The Ten Commandments | Rabbi Anthony Manning May 28th 2025

Thank our sponsors. Uh we have sponsorship uh today not only from our regular sponsor where the sheer is sponsored uh for Thank you. No worries. You want to see my face? Wow. My mom will be pleased. Okay. Um the sharim for 2025 are sponsored Brandit and Zelik Bena. Uh so that sponsorship is anonymous for the whole year. We have a very special sponsor Amy and Iraim Basan are sponsoring the Shia today in memory of Amy's mother Panina Basim Ysef Rifka Rael whose yad is today should be an aliyah for her shama Amy and her husband when he can be here one of the most loyal and constant supporters of the shir from its earliest days I think or at least for many many many years so we're very grateful uh to to Amy and Ephrine for that sponsorship. Uh and very grateful for their support of the year. Um so if I could ask you to turn off your phones, please. Uh as you know, I've been away for a couple of weeks. You probably worked that out if you came last week or the week before. I'm sure you had a good time without me. Um but uh I am going to be here now, please God, without a break for the next few months. I'm going away just briefly in August, but I will give you some notice of that. I'm not sure exactly if the Shirim will happen in the same way uh in that period after Tishab. We'll see Rabbi Shaw will will give out announcements uh in due course. Okay. Uh we're running up to Shabawat Hashem coming up very very soon and something that we have not spoken about for many many many years is the issue we're going to raise today which is the and I'd like to talk about the Ten Commandments although that's of course not what the Torah calls them. Hang on. let's get this sorted out. That's not what the Torah Torah calls them. The Torah calls them um which is of course the 10 statements or the 10 sayings because there of course are more than 10 commandments in the ten commandments. Let's get that clear from the very start. We're not going to go into that explicitly. But there are at least 11 or 12, maybe 13. Uh but they change the world. The ten commandments are a new constitution for humanity. They are the brit between the Jewish people and Hashand. They're expressed this way um constantly as that covenant. And therefore, we need to work out like what what does that mean for us? Why do we read the ten commandments? What do they represent for us? Do they represent something special? Are they different to the rest of the Torah? And specifically a minag that will not die and every year resurrects itself is do you stand or do you sit or do you do a different thing every year or do you just do what everybody else does or do you dapa do the diff something different to what everybody else does which seems to be the mimic of some people that I've met in my life. Um so we'll we'll go through that. We'll have a look at that and hopefully we'll get some clarity on it. Now it's important to remember and I didn't put it on the sheet but I want to mention it at the beginning that the recitation of the ten commandments together with other key passages in varim is built into the Torah itself. One of the 613 mitzvah is hail and every seven years the king has to stand up during sukkat during sukkot and read in public in the most public way possible with all the men there with all the women there with those children there with everybody present. He reads from and that that reading includes not only the Schma and the second paragraph of the Schma but also the ten commandments. So built into the Torah is a seven-yearly reading of the ten commandments. And I heard many years ago from Rabbak Litag that this is meant to be a reenactment of the harina experience that every seven years there's if you like a recoming together of all the Jewish people. That's why everybody has to be there. The women have to be there. The children have to be there just like the original. Not only that, but it comes immediately after the Schmita year. And during the Schmita year, the people are living off minimal rations. And if you look, Rabbi Litak, he's got an essay on this online. If you look carefully, you'll see the amount that people are able allowed to eat, take from their produce during the year is an omare. It's exactly the amount that people got in the man. And just like the Torah, the Kazal say that the Torah could only be given to those people who are able to be part of that uh uh more uh you know not socialist is not the word I'm looking for but where everybody has the same nobody has any more nobody has any less during schmita year that is a reenactment of the eating during the period of the desert leading up to Matan Torah which is the hackl. So reading the ten commandments in public is built in to the system. Um however we now have we don't have hack anymore obviously although there there have been attempts to reenact it in a kind of sort of ku way on but we do have uh creator which is of course mid bon and now we read the Torah we read the ten commandments three times a year we read them in paratro we inot we read them inim in paran which falls usually in around August and then of course we read them on shàuat and the question is how does that work why do we do yet and do we do it in any way differently? You'll be aware of course that in theory at least there is a different trope. There's a different different tam for the reading of the ten commandments and sometimes there's meant to be tam elon and sometimes it's meant to be tam ton tam ton is the regular laning pattern for the rest of the laning which divides up theim by verse. So whatever's in one verse is all read together as one unit and then the next verse and then the next verse. So for example, the last three or four of well commandments number six, seven, eight are all really one verse. So in ton are all read as one verse. But in time elon, it divides it up by commandment. Okay? Not by verse. So each commandment has its own specific unit. Therefore, sometimes it's a longer, you know, trop and sometimes it's a shorter trop depending on how long the commandment is. Today the min in most places seems to be to use tam elon for every reading of the aserasidas which is interesting because that's not how it was originally. That's not how everybody does it. Some people do tam takon as part of the regular laning and tamon only on and I think that was the original min but in as far as any min's original the ashkinazi min I'm not sure what the safarim do but now I seem to find when people read onro they tend to read the time elon listen out for it when you get to August see what they read and send me ans and let me know but we read them these three times a year now the ten commandments are paraphrased many many times in n as well yumyahu talks about them specifically. Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal. That comes up again and again and again. Stealing being here, kidnapping as well, um or specifically and that comes as a trope many many many times as a key element of Jewish thought. And in fact, there have been many people over the centuries, commentators who've said that actually the ten commandments, and again I'm going to call them the ten commandments because that's what we normally call them, encapsulate within them all of the mitzvot in the Torah. And this is an idea which is very famously brought in Rafajigon. Before Rafsugon, it was brought in Pho. Pho. But perhaps more importantly for us, it's a Tam Shami. Look at number one says the Tamud Shami Yeshua. So my um my uh my cousin Kan or my nephew Kan I should say has taught me this very beautiful saying. Bengal gimm just like the sea between the big waves there are many smaller little mini waves maybe I should call them microwaves okay so between every if you look if you like between the lines of the dbrat of the ten commandments theim you get the kind of mini command many reverberations of all of the different mitzvot and again shows how they fit together. This commandment incorporates all of these and this commandment all of these. So this is an ancient idea that the dro are not standalone but they somehow incorporate all of the Torah. Now apart from hakel source number two shows us and this is a very ancient source that the reading of the ten commandments was actually part of the temple service. This is the oldest source that we have for anything that we would call today called a sided af. This is a very ancient source back to the second temple period. And what did they do? So have a look with me together. Number two. So this was the service in the temple. They got up very early in the morning. They did the trumaten. They they haven't yet brought the corbinham. The sun has not yet risen. And this is the service in the temple. They haven't brought any corba not yet. Aid like the corbid. Okay. Um they said they said to them let's all bless one blessing. Everyone bless a blessing. Maybe they said like we say in the service or they just said to them make a blessing and they made a blessing. What was this blessing? So I brought you the baton here in the brackets. He wants to say this was the blessing that me we make before the of that talks about God's love God's giving the Torah to the Jewish people etc. after the day would rise they can say but only after sunrise they can only or at least after dawn they can't say or when it's still dark so they have to start the day with and it doesn't actually matter which order you say them in meaning they're going to say ya later don't worry but for now they said um they identify like And then they read the ten commandments then meaning they say the with before but they add in before the ten commandments and then they bless the people the whoever's there bless the people three specials which is of course what we say immediately after the in the morning the aod which is not what we say in the morning. This is a special about the what's not the like this says it's a special that the people say or that all I don't know if it's all the together or all the people there they say this they're not waving their arms in the air they're giving a which incorporates the words etc etc for because the only do the special after they bring the and this is all first thing in the morning before it's even light but they're really making these that we're davening that the corbin that we're about to bring in the temple should be received unwillingly and they don't exempt any personal obligation this raises is an interesting question which I'm not getting into in depth which is in the temple period second temple period did they have the fil service parallel to the corbonus service a lot of people erroneously think that the the spila we have was enacted only after the temple was destroyed in order to replace the temple service the sacrificial service that is definitely not correct and we see that from here that there was a type of service going on during the second base of mikdash actually if I didn't bring it on the sheet, but if you look in Sepha Bener, Sepha Ben Sira is a mid to late second temple apocryphal book, meaning it didn't make it into the Tanakh, but it is quoted quite often by Kazal Safa Ben talks about the fact of that people had together with and therefore it's clear that they had some level of together with it. And he says, you don't exempt yourself from estray. They're going to have to dab them properly later. This was a special prayer service in the temple before the Corbin which involved the ten commandments on Shabas an extra to give a braha to the to the coim you know that is leaving meaning the coim switched over duties every shabbat and they ate the panim together the incoming group and the outgoing group and they give a braha to the outgoing group and brah on shabbat just in parenthesis I think I mentioned this at some point. One of the reasons we call bread on Shabbatala is because which we don't call it any other day of the week is the name for each of the okay the one was called and one of the reasons we call Shabas is because Shabas they ate the was the day that they ate the special bread and we call it because of they called it which is very interesting. I heard that from my son once and I uh it's it's an obvious point which I never thought about before. Why don't you ever thought that? Okay. So they had the asa dibbras every single day in the basa mikdash as one of the recitations. So why do we do it now? Why do we say the debris every day? It was we say the every day. So have a look at number three. Says the shami these two famous um I should say say the following. It really should be. We should really say the ten commandments every day. It should be part of our daily prayers. It should come in the shma probably before the shma. We should say the brahas. We should say the ten commandments. And we should say the shma. But why don't we read it even at the time of the because of the murmurings the claims of the well we'll see who they are. The minim the the sectarians the the apostates. We'll see who they are. that people shouldn't [Music] say people will insinuate that only the ten commandments were given to to to Moshe on Sinai and that's why we say them and not the rest of the not the rest of the I should say sorry I'm still a bit jetlagged just getting over the I I wake up around 12:00 in noon at the moment okay I was on the west coast as well which is particularly difficult um I don't I don't know why people wouldn't say well the end was amishma that maybe they would say about that something there's something about the ten commandments and we'll see in a minute actually I do have a suggestion to make that the usami is coming off the new testament and the specifically the sermon on the mount uh the book of mark and matthew which flag