which they both heard and understood directly from Hashem without the need of any intermediary. The point in all this is that at that point in time the people were all on the spiritual level of prophets, who have primary knowledge of the uniqueness of Hashem, and the absolute impossibility to relate to anyone else as something Divine.

(2) ..."I am Hashem your God:" This statement is a positive commandment, as it says, "I am Hashem, who teaches and commands you that you should know and believe that there is a Hashem, and He is your God," that is to say, He existed before, from Him came everything by means of his desire [i.e., He created the world because He wanted to, not by accident] and capability, and He is your God, so you are required to serve Him. It says in the text, "who took you out of Eretz Mitzrayim," for He took you out of there to teach you about the reality and the desire [of Hashem], for with His knowledge and providence we left there, and to teach about the newness, for from the beginning of the world, not a thing has changed from His nature, and to teach you about what He can do, which will teach you about His uniqueness, like it says above [in Shmot 9:14], "so that you will know that there is no one like Me in all the land." And this is the reason for [the phrase] "Who took you out" - for they know of and bear witness to all of these [ideas.]

(3) אלוהים אחרים, “other deities.” We must not admit that there are such other deities, even if we refuse to pay any tribute to these supposed deities. It is noteworthy that when the Torah forbids the making of such symbols, such images of other supposed deities, it does not dignify them with the title “other gods, or other deities,” but simply tells us not to make אלוהי מסכה, (Exodus 34,17). There is a subtle difference, in that the making for commercial purposes of a symbol to serve others, when such a symbol is known to be serving others as a deity or symbol of such. When making a symbol of one’s own deity the Torah wants it understood, in addition to the examples mentioned in our verse, that even a symbol of our true faith is totally forbidden to be made. If the Torah had not forbidden to make something אחר, something else, something that is not divine, as a symbol of one’s faith, this would be equivalent to admitting that such a notion would be credible, though foolish. The very idea of עושה אלוהים is laughable, as only The Creator could imbue anything created with divine power if He wanted to, not any creature.

(5) לא תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם, “neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them.” Any kind of worship even if it does not involve a visible form of obeisance such as prostrating oneself. This is forbidden even if one does not mean thereby to in any way diminish one’s faith and devotion to Hashem.

(3) לא יהיה לך אלוהים, even though you accepted My Kingdom, you must not at the same time also attribute divine qualities to any other servant of Mine. A violation of this commandment is cited in Kings II 17,33 (the subject being the Samarians, a people transplanted by the king of Assyria from Babylon, Chamass, etc., to where the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom had lived before being exiled by the Assyrians under Tiglat Pilesser. These people are reported as “worshipping the G’d of Israel (as they now were within what they considered to be His domain.) But at the same time they also worshipped other deities. The priest sent by the king of Assyria to teach these Samarians the Jewish religion considered their worshipping the G’d of Israel as quite useless. He told them that unless they worshipped the G’d of Israel exclusively they would likely continue to suffer the incursions of lions, etc.

(4) לא תעשה לך פסל, even if you do not mean to use it as an object of worship.

(7) לא תשא את שם ה' אלוקיך לשוא, “Do not mention the name of the Lord your G’d in vain;” according to our sages what is meant is to swear an unnecessary oath, confirming the truth of something universally known as true, by using the name of the Lord According to the plain meaning of the text what is also included is that the holy name of the Lord must not be mentioned in vain even if it is not part of an oath. The use of one’s mouth or lips for speaking is referred to on occasion as נשיאות קול, raising one’s voice. The reason why this commandment follows on the heels of the prohibition to engage in anything related to idolatry is to remind us that just as it is forbidden to accord any part of the reverence, respect, etc., due to the Lord, the Creator to any other phenomenon, so we must not bandy about His name for our own purposes, thereby demeaning it, and making use of Him instead of serving Him. Using G’d’s name in order to confirm one’s own words as true, is as if saying that just as He is truth incarnate, so our words are truth incarnate, a real desecration of His Holy Name. Because this is considered such a serious offense, the Torah warns that this sin is beyond G’d’s willingness ever to forgive completely. Punishment for committing this offense deliberately, just like that of idolatry, may drag out through four generations.

