10 Commandments or 10 Speakings? Speech as the Center of Our Worship
About this episode
This episode explores the significance of speech in Jewish worship and the interpretation of the 10 Commandments.
The 2nd Commandment says not to make a chiseled thing part of our worship, yet the 10 Commandments actually are a chiseled thing! In this podcast, I show how the Jewish tradition the notion that it's okay in this instance because we make divine speech --words chiseled on these chiseled stones!-- the center of our worship practice. This changes everything: holiness comes through the holiness of speech, both divine in creating worlds and in creating instructions for how to live, and through our own speech. Instead of an image or an idol, we have speech. I also cover how the 10 Statements (Torah) became the 10 Commandments (Christianity) and so the Rabbis renamed them the 10 Speakings.
People in this episode
Host: Rabbi Nadav Caine
Topics covered
- Jewish tradition
- speech in worship
- holiness
- 10 Commandments
- idolatry
- divine speech
Keywords
- 10 Commandments
- speech
- worship
- holiness
- Jewish tradition
- idolatry
- Torah
- Christianity
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: 10 Commandments, 10 Statements, 10 Speakings, Torah, Christianity
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