Covenant & Conversation

Yitro 5772 Volume XIX Number 20 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum systematically opposed by the sages. Why did they CHIEF RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS object to it? Both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Covenant & Conversation Talmuds say it was because of the "claim of the sectarians." here's an enthralling story about the Ten Jewish sectarians-some identify them as a Commandments and the role they played in Jewish group of early Christians but there is no compelling Tworship and the synagogue. evidence for this-argued that only the Ten It begins with a little-known fact. There was a Commandments were binding, because only they were time when there were not three paragraphs in the received by the Israelites directly from G-d at Mount prayer we call the Shema, but four. The Mishnah in Sinai. The others were received through Moses, and Tamid (5:1) tells us that in Temple times the officiating this sect, or perhaps several of them, held that they did priests would say, first, the Ten Commandments and not come from G-d. They were Moses' own invention, then the three paragraphs of the Shema. and therefore not binding. We have several pieces of independent There is a midrash that gives us an idea of evidence for this. The first consists of four papyrus what the sectarians were saying. It places in the mouth fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898 by the then of Korach and his followers, who rebelled against secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, W.L. Moses, these words: "The whole congregation are holy. Nash. Pieced together and located today in the Are you [Moses and Aaron] the only ones who are holy? Cambridge University Library, they are known as the All of us were sanctified at Sinai... and when the Ten Nash Papyrus. Dating from the second century BCE, Commandments were given, there was no mention of they contain a version of the Ten Commandments, challah or terumah or tithes or tzitzit. You made this all immediately followed by the Shema. Almost certainly up yourself." (Yalkut Shimoni Korach 752). the papyrus was used for prayer in a synagogue in So the rabbis were opposed to any custom that Egypt before the birth of Christianity, at a time when the would give special prominence to the Ten custom was to include all four paragraphs. Commandments since the sectarians were pointing to Tefillin from the Second Temple period, such customs as proof that even orthodox Jews treated discovered in the Qumran caves along with the Dead them differently from the other commands. By removing Sea Scrolls, contained the Ten Commandments. them from the prayer book, the rabbis hoped to silence Indeed a lengthy section of the halakhic midrash on such claims. Deuteronomy, the Sifri, is dedicated to proving that we But the story does not end there. So special should not include the Ten Commandments in the were the Ten Commandments to Jews that they found tefillin, which suggests that there were some Jews who their way back. Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, author of the did so, and the rabbis needed to be able to show that Tur (14th century) suggested that one should say them they were wrong. privately. Rabbi Joseph Karo argues that the ban only We also have evidence from both the applies to reciting the Ten Commandments publicly Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds (Bavli, Berakhot during the service, so they could be said privately after 12a ; Yerushalmi Berakhot 1:8) that there were the service. That is where you find them today in most communities in Israel and Babylon who sought to siddurim-immediately after the morning service. Rabbi introduce the Ten Commandments into the prayers, and Shlomo Luria had the custom of reading the Ten that the rabbis had to issue a ruling against doing so. Commandments at the beginning of prayer, before the There is even documentary evidence that the Jewish start of Pesukei de-Zimra, the Verses of Praise. community in Fostat, near Cairo, kept a special scroll in That was not the end of the argument. Given the ark called the Sefer al-Shir, which they took out after that we do not say the Ten Commandments during the conclusion of daily prayers and read from it the Ten public prayer, should we none the less give them Commandments (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and special honour when we read them from the Torah, in Palestine under the Fatimid caliphs, I, 221). whether on Shavuot or in the weeks of parshat Yitro So the custom of including the Ten and Vaetchanan? Should we stand when they are being Commandments as part of the Shema was once read? widespread, but from a certain point in time it was 2 Toras Aish itself: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write down these TORAS AISH IS A WEEKLY PARSHA words, for in accordance with these words I have made NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL a covenant with you and with Israel.' Moses was there AND THE WEB AT WWW.AISHDAS.ORG/TA. with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating FOR MORE INFO EMAIL [email protected] bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the The material presented in this publication was collected from email subscriptions, computer archives and various websites. It is being words of the covenant- the Ten Commandments." (Ex presented with the permission of the respective authors. Toras 34:27-28) Aish is an independent publication, and does not necessarily reflect "Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You the views of any synagogue or organization. heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was TO DEDICATE THIS NEWSLETTER PLEASE CALL only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten (973) 277-9062 OR EMAIL [email protected] Commandments, which he commanded you to follow Maimonides found himself involved in a and then wrote them on two stone tablets." (Deut. 4:12- controversy over this question. Someone wrote him a 13) That is why they were originally said immediately letter telling the following story. He was a member of a prior to the Shema, and why despite their removal from synagogue where originally the custom was to stand the prayers Jews continued to say them-because their during the reading of the Ten Commandments. Then a recital constituted a daily renewal of the covenant with rabbi came and ruled otherwise, saying that it was G-d. That too is why Jews insisted on standing when wrong to stand for the same reason as it was forbidden they were being read from the Torah, because when to say the Ten Commandments during public prayer. It they were being given the Israelites "stood at the foot of could be used by sectarians, heretics and others to the mountain" (Ex. 19:17). The Midrash (Pesikta de-Rav claim that even the Jews themselves held that the Ten Kahana 12, ed. Mandelbaum, p. 204) says about the Commandments were more important than the other reading of the Ten Commandments on Shavuot: "The 603. So the community stopped standing. Years later Holy One blessed be He said to the Israelites: My another rabbi came, this time from a community where children, read this passage every year and I will account the custom was to stand for the Ten Commandments. it to you as if you were standing before Mount Sinai and The new rabbi stood and told the congregation to do receiving the Torah." likewise. Some did. Some did not, since their previous Jews kept searching for ways of recreating that rabbi had ruled against. Who was right? scene, by standing when they listened to it from the Maimonides had no doubt. It was the previous Torah and by saying it privately after the end of the rabbi, the one who had told them not to stand, who was morning prayers. Despite the fact that they knew their in the right. His reasoning was correct also. Exactly the acts could be misconstrued by heretics, they were too logic that barred it from the daily prayers should be attached to that great epiphany- the only time in history applied to the reading of the Torah. It should be given G-d spoke to an entire people-to treat it like any other no special prominence. The community should stay passage in the Torah. The honour given to the Ten sitting. Thus ruled Maimonides, the greatest rabbi of the Commandments was the custom that refused to die. Middle Ages. However, sometimes even great rabbis © 2011 Chief Rabbi Lord J. Sacks and torah.org have difficulty persuading communities to change. Then RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN as now most communities-even those in Maimonides' Egypt-stood while the Ten Commandments were being Shabbat Shalom read. ow I [Jethro] know that Hashem is greater So despite strong attempts by the sages, in the than all gods…” (Exodus 18:11) Is it not time of the Mishnah, Gemara and later in the age of “Nstrange that the very Biblical portion which Maimonides, to ban any custom that gave special records G-d's revelation to the Israelites – indeed, the dignity to the Ten Commandments, whether as prayer religio-legal covenant between the Almighty and His or as biblical reading, Jews kept finding ways of doing chosen people – begins with, and is named in honor of, so. They brought it back into daily prayer by saying it a Midianite priest? privately and outside the mandatory service, and they Moreover, why did G-d choose Mount Sinai continued to stand while it was being read from the which is a desert mountain outside of the boundaries of Torah despite Maimonides' ruling that they should not.

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