Appels à contributionsBibliographies/LiensCommunautés AfricainesCoopération Israel-AfriqueDossiers accessible à tousFiches biographiques

The Secret of the 10 Commandments

The Secret of the 10 Commandments according to Jewish tradition. Three powerful symbols meet in our discussion.
The reading of the universal Monotheistic Faith represented by the Decalogue, declared by Moses, the Prophet associated with the Divine principle of the Law.
The liberation of the human spirit from the mental associative chains which lead to physical slavery and the loss of existential haunts. To start this reflection we must briefly refer to a traditional oral teaching which explains the logical order of the 10 Commandments.
This order is the ascending human order, which begins with that which is closest to the earthly dimension, and finally arrives at the true connection with the Divine.
The ancestry begins at the bottom, which is the last of the Commandments, to reach the first.
The Commandments are thus placed in front of us vertically, like a ladder.
It is precisely the ladder of which Patriarch Jacob had the vision in a dream, “with the Angels of the Lord ascending and descending ..”. The One to whom we address all our prayers, who sends us angels to give us the strength to climb this ladder, is at the First Commandment.
To reach humanly at the top level, the first command which is “I Am HaShem your God who brought you out of Egypt”, ie to arrive at the stage of Monotheism of which the Torah speaks, it is necessary to begin first by fully applying the last of the Commandments, which is “You will not envy the house of your neighbor etc … everything belonging to your neighbor. “
This cardinal tradition wants to show us that Faith is first and foremost, a fight against the forces of jealousy and envy. It is inside this combat that all the rest of the commandments are explained at our level. Our earthly existence is placed in the 10th commandment.
We must constantly pray and work on ourselves by invoking the One who worked miracles in Egypt to overcome the obstacles of our own desires based on lust. At this time the person can be assured that he has had access to “You will not covet ..”. It is only after having mastered this initial stage that we can arrive at the 9th commandment, which is not to bear false witness. Because envy and jealousy are the basis of false testimony and lying.
This false testimony (an example of which is racism), can afford to falsify or even modify science and Wisdom and circulate erroneous information. When the false testimony which is one of the consequences of envy, has disappeared from our hearts, we can control our passions and not commit adultery and take our personal pleasure as an excuse.
Then we are really washed from theft, because we no longer have an interior motive to dispossess the other, or to steal it and sell it as a slave. Being washed from theft we are washed from the theft of life which is violence, because any act of theft is violence, and creates chains of revenge that can lead to the act of Cain. Being cleansers of violence, we honor those who conceived us, our parents and their names, because having been the agents of violence makes families curse, and the memory of the people of Peace makes them bless.
Being respectful of our design we can make Shabbat, which is Peace with all.
How do we know that we have achieved Shabbat Peace with all, properly ?
We no longer utter the Name of the Creator in vain, because The Name is an agreement of Peace and respect between all. We thus honor all those who, like us, pray and invoke His Help. Not proffering the Name in vain, we refuse any other power, because we no longer have any personal fear feeling at Peace, with our teachers and students of Peace around us, living in confidence in the existence that has brought us seen being born.
Refusing all other power and fear, we only have Gd for us.
Thus by this precise order we are liberated, each of us personally, by the same Power which liberated our ancestors from a certain political regime in one of our countries.
This precise regime was however preceded by others some of which were Monotheists, such as the Pharaoh of Joseph, and others also adhering to monotheism, existed following the regime under which the Hebrews were slaves.
It is for this that the text makes a double mention: .. Who brought you out of Egypt – from a house of slaves.
That is to say, at the time when, in Egypt, there was slavery.
Not that Egypt in itself is a land of slavers.
But that lust in the system is what led to slavery to murder and idolatry, at that time in this place, as at all times, and any place.
And that the Faith of which Moses speaks to us is measured in each and everyone, by the most serious look and the
more observant of the devastating personal and community consequences, of lust.

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.