the ten commandments specifically and I think that's what the usami is getting at that we don't want people to say that the ten commandments is all that's left we'll get to that in just a minute that's the yami what's the bavly say have a look at number says the Bley talking about the temple. They would say this brings the from that we just read. Now a little bit different to the usi said by rights we should read the t commandments every day. The Bavi says not just theoretically but people campaigned for this big they wanted to do this. People wanted to do this, but we didn't let them because it's already been cancelled because of the murmurings. So, do we have a Bryerana from the time of the Mishna in the Now, where's the gul the peripheria? Yeah. Not in Jerusalem. In Shalam, they had it clear that we're not doing that because we don't do that anymore. But in in in the provinces they used to say they wanted to reinstate the ten commandments. It was a kind of thing. They used to people wanted to say the ten commandments. No, we're not going to let you say in Babylonia they wanted to bring them in again in surah again. This is the minag that will never die. Here they're not talking about standing up for the laning. They're talking about reading them every day. In surah they wanted to introduce it. They wouldn't let them. No. So in surah they had to quash it in Babylonia says they wanted to bring it in in the you can't stop people from campaigning on this until Ashi. This is Raashi. That's right at the end of the Gomorrah. Rav Ashi had to say to them. So this is a a constant refrain that people over a 500year period since the temple was destroyed keep campaigning to have this put back. We want it back. We want to say the ten commandments every day and they keep knocking them down, knocking them down. We cannot do this because of the minim. The question is is there a point at which we're no longer worried about the minim? Who are the minim? And do they still bother us today? So we're going to have to have a look look at number five says we don't want these heretics to say to ignorant straight you know straightforward but unlearned people the rest of the Torah is not true. We're only reading what God said to Moshe and that's only the ten commandments and that's why we read it. the rest of the Torah is kind of made up or or it's uh you know small print that we don't we're not interested in. Rashi actually makes it very clear if you have the uncensored Rashi which I brought you here. It's not hard to get hold of the uncensored material these days but if you look in the standard vas you will only see the censored version. Hamminim says number six rashi akum which itself is probably a word that was changed by the church from because the church didn't like the word Okay. And they changed it to but the original rashi says early Christians and the early Christians are normally called the minim exclusively so and there is there is scholarship on whether minim always means the Christians or it can mean other heretics then exactly what kind of Christians are we talking about a certain sex of Christians because there's no such thing as the early Christians. Early Christianity was divided up into many many many groups and it's only when you got to the council of Nika Constine actually you know brings them all together creates what's called the Catholic Church which is meant to be inclusive but blocks out these this group and the Aryans and the Gnostics and so there were there were many many many different groups of Christians but somehow or other um this is what we're worried about. Now, it's important to mention, I didn't bring it on the sheet. Maybe I should have brought it on the sheet. Um that um one of the things claimed by early Christianity or some groups within early Christianity is that no one had to keep the commandments anymore other than the ten commandments. The ten commandments is all that's left. And some early Christian groups re viewed them almost as natural law. It's obvious with, you know, do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery. And that's said again and again. If you look in Matthew, if you look in Mark, again, if you look in the sermon of the mount on the mount, I'm not necessarily recommending it specifically, but I'm just saying you see again and again, do not murder, do not steal, do not, and again, there's no surprises there because these are said in this way in Hosa. They're just, you know, reverberating what's said in Yurumahu in Yuru and in Hosa. But there were people who wanted to say this was all that's left. It's not so straightforward. In what way is keeping Shabas natural law? Okay, maybe you could say keeping shabas is natural law because it's natural that you would want to have a rest day uh you know someday that you recuperate or something aim I suppose you could see as natural law believing in God you could see as natural law so we wanted to avoid this implication that this is all there is this natural law group of commandments and the rest is now um God yes so when if the Christians change the sentence if they believe the ten commandments well they in theory they still believe in the ten commandments Meaning if you look at if again you can I I have a at home I can send it to you a comparative list of not all Christian groups view the ten commandments as they even number them the same way. The Catholics and the Protestants do not number them the same way. That's that's the first thing and and they change the wording often. You know they don't talk about the I took you out of Egypt because like it's not sh for them or Egypt's just you know an an some parable for something else. or they don't talk about Shabas on Shabas. They talk about the Lord's day because then you can read that in however you want. So the Christians do not necessarily all represent the ten commandments in the same way. So even today there's not just one Christian view on this. There are multiple Christian views on this. Um and even with our within our own humish the dro in are not the same as the droce invar. There are subtle differences and and many understand that Dvarim is in some ways a commentary on Schmott. So we have already a development within the kumsh butd the the Christians have many different readings of it but it seems that this is what they're trying to get at today. By the way there have been many lawsuits in America by people who object to having the ten commandments in public places because they say it's a breach of it's the first amendment church and state to church and state separate which amendment is that or is that the constitution itself? It's the first amendment. Okay, fine. And therefore there there if you you can see ten commandments all over the place. You can see them on the Supreme Court building in America. You can see them in many, you know, local courts and town