The 10 Commandments of God and Which Jesus Ignored. A detailed overview of the ten commandments of God in Orthodoxy
God wants people to be happy, love Him, love each other and not harm themselves and others, therefore He gave us commandments. They express spiritual laws, they protect us from trouble and teach us how to live and build relationships with God and people. Just as parents warn their children about danger and teach them about life, so our Heavenly Father gives us the necessary instructions. Commandments were given to people in the Old Testament. The Ten Commandments are also obligatory for the people of the New Testament, Christians.“Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (), says the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most important law of the spiritual world is the law of love for God and people.
All ten commandments speak of this law. They were given to Moses in the form of two stone slabs - tablets, on one of which the first four commandments were written, speaking about love for the Lord, and on the second - the remaining six, about the attitude towards neighbors. When our Lord Jesus Christ was asked: “What is the greatest commandment in the law?” He answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”: this is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments all the law and the prophets are established ”().
What does it mean? That if a person has really achieved true love for God and neighbor, he cannot break any of the ten commandments, because they all talk about love for God and people. And to this perfect love we must strive.
Consider the ten commandments of the Law of God in order:
2. Do not make for yourself an idol and any likeness, a fir tree in heaven, a fir tree on the earth below, and a fir tree in the waters under the earth: do not bow down to them, nor serve them.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy: do six days, and do all your works in them, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, to the Lord your God.
6. Don't kill.
7. Do not create adultery.
8. Don't steal.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy sincere wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his village, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any of his livestock, nor all that is thy neighbor's spruce.
So they sound in Church Slavonic. In the future, analyzing each commandment, we will give their Russian translation.
FIRST COMMANDMENT
I am the Lord your God; let there be no bosi inii for you, unless Mene.
I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods but Me.
The Lord is the Creator of the universe and the spiritual world and the First Cause of everything that exists. Our whole beautiful, harmonious and incredibly complex world could not have arisen by itself. Behind all this beauty and harmony is the Creative Mind. To believe that everything that exists came into being on its own, without God, is nothing but madness. “The fool said in his heart:“ there is no God ” (), - says the prophet David. God is not only the Creator, but also our Father. He cares, provides for people and everything He created, without His care the world would collapse.
God is the Source of all blessings, and a person should strive for Him, for only in God does he receive life. "I am the way and the truth and the life" (). The main means of communion with God is prayer and the holy sacraments, in which we receive the grace of God, divine energy.
God wants people to glorify Him correctly, that is, Orthodoxy. One of the most harmful modern delusions is that all religions and faiths talk about the same thing and strive for God in the same way, they just pray to Him in different ways. There can be only one true faith - the Orthodox. Holy Scripture tells us: “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord created the heavens” ().
In the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, it is said about Christ: “There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (). For us, faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior is the main dogma, while other religions, in general, deny the deity of Christ. Either they consider him one of the many pagan deities, or just a prophet, or even, God forgive me, a false messiah. So we have nothing to do with them.
So that for us there can be only one God, glorified in the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and we Orthodox Christians cannot have other gods.
Sins against the first commandment are: 1) atheism (denial of God); 2) lack of faith, doubt, superstition, when people confuse faith with unbelief or all sorts of signs and other remnants of paganism. Also sinning against the first commandment are those who say: “I have God in my soul,” but at the same time they do not go and do not approach the sacraments, or they rarely approach; 3) paganism (polytheism), belief in false gods, satanism, occultism and esotericism. This also includes magic, witchcraft, healing, extrasensory perception, astrology, divination and turning to people involved in all this for help; 4) false opinions that contradict the Orthodox faith and falling away from the Church into schism, false teachings and sects; 5) renunciation of faith; 6) hope for one's own strength and for people more than for God. This sin is also associated with lack of faith.
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
Do not make for yourself an idol and any likeness, a fir tree in heaven, a mountain, and a fir tree on the earth below, and a fir tree in the waters under the earth: do not bow down to them, nor serve them.
You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above, what is on the earth below, and what is in the waters below the earth; do not worship or serve them.
The second commandment forbids worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. We know what paganism and idolatry are, here is what the Apostle Paul writes about the Gentiles: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and birds, and four-legged, and creeping things ... They replaced the truth of God a lie, and served the creature instead of the Creator ”(). The Old Testament people of Israel, to whom these commandments were originally given, were the guardians of faith in the true God. He was surrounded on all sides by pagan peoples and tribes to warn the Jews that in no case did they adopt pagan customs and beliefs, the Lord establishes this commandment. Now there are quite a few pagans, idolaters left, although there is polytheism, worship of idols and idols even now. For example, in India, Africa, South America, some other countries. Even here in Russia, where Christianity has been over 1000 years old, some people are trying to revive the ancient Slavic paganism.
The veneration of holy icons in Orthodoxy cannot in any way be called idolatry. Firstly, we offer prayers of worship not to the icon itself, not to the material from which it is made, but to those who are depicted on it: God, the Mother of God and the saints. Looking at the image, we ascend with the mind to the Prototype. Secondly, sacred images were made in the Old Testament at the command of God Himself. The Lord commanded Moses to put in the first mobile Old Testament temple, tabernacles, golden images of the Cherubim. Already in the first centuries of Christianity, in the Roman catacombs, the meeting places of the first Christians, there were wall images of Christ in the form of the Good Shepherd, the Mother of God, with raised hands and other sacred images. All these frescoes were found during excavations.
Although there are few direct idolaters left in the modern world, many people create idols for themselves, worship them and make sacrifices. For many, their passions and vices have become such idols, requiring constant sacrifices. Passions are ingrained sinful habits, harmful addictions. Some people fell into their captivity and can no longer do without them, and serve them as their masters, for: “whoever is defeated by whom is the slave” (). These idols are passions: 1) gluttony; 2) fornication; 3) love of money, 4) anger; 5) sadness; 6) despondency; 7) vanity; 8) pride.
It is not in vain that the Apostle Paul compares serving the passions with idolatry: “covetousness ... is idolatry” (). Serving passion, a person stops thinking about God and serving Him, and he also forgets about love for his neighbor.
The sins against the second commandment also include a passionate attachment to some business, when this hobby becomes a passion. Idolatry is also the passionate worship of a person. No wonder some artists, singers, athletes in the modern world are called: idols and idols.
THIRD COMMANDMENT
Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? That is, to pronounce it not in prayer, not in spiritual conversations, but in idle conversations, as they say, “for a red word” or just for a bunch of words, or maybe even as a joke. And it is an absolutely grave sin to pronounce the name of God with the desire to blaspheme God, to laugh at Him. Also a sin against the third commandment is blasphemy, when holy objects become the subject of ridicule and reproach. Failure to fulfill the vows given to God and frivolous oaths, with the invocation of the name of God, are also a violation of this commandment.
The name of God is sacred to us, and it cannot be exchanged in empty, idle speech. The saint gives a parable about the commemoration of the name of the Lord in vain:
One goldsmith was sitting in his shop at a workbench and, while working, constantly remembered the name of God in vain: either as an oath, or as a favorite word. A certain pilgrim returning from holy places, passing by a shop, heard this, and his soul was indignant. Then he called out to the jeweler to come out into the street. And when the master left, the pilgrim hid. The jeweler, seeing no one, returned to the shop and continued to work. The pilgrim called out to him again, and when the jeweler left, he pretended not to know anything. The master, angry, returned to his room and began to work again. The pilgrim called out to him for the third time, and when the master came out again, he again stood in silence, pretending that he had nothing to do with it. Then the jeweler in a rage attacked the pilgrim:
Why are you calling me in vain? What a joke! I have work up to my throat!
The pilgrim replied peacefully:
Truly, the Lord God has even more work to do, but you call on Him much more often than I do you. Who has the right to be more angry: you or the Lord God?
The jeweler, ashamed, returned to the workshop and has kept his mouth shut ever since.
The word has great meaning and power. God created this world through the Word. “The heavens were created by the word of the Lord, and by the spirit of His mouth all their host” (), says the Savior. About the "rotten word" wrote another ap. Paul. In the IV century. the saint says that “Whenever someone swears with obscene words, then at the Throne of the Lord, the Mother of God, she takes away the prayer cover given by Her from a person, and She herself retreats, and that person is chosen obscenely, subjects herself to a curse that day, because she scolds her mother and bitterly her offends. It is not befitting for us to eat and drink with that person, otherwise he will not lag behind ongoing swear words.
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy: do six days, and do all your works in them, on the seventh day, the Sabbath, to the Lord your God.
Remember the Sabbath day to spend it holy: work for six days and do all your work in continuation of them, and devote the seventh day - the Sabbath day to the Lord your God.
The Lord created this world in six stages - days and finished the creation. “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; for in it he rested from all his works, which God created and created ”(). This does not mean that God does not care about the created world, but it means that the Lord has finished all the actions related to creation.
In the Old Testament, Saturday was considered a day of rest (translated from Hebrew peace). In New Testament times, Sunday became a holy day of rest, when the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is remembered. The seventh and most important day for Christians is the day of resurrection, Little Pascha, and the custom of honoring Sunday comes from the time of the holy apostles. On Sunday, Christians refrain from work and go to pray to God, thank Him for the past week and ask for a blessing on the work of the coming week. On this day it is very good to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Sunday we dedicate to prayer, spiritual reading, pious activities. On Sunday, as a day free from ordinary work, you can help your neighbors. Visit the sick, help the weak, the elderly.
Often, from people who are far from the Church or who are few in the Church, one can hear that they, they say, do not have time for home prayer and visiting the temple. Yes, a modern person is sometimes very busy, but even busy people have a lot of free time to talk on the phone with friends, friends and relatives, read magazines, newspapers and novels, sit for hours at the TV and computer, and time for prayer no. Another person comes home at six o'clock in the evening and then lies on the couch watching TV for 5-6 hours, and he is too lazy to get up and read a very short evening prayer rule or read the Gospel.
Those people who honor Sundays and church holidays, pray in the temple and are not too lazy to read morning and evening prayers, get much more than those who spend this time in idleness and laziness. The Lord will bless their labors, increase their strength and send them His help.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT
Honor your father and your mother, may it be good, and may you be long on earth.
Honor your father and your mother so that you feel good and live long on earth.
Those who love and honor their parents are promised not only a reward in the Kingdom of Heaven, but even in earthly life, blessing, prosperity and longevity. Honoring parents means respecting them, showing obedience to them, helping them, taking care of them in their old age, praying for their health and salvation, and when they die, praying for the repose of their souls.
People often ask: how can you love and honor parents who do not take care of their children, neglect their duties, or fall into serious sins? We do not choose our parents, the fact that we have such parents, and not some others, is the will of God. Why did God give us such parents? In order for us to show the best Christian qualities: patience, love, humility, to learn to forgive.
We came into this world through our parents, they are the reason for our existence and the very nature of our origin from them teaches us to honor them as people higher than ourselves. Here is what the saint writes about this: “... as they gave birth to you, you cannot give birth to them. Therefore, if in this we are inferior to them, then we will surpass them in another respect through respect for them, not only according to the law of nature, but primarily before nature, according to the (feeling) fear of God. The will of God resolutely requires that parents be honored by their children, and rewards those who do this with great blessings and gifts, and punishes those who violate this law with great and grave misfortunes. Honoring father and mother, we honor God Himself, our Father in heaven. He, along with our earthly parents, gave us the most precious gift - the gift of life. Parents can be called co-creators, co-workers with the Lord. They gave us a body, we are flesh of their flesh, and God put an immortal soul in us.
If a person does not honor parents, denies this hierarchy, he can very easily come to disrespect and denial of God. At first he does not respect his parents, then he ceases to love his homeland, then he denies the mother church, and now he no longer believes in God. All this is very interconnected. Not without reason, when they want to shake the state, destroy its foundations from within, they first of all take up arms against the church, faith in God, and the family. Family, reverence for elders, transmission of traditions (and the word tradition comes from the Latin tradition - transmission), cements society, makes the people strong.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Don't kill.
Dont kill.
Murder, taking the life of another person and suicide, that is, an unauthorized departure from life, are among the most serious sins.
Suicide is the worst sin. This is rebellion against God, who has given us the precious gift of life. But our life is in the hands of God, we have no right to leave it whenever we want. Committing suicide, a person passes away in a terrible gloom of despair and despondency. He can no longer repent of this sin, nor can he bring repentance for the sin of murder, which he commits in relation to himself, there is no repentance beyond the grave.
A person who takes the life of another through negligence is also guilty of murder, but his guilt is less than that of the one who kills deliberately. Also guilty of murder is the one who contributed to the murder. For example, the husband of a woman who did not dissuade her from having an abortion, or even contributed to it himself.
People who shorten their lives and harm their health with their bad habits and vices and sins also sin against the sixth commandment.
Any harm done to a neighbor is also a violation of this commandment. Hatred, anger, beatings, bullying, insults, curses, anger, malevolence, vindictiveness, malevolence, unforgiveness of insults - all these are sins against the commandment “do not kill”, because “everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (), - says The Word of God.
