Hi everybody,

Hope you all are in good spirits this week. In this week’s parsha (Torah portion), we finally make it to Mount Sinai and have the most amazing high: we all get to hear the Creator of the Universe speak to us. And this is what she said:

I am haShem (the 4 letter name of god meaning: what was, is, and will be – the master of everything) your god, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, for the house of slavery.

You shall not recognize the gods of others in my presence. You shall not make yourself a carved image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the water beneath the earth. You shall not prostrate yourself to them nor worship them, for I am haShem, your god – a jealous god who remembers the sin of fathers upon children to the third and fourth generations for my enemies. But, who shows kindness for thousands of generations to those who love me and observe my commandments.

You shall not take the name of haShem, your god, in vain. For haShem will not absolve anyone who takes his name in vain.

Remember the shabbat (sabbath) day and keep it holy. Six days shall you work and accomplish all your tasks; but the seventh day is shabbat (which comes from the verb meaning to stop or to sit) for haShem, your God. You shall not do any work. You, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within your gates. For in six days haShem made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and she rested on the seventh day. Therefore haShem blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and your mother so that your days will be lengthened up the land that haShem, your God gives you.

You shall not murder.

And you shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your fellow.

You shall not covet your fellow’s house. You shall not covet your fellow’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything else that belongs to your fellow.

This is what he said. Please note that where the four-letter name of god appears, I wrote the word haShem. haShem is a Hebrew word that literally means “the Name.”

Forgive a small digression here, but when I was a software engineer (many years ago), I was told to write really interesting cover letters because managers usually remember only the first resume and the last resume they look at, and the odds were not good that mine would be the first or the last. I don’t think this is true just of managers looking to hire software engineers; I think most people remember the first experience, and the last experience, and the things they experience in-between tend to get mixed up and muddled. Think about school for example. Are your sharpest memories around your first and last day of class, while the days in-between are just kind of there and indistinct?

I bring this up because haShem knows that this is how were are. And she took it into account when he shared directly with us these 10 statements. The 10 ideas are broken up into two sets of five. Each set of five was written on a different stone. The first set of connections are related to how one relates to divinity; the second set of sayings deal with how people should interact with each other. Why set it up this way? Because haShem knows we will remember two of these utterances really well: the first and the last. So, she put the essence of the first 5 into the first, and the essence of the last 5 into the last one.

Here is what I mean. The first thing god said was, “I am haShem your god, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, for the house of slavery.” God is basically saying that the children, AND ONLY the children of Yaakov (Jacob) that followed Moses out of Egypt are indebted to him because he saved their lives. And let’s face it, if someone saves your life, you owe them your life. So REMEMBER WHO SAVED YOU! And with that in mind you are more likely to remember everything else god is saying, especially those that relate to how to deal with her.

The last commandment deals with not desiring things that belong to others. What does this have to do with not stealing, murder, etc? Well, if you do not desire what another has, you have no reason to steal from him, or fly into a murderous rage. If you don’t desire another’s partner, you have no reason to commit adultery. The last statement is haShem’s way of telling us how not to fall into the trap of wanting to break utterances 6-9. It is placed at the end because we are more likely to remember it then the individual commandments that are in the middle, and if we follow just that one, we are less likely to transgress the others.

Now I am not suggesting you only need to know the first and the last things that haShem says. Rather, I am just suggesting that they are first and last because they will help with remembering and performing the other connections that god has provided us to get close to divinity.

I bless everybody with peace and contentment while striving for better understanding of who they are and where they come from. And thanks for tuning in.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.