Martini Judaism

Why the posting of the Ten Commandments is wrong

How could a rabbi criticize the Ten Commandments? Just watch me.

Workers repaint a Ten Commandments billboard off of Interstate 71 on Election Day near Chenoweth, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2023. Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

June 20, 2024

By Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — The headlines could have read, “Sacred Jewish text to be posted in Louisiana classrooms; most Jews are opposed.”

That headline would have been correct.

Yes, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana has signed a law that mandates the Ten Commandments be posted in every public education classroom in the state — the first state to do so.

And, yes, the Ten Commandments are a sacred Jewish text (known as the aseret ha-dibrot, the 10 utterances), which is not the reason why he has made that a mandate. I doubt he has reflected overly much on their Jewish origin; for him, they are part of that amorphous thing called “the Judeo-Christian tradition” — useful because, supposedly, such a posting will create a more moral generation of young people.

But, no, this rabbi is not happy about this. I daresay I speak for many if not most Jews in America in voicing my displeasure and my concern.

Why?

First, we might think the Ten Commandments are simply a list of basic moral rules. They are a religious text that comes from a particular religious tradition. The revelation of those commandments forms the core of the Jewish covenant with God.

As such, this is a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution, which forbids the government from establishing an official religion. It also specifies that the government must neither promote nor inhibit religion. In this particular instance, the religion in question just happens to be mine (though, through that “Judeo-Christian” thing, it is not only “mine”). This does not make me feel better.

But, you will protest, doesn’t the fact that this is “Judeo-Christian” have any bearing on the matter? After all, this is a “Judeo-Christian” country.

To which I would say: Dwight David Eisenhower just called and he wants his worldview back. That whole idea of “Judeo-Christian” is a nostalgia act — the religious equivalent of a doo-wop revival. This country is Christian (and every flavor thereof), Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Mormon, Wiccan, etc., etc. — and it is also agnostic, atheist and everything in between. Again, posting the Ten Commandments favors one particular religious tradition as a source of inspiration and guidance.

Moreover, we have an additional problem: Which version of the Ten Commandments?

There are two versions of the Ten Commandments/Aseret Ha-dibrot in the Torah. Here is a summary of the list in Exodus 20:

1. I am God, Who brought you out of Egypt.
2. Don’t make images, and worship other gods.
3. Don’t swear falsely by My name.
4. Remember the Sabbath.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Don’t murder.
7. Don’t commit adultery.
8. Don’t steal.
9. Don’t bear false witness.
10. Don’t covet what your neighbor has.

There is a second version in Deuteronomy 5. The two versions differ from each other in subtle, yet important ways. The Exodus version says Jews must “remember” the Sabbath; the Deuteronomy version says Jews must “observe” the Sabbath. More than that, the Ten Commandments reappear in the Holiness Code of Leviticus 19.

Let’s add to the problem: Whose Ten Commandments? We have seen there are two versions in the Torah.

Let’s make it more complicated. There are two Christian versions.

First, the Catholic version.

1. I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange Gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
4. Honor your father and mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Notice: In this version, the first two commandments are combined into one, except that it omits the passage about graven images, and the last commandment about coveting is divided into two — one about your neighbor’s wife, and the other about your neighbor’s goods. 

There is also the Protestant version:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor’s.

The version of the Ten Commandments that is about to find a place on classroom walls in Louisiana? That would be the Protestant version.

So, the placing of a Protestant text will seem, to many people, as the government establishment of a religion.

For me, as for many of us, that would be enough reason to oppose this legislation. That opposition need not be, and should not be, the sole responsibility of secular groups. All religions should oppose it as well — even, and especially, Protestants who might choose not to view this as a theological victory, but as a moment to say “gulp” and to think about the American body politic.

Finally, why do I oppose the posting of the Ten Commandments?

First, let me channel my inner Hebrew scholar. The Christian versions canonize a mistranslation of the sixth commandment — lo tirtzach. It does not say “you shall not kill”; rather, “you shall not murder.” The biblical tradition understands that there is a difference between murder — the wanton taking of a human life — and killing, which might be accidental or even, at times, tragically necessary.