In addition to bodily murder, there is no less terrible murder - spiritual murder, when someone seduces, seduces a neighbor into unbelief or pushes him to commit a sin, and thereby destroys his soul.
Holy Scripture classifies fornication among the most serious sins: “Do not be deceived: neither fornicators ... nor adulterers ... will inherit the Kingdom of God” ().
A sin even more serious than fornication is adultery, that is, adultery or bodily relations with a person who is married.
Cheating destroys not only marriage, but also the soul of the one who cheats. You can't build happiness on someone else's grief. There is a law of spiritual balance: having sowed evil, sin, we will reap evil, our sin will return to us. Adultery, fornication does not begin with the fact of physical intimacy, but much earlier, when a person gives himself permission to dirty thoughts, immodest views. The Gospel says: anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart ”(). Therefore, mental fornication, not keeping sight, hearing, shameless conversations, these and other similar sins, are a violation of the seventh commandment.
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Don't steal.
Don't steal.
It is a violation of this commandment to appropriate someone else's property, both public and private. The types of theft can be varied: robbery, theft, fraud in commercial matters, bribery, bribery, tax evasion, parasitism, sacrilege (that is, the appropriation of church property), all kinds of scams, machinations and fraud. In addition, any dishonesty can be attributed to sins against the eighth commandment: lies, deceit, hypocrisy, flattery, sycophancy, human pleasing, since in this case people also try to acquire something, for example, the favor of their neighbor, dishonestly, by thieves.
“You can’t build a house with stolen goods,” says a Russian proverb, and also “No matter how much you wind the rope, there will be an end.” Cashing in on the appropriation of someone else's property, a person will sooner or later pay for it. “God cannot be mocked” () A perfect sin, no matter how insignificant it may seem, will surely return. Evil will surely find us. One of my friends in the yard accidentally hit and scratched the fender of a neighbor's car. But he did not say anything to him and did not give money for repairs. After some time, in a completely different place, far from home, his own car was also scratched and fled the scene. Moreover, the blow was inflicted on the same wing, which he spoiled his neighbor.
At the heart of theft, theft lies the passion of the love of money, and it fights by acquiring virtues that are opposite to it. The love of money can be of two types: Waste (love for a luxurious life) and stinginess, greed Both require funds, which are often acquired dishonestly.
The love of money fights by acquiring the virtues opposite to it: mercy to the poor, non-acquisitiveness, diligence, honesty and spiritual life, because attachment to money and other material values always comes from lack of spirituality.
NINTH COMMANDMENT
Do not listen to a friend, your testimony is false.
Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
With this commandment, the Lord forbids not only direct perjury against one's neighbor, for example, in court, but also any lie spoken against other people, such as: slander, slander, false denunciations. The sin of idle talk, so common in everyday life for modern man, is also very often associated with sins against the ninth commandment. In idle conversations, gossip, gossip, and sometimes slander and slander are constantly heard. During an idle conversation, it is very easy to "blather too much", divulge other people's secrets and secrets entrusted to you, let down and set up your neighbor. “My tongue is my enemy,” people say, and indeed, our language can be of great benefit to us and our neighbors, or it can do much harm. The Apostle James says that with our tongue we sometimes “bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the likeness of God” (). We sin against the ninth commandment when we not only speak lies and slander our neighbor, but also when we agree with what others have said, thereby participating in the sin of condemnation.
“Judge not, lest you be judged” (), the Savior warns. To condemn means to judge, to anticipate the judgment of God, to usurp His rights (this is also a terrible pride!) for only the Lord, who knows the past, present and future of a person, can judge him. Rev. John of Savvait tells the following: “Once a monk from a neighboring monastery came to me, and I asked him how the fathers live. He answered: "All right, according to your prayers." Then I asked about a monk who did not enjoy a good reputation, and the guest said to me: “He has not changed at all, father!” Hearing this, I exclaimed: "Bad!" And as soon as I said this, I immediately felt as if in ecstasy and saw Jesus Christ crucified between two thieves. I, it was, rushed to worship the Savior, when suddenly He turned to the upcoming Angels and said to them: "Put him out, - this is the Antichrist, for he condemned his brother before My Judgment." And when, according to the word of the Lord, I was cast out, my mantle was left in the door, and then I woke up. “Woe is me,” I then said to my brother who came, “this day is angry with me!” "Why is that?" he asked. Then I told him about the vision and noticed that the mantle I left behind meant that I was deprived of the protection and help of God. And from that time on, I spent seven years wandering in the wilderness, not eating bread, not going under shelter, not talking to people, until I saw my Lord, who returned the mantle to me.
That's how scary it is to pass judgment on a person.
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
Thou shalt not covet thy sincere wife, covet not thy neighbor's house, nor his village, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any of his livestock, nor all that is thy neighbor's spruce.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, and covet not thy neighbor's house, nor his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant... nor all that is thy neighbor's.
This commandment forbids envy and grumbling. It is impossible not only to do bad things to people, but even to have sinful, envious thoughts against them. Any sin begins with a thought, with a thought about it. At the beginning, a person begins to envy the money and property of his neighbors, then a thought arises in his heart to steal this good from his brother, and soon he embodies his sinful dreams into action. Adultery is also known to begin with indiscreet looks and envious thoughts about the spouse of a neighbor. It must also be said that envy of wealth, property, talents, and the health of our neighbors kills our love for them; envy, like acid, corrodes the soul. It is already unpleasant for us to communicate with them, we cannot share their joy with them, on the contrary, an envious person is very pleased with the sudden sorrow and grief that befell those whom he envied. That is why the sin of envy is so dangerous, it is the beginning, the seed of other sins. An envious person also sins against God, he does not want to be content with what the Lord sends him, he is constantly not enough, he blames his neighbors and God for all his troubles. Such a person will never be happy and satisfied with life, because happiness is not some amount of earthly goods, but the state of the human soul. “The kingdom of God is within you” (). It begins here on earth, with the right arrangement of the soul. The ability to see the gifts of God in every day of one's life, appreciate them and thank God for them is the key to human happiness.
THE GOSPEL COMMANDMENTS OF THE BLESS
We have already said that God gave people the ten commandments back in the Old Testament times. They were given in order to protect people from evil, to warn of the danger posed by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ established the New Testament, gave us the New Gospel Law, the basis of which is love: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another” (). However, the Savior did not abolish the observance of the ten commandments, but showed people a completely new level of spiritual life. In the Sermon on the Mount, talking about how a Christian should build his life, the Savior, among other things, gives nine Beatitudes. These commandments no longer speak of the prohibition of sin, but of Christian perfection. They tell how to achieve bliss, what virtues bring a person closer to God, for only in Him can a person find true bliss. The Beatitudes not only do not cancel the ten commandments of the Law of God, but very wisely supplement them. It is not enough simply not to commit sin, or to banish it from our souls by repenting of it. No, it is necessary that our soul be filled with virtues opposite to sins. "A holy place is never empty". It is not enough not to do evil, one must do good. Sins create a wall between us and God, when the wall is destroyed, we begin to see God, but only a moral Christian life can bring us closer to Him.
Here are the nine commandments that the Savior gave us as a guide to Christian achievement:
- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for those are the Kingdom of Heaven
- Blessed are those who weep, for they will be comforted
- Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth
- Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied
- Blessed are mercy, for there will be mercy
- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for these sons of God shall be called
- Blessed are the exiles for the sake of righteousness, for those are the Kingdom of Heaven
- Blessed are you, when they reproach you, and wait, and speak every evil word against you lying, For my sake: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is many in heaven.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF THE BLESS
What does it mean to be "poor in spirit" and why such people are "blessed"? In order to understand this, you need to use the image of an ordinary beggar person. We have all seen and know people who have reached the extreme degree of poverty, destitution. Among them, of course, there are different people and we will not now consider their moral qualities, no, we need the life of these unfortunate people as a kind of image. Every beggar is well aware that he is on the last rung of the social ladder, that all other people are materially much higher than him. And he wanders in rags, often without his own corner, and asks for alms in order to somehow support his life. While a beggar communicates with the same poor people as he is, he may not notice his situation, but when he sees a rich, wealthy person, he immediately feels the poverty of his own situation.
Spiritual poverty means humility, in and deduction of its true state. Just as an ordinary beggar has nothing of his own, but wears what is given and eats alms, so we must realize that everything we have is from God. All this is not ours, we are only clerks, stewards of the estate that the Lord has given us. He gave it to serve the salvation of our souls. You can be by no means a poor person, but be “poor in spirit”, accept with humility what God gives us and use it to serve the Lord and people. Everything is from God, not only material wealth, but also health, talents, abilities, life itself - all this is exclusively a gift of God, for which we must thank Him. “Without Me you can do nothing” (), the Lord tells us. Both the fight against sins and the acquisition of good deeds are impossible without humility; we do all this only with the help of God.
The poor in spirit, the humble, are promised "Kingdom of heaven". People who know that everything they have is not their merit, but the gift of God, which must be multiplied for the salvation of the soul, will perceive everything sent to them as a means to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven.
THE SECOND BLEAT COMMANDMENT
« Blessed are those who weep." Crying can be caused by completely different reasons, but not all crying is a virtue. The commandment to weep means repentant weeping for one's sins. Repentance is so important because without it it is impossible to get closer to God. Sins prevent us from doing this. The first commandment of humility already leads us to repentance, lays the foundation for spiritual life, for only a person who feels his weakness, poverty before the Heavenly Father can recognize his sins, repent of them. And as the gospel prodigal son returns to the Father's house, of course, the Lord will accept everyone who comes to Him, and will wipe away every tear from his eyes. Therefore: “Blessed are those who weep (for sins), for they will be comforted.” Every person has sins, only God is without sin, but we have been given the greatest gift from God - repentance, the opportunity to return to God, to ask for forgiveness from Him. It is not for nothing that the holy fathers called repentance the second baptism, where we wash away sins not with water, but with tears.
Blissful tears can also be called tears of compassion, empathy for our neighbors, when we are imbued with their grief and try our best to help them.
THE THIRD BLESSING COMMANDMENT
"Blessed are the meek." Meekness is a peaceful, calm, quiet spirit that a person has acquired in his heart. This is the obedience to the will of God and the virtue of peace in the soul and peace with others. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light ”(), the Savior teaches us. He was in everything submissive to the will of the Heavenly Father, He served people and accepted suffering with meekness. He who has taken upon himself the good yoke of Christ, who follows His path, who seeks humility, meekness, and love, will find peace and tranquility for his soul both in this earthly life and in the life of the next age, for the meek "inherit the earth" first of all, not material, but spiritual, in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The great Russian saint, the monk said: "acquire a spirit of peace and around you thousands will be saved." He himself fully acquired this meek spirit, greeting everyone who came to him with the words: “My joy, Christ is risen!” An episode from his life is known, when robbers came to his forest cell, wanting to rob the elder, thinking that the visitors bring him a lot of money. Saint Seraphim was chopping wood in the forest at that time and stood with an ax in his hands. But, having weapons and himself possessing great physical strength, he did not want to resist them. He laid the ax on the ground and folded his arms across his chest. The villains grabbed an ax and severely beat the old man with his butt, breaking his head and breaking his bones. Finding no money, they fled. The monk was barely able to get to the monastery, he was ill for a long time and remained bent to the end of his days. When the robbers were caught, he not only forgave them, but also asked to be released, saying that if this was not done, he would leave the monastery. Behold, what an amazing meekness this man was.
That "the meek shall inherit the earth" is true not only in the spiritual plane, but even in the earthly one. Meek and humble Christians, without wars, fire and sword, despite the terrible persecution by the pagans, were able to convert the entire vast Roman Empire to the true faith.
THE FOURTH BLEAT COMMANDMENT
There are many ways to crave and seek truth. There are certain people who can be called "truth-seekers", they are constantly outraged by the existing order, everywhere they look for justice and complain to higher authorities. But they are not mentioned in this commandment. It means a completely different truth.
It is said that one must desire truth as food and drink: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." That is, very strongly, like a hungry and thirsty one, he suffers until he satisfies his needs. What is the truth here. On the Supreme Divine Truth. BUT Supreme Truth, Truth is Christ. “I am the way and the truth” (), He says about Himself. Therefore, the Christian must seek the true meaning of life in God. In Him alone is the True Source of Living Water and Divine Bread, which is His Body.
The Lord left us the Word of God, which contains the Divine teaching, the truth of God, He created the Church and put into it everything necessary for salvation. The Church is also the bearer of truth and correct knowledge about God, the world and man. This is the truth that every Christian should crave, reading the Holy Scriptures and being edified by the works of the Fathers of the Church.
Those who are zealous about prayer, about doing good deeds, about satiating themselves with the Word of God, truly “thrive for the truth,” and, of course, will receive satiation from the ever-flowing Source of our Savior both in this century and in the future.
THE FIFTH BLESSING COMMANDMENT
Grace, mercy These are deeds of love towards neighbors. In these virtues, we imitate God Himself: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” ().
