Ten Commandments

Answer

To begin with, they are not TEN. Ten Commandments would be “Aseres Ha-Mitzvos.” That is not what we have here. These are “Aseres Ha-Devarim (or Aseres Ha-Dibros),” which means Ten Statements. Within these Ten Statements are more than Ten Commandments. The Rambam (Maimonides) lists them as 14, and I’ll give you the list in a moment.

Here they are:

Statement #1, Commandment #1 – “I, Hashem, am to be your G-d, which brought you (the Jews) out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt), out of the house of bondage.â€?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement #2, Commandment #2 – “You shall have no other god before My Presence.â€?

Statement #2, Commandment #3 – “You shall not make unto you a graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is in the Heaven above, or that is on the Earth beneath, or that is in the water deep below the Earth…â€?

Statement #2, Commandment #4 – “you shall not prostrate yourself unto them…â€?

Statement #2, Commandment #5 – “nor serve them, for I, Hashem, am a G-d demanding His exclusive rights, remembering the sins of the fathers for their children for the third and fourth generation of those that hate Me, and showing love for thousands, to those that love Me, and those that keep My Commandments.â€?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement #3, Commandment #6 – “Thou shalt not take the Name of Hashem, thy G-d in vain, for Hashem will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.â€?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement #4, Commandment #7 – “Remember the seventh day to keep it holy.â€?

Statement #4, Commandment #8 – “Six days you will serve and do all your melachos, but the seventh day is a Shabbos unto Hashem, your G-d: on it you will not do any melachos, you, nor your son, nor your manservant, nor maidservant, nor your animals, nor the stranger that is within your gates, for in six days Hashem made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day, wherefore Hashem blessed the seventh day when He hallowed it.â€?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Statement #5, Commandment #9 – “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which Hashem your G-d gives you.â€?

Statement #6, Commandment #10 – “You shall not murder.â€?

Statement #7, Commandment #11 – “You shall not be sexually immoral.â€?

Statement #8, Commandment #12 – “You shall not steal.â€?

Statement #9, Commandment #13 – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighborâ€?

Statement #10, Commandment #14 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.â€?

Answer

I am very glad you asked this question. You see, “Noachism” happens to be one of the most important words in the entire world, yet knowledge of this word is unknown to the vast majority of the world.

To grasp what I will now tell you requires an understanding of the meaning and difference between a religion and a covenant.

A religion is what a person believes. That’s all. Everybody has his own personal religion, and that religion can change every day. Some religions are organized, and take in membership around certain shared beliefs.

A covenant is nothing like a religion. In a covenant, it doesn’t matter what a person believes. You see, a covenant is a contract, like buying a car. It doesn’t matter to the bank whether you believe you have to make the payments or don’t believe you have to make the payments. Don’t make the payments and see what happens.

Around 3,319 years ago, G-d met with the Jewish Nation and gave them the details (the fine print) to a covenant between Him and them. The Jews had to behave in a certain manner, the better they did, the closer to G-d they would get, and covenantal infractions would come with contractual penalties. You can see the concept laid out in Vayikra (Leviticus), Chapter 26.

Now I have set the stage to tell you what is most important about what I am writing. Around 4,110 years ago, G-d met with every male alive in the entire world. There were four of them, Noach (Noah) and his sons. He gave the Bnei Noach (Children of Noah), and that is YOU, the details (the fine print) of a covenant. This is the Noachide covenant and you are a Noachite. You can see this in Bereishis (Genesis) 9:8-9.

There are many details to this covenant, and those details should be investigated, thoroughly learned, and completely inculcated into a person’s life.

That’s what Noachide means.

Regards, Eliahu Levenson