Balancing the Equation: The Math of the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (the Aseret HaDibrot) – arguably the most important text in Judaism – are a highly relevant subject of study on Shavuot night, as we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. But studying the Ten Commandments is no simple matter, as their underlying “math” is anything but straightforward.
The Ten Commandments reflect various numerical quirks. Did you realize that, despite their centrality to Judaism, the Torah contains two competing versions of this primary revelation? That there’s no traditional Jewish consensus as to how precisely to enumerate the Ten Commandments, what even constitutes the first of them, and how many were directly revealed by God? And that other biblical texts seem to suggest alternative aggregate numbers for the “Ten” Commandments?
Please join our communal learning session for Tikkun Leil Shavuot as Rabbi Bolton and congregant Marc Ashley lead a compelling discussion of the intriguingly muddled numbers game of the Ten Commandments.