And he teaches us all the same selfless love, so that we do works of mercy not for the sake of a reward, not expecting to receive something in return, but out of love for the person himself, fulfilling the commandment of God.
By doing good deeds to people as a creature, the image of God, we thereby bring service to God Himself. The Gospel describes the Last Judgment of God, when the Lord will separate the righteous from the sinners and say to the righteous: “Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you accepted Me; was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord! when we saw you hungry and fed you? or thirsty, and drink? when we saw you as a stranger and received you? or naked and clothed? when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?” And the King will answer them: “Truly, I say to you, because you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me” (). Therefore it is said that "merciful" themselves "they will have mercy." And on the contrary, those who did not do good deeds will have nothing to justify themselves at the judgment of God, as it is said in the same parable of the terrible judgment.
THE SIXTH BLESSING COMMANDMENT
"Blessed are the pure in heart", that is, pure in soul and mind from sinful thoughts and desires. It is important not only to avoid committing sin in a visible way, but also to refrain from thinking about it, because any sin begins with thinking, and only then materializes into action. “Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies come from the heart of a person” (). A person who has an impure soul, impure thoughts is a potential perpetrator of later already visible sins.
“If your eye is pure, then your whole body will be bright; but if your eye is evil, then your whole body will be dark” (). These words of Christ are spoken about the purity of the heart and soul. A clear eye is sincerity, purity, holiness of thoughts and intentions, and these intentions lead to good deeds. And vice versa: where the eye, the heart is blinded, dark thoughts reign, which later become dark deeds. Only a person with a pure soul, pure thoughts, can approach God, behold God is seen not with bodily eyes, but with the spiritual vision of a pure soul and heart. If this organ of spiritual vision is clouded, corrupted by sin, the Lord cannot be seen. Therefore, it is necessary to refrain from impure, sinful, evil and dull thoughts, drive them away as instilled from the enemy, and educate in the soul, nurture others - bright, kind. These thoughts are cultivated by prayer, faith and hope in God, love for Him, for people and for every creature of God.
THE SEVENTH BLEAT COMMANDMENT
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." The commandment of peace with people and reconciliation of the warring is placed very high, such people are called children, sons of the Lord. Why? We are all children of God, his creations. There is nothing more pleasant for any parent when he knows that his children live in peace, love and harmony among themselves: “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together!” (). And vice versa, how sad it is for a father and mother to see quarrels, strife and enmity between children, at the sight of all this, the heart of the parents seems to bleed! If peace and good relations between children please even earthly parents, all the more our Heavenly Father needs us to live in peace. And a person who keeps peace in the family, with people, reconciles the warring, is pleasing and pleasing to God. Not only does such a person receive joy, peace, happiness and blessings from God here on earth, acquiring peace in the soul and peace with others, he will undoubtedly receive a reward in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Peacemakers will also be called “sons of God” because in their feat they are likened to the Son of God Himself, Christ the Savior, Who reconciled people with God, restored that bond that was destroyed by sins and the falling away of mankind from God.
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT OF THE BLESS
"Blessed are the persecuted for the sake of righteousness." The search for Truth, Divine righteousness, has already been mentioned in the fourth beatitude. We remember that the Truth is Christ Himself. It is also called the Sun of Truth. It is precisely about constraint, persecution for the truth of God that this commandment speaks. The way of a Christian is always the way of a warrior of Christ. The path is difficult, difficult, narrow "straight is the gate and narrow is the path that leads to life" (). And the fact that so many people follow this direction should not confuse us. A Christian is always different, not like everyone else. “Try to live not “as everyone lives,” but as God commands, because “the world lies in evil,” says the reverend. It does not matter if for our life and faith we will be persecuted and vilified here on earth, because our fatherland is not on earth, but in heaven, with God. Therefore, to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, the Lord promises in this commandment "Kingdom of heaven".
THE NINTH BLEAT COMMANDMENT
The continuation of the eighth commandment, which speaks of oppression for the Truth of God and the Christian life, is the last commandment of beatitude, which speaks of persecution for the faith. “Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
Here it is said about the highest manifestation of love for God - about the readiness to give one's life for Christ, for one's faith in Him. This feat is called martyrdom. This path is the highest and has the highest, "great reward" This path was indicated by the Savior Himself, He endured persecution, torment, cruel torture and painful death, thereby giving an example to all His followers and strengthening them in their readiness to suffer for Him even to the point of blood and death, as He once suffered for all of us.
We know that the Church stands on the blood and stamina of the martyrs, they defeated the pagan, hostile world, giving their lives and laying them at the foundation of the Church. A Christian teacher of the 3rd century said: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity." As a seed falls into the ground and dies, but at the same time its death is not in vain, it gives fruit several times larger, so the apostles, martyrs, having given their lives, were the seed from which the Universal Church grew. And at the beginning of the 4th century, the pagan empire was defeated by Christianity without the force of arms and any coercion and became Orthodox.
But the enemy of the human race does not calm down and constantly raises new persecutions against Christians. And when the Antichrist comes to power, he will also persecute and persecute the disciples of Christ. Therefore, every Christian must be constantly ready for the feat of confession and martyrdom.
Truly, there is nothing more dangerous and pernicious for the soul than to inherit a large fortune. Be sure that the devil rejoices in a rich inheritance more than an angel, for nothing else does the devil spoil people so easily and quickly, as with a large inheritance.
Therefore, brother, work hard and teach your children to work. And when you work, do not look for only profit, benefit and success in work. Better find in your work the beauty and pleasure that labor itself gives.
For one chair that the carpenter will make, he can get ten dinars, or fifty, or a hundred. But the beauty of the product and the pleasure from the work that the master feels, strict with inspiration, gluing and polishing the wood, does not pay off with anything. This pleasure is reminiscent of the supreme pleasure that the Lord experienced at the creation of the world, when He inspiredly “planed, glued and polished” it. The whole of God's world could have its own price and could pay off, but its beauty and the pleasure of the Creator at the Creation of the world have no price.
Know that you humiliate your work if you think only about the material benefit from it. Know that such work is not given to a person, he will not succeed, will not bring him the expected profit. And the tree will be angry with you and resist you if you work on it not out of love, but for profit. And the earth will hate you if you plow it without thinking about its beauty, but only about your profit from it. Iron will burn you, water will drown you, stone will crush you if you look at them not with love, but in everything you see only your ducats and dinars.
Work without selfishness, as the nightingale unselfishly sings its songs. And so the Lord will go ahead of you in His work, and you will follow Him. If you run past God and rush forward, leaving God behind, your work will bring you a curse, not a blessing.
And on the seventh day, rest.
How to rest? Remember, rest can only be close to God and in God. Nowhere else in this world can one find true rest, for this light seethes like a whirlpool.
Dedicate the seventh day entirely to God, and then you will truly rest and be filled with new strength.
All seventh day think about God, talk about God, read about God, listen to God and pray to God. So you will truly rest and be filled with new strength.
There is a parable about labors on Sunday.
A certain person did not honor the commandment of God about the celebration of the Sunday and continued the Sabbath labors on Sunday. When the whole village was resting, he worked up to a sweat in the field with his oxen, which he also did not allow to rest. However, on Wednesday the following week, he was exhausted, and his oxen also weakened; and when the whole village went out into the field, he remained at home, tired, gloomy and desperate.
Therefore, brothers, do not become like this man, so as not to lose strength, health and soul. But work for six days, as companions of the Lord, with love, pleasure and reverence, and devote the seventh day entirely to the Lord God. From my own experience, I was convinced that the correct celebration of Sunday inspires, renews and makes a person happy.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT
. Honor your father and your mother, that your days on earth may be long.
This means:
Before you knew the Lord God, your parents knew Him. This alone is enough for you to bow to them with respect and give them praise. Bow down and give praise to everyone who has known the Highest in this world before you.
A wealthy young Indian was passing with his entourage through the passes of the Hindu Kush. In the mountains he met a certain old man grazing goats. The beggar old man stepped down to the side of the road and bowed to the rich youth. And the young man jumped off his elephant and prostrated himself before the old man. The elder was amazed at this, and the people from his retinue were also amazed. And he said to the old man:
- I bow before your eyes, for they saw this world, the creation of the Most High, before mine. I bow before your lips, for they uttered His holy name before mine. I bow before your heart, because before mine it trembled from the joyful realization that the Father of all people on earth is the Lord, the King of Heaven.
Honor your father and your mother, for your path from birth to this day is watered with mother's tears and father's sweat. They loved you even when you, weak and dirty, disgusted everyone else. They will love you even when everyone hates you. And when everyone will throw stones at you, your mother will throw you immortelle and basil - symbols of holiness.
Your father loves you, although he knows all your shortcomings. And others will hate you, although they will know only your virtues.
Your parents love you with reverence, for they know that you are a gift from God, entrusted to them for preservation and upbringing. No one except your parents is able to see the mystery of God in you. Their love for you has a holy root in eternity.
Through their tenderness towards you, your parents comprehend the tenderness of the Lord towards all His children.
Just as spurs remind a horse of a good trot, so your harshness towards your parents encourages them to take even more care of you.
There is a parable about father's love.
A certain son, corrupted and cruel, rushed at his father and plunged a knife into his chest. And the father, breathing his last, said to his son:
“Quickly wipe the blood off the knife so you don’t get caught and put on trial.”
There is also a story about motherly love.
In the Russian steppe, one immoral son tied his mother in front of a tent, and in the tent he drank with promenading women and his people. Then haiduks appeared and, seeing the mother tied up, they decided to immediately avenge her. But then the bound mother shouted at the top of her voice and thereby gave a sign to the unfortunate son that he was in danger. And the son was saved, and instead of the son, the robbers killed the mother.
And another story about the father.
In Tehran, a Persian city, an old father lived in the same house with two daughters. The daughters did not listen to their father's advice and laughed at him. By their bad life they sullied the honor and dishonored the good name of the father. The father interfered with them like a silent reproach of conscience. One evening, the daughters, thinking that their father was asleep, agreed to prepare poison and give it to him in the morning with tea. And my father heard everything and wept bitterly all night and prayed to God. In the morning, the daughters brought tea and placed it in front of him. Then the father said:
“I am aware of your intention and will leave you as you wish. But I want to leave not with your sin to save your souls, but with mine.
Having said this, the father overturned the bowl of poison and left the house.
Son, do not be proud of your knowledge before your uneducated father, for his love is worth more than your knowledge. Think that if it were not for him, there would be neither you nor your knowledge.
Daughter, do not be proud of your beauty before your hunched mother, for her heart is more beautiful than your face. Remember that both you and your beauty came out of her emaciated body.
Day and night develop in yourself, son, reverence for your mother, for only in this way will you learn to revere all other mothers on earth.
Verily, children, you do little if you honor your father and mother, and despise other fathers and mothers. Respect for your parents should become for you a school of respect for all men and all women who give birth in pain, raise in the sweat of their brow, and love their children in suffering. Remember this and live according to this commandment so that the Lord will bless you on earth.
Verily, children, you do little if you honor only the personalities of your father and mother, but not their work, not their time, not their contemporaries. Think that by respecting your parents, you honor their work, and their era, and their contemporaries. So you will kill in yourself the fatal and stupid habit of despising the past. My children, believe that the days given at your disposal are not dearer and closer to the Lord than the days of those who lived before you. If you are proud of your time before the past, do not forget that you will not have time to blink an eye when grass will grow over your graves, your era, your bodies and deeds, and others will laugh at you as if they were a backward past.
Any time is filled with mothers and fathers, pain, sacrifices, love, hope and faith in God. Therefore, any time is worthy of respect.
The sage bows with reverence to all past ages, as well as to those to come. For the wise know what the fool does not know, namely, that his time is but a minute on the clock. Take a look, children, at the clock; listen to how minute after minute flows, and tell me which of the minutes is better, longer and more important than the others?
Get on your knees, children, and pray to God with me:
“Lord, Heavenly Father, glory to You that You commanded us to honor our father and mother on earth. Help us, O All-Merciful One, through this veneration to learn to respect all men and women on earth, Your precious children. And help us, O All-Wise, through this to learn not to despise, but to honor the previous epochs and generations, which before us saw Your glory and pronounced Your holy name. Amen".
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
Dont kill.
This means:
God breathed life from His life into every created being. is the most precious wealth given by God. Therefore, whoever encroaches on any life on earth raises his hand on the most precious gift of God, moreover, on the very life of God. All of us living today are only temporary bearers of the life of God in ourselves, custodians of the most precious gift that belongs to God. Therefore, we do not have the right, and we cannot take away the life borrowed from God, either from ourselves or from others.
And that means
– firstly, we have no right to kill;
Secondly, we cannot kill life.
If a clay pot happens to be broken in the marketplace, the potter will become furious and demand compensation for the loss. In truth, man is also made of the same cheap material as a pot, but what is hidden in it is priceless. This is the soul that creates a person from within, and the Spirit of God, which gives life to the soul.
