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February 10, 2023 (19 Shevat 5783) The Big Ten Dear Holy Friends, I hope this correspondence finds you well and in good health. We look forward to you joining us in our beautiful sanctuary this Saturday morning for Shabbat services at our new starting time of 10:15am. This coming week, we are thrilled to invite you to join for the fourth and final installment our new adult education program entitled, Tipping Points: Extending the Torah’s Reach in New Ways. This Monday, February 13th, at 8PM, we welcome Talmud scholar, Shira Eliaser. To contextualize our presentation for Monday, Shira grew up in Wilmette, IL and studied integrated science and education at Northwestern University and Stanford University. Her undergraduate honors project was a translation and commentary on Megillat Esther. She is one of many learners, worldwide, keeping up with Daf Yomi through the Hadran women's learning project. Currently teaching physics and engineering at the Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Chicago, Shira is incredibly passionate about and knowledgeable in the field of Talmud. Shira is one of a relatively small group of female Talmud scholars, who uses social media to share her Talmudic insights. This Shabbat marks the Parasha of Yitro, which is highlighted by the recitation of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 19. This Shabbat, we will be honored to have Dr. Avi Yacobi chant from the Torah scroll on our behalf. Dr. Yacobi’s daughter, Lilly, will chant the Haftorah. The Yacobi family is also sponsoring this week’s Kiddush luncheon in honor of Diana Yacobi’s birthday. Yasher Koach and Mazel Tov (strength and congratulations)! Congregants often ask me, if the text of the Aseret Hadibrot (Ten Commandments) is so central to our belief structure, how come we only hear it chanted a few times per year? The question is valid. After all, we only read the text publicly three times a year: once during Parashat Yitro; once during Parashat Vaetchanan; and once on the holiday of Shavuot, when we celebrate the gift of the giving of the Torah. The historical truth, however, is that in ancient times, the text captured a significant role in our daily liturgical practice. Thousands of years ago, in Temple times, the Kohanim (priests) would recite the Ten Commandments inside the Holy Temple every day (see Mishna Tamid). They did this coupled together with the recitation of the Shema Yisrael. The Talmud tells us that the sages also wanted to establish the reading of the Ten Commandments as an everyday prayer outside the Temple, but did not do so because it gave rise to the argument of the “heretics” that “only the Ten Commandments (and not the rest of the Torah) were from Sinai.” It's certainly strange to drop an established practice because of sectarian sentiments, however, in a famous text from the Jerusalem Talmud (Berachot 5:1), the Rabbis argue that we shouldn’t worry about the removal of the Ten Commandments in the morning prayers because ten separate phrases in the Shema text itself, hint directly at the imperative of each one of the Exodus commandments. In the rabbinic mind, the knowledgeable reader is no doubt reminded of the themes of the Ten Commandments when davening the Shema. For example, the end of the first paragraph of the Shema instructs us to place a Mezuzah on our doorposts, which is supposed to remind “those in the know” of the statement in the decalogue to not covet your neighbor’s house. So too, the statement in the Shema to not follow our eyes and lustful heart hints at the prohibition of adultery. In addition to its once central place in the morning prayers alongside the Shema, historically so beloved were the Ten Commandments that a Halachic Midrash [Sifrei Devarim 35:2-3] describes the custom of including the Ten Commandments in the Tefillin! Evidence of this practice is verified by Dead Sea Scroll archeological findings of Tefillin, dating back to the 3rd century BCE, whereby the parchments of those Tefillin included the Ten Commandments. So, while the placement of the Ten Commandments has evolved over the centuries, one thing has not. We can learn that whether we are davening, putting on our Tefillin, coming to Shul this Shabbat, or celebrating Shavuoth in May, we must remember the Big Ten, meditate on their instructions, and allow ourselves to be inspired by Hashem’s holiest gift to the Children of Israel. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
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