עשרת הדברות

The Yom Tov of שבועות has just gone by. The focal point of that Yom Tov is that in the year 2448 after the creation of this world, Hashem gave the ten commandments, the עשרת דברות to the Bnei Yisroel. These were not given, as all the other mitzvos, via Moshe Rabbenu but Hashem Himself, בכבודו ובעצמו, spoke directly to the whole of the Jewish people.

Why were these particular ten commandments given directly by Hashem?

One can easily understand the first one which commences אנכי ה' אלקיך, I am Hashem who created the whole world, who enables the whole world to continue and took you all out of Egypt (just six or seven weeks prior to the giving of the עשרת דברות).

Likewise, one can understand the second commandment לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים על פני, you should have no other gods, no idol worshipping of any type, as the Torah carries on in detail. Because idol worship is a negation of true belief, namely that Hashem created the world and continues to run it and supervise it completely himself.

When we come to the third of the ten commandments, namely, לא תשא את שם ה' לשוא, you should not take Hashem’s name in vain, I am a little puzzled as to why this should be included in the ten top priorities which had to be given by Hashem himself.

Turning to number 4, which is to remember and keep Shabbos, one could again understand the importance of this mitzvah on the basis that Hashem created the world in six days and on the seventh day, Shabbos, rested. This is fundamental to our faith.

Turning to the fifth mitzvah, to honour ones father and mother. This also seems a little strange as to have such high priority.

Number 6 is לא תרצח, one may not kill. That everybody will understand is a major, important fundamental. Likewise לא תנאף, one should not commit adultery or have any other illicit relations. One can understand the importance of placing it in the ten commandments.

Turning to number 8, לא תגנוב, one should not steal or kidnap, again this is a very important fundamental point.

Let us, however, consider number 9, לא תענה ברעך עד שקר. You shall not bear false testimony. What is the vital importance of this particular mitzvah, what makes it so necessary to be included in the ten commandments?

Why, for example, is not the mitzvah of Talmud Torah, the learning of Torah included in the ten commandments, or the laws of טומאה and טהרה, purity and impurity etc. mentioned in the ten commandments in place of the ones at number 3 and number 9 particularly as mentioned, earlier on.

Number 10, לא תחמד, one should not covet another person’s property, wife etc. this is once again, I believe a fundamental we can all understand.

I should perhaps at this point mention that for a detailed and all encompassing overview of the עשרת דברות, one should study the Maharal’s sefer, תפארת ישראל, which is a masterpiece of Jewish thought in a philosophical manner.

In order to try to understand the reason why the particular ten commandments were given as the עשרת דברות by Hashem himself, I believe that it will be illuminating to quote the Chidushei Horim who states that the עשר מכות, the ten plagues, took away the קליפות, the shells which had over the generations covered the original עשרה מאמרות, the ten utterances with which the world was created.

Over the generations, the original Holy Utterances had become encrusted and covered over to the extent that people no longer realised and knew about the original creation and that Hashem had created the whole world.

This lack of knowledge is highlighted as we read that when Moshe Rabbenu came to Pharoh and told him that Hashem had said that he should let the Bnei Yisroel leave Egypt, Pharoh’s retort was מי ה', who is the “person” you are referring to as Hashem.

He soon learned and after having been afflicted by numerous plagues, stated, ה' הצדיק ואני ועמי הרשעים, Hashem is the righteous one and I and my people are sinners.

The ten plagues revealed to the Egyptians and the whole world, that there was a supernatural power, Hashem, who created the world and controlled and ran it all as He saw fit (and continues to do so). This took away the קליפות which had formed.

Less than two months after the final plague, מכת בכורות, the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai and heard from Hashem the עשרת דברות, the ten commandments.

The Chidushei Horim says that these commandments uttered by Hashem brought the world back to the original pristine state as at the creation of the world and were a תיקון, a rectification of the whole state of the world.

Incidentally, that is the reason why at that time, all people who had been ill were healed, everything came back into an original pristine state.

Based on this statement of the Chidushei Horim, I think we can understand better the reason why the particular ten commandments were given.

The first one, אנכי ה' אלקיך, is obviously bound up with the fundamental belief that Hashem created the whole world and runs it as he sees fit. The last great example of it was the fact that Hashem had just taken the Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, a land which had an iron curtain and in which they had been enslaved.

In connection with the second of the עשרת דברות, namely not to serve idols in any way, it is instructive to read the Rambam at the beginning of הלכות עובדה זרה at length. I recommend you to read the first chapter in detail. In short, he says that in the third generation, that of אנוש, people began to question whether Hashem, who they all knew had created the world, really was looking after everybody individually as there were too many, “small” people and it was suggested that Hashem had created intermediaries such as the sun, the moon, the stars etc. to control day to day life. This developed into false prophets who suggested that those intermediaries should be served as well and this was the beginning of idol worship.