Neither father nor mother have the right to take the life of their children, for it is not the parents who give life, but through the parents. And since parents do not give life, they have no right to take it away.
But if parents who work so hard to put their children on their feet do not have the right to take their lives, how can those who accidentally bump into their children along the way of life have such a right?
If you happen to break a pot in the bazaar, it will hurt not the pot, but the potter who made it. In the same way, if a person is killed, it is not the person who is killed who feels the pain, but the Lord God, Who created man, exalted and breathed in His Spirit.
So if the one who breaks the pot must compensate the potter for his loss, how much more must the murderer compensate God for the life he has taken. Even if people do not demand compensation, they will. Murderer, do not deceive yourself: even if people forget about your crime, God cannot forget. Look, there are things that even the Lord cannot. For example, He cannot forget about your crime. Remember this always, remember in your anger before you grab a knife or a gun.
On the other hand, we cannot kill life. To completely kill life would be to kill God, for life belongs to God. Who can kill God? You can break a pot, but you cannot destroy the clay from which it was made. In the same way, it is possible to crush the body of a person, but it is impossible to break, burn, dispel, or spill his soul and spirit.
There is a story about life.
A certain terrible, bloodthirsty vizier ruled in Constantinople, whose favorite pastime was to watch every day how the executioner flogs heads in front of his palace. And on the streets of Constantinople lived one holy fool, a righteous man and a prophet, whom all people considered God's saint. One morning, when the executioner was executing another unfortunate person in front of the vizier, the holy fool stood under his windows and began to swing an iron hammer to the right and left.
– What are you doing? the vizier asked.
“The same as you,” the holy fool replied.
- Like this? the vizier asked again.
“Yes,” replied the holy fool. “I'm trying to kill the wind with this hammer. And you're trying to kill life with a knife. My labor is in vain, as is yours. You, vizier, cannot kill life, just as I cannot kill the wind.
The vizier silently retired to the dark chambers of his palace and did not let anyone in. For three days he did not eat, did not drink, and did not see anyone. And on the fourth day he called his friends together and said:
“Truly, the man of God is right. I acted stupid. cannot be destroyed, just as the wind cannot be killed.
In America, in the city of Chicago, two men lived next door. One of them was seduced by the wealth of his neighbor, made his way to his house at night and cut off his head, then put the money in his bosom and went home. But as soon as he went out into the street, he saw a murdered neighbor who was walking towards him. Only on the shoulders of the neighbor was not his head, but his own head. Terrified, the killer crossed to the other side of the street and began to run, but the neighbor again appeared in front of him and walked towards him, looking like him, like a reflection in a mirror. The killer broke out in a cold sweat. Somehow he got to his house and barely survived the night. However, the next night, the neighbor again appeared to him with his own head. And so it was every night. Then the killer took the stolen money and threw it into the river. But that didn't help either. Neighbor from night to night appeared to him. The murderer surrendered to the court, admitted his guilt and was exiled to hard labor. But even in the dungeon the killer could not close his eyes, for every night he saw his neighbor with his own head on his shoulders. In the end, he began to ask one old priest to pray to God for him, a sinner, and to give him communion. The priest replied that before praying and taking communion, he must make one confession. The convict replied that he had already confessed to the murder of his neighbor. “Not that,” the priest told him, “you must see, understand and acknowledge that the life of your neighbor is your own life. And you killed yourself by killing him. That's why you see your head on the body of the murdered. With this, God gives you a sign that your life, and the life of your neighbor, and the life of all people together, is one and the same life.
The convict thought. After much thought, he understood everything. Then he prayed to God and took communion. And then the spirit of the murdered person ceased to haunt him, and he began to spend days and nights in repentance and prayer, telling the rest of the condemned about the miracle that had been revealed to him, namely, that a person cannot kill another without killing himself.
Ah, brothers, how terrible are the consequences of murder! If this could be described to all people, there would truly be no madman who would encroach on someone else's life.
God awakens the conscience of the murderer, and his own conscience begins to grind him from the inside, as a worm under the bark grinds a tree. Conscience gnaws, and beats, and rumbles, and roars like a mad lioness, and the unfortunate criminal does not find rest day or night, neither in the mountains, nor in the valleys, nor in this life, nor in the grave. It would be easier for a person if his skull were opened and a swarm of bees settled inside, than an impure, disturbed conscience would settle in his head.
Therefore, brothers, he forbade people, for the sake of their own peace and happiness, to kill.
“Oh, good Lord, how sweet and useful is every commandment of Yours! O Lord Almighty, save Your servant from an evil deed and a avenging conscience, to glorify and praise You forever and ever. Amen".
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
. Don't commit adultery.
And this means:
Do not have an illegal relationship with a woman. Indeed, in this, animals are more obedient to God than many people.
Adultery destroys a person physically and spiritually. Adulterers are usually twisted like a bow before old age and end their lives in wounds, agony and madness. The most terrible and most evil diseases that are known to medicine are diseases that multiply and spread among people through adultery. The body of the adulterer is constantly in disease, like a stinking puddle, from which everyone turns away in disgust and runs with their noses pinched.
But if evil concerned only those who do this evil, the problem would not be so terrible. However, it is simply terrible when you think that the children of adulterers inherit the diseases of their parents: sons and daughters, and even grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Verily, disease from adultery is the scourge of mankind, like aphids to a vineyard. These diseases, more than any other, are dragging humanity back into decline.
The picture is scary enough, if we mean only bodily pains and deformities, rotting and decay of the flesh from bad diseases. But the picture is completed, it becomes even more terrible when spiritual deformity is added to bodily deformities, as a consequence of the sin of adultery. From this evil, the spiritual forces of a person are weakened and upset. The patient loses the sharpness, depth and height of thought that he had before the illness. He is confused, forgetful and feels constantly tired. He is no longer capable of any serious work. His character completely changes, and he indulges in all sorts of vices: drunkenness, gossip, lies, theft, and so on. He has a terrible hatred for everything good, decent, honest, bright, prayerful, spiritual, divine. He hates good people and tries his best to harm them, slander them, slander them, harm them. Like a true misanthrope, he is also a God-hater. He hates all laws, both human and God's, and therefore hates all legislators and keepers of the law. He becomes a persecutor of order, goodness, will, holiness and ideal. He is like a fetid puddle for society, which rots and stinks, infecting everything around. His body is pus, and his soul is also pus.
That is why, brothers, God, who knows everything and foresees everything, has imposed a ban on adultery, fornication, extramarital affairs between people.
Young people especially need to beware of this evil and shun it like a poisonous viper. The nation where young people indulge in licentiousness and "free love" has no future. Such a nation will in time have more and more deformed, stupid and feeble generations, until finally it will be captured by a healthier people who will come to subdue it.
Whoever knows how to read the past of mankind can find out what terrible punishments befell the adulterous tribes and peoples. The Holy Scripture speaks of the fall of two cities - Sodom and Gomorrah, in which it was impossible to find even ten righteous people and virgins. For this, the Lord God brought down on them a fiery rain with sulfur, and both cities immediately turned out to be covered, as if in a grave.
May the Lord Almighty help you, brethren, not to slip into the dangerous path of adultery. May your Guardian Angel keep peace and love in your home.
May the Mother of God inspire your sons and daughters with Her Divine chastity, so that sin does not stain their bodies and souls, but they are pure and bright, so that the Holy Spirit can fit into them and breathe into them what is divine, what is from God. Amen.
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
Don't steal.
And this means:
Do not grieve your neighbor by disrespecting his property rights. Don't do what foxes and mice do if you think you're better than a fox and a mouse. The fox steals without knowing the law on theft; and the mouse gnaws at the barn, not realizing that it is harming someone. Both the fox and the mouse understand only their own need, but not someone else's loss. They are not given to understand, but you are given. Therefore, you are not forgiven what is forgiven for a fox and a mouse. Your benefit must always be subordinate to the law, it must not be to the detriment of your neighbor.
Brothers, only the ignorant go to theft, that is, those who do not know the two main truths of this life.
The first truth is that a person cannot steal unnoticed.
The second truth is that a person cannot benefit from stealing.
"Like this?" many nations will ask, and many ignoramuses will be surprised.
That's how.
Our universe is many. All of it is strewn with an abundance of eyes, like a plum tree in springtime, completely covered with white flowers. Some of these eyes people see and feel on themselves their views, but they neither see nor feel a significant part. An ant crawling in the grass does not feel the gaze of a sheep grazing above him, nor the gaze of a person watching him. In the same way, people do not feel the views of the innumerable number of higher beings who are watching us at every step of our life path. There are millions and millions of spirits who keep a close eye on what is happening on every inch of the earth. How then can a thief steal without being noticed? How then can a thief steal without being discovered? You can't put your hand in your pocket without millions of witnesses seeing it. It is all the more impossible to stick one's hand into someone else's pocket so that millions of higher forces do not raise the alarm. He who understands this asserts that a person cannot steal unnoticed and with impunity. This is the first truth.
Another truth is that a person cannot benefit from theft, for how can he use stolen goods if invisible eyes have seen everything and pointed to him. And if he was pointed out, then the secret will become clear, and the name "thief" will stick to him until his death. The powers of heaven can point out a thief in a thousand ways.
There is a story about fishermen.
On the bank of one river lived two fishermen with their families. One had many children and the other was childless. Every evening both fishermen cast their nets and went to sleep. For some time now, it has become so that in the nets of a fisherman with many children there always turned out to be two or three fish, and in a childless one - in abundance. A childless fisherman, out of mercy, pulled out several fish from his full net and gave them to a neighbor. This went on for quite a long time, perhaps a whole year. While one of them grew rich trading in fish, the other barely made ends meet, sometimes not even being able to buy bread for his children.
"What's the matter?" thought the poor man. But then one day, when he was sleeping, the truth was revealed to him. A certain man appeared to him in a dream in a dazzling radiance, like an angel of God, and said: “Hurry, get up and go to the river. There you will see why you are poor. But when you see, do not give vent to anger.
Then the fisherman woke up and jumped out of bed. Having crossed himself, he went out to the river and saw how his neighbor was throwing fish after fish from his net to his. The poor fisherman's blood boiled with indignation, but he remembered the warning and subdued his anger. Having cooled down a bit, he calmly said to the thief: “Neighbour, can I help you? Well, why are you suffering alone!
Caught red-handed, the neighbor was simply numb with fear. When he came to his senses, he threw himself at the feet of the poor fisherman and exclaimed: “Verily, the Lord has shown you my crime. It's hard for me, a sinner! And then he gave half of his wealth to the poor fisherman, so that he would not tell people about him and send him to prison.
There is a story about a merchant.
In one Arab city lived a merchant Ishmael. Whenever he released goods to customers, he always shortchanged them for a few drachmas. And his condition greatly increased. However, his children were sick, and he spent a lot of money on doctors and medicines. And the more he spent on the treatment of children, the more he deceived his customers. But the more he deceived customers, the more his children got sick.
Once, when Ishmael was sitting alone in his shop, full of worries about his children, it seemed to him that for a moment the heavens opened. He raised his eyes to the sky to see what was happening there. And he sees: angels are standing at the huge scales, measuring all the blessings that the Lord endows people with. And so, the turn of Ishmael's family came. When the angels began to measure health for his children, they threw less health on the scale than there were weights on the scales. Ishmael got angry and wanted to shout at the angels, but then one of them turned to him and said: “The measure is correct. What are you angry about? We underfeed your children exactly as much as you underfeed your customers. And so we do the truth of God.”
Ishmael rushed as if he had been pierced by a sword. And he began to bitterly repent of his grave sin. Since then, Ishmael began not only to weigh correctly, but always added a surplus. And his children returned to health.
In addition, brethren, a stolen thing constantly reminds a person that it has been stolen and that it is not his property.
There is a parable about hours.
One guy stole a pocket watch and wore it for a month. After that, he returned the watch to the owner, confessed his misdeed and said:
“Whenever I took my watch out of my pocket and looked at it, I heard it say: “We are not yours; you're a thief!"
The Lord knew that stealing would make both unhappy: the one who stole and the one from whom it was stolen. And so that people, His sons, would not be unhappy, the All-Wise Lord gave us this commandment: do not steal.
“We thank You, Lord, our God, for this commandment, which we really need for the sake of peace of mind and our happiness. Command, Lord, to Your fire, let it burn our hands if they reach out to steal. Command, Lord, to Your snakes, let them wrap themselves around our feet, if they go to steal. But, most importantly, we pray to You, Almighty, cleanse our hearts from thieves' thoughts and our spirit from thieves' thoughts. Amen".
NINTH COMMANDMENT
. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
And this means:
Do not be deceitful either towards yourself or towards others. If you lie about yourself, you yourself know that you are lying. But if you slander someone else, that other person knows that you are slandering about him.
When you praise yourself and show off to people, people do not know that you are falsely testifying about yourself, but you yourself know it. But if you start repeating these lies about yourself, people will eventually realize that you are deceiving them. However, if you start repeating the same lies about yourself over and over again, people will know that you are lying, but then you yourself will begin to believe in your lies. Thus lies will become truth for you, and you will become accustomed to lies, as a blind man becomes accustomed to darkness.