halls, etc. So, and and there are people that object against this. Uh if you do a survey of what's written on these ten commandments that appear in public places in America, it's often not the same thing at all. Okay. You going to say they just passed the law that really public school in Manhattan, New York have to have ten commandments on the order. Okay. So that that's research now. They just passed the law that in Manhattan all the public schools have to have the ten commandments on the wall. So what are they going to write on the ten commandments? Let's let's let's do a survey because if you go to a shul and you see the lus, which we're going to talk about in a minute, what you often have is just like the first word or or the first letter, which is not very helpful. Do we have them here? Okay, here we are. You see, I I didn't even realize right behind me. So, you have two words from each of the ten commandments, which works fine for the last five or most of them, but doesn't really tell you that much for the first. It gives a, you know, an indication. Yeah. So, exactly. So, we'll see. And there are some people who object to having that kind of much abbreviated version. Okay. Let's take this forward. Let's look for a second at um at number seven. So, says the rashba. The Rashba was asked in the 13th century. Okay, can we bring this back? Can we say the ten commandments now? Can we read them every day? You ask says the rashba. He's living in Spain in the 1300s, 1400s. Sorry. Can we start saying the again? I don't know if it's can we start or there were people doing them people saying them still and they were asking is this okay? It could have been that as well. It seems that way. Yeah, there are people who want to do this. Does that mean they're doing it or they want to start doing it? I suspect that they were doing it, but I can't prove that. Says, should we be doing it or not? I brought you the first three words. No, you can't do it. You're not allowed to do it. And the actually brings that if you are going to say the ten commandments, you should say them privately at the beginning of the service. It still brings in that there are people who say them. I don't know if anyone here gets to shul early enough to actually get through even saying the asserosa. I confess I don't think I've ever got to shul early enough that I'm still you know got time to say the dibbras before I get into the main part of dabing. If you look in the he says in number eight means you don't have to but it's good meaning it's not a bad thing to say meaning it's not a problem to say them as long as you do it at the beginning says the only in private specifically you can only say in private every You may not read them in. And by the way, there are still some um congregations, some communities that publicly lay in the Corbin before Mina in Monks. When I used to go to monks, every afternoon in the German shaka shul in in London before Mina, someone gets up and lanes the Corbin in public. So the Corbin does get laned every day for the cidus not. And the mission comes in and says number nine. Why only in public? Why never in public and only in private? Because there are heretics that this is the only Torah. And this is specifically problematic these days. It's not a problem that's gone away. It's a problem that's actually worse. He says you're not even allowed to have a ten commandments pamphlet which is for public laning. You could have a corbin lay down on a beautiful sheet that you lain from every day in public, but you can't have the ten commandments. Other people say, "No, maybe you can say them in public. The only problem is the only problem is putting them in the like they used to do in the temple." Yes, there are people that say that, but if you read them publicly before, I've never seen any. Have you ever seen a shul where they publicly read the ten commandments before? I've never seen it because he says, but we don't allow that either. No public readings at all. But no reading at all. And if you're going to read them privately, don't make it part of your regular ding. Make it in. So putting putting it in is also in in you should only have it privately. you should only have it at the beginning. Meaning we are still concerned about this issue. Okay. So, you know, the issue of reading the ten commandments, I think we've uh pretty much dealt with uh it's a problem. I remember when I went to my non-Jewish school, they uh gave me a new English Bible. They gave all the young boys uh well, they were only boys in the school a new English Bible. This was there's no separation of church and state in England. So, they're quite happy to give everybody a Bible. And one of the things I don't remember, I just I don't have it anymore. Um, but I one of the things that I remember distinctly about it when I opened it up is it had two font sizes. Big font, the bigger print was all the stuff that they thought was important and the small print was all the stuff that they thought was ah old Jewish stuff that we don't really do anymore. So this idea of the big frog big print and the small print is is is there still in the Christian world today very much. Uh although we will come back to a more Jewish version of big print and small print at the end. Okay, let's go on. Yes, sir. Bible out today in school. They do. Do you think they were written out in an English school today? That's really interesting to ask. I could I could email my old school lead grammar school and say, "Do you still You're saying I bet they don't." No, I bet they don't as well actually. But uh but they but they used to do. Okay. They charge enough. They probably could. Okay, fine. Uh number 10. Let's go to the issue of standing. So okay we're not going to read it specially but when we laying it on or during the year should we stand up give it special covered. So there's a very interesting chuva of the ramban. Let's look at what the ramb says here. Now this chuva of the ramb was not available until the 20th century. So many of the commentators through the later rishonium and aonim did not have access to this but we'll see in a minute one of the reasons that uh one of the indications of that. But if you look in the ram he's very clear. Let's look at his wording. I'm talking about a town. He says he's been ashame that the rabbis of that town he's the rabbi has now passed away he comes out later and the and the honor the honorary officers of the town have instructed the town levatas to sit not to stand when the are being read the safer but when they're being read in the safer and this city before that rabbi previously Okay. Was a very limited. They were like a not particularly knowledgeable town. And once a rav came to them, a great rav for that town, the high liar. And before that Rav who's now passed away, this great Rav, they had a different hanhoger. So the Rav that's just now died made them all