On the surface, the laws and principles of the Ten Commandments seem clear, but they contain a deeper layer. It is highly relevant to today’s interconnected and interdependent reality, in which we are all in the same boat, and to the problems currently threatening the people of Israel and humanity.
The Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt. “Egypt” is a code name for the ego’s rule over a person. What exactly is the ego? It is the desire to enjoy for personal benefit alone at the expense of others. It is also called “the evil inclination” for the reason that while it aims to make us feel good on a narrow, personal scale, it ends up leading us all to suffer on a broader scale.
This is exactly what we see in the world. There are ego games everywhere, in every field and at every level, from relationships and family life, through interactions at work, on the roads, and among society, to the international arena and humanity’s relationship with the environment. Everything is driven by the ego. Innately, we wish to be greater than others in one way or another. When we begin to recognize that this is the root of every problem, we can move toward the exodus from Egypt, i.e., the liberation from slavery to narrow egoism.
At the next stage of development comes the event at Mount Sinai. It symbolizes a state in which the ego embedded within human nature rises once again. It stirs thoughts of hatred among the people of Israel. Slander, contempt, and rejection amid their connections brings about a terrible division. Simultaneously, an understanding emerges that precisely here lies an opportunity to rise above all divisiveness and build ourselves into a spiritual nation, i.e., a nation united by a spiritual idea to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself”) above division (“love will cover all crimes”) in order to become a conduit for such unity to spread to humanity (to be “a light unto the nations”).
Unlike other nations, which formed on the basis of a natural common denominator, such as living in the same geographical area, the people of Israel became a nation solely through a common effort to unite in love above all egoism and rejection. In other words, it is an ideologically-based nation, not a biologically-based one.
The revelation at Mount Sinai was a temporary taste of what it feels like to be connected, of how connection can elevate us above material existence, above the sensation of physical life. Bonding, love, and mutual responsibility gave rise to a feeling of the revelation of a higher positive force that dwells in nature. We began to sense a higher level of existence, where each person comes out of themselves and lives among everyone else, caring for others and wanting to fulfill them. One’s body seems to disappear, and one begins to feel that a special force dwells between people. This is how we discovered that nature contains an inner force, the foundation of creation. In Hebrew Gematria, HaTeva (“Nature”) and Elohim (“God”) share the same numerical value (86). This teaches that all of nature is a single mechanism, an integral system the parts of which are connected in a marvelous unity.
At this event, we were given ten principles by which we could strengthen our connection with one another and with that force. These laws are intended to bring us to a full awareness of the network of connections that links all aspects of reality—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human—into a single harmonious system. Each commandment guides us in improving our relationship with everyone and everything outside us, until we come to feel the eternal and perfect connection among all parts of the system.
Based on “New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.