Today we read the 10 Commandments. We do that every year, even on a triennial cycle. The text of today’s portion is powerful, sweeping and has much to teach us even today, especially today. People have wrestled with this text from the very beginning. There are two editions of the 10 commandments, the one here in Exodus and the one in Deuteronomy. They are almost the same. Almost but not quite. One of the major differences is about Shabbat. Do we shamor, keep, guard the Sabbath or do we zachor, remember the sabbath. The answer is both.
We guard Shabbat when we don’t work on Shabbat, when we fulfill the negative commandments. We remember shabbat when we fulfil the positive commandments. And in Lecha Dodi we learn that shamor v’zzacor bidibur echad, both were uttered by G-d simultaneously at Mount Sinai. Because after all G-d doesn’t make a mistake.
We practice this in a number of ways: We light two candles, one to remember and one to guard and make it holy. Homes are made sacred by loving relationships, healthy connections and the protection of love. And according to JWI. Last night we talked a lot about love and at the very end, I thanked organizations like the Community Crisis Center and Shalva who work on domestic violence issues because sadly love isn’t always protected at home, even in Jewish homes. The lights of Shabbat illuminate a path to a world where our very rest that we are commanded to do refreshes us and enables us to be inspired to action.
But what does it mean to be commanded? G-d? Moses? Tradition? If we are not commanded in the historical sense, are we still obligated? Why are these 10 Sayings, Aseret Debrot as they are called in Hebrew, so powerful? So important?
What really happened on Mount Sinai? There are lots of midrashim to explain it. One of the most powerful is that we all stood at Sinai but at birth we forgot. I even wound up teaching this at the grocery store this week.
There are not just 10 Commandments. There are 613 Commandments. Next week we read Mishpatim, which has more commandments than any other portion. Is there a difference between a mitzvah, command, a mishpat, a rule and a hok, a law. A hok is seen as a mitzvah without any explanation.
Why review this material? Because at some level the Hebrew Bible is under attack. There are moves afoot, to display the 10 Commandments in public schools and in courthouses in several states. There are bills pending to “register non-Christians” (We’ve seen that before) and to make this a Christian nation.
Just from a separation of church and state, guaranteed in the US Constitution, these moves should alarm us. When the display of the 10 Commandments was first announced for Oklahoma last spring, I immediately wrote to Tony Sanders, the former U-46 superintendent and now the Illinois State Superintendent. He wrote back and assured me he understood the establishment clause. It will not happen in Illinois. Not on his watch. Oklahoma has now introduced House Bill 1006 which would require a poster or a framed copy of the Ten Commandments to be posted in a conspicuous place in every public school classroom in Oklahoma, a state where the head of public schools also is endeavoring to put Biblical texts in classrooms, effective for the 2025-2026 school year.
Here is where my husband, in particular got upset. He spent hours exploring these questions: Which version, Exodus or Deuteronomy? Which language? If not Hebrew, which translation? Which numbering system, it varies between Jewish, Protestant and Catholic versions. As I have often said, every translation is a commentary.
Does it say, “Thou shall not kill.” or Thou shall not murder.”? Even today when taking about the metaphor of eagles which shows up in the portion and in some of our prayers, someone reminded us that it could be translated as vulture. That has a very different connotation.
Nor will it help with what the legislators want. They want to reduce violence in the classroom, to make kids be better behaved, more moral and ethical. Has anyone ever read the list of how to close this building? It is posted right by the door and the alarm. Eventually, it just blurs into the background. Research has shown that things like that do exactly that,
The simple truth is that the 10 commandments, as important as they are, do not belong hanging in classrooms. It is in fact a violation of the establishment clause and freedom of religion guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
This is something that our founding fathers understood. Wahington’s letter of 1790 illustrates:
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
From the very beginning, the 613 commandments were seen as too difficult. Many prophets have tried to distill them. Micah famously said, “Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your G-d.” The Talmud starts with 15 and reduces them to one. The early Reform Movement kept the ethical commandments and discounted the ritualistic ones. Others have talked about as I did last night, “Love G-d, Love your neighbor, Love the stranger.”
Once a long time ago I talked about the refrigerator magnets, the abcs and the alef bets that graced my parents ice box that my father gifted to my daughter. If you had to boil this down to one commandment that you could spell out in those magnets, I think mine might be “Do the right thing.” What would your refrigerator say?