(7) לא תשא את שם, “do not utter the sacred name, etc.” Seeing that you have not ever seen a visual image of G-d, you can obviously not utter an oath by invoking someone else as a deity. Even so, you must not even swear an oath in His name unless there is an absolute necessity to do so, as G-d does not allow His sacred name to be used for profane reasons, or for secular purposes. This is one sin which will not be subject to being wiped out even by repentance, i.e. כי לא ינקה, “He will not consider such a person as being free from guilt.”

(10) וגרך אשר בשעריך, “and the proselyte within your midst.” According to the plain meaning of the text, whenever mention is made of a גר, literally “a stranger,” in connection with the word שער the gate to your cities, it is assumed that the reference is to a גר תושב, a resident gentile, who has obligated himself to observe the seven Noachide commandments. Seeing that this is so, he is not included in the category of people to whom certain activities known as melachah in halachic terms are prohibited. After all, he is not part of a Jewish household described as applying to האזרח והגר, “the natural born Jew or the stranger who underwent basic conversion.” He is allowed to do for himself what he is not allowed to do on behalf of a Jew. As to the verse which speaks of וינפש בן אמתך והגר, “and the son of your maidservant as well as the stranger, shall recuperate, catch his breath as it were,” (Exodus 23,12) this refers to the fully converted gentile, who is subject to all the laws of the Torah from the moment he has converted. However, our sages in the Mechilta, understand the meaning of the word גר on each of these occasions, exactly in the reverse order. They understand the words וגרך אשר בשעריך as applying to a one time gentile who has fully converted, whereas the word וגר in Exodus 23,12 they understand as referring to a גר תושב, a resident stranger, i.e. one who has embraced the seven Noachide laws. Seeing that this latter stranger is an uncircumcised person, he has been compared by the Torah to the beast mentioned in the same verse as entitled to physical rest, וינפש on that day, and just as beasts must not perform work for Jews on the Sabbath, neither must resident strangers. The resident stranger is free to pursue his own agenda on what is the Sabbath for Israelites.

(12) כבד את אביך ואת אמך, “Honour your father and your mother.” After G’d had completed the list of duties we have vis a vis Him, He begins a list of primary obligations we have concerning our fellow man. He begins the list with an obligation to honour one’s biological father, as the father is G’d’s partner in the creation of any new human life. Whereas Hashem is mankind’s original father, the biological father is his final, most recent father. It follows that just as G’d commanded us in His capacity as our Creator, our father is entitled to a commensurate degree of honour and respect, as he fulfilled this role on earth. [It goes without saying that man’s mother is the third partner in the creation of every human being after the first pair of humans. Ed.] The Torah does not go into specifics of how such respect is to be shown to one’s parents. A major component of such honour accorded to one’s father is to publicly acknowledge him as such, just as the basic honour we accord G’d is that we publicly acknowledge Him as the Creator. We must not accord similar honour to other males in order to be recognized as the heirs of another male, for instance, for the sake of reaping some other benefit by such recognition of someone who is not our biological father as such. If one swears by the life of one’s father, one must not portray someone else as one’s father, for instance. Our sages have furnished us with a list of other activities the performance of which is considered proof of our observing this commandment. Our sages, in stressing the importance of this commandment, have compared the parents’ claim to be honoured by their children to G’d’s claim to be honoured by His creatures. They derive this, for instance, from the use of the attribute Hashem in this commandment, an attribute which does not occur during any of the last five Commandments, the reason being that those concern inter-personal relations, not man’s relations with his Creator. Seeing that in essence, the performance of the commandment to honour one’s parents concerns itself with issues of relevance in our lives on this earth, the Torah, in its promise of reward also describes this reward in terms of advantages to be enjoyed in our life on this earth, i.e. long life in the land of our forefathers. Our sages say that the promise of the reward is to be divided into two separate promises. 1) Long life; 1a) life in the land of Israel. These two aspects of the reward speak about the terrestrial world, whereas 2) the word יאריכון in itself speaks of a domain in which time is unlimited, the world to come in the celestial regions in the words of the sages: בעולם שכולו ארוך, a world which is not bound by time. Moses elaborates on this further in Deuteronomy 5,16 by adding the words ולמען ייטב לך, “and in order that it will be good for you.” Seeing that there was no obvious need to append the letter ן in the word יאריכו, our commentators see in this a hint that the mother is included in all that is written here.