sit down. But before the Rav came, people used to stand up, but it wasn't a particularly knowledgeable community. And now the Ravs died. And people asking the Rambam, well, we never really liked this Minug that the the Rav brought in to sit down and we always used to stand up. So we'd like to stand up and they're asking him is that okay or is that not okay? And this Rav previously said to them that anyone who wants to stand for the 10 commandments should be critiqued should be should be criticized and should be told not to. So he was quite karif about it because to do that even just to stand up for the ten commandments is a is is throwing a bone as it were to the Christians and saying oh the ten commandments they're special and this ra was very unhappy because they believe the has a higher status than the rest of the Torah. because anything that uh anything that the the Christians do which is different from our tradition we have to distance ourselves from and that's what the old rabbi said and therefore he made them sit down he said you can't stand up because it's heretical it's like the Christians now what does the rabb say this the the rav who just passed away brought into your shv to sit down who haroy This is the correct min and his proofs for this are extremely solid. And this is what you should do in every single place where the people stand up for the ten commandments. you have to stop them because it's going to undermine people's because they're going to think that there is in the Torah madre gods different levels and there are there are some parts which are more you know have a higher status than others and this is a terrible thing to say we have that broke every single attempt that brings people to this kind of understanding. And if you come and tell me that in Baghdad people do stand up for the debroce and for Baghdad today read London Tene wherever people stand up wherever you come from. If you're going to tell me that's what Jews do said I don't care what they do in Baghdad that's not a proof of anything. Because if there are people who are sick, we don't make other people who are healthy sick to be like the people who are sick. We heal the sick. We don't make the healthy sick. We amputate. If there's something bad in a sick person, we don't we we we we cut it off. We're not I don't care what they do in Baghdad. the Rambam definitely generally did not have any time for Minhag Baghdad and uh you know Iraq and Iran. He said that's not our minag and he got into some significant disputes with the with the rabbis of Baghdad. Um he said we don't do that at all the and he says and just in case you're wondering and this is very interesting you've got to get your heretics clear. carites. These carites that we have in Egypt, he says these are not the same ones. These are not the minimum. These are not the people that the rabbis called minimus. Okay? They would seduk him and the modern iteration of theim is the kites. Meaning the kites don't have a problem with the Torah. The the Kites have a problem with the oral law. The Carites think that the only the Torah is valid, but the whole Torah is just as valid as every other part of the Torah. So don't get confused. Don't start saying that, oh yeah, heretics, we know how to deal with them. We've got carites as well. No, no, no. Cares are completely different. As opposed to the Samaritans, the early Christians. They don't believe in the Torah at all. Forget about the oral Torah. They don't even believe in the written Torah. And they seem to say things like is not from God or only parts of it from from God. Excuse me. There is no distinction between someone who denies the whole Torah. And of course you know we put he put this in his eighth principle of faith that there anyone who says even one of the minorim that you might say ah you know it's talking about some uh random uh you know Canaanite princess that's obviously not the same as the schma. No no no every pasok in the Torah is just as important just as authoritative or authoritative as every other puk in the Torah. And therefore he says we have to crush this immediately. You may not stand up for a serosidas. But didn't they stand in harena? Oh, we'll get to that in a minute. The ram knows that but doesn't care because there's no Okay, let's Yeah, they did stand on hari but this is not hari, is it? Now you might turn around and say is different from laning during just laning and therefore if you stand up that's making a a negative point. But is a rep a reenactment of Hari and they did stand at Hari. The Raman doesn't want anyone to stand ever. Yes. Even if they stood at Harina, it's it's it's not a problem if you sit down. Most Jewish people like to sit down whenever they can. No. So sit down. Okay. Fine. Stand up. Oh, so you you're saying but we stand up. So have a look at number 11 and 12. So number 11 and 12 are two pim one in uh in Italy and the other one actually both of them in Italy who are asked this question number 11 let's look at this quickly we are not worried about the minim because everyone knows what the minim we live in Italy the Vatican everyone knows the Vatican everybody knows the Christians no one's going to get confused no who's a Christian who's a Jew it's clear okay let No one's going to think for a minute at that point and and if we give a special hidor that we stand up exactly what you said we stood at hari we're giving special precedence to the fact that we're remembering no one's going to have a problem with that no one's going to think that you're becoming a Christian because you're reenacting hari like you said any place that has the miniscara which has been mentioned stand up Let them be proud standers. This is what we stand for as it were. Okay. They're standing up because they stood at Harina. Ah, it looks like you're a Christian. Leave me alone. No one thinks I'm a Christian if I live in Bergenfield and I stand up for Sarah. You know, they ain't happening. So, he says it's fine. The also said, okay, and but look at what he says even more. He says, "I think I feel it is the people to stand. Everyone gets up there." So, therefore, I think not only can you stand, you must stand. You may not be the one that stays sitting. Even if they're not really meant to stand, even if you could argue that there's good grounds to say that standing is a problem. Now that everybody does that it becomes an obligation on everyone. It's very interesting why if not it looks like it becomes a joke and you know howim like to make late sonus in the sh and our minist you know well people say what's the minist you know No, that's just a zill. You're making fun. You're making fun. That's not how it is. So, if half the people stand, some of the people stand, some of the people stood, it just becomes everyone's kind of joking and and uh it's not okay. It's you're making a mockery and there's those awesome. If