Shalts and Shalt Nots

“If you choose you can keep the commandments, 

and they will save you;

If you trust in the God, you shall live.” 

When we think of the Ten Commandments, there are many powerful images we can conjure up. Michaelangelo’s brooding Moses, Charleton Heston smashing the tablets of the law in his rage against the idolatrous Israelites, even the melting Nazis in the final moments of Raiders of the Lost Ark are each fearful in their own ways. And rightly so, for the Law is a powerful, even fearful thing, made all the more so by the thundering rhetoric of its prohibitions: THOU SHALT NOT. 

Our tradition tells us that God gave the Law to the chosen people to guide them and protect them from themselves and each other as much as to assure their right worship of the creator. It’s instructive to remember that only three commandments on the left-hand tablet define the terms of our relationship with the Almighty, while the other seven fill the second tablet top to bottom. No other gods or idols, no abuse of the holy name, and no disrespect for the Lord’s sabbath on one side, while every kind of failure or perversion of human interaction—disrespect for family, violence, sexual indulgence, theft, lying, greed in all its forms—make up the bulk of the fundamental rules laid out for us. These ten tenets, one for each of our fingers, establish a scaffold of meaning and right conduct, on which, alas, the guilty are threatened to be hanged. 

Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the law, but to deepen it. Not enough, we hear this Sunday, to avoid murder; we need to turn away from anger and wrath. Not enough to avoid adultery; we need to respect the other’s integrity in thought as well as deed. Not enough to avoid lying; we need to love and speak the truth. 

A couple of weeks ago, we heard the Beatitudes, which are, if you will, Jesus’ Eight Commandments of Blessedness: THOU SHALT be simple, pure in heart, merciful and compassionate, just, truthful, peace-making, and willing to suffer for what is right and true. Those are positive precepts we need to focus on more than ever in these evil times as ordinary human laws are being ignored and oppression of the weak is considered fair game. “Thou shalt not” is no longer enough. Unless our righteousness surpasses that of the pharisees and politicians, we will not enter, much less help to bring about the kingdom we so earnestly hope for.

Blessings,