This past Saturday Jews that attended Synagogue all over the world heard The Ten Commandments read from the Torah (Exodus chapters 18, 19 and 20). For some reason a glimpse entered my mind about the Mel Brooks movie where he played Moses carrying three tablets representing the Commandments and dropped one as he was about to say fifteen and changed it to “ten commandments.” If there were fifteen, what would the extra five have said? Here are some suggestions:
- Be nice, courteous and respectful of others. In Exodus 18:14 Jethro asked Moses, his son-in-law, why he is having all the people stand waiting to see him? The placement here, before The Ten Commandments, could indicate that good manners should come first.
12. Teach your children about God. Exodus 19:3 refers to the “house of Jacob.” This has been interpreted to be synonymous with the wives and mothers who keep the house, determine the spirit of the family and oversee the children’s education. This was in the Torah before God spoke The Ten Commandments. Children are our sureties and we must teach and pass on to them the right values.
13. Protect and care for your children and brethren. Exodus 19:4 “I bore you on eagles wings…” As a lesson, eagles protectively care for their young as God did, does and will do for all of us. Brethren includes less fortunate people that we should also be concerned about.
14. Bless God: Exodus 18:10 has the first blessing to God. We are commanded to love and fear God, but nowhere are we told to bless God. This is not such a bad idea. We do bless God by our daily actions done in a manner we should be proud of.
15. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Leviticus 19:18 is the first rendition of the Golden Rule. We should always act in a way that we would also like to be treated.
I can probably come up with more, but these extra five seem pretty good if we would all follow them.
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