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quaking and smoking, surrounded by
thunder, lightning and the sound of a
shofar. Jewish tradition teaches, how-
ever, that at the moment God present-
ed the Torah at Sinai, the entire uni-
verse fell silent.
Commentators differ as to what the
people actually heard. Most say it
was the first two commandments only.
Others assert that it was all 10, but
inasmuch as God spoke them simulta-
neously in an instant, the people
could not understand and it was left
to Moses to interpret.
The rabbis emphasize that because
each Jew at Sinai had a direct, per-
sonal encounter with God, Judaism is
a national faith that began with a his-
torical experience, the memory of
which is passed from generation to
generation. The rabbis contrast this to
other religions that base their legitima-
cy on one person's claim to a revela-
tion, which others are expected to
believe in and follow.
The two episodes, in Exodus and
Deuteronomy, present iwo slightly dif-
ferent texts of the Ten Command-
ments. One of the most famous differ-
ences is that the text in Parshat Yitro
tells us to remember (zachor) Shabbat,
while in Va-etchanan we are com-
manded_to observe (shamor) Shab-
bat. These and other variations in the
texts posed no problem for the rabbis,
who asserted that both were uttered
simultaneously. The fact that we have
iwo versions of the Shabbat mitzvah
is one of the reasons we light (at least)
iwo candles on Friday night and
make haMotzi over two loaves of
challa.
Most artistic representations depict
the Ten Commandments as having a
square bottom and a round top. His-
torians and archaeologists agree that
the tablets would have had both a
square bottom and a square top. The
round top comes from Christian artists
of the Middle Ages. This design was
also used as the "Jewish badge" that
Jews were forced to sew to their cloth-
ing, so as to identify them in certain
countries.
The Torah refers to the stone slabs
either as luchot haBrit, "tablets of the
covenant," or as luchot haEdut,
"tablets of the testimony." In Parshat Ki
Tisa (Exodus 32:15), the Torah states
the slabs were engraved "on both
their sides." The rabbis interpreted this
to mean that the tablets were
inscribed not only on both sides, but
that the inscriptions went completely
: through the stone — yet the writing
was not reversed on either side.
There are varying opinions with
I regard to the number of command-
! ments inscribed on each tablet. Most
rabbis hold that they were equally
divided, while others state that each
tablet contained the entire set of 10.
Much has been said about the
arrangement of the commandments.
I One source points out that the first
four commandments deal with human-
: ity's relationship to God, the last five
with interpersonal relations, and the
fifth commandment with the relation-
! ship to one's parerits, forming a
bridge between the two sets. Other
: commentators note that the Ten Com-
mandments are structured in descend-
ing order from the Divine to the
human and from higher to lower val-
ues. Duties to God are followed by
duties to parents, the right to life to the
right of possession, the sanctity of fam-
ily to proper behavior in public.
No one disputes the importance of
the Ten Commandments, yet every stu-
I dent knows that the Torah contains far
more than 10 mitzvot. By tradition,
we count 613 commandments; so
why did the tablets contain only 10?
This question has prompted a profu-
! sion of rabbinical commentary. In fact,
1 one midrash states that all the remain-
ing mitzvot of the Torah were, in fact,
inscribed on the tablets, in between
the 10.
The Mechilta, an early medieval
commentary midrash on Exodus,
points out that the numerical value o f
the word Torah is 611 (in Hebrew,
each letter of the alphabet has a
numerical value). Moses taught 611
of the 61.3 mitzvot, and the Jewish
people hear the other iwo — the first
two of the Ten Commandments —
directly from God.
This Shabbat, when you hear the
Torah read in your synagogue or tem-
ple, unless you are prepared you may
be surprised by how the Ten Com-
mandments are recited.
By tradition, the text of the Torah is
publicly read in a specific chant or
cantillation (known in Yiddish as trop).
Every reader learns this by studying
printed texts of the Torah that show the
cantillation marks (the Torah scroll itself
contains text only — no vowel points,
punctuation or trop). Although the Ten
Commandments section in the Torah
carries the standard cantillation sym-
i bols, the Torah reader follows a differ-
: ent chant when the section is read.
Comprehensive editions of the Chu-
mash (the Torah text in print) show the
special trop.
It- is customary to stand for the read-
ing of the Ten Commandments, and
through the ages this has troubled
many rabbis. Giving one section of
the Torah seemingly greater respect
than the rest, they feared, could lead
to disrespect of the Torah itself. Stand-
ing for one part and not for the rest
might make people think that the Ten
Commandments are all that matter.
Some people stand whenever the
Torah is read, so they have no dilem-
ma. Because the Ten Commandments
occur six verses into the service's sixth
aliya, some rabbis recommend that
those who ordinarily sit through the
Torah reading to stand up at the
beginning of the aliya, rather than
immediately before the recitation of
the Ten Commandments.
In 1923, director Cecil B. DeMille
made his first feature, The Ten Com-
mandments, as a silent movie. In
1956, he remade the movie, this time
! with Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner,
and a cast of thousands. The parting
of the Red Sea and the writing of the
holy tablets were among the film's
1 Oscar-winning special effects. Until
recently, The Ten Commandments with
1 Heston ranked among the most prof-
itable movies of all time, grossing
$43 million — though that's puny by
today's standards. ❑