How the Ten Commandments Were Given
Just before the Ten Commandments were issued, the world went silent
Louisiana recently passed House Bill Number 71, requiring all state-funded schools and universities to display the Biblical Ten Commandments. The new law was signed on June 19 by the Republican Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, who said at the signing ceremony, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses.”
The Ten Commandments are prominent in American culture nationwide. They are a keystone document of Jewish and Western morality, even if most people cannot name them all.
Returning to the source, how were the Ten Commandments given at Sinai?
The Torah records that immediately before God uttered the Ten Commandments, there was thunder, lightning, and the sound of a shofar. But at the moment the Torah was given, the world was silent. "The birds did not chirp, the angels stopped their song, the waves of the sea did not crash upon the shore, and no one spoke." (Midrash Rabbah Shemos 39:9)
The Ten Commandments were uttered with a background of absolute silence.
If you want to encounter God, you need to experience silence.
"All of humanity's problems stem from a person's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Blaise Pascal
As a child, the Seer of Lublin (an 18th-century Hasidic master) would go into the woods alone. When his concerned father asked him why, he responded, “I go there to find God.” His father said, “But, my son, don't you know that God is the same everywhere?”
“God is the same,” the boy said, “but I'm not.” It was in solitude that he was able to connect spiritually.
A YouGov poll measuring the impact of the Ten Commandments on American values showed that more than 90 percent of Americans agree that the commandments regarding murder, stealing, and lying remain fundamental societal behavior standards. Other commandments that enjoy strong support include not coveting, not committing adultery, and honoring parents. However, less than half of Americans (47 percent) say keeping the Sabbath holy is still important — the lowest level of support for any commandment.
Yet, the concept of Sabbath observance is the opportunity to connect to the silence in which the Ten Commandments were given—to shut out all the distractions, turn off devices, set aside work, and spend the day experiencing that which is most valuable—our lives, our families, our connection to God.
This bill will certainly bring the Ten Commandments to the forefront of legal and political discussion. Ideally, it should bring God and meaning back into Americans' daily lives.
Adapted from my original article printed in the Dallas Morning News on May 9, 2021: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2021/05/09/spiritual-revelation-comes-in-the-silence/
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA from 2007 – 2020. He is a popular speaker and has written for numerous publications. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org .
Pro American! | Grandfather | Business Owner| e-Commerce| Electronics | Cable | Wire
3 个月Rav Levine This is a wonderful article. I can't see how anyone would be offended by the 10 commandments. They encapsulate the full spectrum of the revealed forces of Hashem, which is existence as we know it. People don't understand what exactly G-d is. People immediately reject Judaism as just another idol worshiping religion, and the 10 utterances are pushing religious ideology. They don't realize that Hashem is a equation of all that is. Hashem is the "IS" of all that exist. Reality, existence, consciousness. Nothing but G-d exist. How much of this reality we understand is determined by proper learning of Torah. Thank You for the post.
Rabbi | Historian | Author | CEO of JDBY-YTT
4 个月A good constitutional analysis by Michael Helfand. Why the new law may be constitutional under the new historical test:"... One can easily see how a court would view the passive display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms as simply not coercive. The display is there, the argument goes, and students are free to ignore it. And the notion that displaying the Ten Commandments impermissibly prefers one religion over others might not work under a test that focuses on how the Founding Fathers understood the First Amendment. For example, the Founding Fathers, in inaugural addresses and Thanksgiving proclamations, did at times demonstrate a willingness to invoke religious language and imagery in their official statements even where it preferred one faith tradition over others." https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/louisianas-ten-commandments-law-tests-the-future-of-church-state-separation/
Partner - Real Estate
4 个月There′s still light in America!
Retired K12 Educator Rowan/Salisbury Schools
4 个月God is indeed in charge. Perhaps this is what we need to remind people of what it is truly about.
Commentary Writer
4 个月Interesting read. I learned something!