When you slander another person, that person knows that you are lying. This is the first witness against you. And you know you're slandering him. So you are the second witness against yourself. And the Lord God is the third witness. Therefore, whenever you bear false witness against your neighbor, know that three witnesses will be brought against you: God, your neighbor, and yourself. And be sure, one of these three witnesses will expose you to the whole world.
This is how the Lord can expose false evidence against a neighbor.
There is a parable about a slanderer.
Two neighbors, Luka and Ilya, lived in the same village. Luka could not stand Ilya, because Ilya was a correct, hard-working person, and Luka was a drunkard and a lazy person. In a fit of hatred, Luke went to court and reported that Ilya had spoken swear words against the king. Ilya defended himself as best he could, and in the end, turning to Luke, he said: “God willing, the Lord Himself will reveal your lies against me.” However, the court sent Ilya to prison, and Luke returned home.
Approaching his house, he heard crying in the house. From a terrible foreboding, the blood froze in the veins, for Luke remembered the curse of Elijah. When he entered the house, he was horrified. His old father, having fallen into the fire, burned his whole face and eyes. When Luca saw this, he became speechless and could neither speak nor cry. At dawn the next day, he went to court and admitted that he had slandered Ilya. The judge immediately released Ilya, and punished Luka for perjury. So Luke suffered two punishments for one: both from God and from people.
And here is an example of how your neighbor can expose your perjury.
There was a butcher in Nice named Anatole. Some rich but dishonest merchant bribed him to give false evidence against his neighbor Emil, that he, Anatole, saw Emil doused with kerosene and set fire to the merchant's house. And Anatole testified to this in court and swore an oath. Emil was convicted. But he swore that when he served his sentence, he would live only in order to prove that Anatole had perjured himself.
Coming out of prison, Emil, being a sensible man, soon amassed a thousand Napoleons. He decided that he would give all this thousand in order to force Anatole to confess to witnesses in his slander. First of all, Emil found people who knew Anatole and made such a plan. They were supposed to invite Anatole to dinner, give him a good drink and then tell him that they needed a witness who would testify under oath at the trial that a certain innkeeper was harboring robbers.
The plan was a success. Anatole was told the essence of the matter, laid out before him a thousand golden Napoleons and asked if he could find a reliable person who would show what they needed in court. Anatole's eyes lit up when he saw a pile of gold in front of him, and he immediately declared that he himself would take up this matter. Then the friends pretended to doubt whether he would be able to do everything as it should be, whether he would be frightened, whether he would be confused in court. Anatole began to ardently convince them that he could. And then they asked him if he had ever done such things and how successfully? Unaware of the trap, Anatole admitted that there was such a case when he was paid for false testimony against Emil, who as a result was sent to hard labor.
Having heard everything they needed, the friends went to Emil and told him everything. The next morning, Emil filed a complaint with the court. Anatole was tried and sent to hard labor. Thus, the inevitable punishment of God overtook the slanderer and restored the good name of a decent person.
And here is an example of how the perjurer himself confessed to his crime.
In the same town lived two guys, two friends, Georgy and Nikola. Both were unmarried. And both fell in love with the same girl, the daughter of a poor craftsman who had seven daughters, all unmarried. The eldest was named Flora. Both friends looked at this Flora. But George was faster. He wooed Flora and asked a friend to be the best man. Nicola was overcome with such envy that he decided at all costs to prevent their wedding. And he began to dissuade George from marrying Flora, because, according to him, she was a dishonorable girl and walked with many. The words of a friend struck George like a sharp knife, and he began to assure Nicola that this could not be. Then Nikola said that he himself had a connection with Flora. George believed a friend, went to her parents and refused to marry. Soon the whole city knew about it. A shameful stain fell on the whole family. The sisters began to reproach Flora. And she, in despair, not being able to justify herself, threw herself into the sea and drowned.
About a year later, Nikola walked into Maundy Thursday and heard the priest calling the parishioners for communion. “But let not thieves, liars, perjurers and those who sully the honor of an innocent girl come up to the Chalice. It would be better for them to take fire into themselves than the Blood of the pure and innocent Jesus Christ,” he finished.
Hearing these words, Nikola trembled like an aspen leaf. Immediately after the service, he asked the priest to confess him, which the priest did. Nicola confessed everything and asked what he should do to save himself from the reproaches of an unclean conscience that gnawed at him like a hungry lioness. The priest advised him, if he was really ashamed of his sin and afraid of punishment, to tell about his offense publicly, through the newspaper.
The whole night Nikola did not sleep, gathering all his courage to repent publicly. The next morning he wrote about everything he had done, namely, how he had thrown a stain on the respectable family of a respectable artisan and how he had lied to his friend. At the end of the letter, he added: “I will not go to court. The court will not condemn me to Death, and I deserve only death. That is why I sentence myself to death.” And the next day he hanged himself.
“Oh, Lord, Righteous God, how unfortunate are people who do not follow Your holy commandment and do not bridle their sinful heart and their tongue with an iron bridle. God, help me, a sinner, not to sin against the truth. Wise me with Thy truth, Jesus, Son of God, incinerate all lies in my heart, as a gardener burns the nests of caterpillars on fruit trees in the garden. Amen".
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
Do not covet your neighbor's house; do not covet your neighbor's wife; neither his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is with your neighbor.
And this means:
As soon as you desired someone else's, you have already fallen into sin. Now the question is, will you come to your senses, will you catch yourself, or will you continue to roll down the inclined plane, where the desire of someone else leads you?
Desire is the seed of sin. A sinful act is already a harvest from the seed sown and grown.
Note the differences between this, the tenth commandment of the Lord, and the previous nine. In the previous nine commandments, the Lord God prevents your sinful deeds, that is, does not allow the harvest from the seed of sin to grow. And in this tenth commandment, the Lord looks into the root of sin and does not allow you to sin even in your thoughts. This commandment serves as a bridge between the Old Testament, given by God through the prophet Moses, and the New Testament, given by God through Jesus Christ, because as you read, you will see that the Lord no longer commands people not to kill with their hands, not to commit adultery with the flesh, not to steal with their hands, don't lie with your tongue. On the contrary, He descends into the depths of the human soul and obliges not to kill even in thoughts, not to imagine adultery even in thoughts, not to steal even in thoughts, not to lie in silence.
So, the tenth commandment serves as a transition to the Law of Christ, which is more moral, higher and more important than the Law of Moses.
Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. For as soon as you desired someone else's, you have already sowed the seed of evil in your heart, and the seed will grow, and grow, and grow, and grow strong, and branch, leading to your hands, and your feet, and your eyes, and your tongue, and your whole body. For the body, brethren, is the executive organ of the soul. The body only obeys the orders given by the soul. What the soul wants, the body must fulfill, and what the soul does not want, the body will not fulfill.
Which plant, brothers, grows the fastest? Fern, right? But the desire sown in the human heart grows faster than a fern. Today it will grow just a little, tomorrow it will grow twice as much, the day after tomorrow it will grow four times, the day after tomorrow it will grow sixteen times and so on.
If today you envy your neighbor's house, tomorrow you will start making plans to appropriate it, the day after tomorrow you will begin to demand from him that he give you his house, and the day after tomorrow you will take away his house or set it on fire.
If today you looked at his wife with lust, tomorrow you will begin to figure out how to kidnap her, the day after tomorrow you will enter into an illegal relationship with her, and the day after tomorrow you will plan, together with her, to kill your neighbor and possess his wife.
If today you desired your neighbor's ox, tomorrow you will desire this ox twice as much, the day after tomorrow four times as much, and the day after tomorrow you will steal the ox from him. And if a neighbor accuses you of stealing his ox, you will swear in court that the ox is yours.
This is how sinful deeds grow from sinful thoughts. And again, note that whoever tramples on this tenth commandment will break one by one the other nine commandments.
Listen to my advice: try to fulfill this last commandment of God, and it will be easier for you to fulfill all the others. Believe me, one whose heart is filled with evil desires darkens his soul so much that he becomes unable to believe in the Lord God, and to work at a certain time, and to keep Sunday, and to honor his parents. In truth, it is true for all the commandments: if you break at least one, you break all ten.
There is a parable about sinful thoughts.
One righteous man named Lavr left his village and went to the mountains, having uprooted all his desires in his soul, except for the desire to devote himself to God and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Laurus spent several years fasting and praying, thinking only of God. When he returned to the village again, all the villagers marveled at his holiness. And everyone revered him as a true man of God. And there lived in that village someone named Thaddeus, who envied Laurus and told his fellow villagers that he could become the same as Laurus. Then Thaddeus retired to the mountains and began to exhaust himself with fasting in solitude. However, a month later, Thaddeus returned. And when the villagers asked what he was doing all this time, he replied:
“I killed, I stole, I lied, I slandered people, I exalted myself, I committed adultery, I set houses on fire.
How can that be if you were alone there?
- Yes, I was alone in body, but in my soul and heart I was always among people, and what I could not do with my hands, feet, tongue and body, I did mentally in my soul.
So, brethren, a man can sin even in solitude. Despite the fact that a bad person will leave the society of people, his sinful desires, his dirty soul and impure thoughts will not leave him.
Therefore, brothers, let us pray to God to help us to fulfill this last commandment of His and thereby prepare to listen, understand and accept the New Testament of God, that is, the Testament of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
“Lord God, Lord Great and Terrible, Great in His deeds, Terrible in His inevitable truth! Give us a share of Your power, Your wisdom and Your good will to live according to this holy and great commandment of Yours. Choke, O God, every sinful desire in our hearts before it begins to choke us.
O Lord of the world, saturate our souls and bodies with Your strength, for by our strength we can do nothing; and saturate with Your wisdom, for our wisdom is foolishness and obscurity of mind; and nourish with Your will, for our will, without Your good will, always serves evil. Draw near to us, O Lord, that we may draw near to You. Bow down to us, O God, that we may rise up to You.
Sow, Lord, Your holy Law in our hearts, sow, graft, water, and let it grow, branch, blossom and bear fruit, for if You leave us alone with Your Law, without You we will not be able to get close to it.
May Your name be glorified, O One Lord, and may we honor Moses, Your chosen one and prophet, through whom You gave us that clear and powerful Testament.
Help us, Lord, to learn word for word that First Testament, so that through it we can prepare for the great and glorious Testament of Your Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, our Savior, to whom, together with You and with the Life-Giving Holy Spirit, eternal glory, and song, and worship from generation from generation to century, from century to century, until the end of time, until the Last Judgment, until the separation of unrepentant sinners from the righteous, until victory over Satan, until the destruction of his kingdom of darkness and the reign of Your Eternal Kingdom over all kingdoms known to the mind and visible to the human eye. Amen".
Mankind needs to start living according to God's commandments. Only then the life of each person will change for the better ...
- I am the Lord your God: let there be no bosi inii to you, unless Mene.
- Do not make yourself an idol and every likeness, a fir-tree in the heavens, and a fir-tree on the earth below, and a fir-tree in the waters under the earth: do not bow down to them, nor serve them.
- Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy: You shall do six days, and do all your works in them, on the seventh day, the Sabbath, to the Lord your God.
- Honor thy father and thy mother May it be good for you, and may you live long on earth.
- Don't kill.
- Do not create adultery.
- Don't steal.
- Do not listen to a friend, your testimony is false.
- Do not covet your sincere wife Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his village, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any of his cattle, nor all that is thy neighbor's tree.
People today are so saturated with sin and false spirituality that they are often unable to realize the fullness that is set forth in the 10 Commandments of the Lord. living "as everybody" Without committing mortal sins, many consider themselves almost righteous, while they often fall into sin.
Just as there are laws of the material world (which were also established by the Lord) and who violates them exposes his life to danger or even the risk of death, in the same way there are the laws of the spirit world and whoever opposes them dooms himself to many misfortunes and to the very possibility of spiritual or physical death. It never occurs to anyone living on earth, for example, to be indignant at the fact that there is a law of gravity and a person who jumps from a great height is crushed to death. They also understand almost everything that you should not put your head in the fire or try to breathe under water. Those who are guided by the laws of the material world live calmly and sensibly on earth, while those who try to transgress the possibilities of their nature perish. Due to his atheistic upbringing, modern man, as a rule, lives as if the spiritual world simply does not exist. Not trying to learn the laws of the invisible world and live in accordance with them, people often pay dearly for this. Meanwhile, the laws of the spiritual world, created by God, are set forth in the Gospel and are directly contained in the ten commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
All comments and explanations of the nature of the commandments and the sin that comes from their violation are based on patristic writings and instructions.
The ten commandments of the law were placed on two tablets, because they contain two kinds of love: love of God and love of neighbor.
Pointing to these two types of love, the Lord Jesus Christ, when asked which commandment is the greatest in the law, said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).
love god we must first of all and most of all, because He is our Creator, Provider and Savior, - “In them we live, and move, and exist”(Acts 17:28).