In order to bring the world back to its original state and keep is so, therefore, Hashem commanded us not to serve idols in any shape or form so as not to fall into the same trap once again. (Unfortunately, a few weeks later, there took place the story of the Golden Calf which again spoiled things.)

Coming to the third of the ten commandments, לא תשא את שם ה' לשוא, one should use the name of Hashem in vain, or in connection with a lie. We find that at the time of אנוש the Torah tells us אז הוחל לקרא בשם ה'. Rashi explains that at the time, people began to use Hashem’s name as חולין, in a degenerate and profane, not holy, way and Rabbi Shimshon Rafoel Hirsch goes into detail regarding this and that familiarity began to breed “contempt”.

In order to ensure that this did not happen again, and due יראת הכבוד, honour in awe, be given to Hashem, the mitzvah became the third one in the עשרת דברות. It is also note worthy to mention that אנוש was the third generation being the son of שת who was the son of Odom Harishon.

Turning to the fourth mitzvah, that of Shabbos, we know that Odom Harishon was created on the sixth day and the Gemora goes into detail as to how each hour a different happening took place. Finally, by Friday afternoon, Odom Harishon together with Chava were placed in Gan Eden and were told not to eat from the עץ הדעת, the tree of knowledge. Unfortunately by the middle of the afternoon they had eaten from this and Hashem then questioned them and they were ejected from the Garden of Eden.

Although Odom Harishon did teshuva, Hashem had stated that on the day he ate from the עץ הדעת he would die and as the sun went down before Shabbos, Odom Harishon thought that he was going to be taken from this world. And indeed this might have happened but as the medrash tells us, the day of Shabbos itself intervened and pleaded to Hashem to not spoil the seven days of the creation of the world, and in particular the Shabbos. Hashem relented on the basis that כי אלף שנה בעיניך כיום, a thousand years is in the eyes of Hashem are like one day and on that basis Odom Harishon was allowed to live for 1,000 years. (Incidentally, Odom Harishon, so the midrash also tells us, gave away 70 years of his life to Dovid Hamelech who he saw was supposed to die at birth, and, as we all know, Dovid Hamelech’s Yarhzeit is on Shavuos.)

Accordingly, Shabbos was fundamental in keeping the world going as we know it and the Bnei Yisroel, of course, descended from Odom Harishon and so have to keep Shabbos which enabled Odom Harishon to remain alive.

The fifth commandment is כבד את אביך ואת אמך, to honour one’s father and mother.

There are always people, especially youngsters, who tend to blame anything that goes wrong or any insufficiencies in themselves onto their parents. This has been going on from time immemorial.

In the context of the creation of the world, the first time that children could have had this grouse at their parents was with Odom and Chava who had broken the one rule made for them, namely, not to eat from the עץ הדעת.

Nevertheless, Hashem enjoins us to honour our parents, because, after all, Odom Harishon was created by Hashem himself and every generation that goes by is not only a link to Odom Harishon but one further down the chain. Therefore, we have to look up to our parents and honour them. (This is, of course, in contradistinction to those who mistakenly who think we are descended from apes and, therefore, in their eyes, the further one goes away on the chain the more intelligent?, sophisticated?, refined? becomes the human race, and, therefore, why respect parents who are that one link closer to apes? It shows where misguided thinking can lead!!)

The sixth commandment was לא תרצח. You may not kill. This has an immediate affinity with the first killing of all time, when קין, Cain, killed הבל, Abel. This contributed considerably to the degeneration of the world and therefore, this mitzvah is included in the ten commandments to try and stop it happening in the future.

The next commandment is לא תנאף. One may not commit adultery or be party to any other illicit relationship. This is directly connected with Rashi’s statement that the נחש, the snake, נתאוה, desired, חוה, Eve. The snake was the first to attempt to commit adultery, look at the problems that he then caused.

The next commandment is לא תגנוב, one may not steal or kidnap.

If one looks at the whole story of how Odom and Chava ate from the עץ הדעת and then hid themselves in Gan Eden, they “stole” by stealing the food, eating it and then hiding. We are enjoined not to do anything at all on those lines.

We now come to number 9, namely לא תענה ברעך עד שקר. One may not bear false witness.

I think that the way the snake put it to Chava, namely, that nothing would happen if she ate from the forbidden fruit, was tantamount to bearing false witness as to what would happen. The snake knew full well that she and her husband would die but said “You will not die” and I believe that that is why it is included in the ten commandments, namely, to try to stop future generations from falling into the same trap.

The tenth and final commandment, לא תחמד, you should not covet other people’s property, and wife etc. is once again bound up with the eating of the forbidden fruit. The Torah states clearly that Chava saw, כי תאוה היא לעינים ונחמד העץ להשכילthat the fruit looked delightful and she coveted the fruit and thought that it would give her this extra benefit, pleasure and perception. Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite and it is a lesson for all generations not to covet that which belongs to another individual.

I believe that I have demonstrated the connection which each of the עשרת דברות has to the original story of מעשה בראשית, and in that context, a reason for each of the ten commandments having been uttered by Hashem Himself.