Yisro - 5773

Let us begin with a trick question: How many of the six hundred thirteen Mitzvos are contained within the Aseres Hadibros/Ten Commandments? The surprising answer – at least according to the Rambam – is fourteen!

Where do the extra Mitzvos come from?

The second commandment (Shemos 20:3-6) is comprised of four separate prohibitions:

• “You shall have no other gods beside me,” prohibits belief in the existence of deities other than Hashem;
• “Do not make for yourself an idol,” prohibits the manufacture of objects for worship;
• “Do not bow to them,” prohibits serving false gods in the manner reserved for Divine worship; and
• “Do not worship them,” prohibits serving false gods in the conventional ways practiced by their worshippers.

The fourth commandment (Shemos 20:8-11) is comprised of two separate Mitzvos:

• “Remember the Shabbos Day,” is the positive Mitzvah to sanctify the Shabbos with the recitation of Kiddush; and
• “Do not perform any work,” is the negative Mitzvah to refrain from the thirty-nine categories of Melacha.

Each of the remaining eight commandments is comprised of a single Mitzvah. Do the math (4 + 2 + 8 = 14) and you come to the surprising answer cited above.

The dual calculation indicates that there are two different aspects to these verses. First, they are a section of the Taryag Mizvos; in that sense they are but a small section of a larger whole. Second, they form a distinct unit in their own right called the Ten Commandments. How do we understand this?

Maharal (Tiferes Yisrael, Chapter 35) explains that there are two aspects to Torah:

• Torah is Divine self-revelation. Hashem desires that man – to the extent possible – come to an understanding of His essence, his ways, and priorities. We achieve this through the study of Torah, the vehicle through which Hashem “introduces” himself to mankind.
• Torah is the ultimate “self-help” book. It gives us the techniques for achieving correct opinions and proper character traits; it facilitates a relationship with the Divine which gives meaning and fulfillment to our lives.

Divine self-revelation is always associated with the number ten. Hashem revealed himself as creator of the universe with the ten statements of the first chapter of Bereishis. He revealed himself as liberator with the ten plagues in Egypt. In the Kabbala, His conduct of the universe is through the conduit of the Ten Sephiros.

(The significance of the number ten is that, in our system of decimal notation, the number ten is actually a single body of “ten”. It is comprised of the digit “one” located in the “ten’s place”; the “zero” is really just a placeholder to show that the “one” is not in the “unit’s place”. The number ten thus represents an underlying unity of disparate elements which, of course, is fundamental to our understanding of Hashem’s nature.)

Consequently, at Sinai, the moment of the ultimate Divine self-revelation, the content of that revelation is contained in ten separate utterances – the Aseres Hadibros.

The number six hundred thirteen, according to Chazal (Zohar 1:170b), corresponds to the 248 bones and 365 sinews of the body. This number indicates that the function of Taryag Mitzvos is the repair and refinement of the human being. Thus Taryag relates to the second aspect of Torah mentioned above.

Perhaps this will shed light on the interesting fact that the Aseres Hadibros were inscribed on tablets of stone while the Taryag Mitzvos are written on parchment manufactured from animal skin. Aseres Hadibros relate to Hashem’s self-revelation. In the same way that Hashem is unchanging, they are inscribed on a material that is unchanging. So to speak, they are carved in stone.

The Taryag Mitzvos, on the other hand, as they relate to the human condition, are witten on an organic material which is subject to the same pattern of birth, growth, degeneration and death as the human being.