Then must follow love for neighbor which is an expression of our love for God. He who does not love his neighbor does not love God either. St. Apostle John the Theologian explains: "Whoever says, 'I love God,' but a brother(i.e., neighbor) hates his own, he is a liar; For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see” (1 John 4:20).
So, although the whole Law of God is contained in the two commandments of love, but in order to more clearly present our obligations to God and neighbor, they are divided into 10 commandments. Our obligations to God are prescribed in the first four commandments, and our obligations to our neighbors are prescribed in the last six commandments.
And God said;
1st commandment:“I am the Lord your God… Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
God does not claim primacy among certain gods. He does not want to be given more attention than any other gods. He says to worship Him alone, because other gods simply do not exist.
2nd commandment:“Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth. Don't worship them and don't serve them." (Exodus 20:4-6).
The God of eternity cannot be limited by the image of wood or stone. Trying to do this humiliates Him, perverts the truth. Idols cannot meet our needs. “For the statutes of the peoples are emptiness: they cut down a tree in the forest, dress it with the hands of a carpenter with an ax, cover it with silver and gold, attach it with nails and a hammer so that it does not stagger. They are like a turned pillar, and do not speak; they are worn because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, but they cannot do good either. (Jeremiah 10:3-5). All our needs and requirements can only be satisfied by a real Person.
3rd commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who pronounces his name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).
This commandment not only forbids false oaths and those ordinary words that people swear, but it also forbids casually or carelessly pronouncing the name of the Lord without thinking about His holy meaning. We also dishonor God when we thoughtlessly mention His name in conversation, or repeat it in vain. “Holy and terrible is His name!” (Psalm 110:9).
Disregard for the name of God can be shown not only in words, but also in deeds. Anyone who calls himself a Christian and does not act as Jesus Christ taught will dishonor the name of God.
4th commandment:“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Work six days, and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: do not do any work on it, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter ... For in six days the Lord created heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11).
The Sabbath is presented here not as a new institution, but as a day approved at creation. We must remember it and keep it in memory of the deeds of the Creator.
5th commandment:“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12).
The fifth commandment requires from children not only respect, humility and obedience towards parents, but also love, tenderness, care for parents, saving their reputation; demands that children be their help and comfort in their advanced years.
6th commandment:"Dont kill" (Exodus 20:13).
God is the source of life. He alone can give life. She is a holy gift from God. A person has no right to take it away, i.e. kill. The Creator has a certain plan for each person, but to take the life of a neighbor means to interfere with God's plan. To take the life of oneself or another is to try to take the place of God.
All actions that shorten life - the spirit of hatred, revenge, evil feelings - are also murder. Such a spirit, no doubt, cannot bring happiness to a person, freedom from evil, freedom to good. The observance of this commandment implies a reasonable reverence for the laws of life and health. The one who shortens his days by leading an unhealthy lifestyle, of course, does not commit direct suicide, but does it imperceptibly, gradually.
The life that was bestowed by the Creator is a great blessing, and it cannot be thoughtlessly squandered and reduced. God wants people to live full, happy, and long lives.
7th commandment:"Do not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).
Marriage is the original establishment of the Creator of the Universe. In establishing it, He had a specific goal - to preserve the purity and happiness of the people, to elevate the physical, mental and moral strength of a person. Happiness in relationships can be achieved only when the attention is focused on cash, to which you give all of yourself, your trust and devotion throughout your life.
By forbidding adultery, God hopes that we will not seek anything other than the fullness of love, securely protected by marriage.
8th commandment:"Don't steal" (Exodus 20:15).
This prohibition includes both overt and covert sins. The eighth commandment condemns kidnapping, the slave trade, and wars of conquest. She condemns theft and robbery. It requires strict honesty in the most insignificant worldly affairs. It forbids fraud in trade, and requires a fair settlement of debts or in the issuance of wages. This commandment says that any attempt to take advantage of someone's ignorance, weakness, or misfortune is recorded in the heavenly books as a deceit.
9th commandment:"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Exodus 20:16).
Any deliberate exaggeration, allusion or slander, calculated to produce a false or imaginary impression, or even a description of misleading facts, is a lie. This principle forbids any attempt to defame a person's reputation by unfounded suspicion, slander, or gossip. Even the deliberate suppression of the truth, which may harm others, is a violation of the ninth commandment.
10th commandment:“Do not covet your neighbor's house; do not covet your neighbor's wife ... nothing that your neighbor has" (Exodus 20:17).
The desire to appropriate the property of a neighbor means to take the first most terrible step towards a crime. An envious person can never find satisfaction, because someone will always have something that he does not have. Man becomes a slave to his desires. We use people and love things instead of loving people and using things.
The tenth commandment strikes at the root of all sins, warning against selfish desires, which are the source of lawless deeds. "A great gain is to be godly and contented" (1 Timothy 6:6).
The Israelites were thrilled by what they heard. “If this is the will of God, we will fulfill it,” they decided. But knowing how forgetful people are, and not wanting to trust these words to the fragile human memory, God wrote them with His finger on two stone tablets.
“And when God stopped talking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him two tablets of revelation, tablets of stone, on which it was written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).
Priest Alexy Moroz
10 Commandments (Decalogue, or Decalogue) - in Judaism are called Ten Sayings ( Hebrew "aseret adibrot"), which were received from G-d by the Jewish people and the prophet Moses (Moshe) on Mount Sinai during the Giving of the Torah - the Sinai Revelation. The same 10 Commandments were inscribed on the Tablets of the Covenant: five commandments were written on one tablet, and five on the other. In Jewish tradition, it is believed that 10 Sayings include the entire Torah, and according to another opinion, even the first two Sayings of these ten are the quintessence of all the other commandments of Judaism.
It should be borne in mind that the wording of the Ten Commandments, which are given in the canonical Christian translations, as a rule, strongly differs from what is said in the original, i.e. in the Jewish Pentateuch - Chumash.
The stories of the sages about the Ten Commandments.
10 Commandments on the Tablets of the Covenant - the quintessence of all the commandments of the Torah
Here is a short list of all Ten Commandments:
1. "I am the Lord your God".
2. "Thou shalt have no other gods".
3. "Do not pronounce the Name of the Lord your God in vain".
4. "Remember the Sabbath Day".
5. "Honor your father and your mother".
6. "Thou shalt not kill".
7. "Do not commit adultery".
8. "Do not steal".
9. "Do not speak of your neighbor with false testimony".
10. "Don't Harass".
The first five were written on one tablet, the other five on another. This is what Rabbi Hanina ben Gamliel taught.
The commandments written on different tablets correspond to each other (and are located opposite each other). The commandment "Thou shalt not kill" corresponds to the commandment "I am the Lord", indicating that the killer belittles the image of the Almighty. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" corresponds to "Thou shalt have no other gods," for adultery is akin to idolatry. After all, the Book of Yirmeyahu says: “And with her frivolous fornication she defiled the earth, and she committed fornication with stone and wood” (Yirmeyahu, 3, 9).
“Thou shalt not steal” directly corresponds to the commandment “Thou shalt not pronounce the Name of the Lord thy Gd in vain,” for every thief eventually has to swear (in court).
“Do not speak of your neighbor with false testimony” corresponds to “Remember the Sabbath day”, for the Almighty seemed to say: “If you commit false witness about your neighbor, I will consider that you claim that I did not create the world in six days and did not rest on the seventh day"
"Do not covet" corresponds to "Honor your father and your mother," for he who covets another's wife gives birth to a son from her, who honors the one who is not his father, and curses his own father.
The Ten Commandments given on Mount Sinai include the entire Torah. All 613 mitzvahs of the Torah are contained in 613 letters, which are written in the Ten Commandments. Between the commandments, all the details and details of the laws of the Torah were written on the tablets, as it is said: "Dotted with chrysolites" (Shir ha-shirim, 5, 14). "Chrysolite" - in Hebrew tarshish(תרשיש), a word that is a symbol of the sea, therefore the Torah is compared to the sea: as small waves come in the sea between large waves, so the details of its laws were written between the commandments.
[The Ten Commandments do contain 613 letters, except for the last two words: לרעך אשר ( Asher Lereekha- "what is with your neighbor"). These two words, containing seven letters, indicate the seven commandments given to all the descendants of Noah].
10 Commandments - 10 Sayings with which Gd created the world
The Ten Commandments correspond to the ten statements-imperatives with the help of which the Almighty created the world.
“I am the Lord your Gd” corresponds to the imperative “And Gd said: “Let there be light” (Bereshit, 1, 3)”, as it is said in Scripture: “And the Lord will be an everlasting light to you” (Yeshayahu, 60, 19).
“Thou shalt have no other gods” corresponds to the imperative “And God said: “Let there be an arch within the water, and let it separate the water from the water” (Genesis, 1, 6)”. The Almighty said: “Let a barrier stand between Me and the service to idols, which are called “water enclosed in a vessel” (in contrast to the living water of the source, with which the Torah is compared): “They left me, the source of living water, and hewed out reservoirs for themselves, pierced reservoirs that do not hold water ”(Yirmeyahu, 2, 13)”.
“Do not pronounce the Name of the Lord in vain” corresponds to “And Gd said: “Let the waters that are under the sky be gathered, and let the dry land appear” (Genesis, 1, 9). The Almighty said: “The waters honored Me, gathered according to My word and cleansed part of the world - and you offend Me with a false oath on My Name?”
“Remember the Sabbath day” corresponds to “And God said: “Let the earth bring forth grass” (Bereshit, 1, 11)”. The Almighty said: “Everything that you eat on Saturday, put it in Me account. For the world was created so that there would be no sin in it, so that My creatures would live forever and eat vegetable food.
“Honor your father and your mother” corresponds to “And God said: “Let there be lights in the firmament” (Genesis 1:14). The Almighty said: “I created for you two luminaries - your father and your mother. Honor them!”
“Thou shalt not kill” corresponds to “And G-d said: “Let the water swell with swarming living creatures” (Bereshit, 1, 20).” The Almighty said: "Do not be like the world of fish, where the big ones swallow the little ones."
“Do not commit adultery” corresponds to “And God said: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind” (Bereshit, 1, 24)”. The Almighty said: “I created a couple for you. Each must cling to its mate - each being according to its species."
“Thou shalt not steal” corresponds to “And God said: “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb” (Genesis 1:29). The Almighty said: "Let none of you encroach on someone else's property, but use all these plants that do not belong to anyone."
“Do not speak of your neighbor with false testimony” corresponds to “And God said: “Let us make man in Our image” (Genesis, 1, 26)”. The Almighty said: “I created your neighbor in My image, just as you were created in My image and likeness. Therefore, do not bear false witness about your neighbor.”
“Do not covet” corresponds to “And the Lord God said: “It is not good for a man to be alone” (Bereshit, 2, 18)”. The Almighty said: “I created a couple for you. Every man must cleave to his mate, and let him not covet his neighbor's wife.
I am the Lord your God (First Commandment)
The commandment says: "I am the Lord your God." If a thousand people look at the surface of the water, each of them will see his own reflection on it. So the Almighty turned to each Jew (individually) and said to him: “I am the Lord, your Gd” (“your” - and not “your”).
Why are all the Ten Commandments formulated as singular imperatives (“Remember,” “Honor,” “Thou shalt not kill,” etc.)? Because every Jew must say to himself: "The commandments were given to me personally, and I am obliged to fulfill them." Or - in other words - so that it does not occur to him to say: "It is enough that others perform them."
The Torah says, "I am the Lord your God." The Almighty revealed himself to Israel in various forms. By the sea He appeared as a formidable warrior, at Mount Sinai as a scholar teaching the Torah, in the time of King Shlomo as a young man, in the time of Daniel as a merciful old man. Therefore, the Most High said to Israel: “From the fact that you see Me in different forms, it does not follow that there are many different deities. I alone have revealed myself to you both at the sea and at Mount Sinai, I am alone everywhere and everywhere - “I am the Lord, your Gd.” »
The Torah says, "I am the Lord your God." Why did the Torah use both Names - "Lord" (denoting the mercy of the Almighty) and "Gd" (denoting His severity as the Supreme Judge)? The Almighty said: “If you do My will, I will be the Lord for you, as it is written: “The Lord is E-l (Name of the Most High) compassionate and merciful” (Shemot, 34, 6). And if not, I will be for you “your God”, who strictly exacts from the guilty.” After all, the word "G-d" always denotes a strict judge.
The words "I am the Lord your Gd" indicate that the Most High offered His Torah to all the peoples of the world, but they did not accept it. Then He turned to Israel and said, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Even if we were indebted to the Almighty only for the fact that He brought us out of Egypt, this would be enough to accept any obligations to Him. Just as it would be enough that He brought us out of a slave state.