we get to it at the end, it says, "If everyone's standing, you can't sit down." And he brings from other places the says you may not you may not sit down when everyone's standing but people have a minute to stand up for shevas at the why why do you have to stand for shvas sit down for chevraas maybe you would stand as covered when the kala and the walks in you know you stand at a bris you know to someone's doing a mitzvah but during the chevraas sit down why would you need you don't have to stand during braha uh but people stand now and he cries at people who sit on the cave. This one who's sitting down is now breaking because everyone's standing up. Ah, there's no reason for them to stand up. They do. Don't be the one who sits. And in case you think this is theoretical, I once went to a where a a learned man, let's put it that way. Refused to stand up when the kala walked past because he said it's to stand up when the kala comes past. and uh everybody stood up and he sat down like like this. He said sat down with his hands on the chair like this and if I'd have known at the time I would have said to him you know you can't sit down when everyone stands up even if even if they're you know it's not such a base custom. Yes Amy I had a teacher who said you shouldn't stand for these parts of the floor but you can't sit either. You should stand. So that's brought down uh by many commentators. That's actually Rafie Feinstein's advice. We're going to see that in a minute. Um I would mention that these two uh postkim the uh razuli uh sorry rav and the ra aulai neither of them had seen the chua of the ram because it wasn't in print. I don't know if they would have been so quick to insist that everyone has to stand up if they'd seen how strong the ramban was against the men to stand up. Why wasn't it scene? Because it was only brought into prints in the 20th century. Uh it was it was only found some in the Geneer and some in other places. It just wasn't there just it just wasn't available. Um Rav Yosef says not to stand okay to sit down for the for the Asseras. He obviously does know the tuber of the Ram vanam but Einstein is what Amy mentioned just before have a look at number 15 over the page. Um, he says the main thing is don't ch don't change the like every even if you come from a place where they used to do something different. You may not cause a locus. If you come from a place where they used to stand or they used to sit and you go to a place where they do the opposite, you got to go with the flow. Okay? And if you really object to standing up for the assa. So stand up for the whole the whole laning. No, the whole laning or maybe some people do one aliyah. But if they do one aliyah, everybody knows why they stand. They stand up for some people stand up for the whole laning every shabas. So you can be one of those people twice a year. Yes sir. For example, people stand for the Okay, that's that's interesting because I I you're asking a good question. There is a that when you're making a mitzvah, you should stand up. Okay? So, making the mitzvah alikra migillah, um, you would have to stand up. Now, you're going to tell me, well, the only person reading the migill is the guy in the middle. Nobody else is reading the migill, but I'm not sure that's how it always was. It could be that maybe people were reading their own migill. And he's moti people with the braa. Correct. Correct. So if people were sitting down and reading their own migill let's say they would have to stand for the braha just like you stand why do people stand for the brahan sal when you stand uh it's learned from um the kama where the the standing wheat I can't remember exactly what the revation is I didn't look it up but you you have to stand to say brick mitzvah yeah in that regard I've also known people where people who stand on the sit down well that's for baraku that's the dasha So you stand up for you at least stand up for they stand up for kadesh they stand up for bor etc him don't and you have to stand or is a little bob good enough you know this thing that people do like you know like this that that that has that has a real hakic status that has a real halaki status not just not just people being lazy and just kind of fidgeting on the chairs sometimes when you have to stand you have to stand and sometimes a little hid is enough and it could be that that's how it works so I think they stand for the bra is because it's a douche they're saying etc etc so that's why they stand bottom line bottom line should you stand or should you sit so you should do what everybody else does that's for sure you shouldn't be a standard with the sitters or a sitter with the standers and I brought you some of the rail says sit don't stand he didn't stand I don't know if he prevented other people but he didn't stand during the assa from Tel Aviv said you should sit down if you can but you can't you shouldn't tell people they're doing things wrong when they stand. Rav Mosher Sternb says you can stand okay you know you can't argue with these people they're big people also permitted standing during the dibbras but I brought you in the footnotes from uh Rabbi Ziegler Zikra who many of you here knew well and used to be very much a part of this year when we were in the other building. Rabbi Ziegler writes about Rafik that he made a distinction between during the year and the uh and the he says because when you're reading Tamon meaning the regular laning which they would read in inro then you're doing regular laning and therefore if you stand up you're making a distinction that this laning is different from this laning and that's a problem. But if you read tam elon so everybody can hear this is not regular laning then this is because of harinai and therefore standing up does not make a special point. That's a very nice idea, but that only works if you read tamdon everywhere all the time on. Okay, so that's the issue of standing. