1. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery; have no other Gods besides Me.
Some people wonder how “I am the LORD your God” could even be considered part of a commandment, because it does not command anything. Rambam (Moses Maimonides) certainly thought it was a commandment, in fact the most important one of all. He listed it first in his Sefer Hamitzvot, interpreting it to mean: Believe in God, and be aware of God’s presence at every moment of every day.
2. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth…do not bow down to them and do not worship them.
One of our bat mitzvah students explained it beautifully last summer. Suppose one person makes a painting or a sculpture, and says, “This is an image of God.” Suppose the painting is very beautiful, or the artist is very famous. Then some people will say, “This is the official image of God. Your experience of God is irrelevant and wrong.” Religion will become rigid and fundamentalist.
3. Do not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…
In Kabbalistic thought, the entire world is made of Divine energy. Thus, every created thing is a manifestation of God. Some writers use the expression “name of God” to refer to any manifestation of God – any way that God is revealed in the world, any creature that shows us an aspect of God. If you read the commandment through this Kabbalistic lens, it says, “Do not take any creature in vain.” On the one hand, this means: view every creature with compassion, as it is important in itself. On the other hand, this means: view every creature as pointing beyond itself, to the Divine Source.
4. Remember Shabbat and keep it holy.
This commandment gives an explicit list of seven workers to whom you must give a day off on Shabbat. One of the workers is “your working animal.” The fourth commandment is an early and very-far reaching piece of labor legislation that protects even the rights of oxen and donkeys. Oxen and donkeys have a number of protected rights under Biblical law.
5. Honor your father and mother.
Halachic thought reminds us that this is a commandment that adult children are expected to implement. So it pays special attention to the issues adults face in caring for their aging parents. What if your parent is abusive, and for self-protection you have separated yourself from him? What if your parent has significant medical needs beyond your ability, including a dementia that leads her not to recognize you? In those situations, are you required to personally care for parent? Jewish law says, “No – you don’t personally have to be present, but you do have to make sure that care is available, and allocate resources to the best of your financial ability.”
6. Do not murder.
In the universe of Torah, murder is the worst crime, meriting the death penalty. Commentators say that because a human being is created in the image of God, murder is a direct attack on God. But the Torah is also careful to distinguish between manslaughter (violence that accidentally leads to death) and intentional murder. In fact, Torah provides for arei miklat, cities of refuge, where a person who has committed manslaughter can stay safely until a trial is conducted to determine the nature of his or her crime.
7. Do not commit adultery.
In the universe of Torah, adultery is defined as “a man having sex with a married woman.” If a man has sex with a woman who is married to someone else, then both are guilty of adultery. But if an unmarried woman and a married man have sex, he is not an adulterer. However, he had better think twice before he acts, about whether he wants a second wife, because, in Biblical law, through the act of sex he becomes engaged to the woman.
8. Do not steal.
The Hebrew says lo tignov. The Talmud says that theft of material things is not the only kind of theft. Talmud speaks of genivat da’at, literally, theft of knowledge or understanding. Genivat da’at is the act of intentionally offering mis-information, dis-information, or partial information. We see this in advertising, in political discourse, and even in science – for example, when people who have a financial interest in fossil fuels try to cast doubt on the research about global warming – not by disproving the facts, by simply by asking in big headlines, “Do you believe in it?” As if it’s a matter of faith and not facts!
9. Do not bear false witness.
From the Torah’s perspective, bearing witness truthfully is the entire foundation of the justice system. If people lie in court, it undermines the entire society. Torah itself says, “If it is found out that you commit perjury during a trial, and your perjury has led to a false conviction, then whatever penalty was imposed on the convicted will be your punishment.” And because Torah also says, “Distance yourself from a lie,” it’s not enough just to avoid lies in court – a person is also ethically required to avoid misleading statements. Yes, Torah is very idealistic on this point.
10. Do not covet your neighbor’s house…
Some people say this is the most important commandment of all, because it tells us to work on our inner lives, and to refine our emotional reactions. This is the work that makes it possible for us to keep commandments 5-9, about honoring parents, avoiding murder, theft, adultery and false witness. Some people point out that the Ten Commandments actually begin and end with a teaching about our inner lives in order to express a developmental perspective: Be aware of God’s presence; act appropriately, even if at first it’s out of fear of punishment; through that, develop a conscience; and, over time, learn to regulate your emotions so that you simply become the sort of person who acts ethically without much inner struggle.
— Laura Duhan Kaplan, 2011
Image: parchment by Jekutiel Sofer, 1768, www.wikipedia.com