08-29-2018, 08:54 AM
Some that might have been missed:
1. Never treat children as sexual objects.
2. Honor the helpless among you -- the children and the infirm.
3. Never judge any person by skin color.
4. Do not get drunk.
Back to the originals:
#1 clearly separates monotheists from polytheists, and when Jews were the only monotheists, this distinguished them from everyone else.
#2 implies that there are no other gods, and that worshiping anything even as a manifestation of God does something unforgivable: dividing or compartmentalizing God.
#3 is probably not so much the "God damn!" curse... I think we can understand Jews cursing such evil people as Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, and Saddam. The big problem comes with fraudulent oaths that people might use to seal a business transaction that one breaks.
#4. The day of rest is a necessity, even if the 'rest' is only a break in the pattern. At the least it can keep life from becoming pure drudgery for toilers.
#5. What if a parent is a criminal?
#6. Straightforward enough. There might be exemptions for war, self-defense, and capital punishment.
#7. Marriage is to be respected by those inside and outside.
#8. Theft is the most blatant violation of property rights, and it makes security of title impossible.
#9. Perjured testimony makes a travesty of judicial process.
#10. Covetousness (the neighbor has a color TV, and I want one, too) is a motivator for capitalist production.
1. Never treat children as sexual objects.
2. Honor the helpless among you -- the children and the infirm.
3. Never judge any person by skin color.
4. Do not get drunk.
Back to the originals:
#1 clearly separates monotheists from polytheists, and when Jews were the only monotheists, this distinguished them from everyone else.
#2 implies that there are no other gods, and that worshiping anything even as a manifestation of God does something unforgivable: dividing or compartmentalizing God.
#3 is probably not so much the "God damn!" curse... I think we can understand Jews cursing such evil people as Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, and Saddam. The big problem comes with fraudulent oaths that people might use to seal a business transaction that one breaks.
#4. The day of rest is a necessity, even if the 'rest' is only a break in the pattern. At the least it can keep life from becoming pure drudgery for toilers.
#5. What if a parent is a criminal?
#6. Straightforward enough. There might be exemptions for war, self-defense, and capital punishment.
#7. Marriage is to be respected by those inside and outside.
#8. Theft is the most blatant violation of property rights, and it makes security of title impossible.
#9. Perjured testimony makes a travesty of judicial process.
#10. Covetousness (the neighbor has a color TV, and I want one, too) is a motivator for capitalist production.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.