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You'll probably do whatever you normally do, but make sure everybody well make sure. How can you make sure? But I it's you should people should try to do what everybody else does. They certainly shouldn't make a mus and they shouldn't make fun of it. Okay, good. What shape were the lus? That's an interesting question. So, were they were they were they this shape? They don't have any lus here. Okay. So, if you go to different synagogues, you'll see square ones, you'll see rounded ones, you'll see I've never seen circular, you know, lus, but but you'll definitely see different shapes. So, what shape were the lis? So, the Torah describes the shape that describes the but doesn't give a specific instructions on the shape. Number 17. So God gave to Mosha when he finished talking to him two tablets, okay, of testimony. They were stone tablets. They were written with the finger of God. It doesn't give any indication exactly of the shapes except that they were put in the Aaron. We saw that they put them into the Aaron cadesh. The Aaron cadesh of course was square or rectangular. That's very clear. But that's not to say that they couldn't have been rounded inside the iron kesh. He says that they have to fit exactly in. So if you look here in number 19, the Gomorrah says in Baba as follows. So the iron kesh that Moshe made was two and a half long. Okay. And one and a half am wide and one and a half am tall. And this is an amma which is made from sixim. There was a debate as to whether they always used a sixth or a five. This is an amma from the tip of this finger to the elbow. And this is a tak. And it's pretty much I don't know. One, two, three. Actually, I'm not going to get six of those in my amma. Am I? It's interesting. Maybe I have oversized fists or undersized arms. I'm not sure. Or maybe it's it's not relevant to my arms at all. Or maybe both. Yeah. But either way he says this was sixim and therefore you have a dimensions of the iron kesh which come to 15 by 9 by 9. Okay of the and the shisha they were sixim longish and they were sixim wide ash and they were threeim thick. That's very okay. That's very [Music] thick and they were oriented in the aon according to the to the length of the aron. Now when it says the lice were six by six. Does that mean each one was 6x six? So you got six and six like that and they're somehow sort of fitted into the in which case they were quite snug in the or does it mean that both together were six? It's not entirely clear. Um in other places uh the seems to say something different. Number 20. Okay. So maybe they were six long and three wide. So maybe 6x6 was them both together. There was 6x3 and together they were 6x6. But either way it doesn't indicate exactly whether they were rounded on the top or square on the top. Now normally 6x 6x3 you think of a square, right? There's no indication there that they were rounded. Where would you even think that they were rounded on the top? Where would you even get that idea? Not like di, you know, triangular at the top. I've never seen triangular luhus. Even though, by the way, there's an opinion that the crashim that the beams in the Mishkan were triangulated, triangular at the top. No one's I've never seen Lucas with a with a with a with an angle. Why would you think they were rounded? So the reason is because there was something called a luak pinas at the time of Kazal which was rounded. Okay, let's have a look what this is in number 21 says the Mishna about if you write two. Okay, then you're breaking Shabas. What if you write them? If you make write them on two of the pinas and then they join each other that's called two letters. What's going on here? So they had something I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right called a dipic dip. Dip titch. Dip titch. Dip titch. I'll I will defer to your pronunciation. Seems you seem to know what you're saying. Okay. And I'm just reading it. A dip titch. What is a diptitch? A diptitch is a two um sides of a little like notebook thing which with a hinge in the middle which closes shut like this. And therefore it's saying and they used to have wax on each side of it. And therefore you could practice writing if you were a kid at school whatever and then rub it off and wax it over. If you write let's say an alf on this side and a bet on this side and then you open them up so that the alif and the better together that's called two letters together. So the dipchitch was rounded on the top. That was the classic style of the dipchitch. Uh and therefore it could well be that it was rounded on the top. And in fact there there are very ancient or at least medieval references to the lucis being rounded on the top. If you look on page five, I brought you here that even from the 11th century, uh there are English manuscripts with rounded lai from the 12th century. This was the standard way that uh that they did it. Henry III before he expelled the Jews from England made them wear a badge. Okay, a little badge. I don't know if it was yellow or not, but a badge. And it was in the shape of the luote and they were rounded. The Jews identification badge in medieval England was a rounded luhis. uh and therefore that's pretty standard that that you find this and that's that's really where it came from and I think it probably came from this diptitch and it was a standard uh way that the Christians represented it I'm not going to read the whole thing inside where he says look some people get very uh irrated about this issue I know the rabbis get very upset came to my wife's community when she was a teenager and they had rounded lad and he was very unhappy cuz the rebi was very unhappy no they like this they have oh they just there's something against rounded I don't know if those two things fit together but he was very unhappy the lab the labbe was very unhappy with rounded las he said it was minagoy it was Christians because the and it was the Christians that always we didn't have any medieval art representing the lus the Christians had medieval art interestingly when you find printed books there are zohars and other printed books from the 16th 17th century Jewish books and they've got rounded luos on the front pages, but maybe those front pages were drawn by Christians. You also have books from the printed early printed period that have naked women on the fronts of them as well. Cherabs and angels and all sorts of things. I'm not sure they were done with rabbitic approval. Okay. So, just the the fact that there's a front of a book with a rounded lai doesn't mean that that was oh that was a Jewish min. Maybe not. Maybe the Christians drew those as well. Ah, so we'll get to him in a minute. Um, so, so Rahm says, you know, something straight is probably better than rounded, but don't worry about it. Don't make a don't make a fuss. And who says, he says, who says when they put these things on the on the iron curd, they're not just doing it uh as a as an aesthetic thing. Who says they're really trying to reproduce the lis? If you were trying to reproduce the luau, you wouldn't just put the first two words, would you? You'd write the whole thing. Okay, which is very which is very interesting. Um, let's look at the last point here and then we'll finish. This is a point that we looked at in more detail. not so long ago. So I didn't put it in great detail here, which is what was the font of the text. So if you remember, we talked about Charlton H back in the day. I'm not going to go through him too much. The fact that Cecile did rounded Lis is not surprising. The fact that heavy is interesting. And we talked about I the ancient pale paleocanite script. But if you look for a second in the in number 23, 10 things were created in the twilight zone. They're half part of this world, half part of the Shabas