The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments
5 principles for modern living from the Torah’s 10 commandments
I’m still working on writing in my head the next part of the memoir which I began last Friday, it’s going to be intense and uncomfortable to write and so in the meantime here’s a quick Friday missive about the Ten Commandments and why they’re still important as guides for a good life.
The Ten Commandments
In the Torah God presents the Ten Commandments on two tablets side by side, five on the left side and five on the right side. What’s the connection between the two sides, why are the commandments organized like this? It might seem random and it’s not, nothing in the Torah is random. Everything has meaning. The first five commandments address vertical relationships and the second five commandments address horizontal relationships. Let’s look.
I am the L‑rd your G‑d and You shall not murder :: meaning stop practising cancel culture. People are put in this life by a power that’s beyond your understanding and control and you best get on with accepting that and living your best life ethically and compassionately and justly and kindly — all at once.
No False Idols and You shall not commit adultery :: meaning avoid taking associates to G-d and worshipping those, stay on the path to g-d and resist the temptation to take a side trail. Commitment to g-d happens through your commitment to your spouse and family. We have many false idols around us because the trappings of modernity drown us in false idols. From social identities to religious organizations promoting their institutions as Divine, to political leaders we deify, to worship of wealth accumulation and work and even clout—we struggle with false idols.
No taking the L‑rd’s name in vain and You shall not steal :: meaning avoid exploiting the Divine power of G-d’s spoken name to serve our egotistical or vain aspirations, meaning take care to resist the temptation to use the sacred and holy for unholy purposes. We don’t use high end silk as toilet paper, we use cheap paper we made for that purpose and we dispose of it appropriately and immediately. What if we thought of the name of G-D like this? What if we thought of using G-d’s name in vain as a kind of hijacking or theft, a violation of the sacred? Violating others is wrong.
Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy and You shall not bear false witness :: meaning bear witness to creation by living your life as G-d created the universe, in 6 days of work and then taking one day of rest. To forgo rest and to deny the sacredness of stopping and resting is to bear false witness to G-d.
Honour your father and mother and You shall not covet :: meaning you should love yourself and your life, love being you and not want to be anyone else Don’t covet anyone else’s life, appreciate what your parents gave you, be you there’s no one else like you and never again will be.
From all this we get the following five guides for a good life. These seem simple, don’t they? And yet. How many are we violating? All.
The political and moral culture of Canada violates all of these in it’s drive to institutionalise evil, as in yetzer hara. We cancel, we violate relationships, we violate others, we abuse rest and normalise unproductiveness and also idolatry of productiveness, we refuse to recognise ourselves or others as is, we mutilate bodies with unnecessary amputation of body parts and say it’s affirming or purifying. Canada has become an anathema to good. We can’t even follow these five simple principles for living in our supposed social justice haven.
You can watch the Aleph Beta video, which is where I drew my inspiration.
Five principles from Ten Commandments
Don’t Cancel Others
Don’t Violate Relationships
Don’t Violate Others
Take time to rest—a day of rest is sacred
Recognize Yourself