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The Problem with the Ten Commandments
- Rabbi Sarah Weissman
- Feb 6
- 6 min read
February 6, 2026
Pop quiz: Who can name the Ten Commandments? If you’re having trouble, there is a good reason for that, or actually, several good reasons. The first reason is that there are two versions of the Ten Commandments in the Torah, one in this week’s parashah, Yitro, and again in Deuteronomy, and they aren’t identical, so you might be confused over which one is “right.” The second reason is that there is no consensus on how to number the commandments – Jews generally do it one way, Catholics another, and Protestants another, so for example, the Fourth Commandment to us isn’t the same as to our Catholic or Protestant neighbors. And the third reason is that Jews actually have a surprisingly fraught relationship with the Ten Commandments.
It wasn’t always this way. In Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments is described as the climactic moment for the Israelites, a moment of unparalleled drama and power. The Torah sets the scene: “Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for GOD had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The blare of the shofar grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder. GOD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and GOD called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up” (19:17-20). God then speaks the Ten Commandments to the whole Israelite people, who are so overwhelmed by the experience that they fear for their lives and beg Moses to tell them the rest of God’s laws rather than hear God’s voice themselves. These commandments are clearly special: they are the only ones given directly to the people by God, and they are the only ones to be inscribed on two tablets that will be carried by the people in the Ark of the Covenant. Centuries later, once the Temple in Jerusalem is built, the Ark is placed in the Holy of Holies, where God Himself is thought to dwell. And even after the Ark of the Covenant is lost sometime before the Babylonian Exile (at least until Indiana Jones finds it), the words on the tablets remain central to Israelite worship. During the time of the Second Temple, the Levites would recite the Ten Commandments along with the Sh’ma and V’ahavta as part of their daily rituals. Some t’fillin and mezuzahs from this period also contain the Ten Commandments along with the passages of the Sh’ma that are still included today.
These days, you might see the tablets of the Ten Commandments depicted in synagogues, but unless it’s part of the weekly Torah reading or on the holiday of Shavuot, you won’t hear the Ten Commandments recited during prayer services. The Talmud tells us why: “Rav Mattanah and Rabbi Samuel ben Naḥman both say that it would have been logical to require that the Ten Commandments should be recited every day. Why does one not recite them? Because of the arguments of the heretics, that they should not say that only these were given to Moses at Sinai” (JT Ber. 1:5). In other words, during the rabbinic period, there were minim, heretics or sectarians, who argued that only the Ten Commandments were given by God, and therefore only the Ten Commandments were obligatory. These “heretics” may also have been known by another name: early Christians.
The Ten Commandments gained prominence in Christianity and, not coincidentally, at the same time the Jewish community downplayed its significance. Even the name “Ten Commandments” is actually a Christian invention: In the Torah, they’re called “Aseret haD’varim” literally “the Ten Words” or “Utterances” (Ex. 34:28). Early Christians were the first to refer to them as “commandments” instead of “words,” and by the 10th century, the English “Ten Commandments” emerged. The reason Jews didn’t refer to these laws as the Ten Commandments is simple: we have a lot more than ten! 613, to be exact. So to call these particular ones the commandments implies that these are the only ones. And as we saw, the Rabbis definitely did not want to make that suggestion. For Jews, the Ten Commandments aren’t the be-all and end-all: they’re just a good start.
Today, we mostly hear about the Ten Commandments when states pass laws mandating that it be posted in public schools and are then sued for violating the First Amendment. In the last couple of years, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas have all passed such laws, which are currently on hold while the cases make their way through the courts. The general argument for why posting the Ten Commandments isn’t a violation of the separation of church and state is that it is a historical document that has had enormous influence on American law and society. Of course, some advocates for posting the Ten Commandments acknowledge the religious or moral purpose of posting them. Dodie Horton, the state representative who sponsored the Louisiana bill, said that having the commandments posted would allow students to “look up and see what God says is right and what he says is wrong.” And as Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry memorably put it, “You either read the Ten Commandments or your child is going to learn the criminal code,” he said.
Even though the Ten Commandments are ours, American Jews have mostly been against posting them in schools. For one thing, the states usually mandate using the Protestant version rather than the Jewish or Catholic versions. And for another, we are generally wary of any attempts to introduce religion into public education; it does not usually end well for us. But on a religious level, we might have the same objection that our ancestors did 1500 years ago: by singling out the Ten Commandments, we risk suggesting that they are the only mitzvot that matter. Think of everything that would be missing! Setting aside the legal issues of posting the Ten Commandments in public schools, I think we could also make the argument that it’s simply not the best biblical text to be posted in schools. I suppose some students need to be reminded not to steal, and I know many of them need to be reminded to honor their parents, but most students don’t really need a daily reminder not to create graven images or murder people or commit adultery. The Jesuit priest Reverend James Martin recently said, “I often wonder why we don’t put the Beatitudes in classrooms. It’s always the Ten Commandments. What about ‘blessed are the poor,’ ‘blessed are those who mourn,’ ‘blessed are the meek,’ ‘blessed are the peacemakers’? Why is there never a push for the Beatitudes? …. [It’s] Because it’s hard, and it’s stuff that we want to avoid. I mean, the Ten Commandments are hard, too. But these days, the Beatitudes are harder.”
Taking a page from Reverend Martin, I’d like to propose that if the Supreme Court allows the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, they should also include ten additional or alternative commandments. These are ten biblical passages that could speak to all of us, including children, and help us envision the kind of world we want to create.
You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger (Ex. 22:20).
You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind (Lev. 19:14).
Do not go about as a talebearer among your people (Lev. 19:17).
Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor (Lev. 19:17).
Rebuke your kindred but incur no guilt on their account (Lev. 19:18).
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge (Lev. 19:18).
Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18).
Open your hand to the poor and needy kindred in your land (Deut. 15:11).
Justice, justice shall you pursue. (Deut. 16:20).
This is the fast I desire: To unlock fetters of wickedness, And untie the cords of the yoke; To let the oppressed go free; To break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, And to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe them, And not to ignore your own kin (Isaiah 58:6-7).
One final reason that the 10 Commandments really shouldn’t be hung on any wall: no poster can capture the experience of revelation. Aseret haD’varim, the Ten Utterances, are sacred not because of their content, but because of their Speaker. As Rabbi Beth Kalisch puts it, “The most important thing about Sinai is not what God said, but the fact that God speaks—and that we hear.” Aseret HaD’varim are the first words that God speaks to the whole People of Israel. As members of that Covenant, we recognize that God has never stopped speaking since.
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