Thou shalt have no other gods (Second Commandment)
The Torah says: "Thou shalt have no other gods." Rabbi Eliezer said: "Gods that can be made and changed every day." How? If a pagan who had a golden idol needs gold, he can melt it (into metal) and make a new idol from silver. If he needs silver, he will melt it down and make a new idol out of copper. If he needs copper, he will make a new idol out of lead or iron. It is about such idols that the Torah speaks: “To the deities ... new, recently appeared” (Dvarim, 32, 17).
Why does the Torah still call idols deities? After all, the prophet Yeshayahu said: “For they are not gods” (Yeshayahu, 37, 19). That is why the Torah says, "Other gods." That is: "Idols whom others call gods."
The first two commandments: "I am the Lord your God" and "Thou shalt have no other gods" - the Jews took directly from the mouth of the Almighty. The continuation of the text of the second commandment reads: “I am the L-rd your G-d, G-d is a zealous one, remembering the guilt of the fathers to children up to the third and fourth generation, to those who hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of generations to those who love Me and keep the commandments My".
The words "I am the Lord your Gd" mean that the Jews saw the One who would reward the righteous in the world to come.
The words "Jealous God" mean that they saw the One who will exact from the evildoers in the world to come. These words refer to the Almighty as a strict judge.
The words “He who remembers the guilt of the fathers to the children…” contradict, at first glance, other words of the Torah: “Let the children not be punished by death for their fathers” (Deut. 24:16). The first statement refers to the case when children follow the unrighteous path of their fathers, the second - to the case when children follow a different path.
The words "Remembering the guilt of the fathers to the children ..." contradict, at first glance, the words of the prophet Yehezkel: "The son will not bear the guilt of the father, and the father will not bear the guilt of the son" (Yehezkel, 18, 20). But there is no contradiction: the Almighty transfers the merits of the fathers to the children (that is, he takes them into account when administering His judgment), but does not transfer the sins of the fathers to the children.
There is a parable explaining these words of the Torah. One man borrowed one hundred dinars from the king, and then renounced the debt (and began to deny its existence). Subsequently, the son of this man, and then his grandson, borrowed a hundred dinars from the king and also renounced their debt. The king refused to lend money to his great-grandson, as his ancestors denied their debts. This great-grandson could quote the words of Scripture: “Our fathers sinned and they no longer exist, but we suffer for their sins” (Eicha, 5, 7). However, they should be read differently: "Our fathers sinned and they no longer exist, but we suffer for our sins." But who made us pay the penalty for our sins? Our fathers who denied their debts.
The Torah says: "The one who does mercy to thousands of generations." This means that the mercy of the Almighty is immeasurably stronger than His wrath. For every punished generation, there are five hundred rewarded generations. After all, it is said about punishment: “Remembering the guilt of the fathers to children until the third and fourth generation,” and about the reward it is said: “Working mercy until the thousands of generations” (that is, at least until the two thousandth generation).
The Torah says: “Those who love Me and keep My commandments.” The words “Those who love Me” refer to the forefather Abraham and the righteous like him. The words “Keepers of My commandments” refer to the people of Israel living in Eretz Israel and sacrificing their lives to keep the commandments. "What were you sentenced to death for?" "Because he circumcised his son." "Why were you sentenced to be burned?" "Because I read the Torah." "Why were you sentenced to be crucified?" "Because I ate matzah." "Why were you beaten with sticks?" "For the fact that I fulfilled the commandment of the ascension of the lulav." This is exactly what the prophet Zechariah says: “What are these wounds on your chest? .. Because they beat me in the house of those who love me” (Zechariah, 13, 6). That is: for these wounds, I was honored with the love of the Most High.
Do not pronounce the Name of the Lord your G-d in vain (Third Commandment)
This means: do not rush to swear a false oath, in general, do not swear too often, for anyone who gets used to swearing sometimes swears even when he is not going to do it at all, just out of habit. Therefore, we should not swear, even while speaking the pure truth. For one who gets used to swearing for any reason begins to treat the oath as a simple and ordinary matter. One who neglects the holiness of the Name of the Most High and takes not only false, but even true oaths, in the end is subjected to severe punishment by the Most High. The Almighty reveals his depravity before all people, and woe to him in this case, both in this and in the next world.
The whole world shuddered when the Almighty uttered the words on Mount Sinai: "Do not pronounce the Name of the Lord your Gd in vain." Why? For only about the crime associated with an oath, the Torah says: "For the Lord will not spare the one who pronounces His Name in vain." In other words, this crime cannot be subsequently corrected or redeemed.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy (Fourth Commandment)
According to one explanation, the dual nature of the Sabbath commandment has this meaning: one should remember it before it comes and keep it after it comes. That is why we accept the sanctity of the Sabbath even before its formal onset, and part with it after it formally ends (that is, we extend the Sabbath in time in both directions).
Another interpretation. Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira said: “Why do we call the days of the week 'first after Shabbat', 'second after Shabbat', 'third after Shabbat', 'fourth after Shabbat', 'fifth after Shabbat', 'Sabbath Eve'? In order to fulfill the commandment "Remember the Sabbath day." »
Rabbi Elazar said: “Great is the value of work! After all, even Divinity settled among the Jews only after they completed the work (built the Mishkan), as it is written: “And let them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them” (Shemot, 25, 8). »
The Torah says: "And do all your work." Can a man do all his work in six days? Of course no. On the Sabbath, however, he must rest as if all the work had been done.
The Torah says, "And the seventh day is for the Lord your God." Rabbi Tankhuma (and according to others - Rabbi Elazar on behalf of Rabbi Meir) said: “You must rest (on Saturday) just as the Almighty rested. He rested from sayings (through which he created the world), you too must rest from sayings. What does it mean? That even talking on Saturday should be different than on weekdays.
These words of the Torah indicate that the Sabbath rest applies even to thoughts. Therefore, our sages teach: “One should not walk on the Sabbath in one's fields - so as not to think about what they need. You should not go into the bath - so as not to think that after the end of the Sabbath it will be possible to wash there. They don’t make plans on Saturday, they don’t make calculations and calculations, regardless of whether they relate to completed or future cases.
The following story is told about one righteous man. A deep crack appeared in the middle of his field, and he decided to enclose it. He intended to get to work, but remembered that it was Saturday and abandoned it. A miracle happened, and an edible plant grew in his field (in the original - צלף, calaf, caper) and provided food for him and his entire family for a long time.
The Torah says: "Do not do any work, neither you nor your son, nor your daughter." Maybe this prohibition applies only to adult sons and daughters? No, because in this case it would be enough to say only “neither you ...” - and this prohibition would cover all adults. The words "neither thy son nor thy daughter" refer to small children, so that no one can say to his little son: "Get me so-and-so in the market (on Saturday)."
If little children intend to put out the fire, we do not allow them to do so, for they, too, are commanded to refrain from work. Perhaps, in this case, we should ensure that they do not break clay shards and do not crush small pebbles with their feet? No, for the Torah says first of all "neither you". This means: just as only consciously performed work is forbidden to you, so only it is forbidden to children.
The Torah says further: "Nor your livestock." What do these words teach us? Maybe the fact that it is forbidden to work with the help of pets? But the Torah has already forbidden us any work before! These words teach us that it is forbidden to give or rent animals belonging to a Jew to a non-Jew for payment - so that they do not have to work (for example, carry loads) on the Sabbath.
The Torah further states: “Neither a stranger ( ger yours who is in your gates. These words cannot refer to a gentile convert to Judaism (whom we also call hero), for it is directly said about him in the Torah: “Let there be one charter for you and for the ger” (Bemidbar, 9, 14). This means that they refer to a non-Jew who did not convert to Judaism, but fulfills the seven laws established for the descendants of Noah (he is called ger toshav). If such ger toshav becomes an employee of a Jew, the Jew should not entrust him with the performance of any work on the Sabbath. However, he has the right to work on the Sabbath for himself and of his own free will.
The Torah further states: “Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” What was the blessing and what was the sanctification? The Almighty blessed him with mana and sanctified him manom. Indeed, on weekdays, mana fell out (as the Torah, Shemot, 16) “according to an omer per head”, and on Friday - “two omers per head” (one on Friday, and one on Saturday). On weekdays, in the mana left, contrary to the commandment, the next morning, "worms started, and it stank", and on Saturday "it did not stink and there were no worms in it."
Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda, a resident of the village of Ikhus, said: "The Almighty blessed the Sabbath day with light (heavenly bodies) and sanctified it with light (heavenly bodies)." He blessed him with a radiance that radiated from his face Adama, and sanctified it with the radiance that radiated from the face Adama. Although the heavenly bodies lost some of their strength on the eve of the (first) Sabbath, their light did not decrease until the end of the Sabbath. Although the face Adama lost some of its ability to shine on the eve of the Sabbath, the radiance continued until the end of the Sabbath. The prophet Yeshayahu says: “And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will become sevenfold, like the light of seven days” (Yeshayahu, 30, 26). Rabbi Yossi said to Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda: “Why do I need all this - doesn’t it say in the Psalm: “But a man will not (long) stay in splendor, he is like dying animals”? (Tehillim, 49, 13) This means that the radiance of Adam's face was short-lived. He replied: “Of course. Punishment (i.e. loss radiance) was imposed by the Almighty on the eve of the Sabbath, and therefore the radiance was short-lived (its time did not last even one whole night), but nevertheless it did not stop until the end of the Sabbath.
The villain Turnusrufus (the Roman governor) asked Rabbi Akiva: "How is this day different from the rest?" Rabbi Akiva replied: “What makes one person different from others?” Turnusrufus replied: "I asked you about one thing, and you are talking about another." Rabbi Akiva said: "You asked how the Sabbath is different from all other days, and I answered by asking how Turnnusrufus is different from all other people." Turnusrufus replied: "By the fact that the emperor demands to show me respect." Rabbi Akiva said: “Exactly. In the same way, the King of kings requires the Jewish people to observe the Sabbath.”
Honor thy father and thy mother (Fifth Commandment)
Ula Rava asked: “What do the words of the Psalm mean: “All the kings of the earth will glorify you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth” (Tehillim, 138, 4)?” And he answered: “It is no coincidence that here it is not said “the word of your mouth”, but “the words of your mouth”. When the Almighty uttered the first commandments - "I am the Lord, your Gd" and "Thou shalt have no other gods," the pagans replied: "He requires respect only for Himself." But when they heard the commandment: "Honor your father and your mother, they were imbued with reverence for the first commandments." »
The commandment obliges: "Honor your father and your mother." But what does "honor" mean? The words of the Book of Proverbs come to the rescue: “Honor the Lord from your inheritance and from the first fruits of all your earthly works” (Mishlei, 3, 9). From here we learn that we must feed and water our parents, clothe and cover them, bring them and see them back.
The commandment reads: “Honor your father and your mother,” that is, the father is mentioned first in it. But in another place the Torah points out: "Everyone be afraid of his mother and his father" (Vayikra, 19, 3). Here the mother is mentioned first. How is "reverence" different from "fear"? "Fear" is expressed in the fact that it is forbidden to take the place where the parents sit or stand, interrupt them or argue with them. To “honor” parents means to feed and water them, to clothe and shelter them, to bring them and see them back.
Another interpretation: the commandment "Honor your father and your mother" obliges to show respect not only to parents. The words “his father” oblige to extend respect to the father’s wife (even if she is not your mother), and the words “and your mother” to the mother’s husband (even if he is not your father). Moreover, the words "and mother" oblige us to show respect to the elder brother. At the same time, we are obligated to honor the father's wife only during his lifetime, as well as the mother's husband only during her lifetime. After the death of our parents, we are released from this obligation towards their spouses.
The fact is that in the original text of the commandment, the words “one’s father” and “one’s mother” are connected not only by the union “and”, but also by an untranslatable particle את (et), indicating an expansion of the meaning of the commandment. Also, although we know we are not commanded to honor the spouses of our parents after the death of our parents, we still must do so. In addition, we should show respect to our spouse's parents and grandparents.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: “Great is the importance of honoring the father and mother, since the Almighty compares their honor with his own, as well as the awe of them with the awe of Himself. After all, it is said: “Honor your Lord with your wealth” and at the same time: “Honor your father and your mother”, and also: “Fear the Lord your God” and at the same time: “Fear every one of his mother and his father ". In addition, the Torah says: “And whoever defames the Name of the Lord, let him be put to death” (Vayikra, 24, 16), as well as: “And whoever curses his father or mother, let him be put to death” ( Shemot, 21, 17). Our duties to the Almighty and to our parents are so similar because all three - the Almighty, father and mother - participated in our birth.
The commandment says: "Honor your father and your mother." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught: “So great is the importance of honoring your father and mother that the Almighty put it above your own, as it says: “Honor your father and your mother,” and then: “Honor your Lord with your wealth.” How do we honor the Almighty? Separating part of his property - part of the harvest in the field, trumu and maaserot, as well as building bitch by fulfilling the commandments lulavé, shofar, tefillin and tzitzit providing food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Only he who has the corresponding property is obliged to separate a part of it; those who don't have it don't have to. However, there are no exceptions when it comes to honoring father and mother. Regardless of what wealth we have, we are obliged to fulfill this commandment (including its material aspects) - even if for this we have to beg for alms.