Snark alert: If, in fact, Louisiana (and perhaps other states) would want to post the Ten Commandments, with their directive to “not kill,” the least we could expect is some kind of activism regarding access to firearms. Nothing would be more effective in making the words of that commandment into a civic reality.

But, second: The Ten Commandments are too “nice,” too basic, too Hallmark greeting card. Even though no one has asked me, I would put a different biblical text into classrooms.

Which text would that be? How about Leviticus 19, the Holiness Code? True, you get the Ten Commandments in there anyway. But there are some other necessary gems in there.

• Leave the corners of your field for the poor. That is the commandment to engage in charitable acts that ameliorate poverty.
• “The wages of your neighbor shall not remain with you until morning.” Pay your workers on time. Don’t make someone besmirch their own dignity by pleading and/or waiting for what is due them.
• “Don’t insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block before the blind.” This means not to take advantage of those with disabilities (though in the rabbinic tradition, “putting a stumbling block before the blind” also means taking advantage of someone).
• “Do not render an unfair decision, and do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich.” Create a society that centers itself on justice.
• “Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor” (or: “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds”). Reject violence of any kind, and do not be a bystander to such violence.
• Do not hate. Reprove people. Build a society based on a rejection of enmity, and one that is based on honest critique.
• Don’t bear grudges. Love your neighbor as yourself. (If you were going to choose one, and only one text for display, perhaps it should be “love your neighbor as yourself,” which also has its Christian version.)
• And then, skipping a bunch of verses: Show deference to the elderly.
• “When strangers reside with you in your land, you shall not wrong them.
  The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself. … ” Yes, that includes everyone — including immigrants.
• Have honest weights and measures. Create a society based on fairness.

Would I really call for putting these verses into classrooms? Obviously not.

But that is the kind of society I would want to create.

Which answers the question: WWMD?

What would Moses do?

Spiritual Politics

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments mandate violates its own religious freedom heritage

It's a legal birthright that goes back to the French Revolution and Thomas Jefferson.

Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during his inauguration ceremony at the State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

June 21, 2024

By Mark Silk

(RNS) — Signing the bill Wednesday (June 19) that mandates display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry declared, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses.” 

That may not be on a par with the probably apocryphal declaration attributed to Texas Governor Ma Ferguson (“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for the children of Texas!”), but it’s no more the case: The ancient Sumerian King Ur-Nammu promulgated the oldest extant law code, more than six centuries before Moses toted those tablets down from Mt. Sinai.

Not that priority in law-giving is the real point of the Louisiana law. The real point is that the giver of the Decalogue was none other than (the Bible says) God Almighty. Or, as the Supreme Court declared in striking down a similar law 44 years ago, “The pre-eminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature.” 

To be sure, Gov. Landry & Co. have enclosed their religious purpose in secular packing material. Alongside the Ten Commandments, classrooms will be obliged to display three major documents from American history — the Mayflower Compact (1620), the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787).

But if Landry truly wished to enlighten the children of Louisiana as to the rule of law in their state, he would also have mandated display of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was passed by the French National Assembly after the French Revolution in 1789. That’s because Louisiana owes its legal system to the French Revolution.

Uniquely among the states of the Union, that system is based on the Napoleonic Code, which was designed to incorporate thousands of decrees that had been passed under France’s revolutionary government. And let it be noted that Thomas Jefferson had a hand in drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was presented to the French General Assembly while he was serving as U.S. minister to France, three days before the storming of the Bastille.  

Three years earlier, the Virginia General Assembly had passed Jefferson’s bill establishing religious freedom, which stipulated that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief.”

This notion was reprised in item 10 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man; to wit: “No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.”

It is to be expected that the state-mandated classroom display of the Ten Commandments will disquiet some Louisiana students and/or their parents on account of their religious views. Unless the Supreme Court ends up reaffirming its earlier decision, they’ll just have to deal