Today begins the two-day Jewish festival of Shavuot, commemorating the day on which God gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. And today, 3,318 years later, Jews across the globe will gather in local synagogues to listen as the Ten Commandments are once again read aloud from a Torah Scroll.
Indeed, it is the age-old engravings of the Ten Commandments that are the bedrock of modern Western Civilization. Let us examine them for a moment and see why they have withstood the test of time.
A mere superficial glance at the Ten Commandments reveals a sharp contrast in the content of the first five commandments versus the latter half. Whereas the Ten Commandments begin with the words, "I am the Lord your God" and "Thou shall have no other Gods" - the revolutionary principles of monotheism - they conclude with the obvious moral injunctions of "Thou shall not murder" and "Thou shall not covet."
The juxtaposition of these two- the profundity of monotheism begins the Ten Commandments and the simplicity of the ethical and moral laws which conclude them- convey an eternal message.
The thinkers of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason would have liked us to believe that religion and God are unnecessary to ensure moral behavior. Reason alone, they argued, will inevitably guide humanity to act fairly, justly and ethically. The past century, however, has unfortunately proven them all wrong.
For it was precisely the nations that excelled in the sciences, humanities and even ethics, that perpetrated the most hideous of crimes upon humanity. The gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka and the Gulag labor camps were not created by primitive, barbaric or illiterate men. They were built by the heirs to the culture of Schiller and Tolstoy.
Based purely on human intellect, even genocide can be rationalized. Without an objective arbiter, a Supreme Being, man's compassion and empathy cannot be trusted to uphold the sanctity of human life. Moral and ethical behavior must glean their validity from something that transcends human rationale. As Dostoevsky's Inquisitor in "The Brothers Karamazov" put it, "Where there is no God all is permitted."
This is the message that lies within the Ten Commandments. They open with the message of monotheism and close with that of moral behavior, teaching us that the two are forever inseparable. In order to have a world in which the commandment of "Thou shall not murder" is eternally upheld, the opening phrase of the Ten Commandments "I am the Lord your God," is a prerequisite.
As we celebrate the festival of Shavuot, we reaffirm our commitment to act kindly and justly towards each other, bearing in mind that the words "justly" and "kindly" are based upon and defined solely by a Divine authority: "In God we Trust."
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick is director of the Chabad of the Tri-Valley in Pleasanton. For more information, call (925) 846-0700 or visit http://www.jewishtrivalley.com.
In God We Trust is a weekly colummn that rotates among local religious and spiritual leaders. Letters and inquiries may be sent to faith@trivalleyherald.com.
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