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Because the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-13) are so important, we will present them here with brief explanations.
1) “I the Lord am your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.” Faith is learned through the story of God’s revelation to the Israelites.
2) “You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (See chapter 15 below, especially sections 6-7 and 13, on the commandment to have faith and the prohibition of idol worship.)
3) “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless one who takes His name in vain.” We are instructed to respect and honor God by not taking His name in vain, especially in the context of oath-taking. It is a natural outgrowth of the two previous commandments, which deal with faith in God and the rejection of idols.
4) “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Faith in God must be expressed in all dimensions, including the dimension of time. The Sabbath (Shabbat) is the day when we are commanded to abstain from productive labor, to focus on the fundamentals of faith, and to study Torah in a relaxed state of enjoyment. (See chapters 26-28 below for more about Shabbat.)
5) “Honor your father and your mother, that you may lengthen your days on the Land that the Lord your God is assigning to you.” Respecting parents is an extension of respecting God and an outgrowth of gratitude. Gratitude is a core value, a moral necessity. When a person is grateful to one's parents, it opens one up to be grateful to everyone, and especially to the Almighty. (For more about this commandment, see chapter 12 below.)
6) “You shall not murder.” This commandment teaches us about the sanctity of human life. Since each person is created in the image of God, it is forbidden to shorten a life. This leads to many other commandments aimed at protecting and preserving human life. (See chapter 4 below for more on this commandment.)
7) “You shall not commit adultery.” This commandment is aimed at preventing damage to the sanctity of the marriage covenant. (See chapters 8-11 for more on this commandment and the other laws of marriage.)
8) “You shall not steal.” The value of a human being is also expressed through respecting the product of one's labor and creativity. Therefore, it is forbidden to steal anything that belongs to someone else. (Clearly, then, it is also forbidden to “steal” a person and make one a slave.) Theft does damage on three levels. It harms the individual victim from whom something was stolen; it undermines the foundations of society, weakening people’s motivation to labor and create, and it moves society in the direction of poverty and shortages. (See chapters 3 and 5 below for laws related to this commandment.)
9) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” It is prohibited to testify falsely in court. This commandment, like many others in the Torah, is meant to reinforce the status of the judiciary and ensure justice is done. (See chapter 7 for more about this commandment.)
10) “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Greed and desire are at the root of many interpersonal sins. Therefore, the Torah commands us to quash them at the very outset, before the thoughts are translated into actions. (See also 3:33 below.)
