Thou shalt not what?

"I am Hashem, your God, who took you from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." This is Ten Commandment number one. Sounds like a command, don't it? What do we do with this? How do we "fulfill" such a command, if it really is one? I would have liked to lighten the question by telling you that the "Ten Commandments" in English is a complete misnomer. In Hebrew they're called the Aseres HaDibros, or the ten sayings - meaning that God chose to utter ten distinct statements - which, by the way, actually include 14 commandments. 10 statments, 14 commandments, and the first one is seemingly a clear statement, but deceivingly also the first commandment. The Mechilta, a very ancient collection of commentaries and explanations of Bilical passages, cites the following parable - a king entered his new domain and the populace asked him to pronounce decress. He responded, "First you must accept my sovereignty; only then can I set forth my decrees." This would thus seem a mere precurser to the following barrage of commandments, but yet virtually all the great commentaries count this as a positive commandment - to belive in the existence of Hashem as the only God.

Okay, I believe (one mitzvoh). Wait a sec, now I belive again (two mitzvos?). And again! (three...?) - this can't be what's expected, right?

Rather, our illustrious Sages point out the specific need for God to anchor His being, and subsequent "need" to believe in Him, in the exodus from Egypt, and not - let's say - mention more "lofty" ideas like creation itself. The commandment says, "I am God, who took you out of Egypt," etc. Creation was something none of us experienced. We might enjoy it and fully believe in its "createdness". But we weren't there. Egypt, however, was something we saw, nay we lived, with every fibre of our existence and witnessed wth every spectacle of clarity. The mitzvoh is to see the Oneness of God. The mitzvoh is to experience that every event down here is completely One with the time/space/God contingency. We, the Jewish people, have a collective consciousness which witnessed the overturning of nature and the fine-tuning of God's hand - the miracle and the magical, the justice and the battle. In there, God says - or rather, commands - can He be found. In every crevice and detail, every corner and knaitch. Stretching the expanse from God's throne to each and every Jew's personal history is of the stuff of commands. Bridging the gap and knowing "HE" is ultimatlely, inextricably committed to "ME" is rightly a command. And rightly the first. This means to believe (note: even after witnessing His existance, there's still the commandment to believe) - to make it real and live accordingly. This is "One".

When we see Torah not as a list of dos and don'ts from an exorcised God figure, but rather as a partnership with a God who personally bore His people and continues to birth us as a nation and individual, then - and only then - will we understand the true meaning behind the mitzvos that follow.

Wishing you a lovely Shabbos - not a day off, not a vacation, but rather a day on and full of delicious potential,

Rabbi Lynn and the gang