Question of the Week:

1:4

Which Roman leader was so magnanimous to the Jewish com-
munity that Jews came for years to cry at the spot where he
was laid to rest?

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sEk.z..*:or

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Ten

Why the Ten Commandments
are so intriguing
and so vital.

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

y

ou've seen the movie.
You've read the news
reports on the controversy
about posting them in schools and
courthouses. Well, this Shabbat,
Jan. 29, is your chance to hear
them read in public in their original
form. They are the Ten Command-
ments (or, if you want to get fancy,
the Decalogue).
In Hebrew, they are called
Aseret HaDibrot ("the ten utter-

antes"). The Ten Commandments
are read twice during the annual
Torah cycle. The first time occurs in
the sixth aliya of this week's Torah
portion, Parshat Yitro (Exodus
20:2-14). The second takes place
I later in the year, in the fourth aliya
I of Parshat Va Etchanan (Deuterono-
: my 5:6-18).
Probably the most famous part of
I the Torah, the Ten Commandments
are to many people — Jewish and
gentile — what the Bible is all
about: the Almighty telling His peo-
; ple how to regard Him and how

the Hebrew alphabet (alef to
to treat each other.
yud), and sometimes the Roman
The list of "do's" and "don'ts" has
numerals I to X.
spawned hosts of imitators. Now
So how is it, when we have five
you can find the "Ten Command-
books of Torah, chockfull of
ments" of just about any subject:
mitzvot, miracles, mysticism, histo-
the Ten Commandments of dating,
ry, poetry and drama, that this one
of selling, of swimming-pool safety,
list of 10 divine admonitions has
of getting the most out of your gas-
gotten the lion's share of attention?
powered chainsaw.
Part of the answer lies in the
Go into most synagogues
Torah narrative itself. "God said to
(especially those more than 20
Moses, 'Behold, I come to you in
years old) and you'll see, usual-
ly over the ark containing the
the thickness of the cloud, so that
Torah scrolls, or on the parochet the people will hear as I speak to
(the ark curtain), a representa-
you
(Exodus 19:9). This was
the only time that the entire nation
tion of the two stone tablets of
of Israel, and not Moses alone,
I the Ten Commandments. Some-
heard the
! times, the
voice of God.
tablets show
The setting in
the first two
which this took
words of
place was
each com-
The Ten Comma ndments arrived
awe-inspiring
mandment in
Hebrew,
amid smoke, lig htning and silence and frighten-
ing: a cloud-
sometimes
— and continue to be the best-
shrouded
just the first
known section of the Torah.
mountain,
10 letters o

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