The Second Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Bow Down Unto Them, Nor Serve Them, For I the Lord Thy God Am a Jealous God"

44 SHOFAR Winter 1995 Vol. 13, No.2 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT: "THOU SHALT NOT BOW DOWN UNTO THEM, NOR SERVE THEM, FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM AJEALOUS GOD" by Nisan Ararat Nisan Ararat is Assistant Director of the Department of General Studies, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, and Senior Teaching Fellow (since 1988). He is the author of Truth and Kindness in the Bible (in Hebrew) Oerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1993). I. Scripture itself states that "the ten words"! are found "on two tables of the testimony'? how these "words" are divided between the two tables, however, or what the division itself is on each table is impossible to know from the biblical verse but can be deduced from its subject matter.3 Thus we have the suggestion, which is the accepted one, to 'Exodus 31:18; 34:1, 24; Deuteronomy 4:13; 5:19; 9:10, 11; 10;1,3; First Kings 8:9. All scriptural translations were taken from The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, A New Translation (philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 5725/1965) for the sake of uniformity. 2Exodus 34:25; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4. 3See Encyclopedia Mikrait (Biblical Encyclopedia), Vol. B, "Dibrot" (Commandments), N.Z. Cassuto; Encyclopediajudaica, Vol. V, "Decalogue" (by M. Greenberg); Mordechai Breuer, "The Division of the Decalogue into Sentences and Commandments," in Ben-Zion Segal (ed.), The Decalogue Through the Ages Oerusalem, 5746), pp. 223-254 (Hebrew); Moshe Greenberg, "The Decalogue Tradition Through the Mirror of Criticism," in The Decalogue Through the Ages, pp. 67-94; M. Y. Porat, "Calculation of the Decalogue," Bet Mikra A (5716), pp. 100-102; B. Jacob, "The JQR NS Decalogue," Vol. XIV (1923-24), pp. Tbe Second Commandment 45 divide the decalogue into two-five on each tablet-those commandments (mitzvot) on the relationship between man and God on one tablet and opposite it, on the other tablet, the mitzvot dealing with relations between man and his fellow man.4 As for the division of the five Commandments on the second tablet, there is general agreement. This rests on the literary-morphemic matter characterizing this tablet: every Commandment opens with the negative, "Thou shalt not." In contrast, there is no general agreement as to the division of the five Commandments on the first tablet.5 "Rishonim" and "Aharonim" particularly exercised themselves on the question: Should the opening words, "I am the Lord Thy God Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," be included in the count of the Ten Commandments? Or is it possible that its subject matter is nothing more than a "declaration"-a kind of "introduction" for the two tablets together? 141-187; W. Harrelson, l1Je Ten Commandments and Human Rights (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), p. 47 (see his table). The problematics involved in the division of the Decalogue go back a long iime. They appear in Philo's article, "On the Ten Commandments," as well as in Josephus, Antiquities, Book 3, chapter 5, and even among the Talmudic sages: Talmud Yerushalmi (Palestinian Talmud), Tractate "Berachot," ch. 1, p. 5. It appears, too, in Vayikrah Rabah, ch. 24, p. 5; Sifri Numbers, verse 112; Mechiltah d'R. Ishm-ael, Tractate "Bahodesh," ch. 8; Mechiltah d'R. Shimon barYochai; Tanhuman and Tanhuman Buber, "Kedoshim 3": Pesichta Rabati, par. 20-23: Tanah Dabai Eliyahu 24: Jerusalem Targum to the Torah; Midrash Aseret Hadibrot, and many more works. Similarly it was dealt with by exegetes in the Middle Ages, such as Ibn Ezra in his commentary to Exodus 20:1 and Deuteronomy 5:16. Echoes of the problem are heard in the different cantillation assigned to the reading: the so-called lower ("taama kadma") of Eretz Israel (the West) and the upper ("taama tenina") of Babylonia, and possibly also the later method (the so-called fourth system), as pointed out by M. Breuer, "The Division of the Decalogue." The problematics are also reflected in the counting of the commandments by the Baal Halachot Gedolot, Maimonides, Nachmanides, and others. The tradition of writing the portions (open and closed) in the Decalogue does not agree with the cantillation notes, either the upper or the lower cantillation...