I had the pleasure of hearing
Dennis Prager at a local appearance. His topic, "The Ten Commandments: Up Close and Personal." On the way I stopped for dinner at a Middle Eastern Restaurant. Turned out to be owned by Jews. The Middle Eastern food store next door was owned by Muslims, and they're good friends. Only in America. An example of the type Prager brings up on his show. A nice setup for the evening.
Dennis spoke at Temple Beth Shalom in Chandler, Arizona. Here are my notes:
Dennis is one of the clearest moral thinkers I have heard, and he has the ability to convey his thoughts in direct and understandable terms. He's quite tall, something you don't get from the radio or a TV interview where he's always seated.
After asking for a brief show of hands, he noted that suffering we have experienced in our lives was about equally divided between suffering at the hands of others, suffering by some natural occurance, or a combination. A goal of the 10 Commandments is to limit human suffering at each others' hands. The American Founding Fathers recognized the 10 Commandments as God's laws and the foundation for democratic human law. They were unique among Christians in that their referential base was in Judaism. How else to explain the use of biblical Hebrew in several university seals and the like?
Law itself is amoral. A nation of laws can be a nation of bad laws (Nazi Germany or Saddam's Iraq for example). A Judeo-Christian legal base helps ensure that the resulting civil laws are good.
1. I am the Lord your God...I took you out of slavery...
The Commandments don't make sense without this introductory statement, which establish the source of the Commandments. Hence, in the Jewish numbering, this is the first Commandment. The point of establishing God as the One who delivered the Israelites from slavery is that if we want to remain free, we must follow the Commandments. Unique among societies is the United States which forms the conjunction of liberty with "In God we trust" with "E Pluribus Unum"--From the Many, One--the Melting Pot. In our society, religion and liberty are mutually interdependent.
2. You shall have no other gods before Me...
There are more gods today than when the Commandments were written. A god is what people give their lives to. That which we make an end unto itself, such as fame or health. "The purpose of life is not to live; the purpose of life is to do something with it." Those American soldiers who died in Iraq did more with their lives than most 20-30 year olds could ever hope to do. Why the importance of One God? If there is One God, we're all brothers and sisters. This is a profound power of monotheism.
3. Do not take God's name in vain... Literally, do not "carry" God's name in vain, that is, do not do ungodly things in God's name. Evil in God's name is the worst sin, because you have brought shame on God. If you make it impossible to associate God with goodness (as He is the source of goodness) then you lessen the power of good in the world.
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy... Here is the only ritual prescription in the 10 Commandments. If you keep the Sabbath "all things will follow. Keeping
Shabbat is a major way of keeping my sanity, the one day a week I leave the World and spend it with God, family, and friends...Turning off your electronics for 24 hours alone will transform your life. "God is the Absolute in a universe of relativity," he once told his atheist roomate, a physics major, which properly stumped him(!) Observing the Sabbath offers a witness to the world of a way to be holy, as one rabbi wrote, "building a cathedral in time."
5. Honor your father and mother... It says honor, not love, as in the case of stranger or neighbor. "It's sad if you don't love your parents, but it's not a sin." What about abusive parents? "Every law has a context." You don't have to love them, but you have to call them once a week" [audience laughs]. "Without honoring parents there is chaos in the home." And the Commandment "is addressed to adults, not just 7 year olds."
6. Do not murder... Improperly translated "kill." Hebrew, like English, has different words to distinguish different kinds of homicide. The commandment refers to murder, "to take life immorally."
7. Do not commit adultery... Moses comes down from the mountain and says, "I have have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I got Him down to 10. The bad news is [the one about] adultery stays [audience laughs]. Dennis notes that every time he tells that joke, it's the men who are laughing the most(!) We have confused infidelity with adultery. Christians have it tougher, but often misinterpret: "Jesus was precise in his wording. The sin of the heart is not the same as the act itself." The concern of the commandment is to preserve the family.
8. Do not steal... In some way the most important of all the commandments. All the Commandments are based on theft of some sort. "In my opinion the most widely violated of the Commandments." The concern of this Commandment specifically is the value of private property.
9. Do not bear false witness... Specifically perjury. "In my opinion all social evil (vs. individual evil) come from lies."
10. Do not covet...Unique in that it is the only Commandment concerning thought. To covet is not the same as to envy. Envy is unhealthy, but it is not a sin per this Commandment. Coveting is to want some specific thing; envy is to want something like it. If you covet and start scheming to steal, it leads to bad things. In large measure, the other Commandments can be drawn from this.
Various other quotes:
"There is no better an argument for God than good religious people; there is no better an argument against God than bad religious people."
Regarding his assessment of Islam, "I don't judge religions, I judge practicioners...Texts don't live, people live."
"I can't tell you at all the connection between what people believe and how they act," because he has not seen consistency.
Apologies to Dennis Prager for any misquotes.