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Call (248)354-5959 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. ❑