46 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 

T

he Ten Commandments given 
in parshat Yitro are the most 
famous religious and moral code 
in history. Until recently, they adorned 
American courtrooms. They still adorn 
most synagogue arks. Rembrandt gave 
them their classic artistic 
expression in his portrait of 
Moses, about to break the 
tablets on seeing the golden 
calf. John Rogers Herbert’s 
massive painting of Moses 
bringing down the tablets 
of law dominates the main 
committee room of the 
House of Lords. The twin tablets with their 
10 commands are the enduring symbol of 
eternal law under the sovereignty of God.
It is worth remembering, of course, 
that the “ten commandments” are 
not Ten Commandments. The Torah 
calls them aseret hadevarim (Exodus 
34:28), and tradition terms them aseret 
hadibrot, meaning the “ten words” or “ten 
utterances.” 
 We can understand this better in the 
light of documentary discoveries in the 
20th century, especially Hittite covenants 
or “suzerainty treaties” dating back to 
1400-1200 BCE, that is, around the time 
of Moses and the exodus. These treaties 
often contained a twofold statement of the 
laws laid down in the treaty, first in general 
outline, then in specific detail. That is 
precisely the relationship between the “ten 

utterances” and the detailed commands of 
parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 22-23). The 
former are the general outline, the basic 
principles of the law.
Usually they are portrayed, graphically 
and substantively, as two sets of five, the 
first dealing with relationships between 
us and God (including honoring our 
parents since they, like God, brought us 
into being), the second with the relations 
between us and our fellow humans.
However, it also makes sense to see 
them as three groups of three. The first 
three (one God, no other God, do not 
take God’s name in vain) are about God, 
the Author and Authority of the laws. The 
second set (keep Shabbat, honor parents, 
do not murder) are about createdness. 
Shabbat reminds us of the birth of the 
universe. Our parents brought us into 
being. Murder is forbidden because we are 
all created in God’s image (Genesis 9:6). 
The third three (don’t commit adultery, 
don’t steal, don’t bear false witness) are 
about the basic institutions of society: 
the sanctity of marriage, the integrity of 
private property and the administration 
of justice. Lose any of these and freedom 
begins to crumble.
This structure serves to emphasize what 
a strange command the tenth is: “Do not 
be envious of your neighbor’s house. Do 
not be envious of your neighbor’s wife, 
his slave, his maid, his ox, his donkey or 
anything else that is your neighbor’s.” At 

least on the surface this is different from 
all the other rules, which involve speech or 
action.
Envy, covetousness, desiring what 
someone else has, is an emotion, not a 
thought, a word or a deed. And, surely, 
we can’t help our emotions. They used to 
be called the “passions,” precisely because 
we are passive in relation to them. So how 
can envy be forbidden at all? Surely, it 
only makes sense to command or forbid 
matters that are within our control. In any 
case, why should the occasional spasm of 
envy matter if it does not lead to anything 
harmful to other people?

THE HIGH PRICE OF ENVY
Here, it seems to me, the Torah is 
conveying a series of fundamental truths 
we forget at our peril. First, as we have 
been reminded by cognitive behavioral 
therapy, what we believe affects what we 
feel. Narcissists, for instance, are quick 
to take offense because they think other 
people are talking about or “dissing” 
(disrespecting) them, whereas often other 
people aren’t interested in us at all. Their 
belief is false, but that does not stop them 
feeling angry and resentful.
Second, envy is one of the prime drivers 
of violence in society. It is what led Iago to 
mislead Othello with tragic consequences. 
Closer to home it is what led Cain to 
murder Abel. It is what led Abraham and 
then Isaac to fear for their lives when 
famine forced them temporarily to leave 
home. They believe that, married as they 
are to attractive women, the local ruler will 
kill them so that they can take their wives 
into their harem.
Most poignantly, envy lay at the heart of 
the hatred of the brothers for Joseph. They 
resented his special treatment at the hands 
of their father, the richly embroidered 
cloak he wore and his dreams of becoming 
the ruler of them all. That is what led them 
to contemplate killing him and eventually 
to sell him as a slave.
Rene Girard, in his classic Violence and 
the Sacred, says that the most basic cause 
of violence is mimetic desire, that is, the 
desire to have what someone else has, 
which is ultimately the desire to be what 
someone else is. Envy can lead to breaking 
many of the other commands: It can move 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks 

To Thank Before 
We Think 

