Choosing His Words
On the sixth of Sivan, in the year 2448 from Creation, every Jewish soul that was and would ever be-the past, present and future of the Jewish people-stood trembling beneath a mountain to receive the Torah. Amidst flames and lightning, the Jewish nation heard the Ten Commandments, the Aseres HaDibros, that formed the basis of our very existence as a people. "I am Hashem your G-d!" "Do not worship any other deity!" "Do not say Hashem's name in vain!" "Keep the Sabbath holy!" Then there were the more mundane, common law commandments such as "Do not kill!" "Do not steal!" and "Do not commit adultery!"A famous question is asked about the latter half of the Ten Commandments. If laws like "Do not kill" are fundamental tenets of any civilized society, why, of the 613 possible candidates, were these seemingly "common sense" laws chosen as the ultimate foundation of G-d's relationship with His chosen nation? Why couldn't these laws be relegated to edicts of a legal system-with G-d's quintessential communiqué being left to more ethereal, spiritual matters?
With bitter experience, we have learned the lesson of the laws of men. When people alone have enacted laws-without reliance on G-d's wisdom-even the most cultured and advanced countries of the world have fllen. Our prestigious civil judges, skillfully and methodically dispensing the justice of men, fall, in an instant, to the follies of bribery or corruption. Time and time again, the tides of reason turn, and the venom, lurking anxiously in the minds of men for its chance to strike, unleashes its sting. Throughout history, we have heard the chilling phrase, "for the good of humanity," as genocide, pogroms, and ethnic cleansings were carried out virtually unpunished by the same laws chosen to protect men.
G-d sees all. Mortal man perceives himself as all-seeing, but sees little. When the human mind establishes justice, it is done so at best with a prejudiced mind. We are inconsistent, our minds impure. Laws are passed and laws are discarded in the capriciousness of the moment, slaves to the ways of the world. Embroiled as it is by political motives and issues of race, contemporary law often seems like no law at all.Jewish courts do not follow the laws of man, but refer always to the Torah, the only true guidebook of life and law. G-d is above the minds of men, above their jaundiced eyes and carefully crafted self-motivation. G-d sees and knows everything. When a case comes before Jewish law, every case must be studied according to Torah. Every detail must be scrutinized according to the wisdom of G-d: G-d above nature, G-d above man, and G-d above intellect.
Why did G-d give us the most basic laws of society as part of His carefully chosen "Ten Words"? Why did He not rise above the mundane and leave the making of the laws of the land to the people? Precisely to protect us from thinking that it is we who have authority over others, that it is we who are responsible for determining authorship over any area of our lives. In G-d's wisdom, He gave us Ten Commandments to teach us that even the most obvious directives are no more and no less a creation of the Will of the Al-mighty than the most sublime; to teach us that just as we have One G-d, we have One law, a law that can and never will be altered.
May we merit to build the Beis Hamikdash speedily in our days, and fulfill all 613 of G-d's holy commandments in actuality, with the coming of Moshiach. Amen.
Sara Levy