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Commandments FOR MILLENNIA, THESE ANCIENT LAWS HAVE BEEN CENTRAL TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. ARE THEY STILL RELEVANT? the 10 OR IS IT TIME FOR AN UPGRADE? COMMANDMENTS NEARLY 3,500 YEARS AGO, Exodus tells 50 years, they’ve become a contentious us, God inscribed the Ten Command- subject in the United States, emerging 2.0ments onto two stone tablets for the Is- at the heart of the culture wars between raelites. Although Jewish tradition counts conservatives and liberals who disagree 613 commandments in the Torah, the over their role in American law and ethics. Ten have taken on a life of their own, in- Moment speaks with a range of American spiring millions of Jews, Christians and scholars about the Ten Commandments’ Muslims over the centuries and evolving contemporary relevance and meaning, into a symbol of morality that has influ- and discovers—surprise, surprise—that enced Western thinking. Over the past their opinions differ dramatically. January/February 2011 / MoMent 33 the 10 01. I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. COMMANDMENTS You shall have no other gods beside Me. are... 02. You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any Commandments don’t change based on rules that would promote internal cohe- an antidote to subjectivity thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the time or place but are instead statements sion. There is the reminder that there earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. The Ten Commandments are at the of high-order moral sentiments that is a jealous and watchful God who has heart of the Jewish mission in the 21st tell how ethical people should conduct chosen this tribe, which is an effective century, which is to provide a mature themselves. Different generations will way of establishing an intrinsic distinct- 03. You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain. sometimes understand the details of law ness for the group and consequences for differently, but that’s not what is really defying it. The awesomeness of the God The Ten at stake. For example, there are voices is emphasized; not even his name is to 04. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Commandments in our secular society urging us to re- be taken in vain. There is a sabbath day, don’t change examine our view of homosexuality and requiring the sacrifice of productivity, arguing that a changing moral consensus another effective way of promoting an 05. Honor your father and your mother. based on ought to make us re-evaluate our Jewish internal sense of group difference. Then time or place but ethics. Jewish tradition thought homo- there are basic rules needed to mini- are instead sexual conduct was immoral. It didn’t mize internecine violence: no murder, 06. You shall not murder. statements of matter whether many people were or no theft, no adultery, no coveting what high-order moral were not homosexual. Jewish tradition belongs to your neighbor, including doesn’t look at the moral consensus of his women and his slaves. That women 07. You shall not commit adultery. sentiments. a particular time or place on these kinds are treated as property and that slavery of core value issues. is regarded as morally unobjectionable Michael J. Broyde is the academic 08. You shall not steal. framework for thinking about objective director of the Law and Religion morality. Our secular culture concludes program at Emory University’s Law That women are 09. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. that everything is relative and that all School in Atlanta, GA. treated as dilemmas need to be examined in con- property and text—there is very little that is always 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his “right” or “wrong,” these voices claim. slavery is an obstacle to moral advancement wife, his man-servant, his maid-servant, nor his ox, The Jewish tradition, through its fram- regarded as nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. ing of law in general, reminds us that The commandments don’t strike me as unobjectionable while some parts of law are subjective ethically illuminating for today’s world, stamp these and determined by the norms around us nor are they so inspired as to suggest di- (particularly things like “what do words vine authorship. Quite the contrary, they commandments in a contract mean”), objective morality are readily explainable as deriving from as of their time. is the core of an ethical society. The Ten a Bronze/Iron Age people who created adapted from JPS translation Interviews by Joan Alpert and Eileen Lavine 34 January/February 2011 January/February 2011 / MoMent 35 stamp these commandments as of their be a modern person. Modern Western mandments are important for maintain- more meaningful than U.S. law time. It would have been impressive— life draws upon two very distinct ancient ing morality. We need them both. Once upon a time more suggestive of divinity—if the com- spirits. One is the spirit of reason, which The Ten The Ten Commandments are as im- Joel M. Hoffman is an expert in mandments had included some concrete comes from ancient Greece and teaches Commandments portant today as they were in antiquity translation, Hebrew and the Bible they unified “thou shalt nots” that indicated a true that all of us have the right to formu- offer little guidance because they represent the crucial dis- and author of And God Said: How rather than divided leap beyond the ethos of the times, such late our own opinions about life, politics to student conduct, tinction of right versus wrong. Perhaps Translations Conceal the Bible’s Origi- the country. as “thou shalt not rape,” “thou shalt and ethics. This has given us the most since few third surprisingly, nothing in our modern legal nal Meaning. Today, the Ten keep no slaves,” and “thou shalt not tor- open discourse and the greatest political code does that. Rather, our laws simply ture.” Those additions could have pre- freedoms in human history. But reason graders are provide consequences for actions: Park Commandments vented much suffering in the millennia alone is not enough to get you out of married and hence at an expired parking meter, pay a small are a source of dividing our country to come. Hillel said: “What is hateful to bed in the morning and take decisive ac- in a position to fine; kill someone, go to jail, and so forth. rupture rather than thee, do not do unto thy fellow man.” tion to change your life and your com- commit adultery. No provision of American law differenti- The significance of the Ten Command- community. Such a proscription has more ethical munity and improve the world. For that ates between parking and killing. And no ments in contemporary America, where insight to offer us than the Command- we need the second spirit, the spirit of law suggests that some crimes are im- they’re called the nation’s “rightful her- ments’ idea of a jealous God, who pun- redemption, which comes from ancient in classrooms, when these laws offer moral and are to be avoided regardless of itage,” is more a matter of history than ments are a source of rupture rather ishes the children of sinners to the third Israel via the Hebrew Bible. Every bib- little guidance to student conduct, since any consequences. For example, it doesn’t of religion. A case in point: Several years than community. or fourth generation for sins that they lical hero—even God—is first of all a few third graders are married and hence say anywhere that a person willing to ago, The Colbert Report featured a Geor- Jenna Weissman Joselit is the Charles did not commit—a morally odious idea. world-improver, either through words in a position to commit adultery. And go to jail still shouldn’t commit murder. gia congressman who was eager to put E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies Reverence for the moral code of an an- or deeds. The Ten Commandments do even the most recalcitrant kids need This is the real power of the Ten Com- up copies of the Ten Commandments in and history professor at The George cient tribe at the dawn of civilization can encapsulate this redemptive spirit, with to be told not to lie, steal or murder? mandments. They list some actions that, the U.S. Capitol building. When pressed Washington University in Washing- be as much an obstacle to moral advance each of them offering a different aspect Seems obvious enough. The first four no matter what, are wrong. Even people by Colbert to name them, he couldn’t. ton, DC, where she directs its Judaic as reverence for their cosmology would of how to turn that spirit into reality. commandments—40 percent!—concern who don’t think they’ll get caught, even For this congressman, and undoubtedly Studies program. be to scientific advance. The Second Commandment, for ex- religious obligations, not general behav- for many of his constituents as well, it Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a ample, addresses the idea of morality ior, rather squandering an opportunity wasn’t the individual prescriptions, the philosopher and author of 36 Argu- that goes beyond the pull of power and to tell us how to be good. Curiously for specifics, that mattered so much as their civilization at its best ments for the Existence of God: A Work wealth, which is really what idolatry is a monotheistic faith, the existence of They are as cumulative symbolism.
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