Torah Portion

The Ten Commandments' Divinity
Does Not Exceed Rest Of Torah

between 'the sons of Ham are Cush
and Mitzraim' (Genesis 10:6) or
(Timna was a concubine' (Genesis
36:12) and between 'I am the Lord'
(the Ten Commandments, Exodus
20:2) or 'Hear, Israel' (the Shema,
Deuteronomy 6:4) — because all were
his week's Torah portion
from the 'mouth of the Omnipotent'
contains what is generally
and it is all the Torah of God, perfect,
called the "Ten
pure, holy and true.
Commandments." The
"And to anyone who says: 'there is
Torah itself (Exodus 34:28;
in
the
Torah (parts that are) essential
Deuteronomy 4:13;) calls it Aseret
nd (parts that are) nonessential,' the
a
HaDevarim — the 10 things, words or
rabbis have said: (Talmud Bavli,
utterances. (In rabbinic literature, it is
"Sanhedrin" 99a) 'He who
called Aseret HaDibrot, which
believes that the entire
essentially means the same
Torah is from the mouth of
thing.)
the Omnipotent except for
It seems clear from the
(even) one verse that the
Torah that these verses were
Holy One, Blessed be He,
pronounced by God directly
didn't say ... denies the
to the entire Jewish nation
Torah."
(although the midrash indi-
In fact, in a Teshuvah
cates only the first two [see
(Responsum 263),
Talmud Bavli, "Makos"
Maimonides, when asked
23B]) and were contained on
whether a community
RABBI
the "Tablets of the
should stand only for the
ELIEZER
Covenant" or "testimony."
Torah reading of the verses
COHEN
But there are disputes
of the Ten Commandments,
Special to the
among the rabbis over how
states: "any place whose cus-
Jewish
News
to count and identify the
tom is to stand should be
"10" — as there are among
prevented (from doing so)
the various Christian religions. And
because this causes a loss of (proper)
rabbis throughout the ages have
faith and gives the impression that
offered a whole range of opinions as to
there are various levels of Torah and
what is "special" about these particular
parts are greater than other parts; this
verses.
is very harmful."
The Mishnah indicates ("Tamid"
And, although the general practice
5:1) that the recitation of these verses
is to stand for certain parts of the
was a part of the "prayer service" in
Torah reading, contrary to the opinion
the Temple. But the Gemara (Talmud
of Maimonides — certainly, Jewish
Bavli, "Brochos" 12a) states that this
tradition accepts his principle that all
practice "was terminated because of
of the Torah is equally divine.
the charges of the heretics" and for the
It, therefore, behooves us to accept
same reason was not reinstated.
his suggestion to try our utmost to
understand and implement "God's
No Special Status
word" — to learn, to try to under-
Apparently, the charges were that these stand and to observe the Torah and to
pray: "Open my eyes that I may see
verses originated with God — but
the wonders of Your Torah (Psalms
only these, and not the entire Torah.
Therefore, the rabbis discontinued the
119:18)." ❑
recitation of these verses so as not to
do anything that could be construed
as giving a special status to these (or
any other) verses from the Torah.
Maimonides (1135-1204 C.E.) in
Besides standing for some Torah
his commentary on Mishnah (intro-
readings, do we do anything else
duction to Sanhedrin, chapter "Helek"
that indicates that some parts of
[11], which is the source for his Yud
the Torah seem more important to
Gimel Ikkarim — the 13 Principles of
us? What do we do to show our
Jewish Faith — states explicitly in
respect for the Torah? If the Torah
principle eight, "The Divinity of the
is divine, why do so many Jews
Torah," that: "There is no difference
ignore it? Is there anything intrin-
sically in the Torah that indicates
Eliezer Cohen is rabbi of
its divine origin?
Congregation Ohr Chadash.

Shabbat Yitro:
Exodus 18: 1-20:23 ;
Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-6

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