(12) למען יאריכון ימיך, these are the five Commandments which by their observance contribute to your enjoying a life of a single dimension, i.e. length without breadth, another way of stating what the Talmud called in Kidushin 39 “in a world which consists entirely of “length,” [unlimited duration. Ed.]. By performing these five Commandments one renders honour to G’d, as a result of which the one rendering this honour to G’d will himself become part of G’d’s eternal life. Doing this involves knowing that G’d created the universe out of “nothing,” no physical substance. It also involves accepting G’d as the exclusive Divinity in the universe and therefore not worshipping anyone else or anything else. It also involves not only not rebelling against Him in deed, but not contemplating rebellion even in one’s thoughts or speech It involves actively honouring Him, after all, He is our father, our maker. Are we not commanded to even honour our mortal parents?

(12) על האדמה, by observing the above-mentioned five Commandments you will merit to enjoy life without being exiled from your ancestral land. Observance of the other five Commandments are designed to protect you against falling victim to harm befalling your body, or your property, or your dignity, your standing in the eyes of your peers. Here too, observance includes not only abstaining from violating these Commandments by deed, but also not violating them by word of mouth or even contemplating violation in your mind. Basically, the last five Commandments are addressed to your life on this earth, whereas the former are addressed to ensuring your life beyond the transient life on earth.

(13) לא תרצח , “Do not commit murder.” The order in which the Torah lists the following prohibitions needs to be understood as follows: The Torah, implies that the listener (reader) has appreciated that first and foremost G’d had insisted that He be recognized as THE Creator of the universe and all that there is in it. Next, He had commanded that the parents be accorded honour and respect seeing they are partners in the creation of new human life. It follows that you, human being, must not do things which directly result in your undoing what I had done. First and foremost do not shed the blood of a human being who was created in order to honour Me. You would deprive Me of the honour due to Me by My creatures. The prohibition against committing adultery is similarly motivated, as violating the wife of your fellow man not only is a serious injury, affront to the contractual bond between that wife and her husband, but it undermines the whole principle of enabling children to know who these parents are to whom they are duty-bound to show respect. It introduces lies as something normative into this world, whereas G’d stands for truth, and we are to emulate Him if we claim to be His partners. Stealing, i.e. kidnapping, preventing human beings to live the kind of life G’d wishes them to live, similarly deprives G’d of the worship of Him by the kidnapped person held prisoner. Similar considerations are at the core of the laws not to testify falsely nor to plan to deprive others of their rightful possessions. Such actions proclaim the lie as an acceptable means to achieve one’s ends, the opposite of G’d’s outstanding attribute of אמת, “truth,” the attribute we are to emulate if we really want to be His partners. The first three negative commandments refer to actions performed with one’s body, i.e. with one’s external organs, such as stealing, followed by sins committed with one’s mouth (testimony) and with one’s heart (coveting). In the next portion the Torah deals with a long list of משפטים, violations of the norms of inter-personal relations which need to be judged by a court. As long as one violates only the commandment not to covet without taking action to illegally or even legally acquire the desired object no judges will be involved. In commenting on the sequence of items coveted, described in the Tenth Commandment, Ibn Ezra says that the reason that the house of your fellow man is mentioned first, even before the taking of your fellow man’s wife, is that any intelligent person makes certain that he has suitable accommodation to offer a woman before he asks her to marry him. Only after he has acquired a wife does he acquire man and woman servants to assist in the household chores. The reason why this order is reversed in the version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy is that there the Torah addresses young men, who, in their urge to find a mate to marry, do not have the patience to wait until they are economically well established. It is also possible that there Moses talks about someone, who because he lusts after a woman forbidden to him, makes her the focus of all his desires. Nachmanides writes that the first 5 Commandments are designed to honour the Lord, the Creator, the fifth doing so indirectly seeing that in honouring parents one does so as they are the nearest link to the Creator that we have. In honouring them, we indirectly honour Him. All the remaining 5 Commandments are designed to enhance the dignity of the individual person. In some of the Commandments the consequences of observing it or not are spelled out, such as that G’d is jealous and will demand an accounting from those who slight Him, or that He will not easily forgive someone who uses His name in vain, or that the reward for honouring father and mother, though almost a natural in most instances, will be extremely worthwhile. On the other hand, most of the Commandments are not accompanied by promises of reward if observed or threats of retaliation if ignored. This may be explained in that acceptance of the first Commandment and non violation of the second Commandment are really two sides of the same coin, i.e. he who does refrain from all that is forbidden in the second commandment has in fact observed the first Commandment without lifting a finger. The absence of a warning of specific penalties for violations, or the mention of any reward, is also because Sabbath observance, i.e. recognition of G’d as the Creator both by sanctifying the day and by abstaining from work performed as a duty on the six days of the week is actually a way of fulfilling both the first and the second Commandment. The first 5 Commandments appear on the first of the Tablets, whereas the second five appear on the second Tablet [although if the numbers of words or letters were to be matched evenly the arrangement would have at least the fifth Commandment on the second Tablet, Ed.] This is to remind us that the Commandments on each of the Tablets correspond to one another. The Commandment not to commit murder parallels the Commandment of believing in the Lord the Creator, as murdering G’d’s creature undoes some of His work, diminishes His stature. The Commandment not to be disloyal to one’s wife or husband is parallel to the Commandment not to make or serve other deities. We are under oath to the One and Only Creator. The commandment not to use the name of the Lord in vain is parallel to the Commandment not to steal. Eventually, every thief will commit false testimony when he denies the accusation of having stolen. The Commandment to honour father and mother parallels the Commandment not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, for if he does so successfully and illegitimate children are born from such a union, these children will eventually curse their parents instead of honouring them.