world, the the the the non-physical world. And of those things were the following the not quite of this world those things. What is the kav and what is the militav? So look at look at raen 24. This is something we need to to meditate and ponder on uh and maybe have a whole she on says number 24. This is the writing quote unquote which was present before God alabi black fire on white fire. This is not the kav of the the printed page. This is not even the kav of the lat which was an actual physical kav. This is the Torah as God's mind. And if you're interested, Rabbi Cordoza produced a book 35 years ago maybe little pamphlet called the Torah as God's mind which is absolutely fascinating and talks about the how the Torah if you like coalesed crystallized from an entirely spiritual reality which was when it says God looked into the Torah and created the world. It doesn't mean he looked into a safer Torah. A safer Torah is a physical thing. Obviously God doesn't have a safer Torah. So um what does God look into? God looks into the Torah as God's mind. And if you're a makabul, the Torah is a one of the spirat is identified with terret. It's part of the the re how we perceive God. And then it coaleses into into white fire, black fire on white fire. What does it mean black fire on white fire? Some kind of spiritual representation of the there's a differentiation now between the what will become the the background and and the surface. So that's the and then the isot thetav is what was written on the which were of course miraculous in their own way again part of this world part of the next world you could see all the way through them and therefore you got this whole question we looked at in depth uh you know what was the miracle was it the mem which has like the hole you know the bagel with a hole in the middle okay with the standing or was it the iron because in kav i it's the in the ancient scripts it's the iron which is round not not the me like like an eye. Okay, we talked about that at great length. We did that I think last year. We looked at how the Torah was written and the original kab. I've just brought you on the top there which is uh which is very interesting. Um there is actually a uh a significant debate about this in the Gmorra which we looked at in depth in San Hedin as to what was the original kav. Was the original kav the one we have today? Was the original writing the paleocanite writing? What implications does that have for a million different things, Kabala, Gamatria, etc., etc., which I'm not getting into again now. But this idea, I think we need to look a little bit as to what was the miktav, what was the kav, and I thoroughly recommend this booklet from Rabbi Cordo if you can get a hold of it. Maybe it's a Google book now. Maybe it's online, the Torah as God's mind. Really, really interesting book. The last point I just want to make is a point about the font size, which is a point I've made before, but not for a long time. Have a look in number 31 for a second. This is a fascinating uh source says the notes how were the ten commandments given and that's how most people represent them five and five. However, that's not the only opinion. The majority opinion is They were given in duplicate. 10 on one side, 10 on the other side. Two copies. Why? Look at these things. God said these ten commandments. And they were written. Why are you thinking it's five and five? God said these 10 things and they were written on two tablets of stone. duplicate and actually makes a lot of sense and many of the modern day commentators make a point that when you're making a Brit la in the ancient world when they made a treaty between a senior ruler and a junior vassel they would write it out in duplicate this is your half this is my half we each keep a half yeah and if you were subjugated to a much more important king you would deposit your half with that king as well and therefore you say I trust you enough to look after my half as well. Think about when you're signing a contract. What the buyer gets one half and the seller gets one half and each has their own half. If I give you my half, I'm telling you, I trust you so much. I'm even going to give you my half of the my part of the contract. And therefore, they put in the in the in the in the Aaron together. And it's an interesting idea that they were 10 and 10 in duplicate because it's this treaty. My part, your part, and then where do we keep both parts? What was in the Mishka? What's that? What did they keep in the Mishka? both part both l so if they were 10 and 10 you have both copies of the associas in the iron kesh right there and the Jewish people are saying you know you keep your copy god and you can have our copy as well I trust you completely and we'll take it from interesting idea you have to see where you want to take that idea but definitely there's a there's a mus finally I just want to make a point which I think is very fascinating the mabit raid makes a very interesting point in the 1500s and he says look the print on the l is covered the l is There is there are maz that talk about the fact that the lus were covered by the print. But he says count the words. He says it very explicitly. There were more words on the first half than there were on the second. Assuming five and five. Assuming five and five. You can count the words later. I brought you where I I first hid this from professor Alman many years ago. Uh he was giving after shortly after he got a Nobel prize he was giving a shar. And and I reproduced this. This is not one he did but this is very uh you know you can see this very clearly. The first five, if you do five and five, are about 185 words. And the second five are much shorter in terms of length. There's about 20 words. Says the mid obviously the the lis came in two font sizes in two print sizes. There's the big print and there's the small print. What is the big print? The big print is he says cuz that's where the yates is. Oh, you keep shabas. You keep kosher. Are you honest? Are you kind? Do you help other people? you judge other people. Oh, that's where the real Yates is. So, he wants the God wants the Jewish people to see immediately the big print is all because that's the real work. That's where the real work happens. And therefore, the first image that the Jewish people had before Moshe either smashed or maybe dropped because don't forget the if the lucas if there were spaces in the letters miraculously when the letters fly away all the stone comes back and the whole thing falls down. Either way, before they were dropped or smashed, uh they saw this visual image that they have to focus on. I don't think that's a bad message going into uh that we uh we believe the whole Torah is minim but some bits are harder to keep than others and we need to think about that too. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. We'll leave it there.