Parshat Yitro: These are The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, universal amongst the monotheistic religions, are a mere 13 verses in this week’s parsha.  And yet they have resonated and lasted throughout history, bearing meaning in many different periods.  But for so many today, they are unknown or uninspiring.  The last five – the moral commandments of the bunch – are accepted in the Western world (“thou shalt not murder…commit adultery…steal…etc.”) and therefore barely given a passing glance in a religious context.  Comparatively, the first five are almost forbidden to be mentioned in public (“I am your God…have no other gods before me…don’t make idols…don’t take God’s name in vain…keep the Sabbath”) because they are overtly religious, a very tenuous/delicate subject in public discourse today.  They therefore have somewhat of a reduced significant in today’s Western World.

Starkly contrasting this approach, our ancestors prepared for three days, purifying themselves from uncleanliness, in order to stand at the foot of Mt Sinai, in God’s presence, to receive the Ten Commandments.  And while receiving them they “witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking” (Exodus 20:15).  And today those same verses that affected them so greatly are treated so lightly.  And I must even admit, the thirteen verses containing the Ten Commandments are certainly not the most powerful verses ever written – not even close to the most powerful (for me) within the Torah.  So why are they so important? 

I think that Reb Mimi Fiegelson captures the thoughts that many of us may have when we read the Ten Commandments and think: 

“That is is!?  That is all God said?” 

She responds to this reaction:

What God wants to say cannot be said.  We are immersed in a feeling of pleasantness, of joy, of awe.  The Torah is a written gift to mankind.  God cannot, will not, constantly soak us in His presence as He did at Mt Sinai.  We must become a vessel to receive His presence, to become as close to the Torah, to become a part of the Torah.  We are the kelim – the vessels – of God Himself.

We are told to “hold back” at Mt Sinai in order to become a kli, a vessel, for God’s Torah.  It is easier to get caught up in the moment, to want to experience faith and joy…but our purpose is not merely to bask in God’s glory but to act upon it.

The thunder and lightning our ancestors witnessed, while possibly a physical reality, was an emotional experience, an experience of the soul.  It was a moment where our souls – the kelim – connected with their source.  And we are taught that every Jewish soul was present at Mt Sinai; every Jewish soul has heard God speak to them at Mt Sinai (similar to the Passover message where we, ourselves, were slaves in Egypt).  Yet we are very far removed from that time and place, from that emotion.  We are in a world where spirituality is not readily available at every turn of a corner but must be sought after; it must be fought for.  At Mount Sinai we needed to “hold back” from the spiritual moment in order to maintain our physical reality; today we need to fight against our physical reality to find a moment in our day to “soak in His presence as we did at Mt Sinai.” 

And for that, we were given the Ten Commandments. 

Shabbat Shalom.