(13) לא תגנוב, the term “stealing” also includes the “stealing,” i.e. kidnapping of human beings. Even deceiving your fellow man deliberately is called “stealing” גנבת דעת הבריות, “stealing people’s minds, misleading them to believe that lies are truth. (compare Sanhedrin 86)

(13) לא תענה ברעך עד שקר, this includes spreading slander about people surreptitiously, something generally known asמוציא שם רע, “defaming someone, ruining his reputation.” The principal meaning in our verse is perjuring oneself when testifying against a fellow man

(14) לא תחמוד, the object you covet should be considered by you as so utterly unattainable that you will not even begin to hatch schemes of how to acquire it. This is the promise made by G’d in Exodus 34,24 that none of our neighbours will covet our land while we are engaged in making the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Once you begin to covet something belonging to someone else it is only a short step to committing robbery. (compare Joshua 7,21 where Achan ben Carmi who had become guilty of such robbery admitted that it all began with his coveting the items which he stole and hid.)

(14) לא תחמוד אשת רעך, “Do not lust after your fellow man’s wife!” Do not scheme to how bring about her divorce so that you can marry her. The translation of lo tachmod cannot be that you shall not kidnap her are otherwise force her to sleep with you. This prohibition was already included in the prohibition to commit adultery. The first five commandments were all in the category of לא מבעיא, there being no question of their being necessary. The need to accept G-d as Israel’s Master hardly had to be spelled out. Neither did the commandment not to worship competing deities or the need not to swear an oath by any other deity, or to observe the Sabbath, seeing that G-d Himself had observed a Sabbath; nor was there a need to decree to honour one’s parents. Every gentile does so without having been ordered to do so by G-d. Even the last five of the Ten Commandments did not need to be legislated as universal disregard of either of these commandments results in complete anarchy and the destruction of the human race by itself. In most of the Ten Commandments we find two cantillation marks per word (as opposed to only one on a word.). The symbolism that is represented by that fact is a reminder that we have two versions of the Ten Commandments in the written Torah. When the Torah is read in public on the festival of Shavuot, which is the anniversary of the revelation on Mount Sinai, we read the second commandment לא יהיה לך as well as the whole commandment commencing with the word: זכור using the major cantillation marks in order that each one of them be understood as a single verse. The 6th9th commandments are read on that occasion by using the minor cantillation marks, in order to understand them as separate verses. The reason is that although we never find a verse that has only two words, in this instance the Rabbis decided to remind us that we are dealing here with separate commandments. When the Torah is read on an ordinary Sabbath in the month of Sh’vat, however, and the Ten Commandments are read as part of the portion known as Yitro, we read the entire Ten Commandments using the minor cantillation marks as a result of which we make four verses of each one of them. The reason why on Shavuot we read the first and second commandment with the major cantillation marks is to remind us that they were uttered by G-d as a single continuous verse. [The author had explained there that these two Commandments were heard by all of the people from G-d’s mouth without Moses acting as an interpreter. Ed.] [In the second version of the Ten Commandments where the 7thh10th commandments are linked to one another by the prefix letter ו, it is clear that they are to be treated as separate commandments each. Ed.][The author proceeds to spell this out in greater detail. Readers familiar with the significance of each cantillation mark will be able to check this themselves. Ed.]