10 Commandments/2 Versions?

D'varim 5:12

Is the big Jewish mission to focus on quality of life for Jews - or making the world better for all? The Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue, those so-called Top Ten Rules for Sacred Living, show up for the second time in the Torah in today’s chapter - and this set is different than the first. In this subtle but surprising difference hides the answer.

The first set of ten shows up in the Book of Names when Moses descends Mount Sinai with two stone tablets. Here they go again - but with a variation. There are some small and bigger differences that have always intrigued readers, and many have tried to square off the conflict with varying degrees of sense. Modern scholarship helps us understand that these indeed reflect two different historical traditions and ideologies, emphasizing different values that somehow, over time, pass, mostly with success, as one consistent theological claim.  The most glaring difference between the two versions of the ten rules is what to do with the Sabbath - and why observe it at all. It will also lead us to the question of universal-tribal priorities.

The Book of Names, Exodus 20, instructs us to remember the Sabbath because the Creator rested on the seventh day - it’s good for us to do the same. But the 5th chapter of The Book of Words offers a different instruction and reason:

שָׁמ֛֣וֹר אֶת־י֥וֹם֩ הַשַּׁבָּ֖֨ת לְקַדְּשׁ֑֜וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוְּךָ֖֣ ׀ יְהֹוָ֥֣ה אֱלֹהֶֽ֗יךָ׃

 Guard  the sabbath day and keep it holy, as your God has commanded you.

Dv. 5:12

The reason given is not the Creation but the Exodus - we who once were enslaves must make sure everybody rests at least one day a week - including those who work for us, and even slaves. 

So why two different commandments and reasons? The Talmud’s answer: “‘Remember’ and ‘guard’ were pronounced in a single utterance – an utterance that the human mouth cannot utter, nor the ear hear.” In other words - it’s the same and beyond our mortal meaning-making pay grade. Contemporary scholars identify here a more interesting link to our origins. 

Dr. RabbiTzemah Yoreh writes about the two versions, identifying the first as being composed by the Priestly version, and the second by the authors of Deuteronomy: 

“The divergence between the two Decalogues offer bible critics a rare window into the development of one the seminal texts in the Jewish canon. Most scholars believe that an earlier version of the Decalogue contained no reason for observing the Sabbath, and that the versions in Exodus and Deuteronomy reflect two different reasons provided by different authors, with each presenting his worldview.

An editor of the Book of Deuteronomy supplied a reason in line with his familiar trope of compassion for one’s dependents, justified throughout the book by alluding to the Israelite slavery in Egypt.. With multiple exhortations to behave ethically. It appears that the moralizing Deuteronomistic editor wished to put his stamp on this seminal text, and thus added his most common ethical argument: behave compassionately to your slaves since you were slaves yourselves...One of the Priestly source’s primary concerns is the observation of the Sabbath..but by interpreting Shabbat in the Decalogue in line with its creation story, it is perhaps asserting that the laws of the Torah are tied to the very fabric of creation, that law and order are inherent to how God created the universe.”

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, one of the giants of this generation, takes these two approaches further. For him, this split screen reasoning for prioritizing the Sabbath is a key to the evolution of Jewish responsibility towards a better world. The first version is about Creation, and about being part of universal commitment to rest and renewal. The second version, linked to the Exodus, is about the particular Jewish history and story of redemption as a reminder to keep striving for freedom and justice. Some Jewish opinions have favored universalism, and others- more tribal focus. At best - they work together. Greenberg writes:

“Inspired by Shabbat, Jewry continues to operate as an avant garde, as a teaching community and as a pioneering role model of a society starting to achieve full justice, dignity, and peace for all..Judaism’s ideal model is a universalism of dignity and values that is comprised of a rainbow of different groups and religions. Humans are united in a common vision of a world repaired, but they savor variety, celebrating and drawing insights from different historical cultures and multiple religions. The Jewish idea is to marry the universal-particular dialectic in culture, religion, and community...

 The Shabbat is at once a deeply Jewish, local family-centered, distinctly-framed national experience. At the same time, it is a model for all humans—whether it be the need to turn off the universal media platforms, or the right to time off for all workers in the world. The Exodus too is at once a deeply Jewish historical liberation. At the same time, it is the model and message for all humans that they are meant to be free—and someday will be.”

Ten rules, two versions, one vision for a better life for all. It’s interesting to note that the first set of the tablets was shattered by Moses - in response to the Golden Calf. The second set, man-made, divine inspired - maybe is the key to the versions? We carry both with us - the broken and the whole, somehow, together.

Image: The Ten Commandments strewn with bullet holes in the wall of the synagogue in Piotrkow Trybunalski, in Poland. This was the synagogue where my father prayed as a child, where his father served as rabbi until 1942. Today, the building is a municipal library.

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