Parashat Yitro – The 10 Commandments

It’s interesting to note that Jews, Protestants and Catholics disagree over what each of the 10 commandments are. A comparison can be found here.

Judaism holds that the first commandment is “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The problem is that that’s more of a statement than a commandment? So what’s the commandment associated with it? Most sources hold that the commandment is to know that there is a G-d.

But who is this commandment for? If someone already believes in G-d they don’t need to be told this? If the don’t, then they won’t care what it says in the Torah. And can you really command belief?

The answer is as follows: The Torah does not say "BELIEVE" in God. Nor does it say to wonder, feel, intuit, assume, presume, hope, or aspire that there's a God. Rather, the Torah commands us to "KNOW" there is a God!

Western society typically associates religion with “blind faith”. Judaism rejects that idea. The first commandment tells us to use reason and logic to ascertain the existence of G-d. We are told to question, to explore and to understand… not to simply follow along blindly.

Just how one goes about doing that is more difficult, and will have to be left to a future posting.

Shabbat Shalom.