The reward for the fulfillment of this commandment is great - for its full text reads: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you." The Torah emphasizes: in Eretz Yisrael, not in exile or in conquered and annexed territory.
Rav Ula was asked: “How far should the fulfillment of the commandment to honor father and mother extend?” He replied: “Look at what a non-Jew named Dama ben Netina from Ashkelon did. Once the sages offered him a business deal that promised a profit of six hundred thousand dinars, but he refused, because in order to conclude it, it was necessary to get the key that was under the pillow of his sleeping father, whom he did not want to wake up.
Rabbi Eliezer was asked: “How far should the fulfillment of this commandment extend?” He replied: “Even if the father, in the presence of his son, takes a purse with money and throws it into the sea, the son should not reproach him for this.”
Those who feed their parents the most expensive delicacies (in the original - fattened birds), but behave unworthily with them, will lose their share in the future world. At the same time, some of those whose parents have to turn the millstones for them will have a share in the world to come, because they treated their parents with due respect, although they could not otherwise provide for them.
There is a commandment that prescribes to pay the debts of parents after their death.
Thou shalt not kill (Sixth Commandment)
This commandment includes the prohibition against dealing with murderers. It is necessary to stay away from them so that our children do not learn to kill. After all, the sin of murder gave birth and brought the sword into this world. It is not given to us to restore the life of the dead - how can we take it away otherwise than according to the law of the Torah? How can we put out a candle that we cannot kindle? Giving and taking life is the work of the Almighty, few people are able to understand the problems of life and death, as the Scripture says: to you the deeds of God, who creates everything ”(Kohelet, 11, 5).
In the Torah (Bemidbar, 35) it is said: "Let the murderer be put to death." These words define the punishment to which the murderer is awarded - the death penalty. But where is the warning, the prohibition against killing? The commandment "Thou shalt not kill." How do we know that even someone who says: "I intend to commit murder and am ready to pay the indicated price - to undergo the death penalty" or simply: "In order to undergo the death penalty" still does not have the right to kill? From the words of the commandment - "Thou shalt not kill." How do we know that someone who has already been sentenced to death has no right to kill? From the words of the commandment.
In other words, even one who is ready to suffer the punishment for murder has no right to kill - for the Torah warned him about this.
The commandments of the Torah, which are warnings - "Do not kill", "Do not commit adultery", etc. - in the original contain a prohibitive negative particle לא ( lo), not אל ( al), which also means “not”, because they not only warn of the prohibition imposed on the offense itself, but also oblige a person to move away from him with his whole way of life, that is, to establish “barriers” that would guarantee that he would not kill , commit adultery, etc.
Do not commit adultery (Seventh Commandment)
In the Torah (Vayikra, 20, 10) it is said: "Let the adulterer and the adulteress be put to death." These words of the Torah determine the punishment for adultery. Where is the warning, the prohibition itself? In the commandment "Do not commit adultery." How do we know that someone who says, “I will commit adultery in order to be subject to the death penalty,” still has no right to commit adultery? From the words of the commandment - "Do not commit adultery." How do we know that a person is forbidden during marital intimacy to think about another's wife? From the words of the commandment.
The commandment "Do not commit adultery" forbids a man to inhale the smell of perfume, which is used by all women, forbidden to him by the Torah. The same commandment forbids giving vent to one's anger. Both last prohibitions are derived from the fact that the verb לנאף ( lin "of, "to commit adultery") contain a two-letter cell אף ( af), which as a separate word means "nose" and "anger".
Adultery is the heaviest crime, for it is one of the three offenses of which the Scripture expressly indicates that they lead to Hell (Gehinom). Here they are: adultery with a married woman, slander and unrighteous rule. Where does Scripture mention adultery in this context? In the Book of Proverbs: “Can anyone put fire in his bosom and not burn his garments? Can anyone walk on burning coals without burning their feet? So the one who enters his neighbor's wife, who touches her, will not be left without punishment ”(Mishlei, 6, 27).
Don't steal (Eighth Commandment)
There are seven types of thieves:
1. The first is the one who misleads people or fools them. For example, someone who persistently invites a person to visit, hoping that he will not accept the invitation, offers a treat to someone who will most likely refuse it, puts up, as it were, for sale items already sold to him.
2. The second is the one who forges measures and weights, mixes sand with beans and pours vinegar into oil.
3. The third one is the one who kidnaps the Jew. Such a kidnapper is subject to the death penalty.
4. The fourth is the one who is connected with the thief and receives a share of his booty.
5. The fifth is the one who is sold into slavery for theft.
6. The sixth is the one who stole the booty from another thief.
7. Seventh - one who steals with the intention of recovering what was stolen, or one who steals to upset or anger the robbed, or one who steals an object belonging to him, which is currently in the possession of another person, instead of resorting to help law.
The Torah (Vayikra, 19, 11) says: "Do not steal." The Talmud teaches us: "Do not steal (even) in order to anger the robbed, and then return the stolen to him - for in this case you violate the prohibition of the Torah."
Even our foremother Rachel, who stole the idols of her father Laban so that he would stop practicing idolatry, was punished for this offense by not being worthy to be buried in a cave Machpelah- the tomb of the righteous, since Yaakov (who did not know about this abduction) said: “Whoever you find your gods from, let him not live!” (Bereshit, 31, 32) Therefore, let each of us avoid theft and use only what he has earned by his labor. The one who does just that will be happy both in this world and in the next world, as it is said: “When you eat from the fruits of the labor of your hands, you are happy and good for you” (Tehillim, 128, 2). The word "happy" refers to this world, the words "good for you" - to the world to come.
However, it should be remembered that the commandment “Thou shalt not steal” itself refers only to kidnapping, punishable by death. Theft of property is prohibited by the Torah elsewhere.
Do not speak of your neighbor with false testimony (Ninth Commandment)
In the Book of Deuteronomy, this commandment is formulated somewhat differently: "Do not speak of your neighbor with an empty testimony" (Deuteronomy 5:17). This means that both words - "false" and "empty" - were uttered by the Almighty at the same time - although the human mouth is not able to pronounce them in this way, and the human ear is not able to hear.
King Shlomo said in his wisdom: “All the merits of a person who fulfills the commandments and does good deeds will not be enough to atone for the sin of bad words escaping from his mouth. Therefore, we are obliged to beware of slander and gossip in every possible way and not to sin in this way. After all, the tongue burns more easily than any other organ, and is the first of all organs to be judged.
One should not spread in praise to another person, so that, starting with praise, one does not say bad things about him.
Slander is one of the worst things in the world! She is compared to a lame man who, nevertheless, sows confusion around. They say about him: “What would he do if he were healthy!” Such is the human language that disturbs the whole world, remaining in our mouths. Who does he look like? On a dog chained up in a locked inner room of a house. Despite this, when she barks, everyone around her is afraid. What would she do if she were free! Such is the wicked tongue, enclosed in our mouths, shut up by our lips, and yet delivering innumerable blows - what would it do if it were free! The Almighty said: “I can save you from all troubles. Only slander is an exception. Hide from her and you won't get hurt."
In school, Rabbi Ishmael was taught: "The one who spreads slander is no less guilty than if he committed the three most terrible sins - idolatry, incest and bloodshed."
The one who spreads slander, as it were, denies the existence of the Almighty, as it is said: “Those who said: We will be strong with our tongue, our lips are with us - who is our master? »
Rav Hisda said on behalf of Mar Uqba: “About everyone who spreads slander, the Almighty speaks to the angel of hell like this: “I am from Heaven, and you are from the underworld - we will judge him.” »
Rav Sheshet said: “Anyone who spreads slander, as well as anyone who hears it, anyone who bears false witness, all of them deserve to be thrown to be eaten by dogs. Indeed, in the Torah (Shemot, 22, 30) it is said: “Psam throw him away,” and immediately after this it says: “Do not spread a false rumor, do not give your hand to the wicked to be a witness of iniquity.” »
Do not covet (Tenth Commandment)
The commandment says: "Do not covet." In the Book of Deuteronomy it is said, besides this (in continuation of the commandment): "Do not desire." Thus, the Torah punishes harassment separately, and separately for desire. How do we know that a person who desires what belongs to another will eventually begin to covet what he wants? Because the Torah connects these concepts: "Do not desire and do not covet." How do we know that the one who starts harassing ends up robbing? Because the prophet Micah says: “And they will desire the fields, and they will take them away” (Micah, 2, 2). Desire is contained in the heart, as it is said: "As much as your soul desires" (Deut. 12:20). Harassment, on the other hand, is an act, as it is said: “Do not covet silver and gold that is on them to take for yourself” (Deuteronomy, 7, 25).
It is natural to ask: how can one forbid the heart to desire something - after all, it does not ask our permission? Very simple: let everything that other people own be infinitely far from us, so far that the heart will not ignite because of it. So it would not occur to a peasant living in a remote village to harass the king's daughter.
It is necessary to distinguish between the TEN OLD TESTAMENT COMMANDMENTS given by God to Moses and all the people of Israel and the GOSPEL COMMANDMENTS OF BEATH, of which there are nine. The 10 commandments were given to people through Moses at the dawn of the formation of religion in order to protect them from sin, to warn of danger, while the Christian Commandments of the Beatitudes, described in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, are of a slightly different plan, they concern more spiritual life and development. The Christian commandments are a logical continuation and in no way deny the 10 commandments. Learn more about Christian Commandments.
The 10 commandments of God are the law given by God in addition to his internal moral guideline - conscience. The Ten Commandments were given by God to Moses, and through him to all mankind on Mount Sinai, when the people of Israel returned from Egyptian captivity to the promised land. The first four commandments regulate the relationship between man and God, the remaining six - the relationship between people. The Ten Commandments are described twice in the Bible: in the twentieth chapter of the book, and in the fifth chapter.
Ten commandments of God in Russian.
How and when did God give the 10 commandments to Moses?
God gave Moses the ten commandments on Mount Sinai on the 50th day from the start of the Exodus from Egyptian captivity. The situation on Mount Sinai is described in the Bible:
... On the third day, at the onset of morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud over Mount [Sinai], and a very strong trumpet sound ... Mount Sinai was all smoking because the Lord descended on it in fire; and smoke from her ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently; and the sound of the trumpet became stronger and stronger…. ()
God wrote 10 commandments on stone tablets and gave them to Moses. Moses stayed on Mount Sinai for another 40 days, after which he went down to his people. The book of Deuteronomy describes that when he descended, he saw that his people were dancing around the Golden Calf, forgetting about God and violating one of the commandments. Moses, in anger, broke the tablets with the inscribed commandments, but God ordered him to carve new ones to replace the old ones, on which the Lord again inscribed 10 commandments.
10 commandments - interpretation of the commandments.
- I am the Lord thy God, and there are no other gods but Me.
According to the first commandment, there is not and cannot be another god than Him. This is the postulate of monotheism. The first commandment says that everything that exists is created by God, lives in God and will return to God. God has no beginning and no end. It is impossible to comprehend it. All the power of man and nature is from God, and there is no power outside the Lord, just as there is no wisdom outside the Lord, and there is no knowledge outside the Lord. In God is the beginning and the end, in Him is all love and kindness.
Man does not need gods except the Lord. If you have two gods, doesn't that mean that one of them is a devil?
Thus, according to the first commandment, the following are considered sinful:
- atheism;
- superstition and esotericism;
- polytheism;
- magic and sorcery,
- false interpretation of religion - sects and false teachings
- Do not create for yourself an idol and no image; do not worship them and do not serve them.
All power is concentrated in God. Only He can help a person if necessary. A person often turns to intermediaries for help. But if God cannot help a person, is it possible for intermediaries to do this? According to the second commandment, one cannot deify people and things. This will lead to sin or sickness.
In simple words, one cannot worship the creation of the Lord instead of the Lord Himself. The worship of things is akin to paganism and idolatry. At the same time, the veneration of icons is not equated with idolatry. It is believed that worship prayers are directed to God himself, and not to the material from which the icon is made. We turn not to the image, but to the Archetype. Even in the Old Testament, images of God are described that were made at His command.
- Take not the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
According to the third commandment, it is forbidden to mention the name of the Lord without special need. You can mention the name of the Lord in prayer and spiritual conversations, in requests for help. It is impossible to mention the Lord in idle conversations, especially in blasphemous ones. We all know that the Word has tremendous power in the Bible. With the Word, God created the world.
- Six days you work and do all your work, and the seventh is a day of rest, which you dedicate to the Lord your God.
God does not forbid love, He is Love Himself, but He requires chastity.
- Don't steal.
Disrespectful attitude towards another person can be expressed in the theft of property. Any benefit is illegal if it is associated with any damage, including material damage, to another person.
The violation of the eighth commandment is considered:
- appropriation of someone else's property,
- robbery or theft
- fraud, bribery, bribery
- all sorts of scams, fraud and fraud.
- Don't bear false witness.
The ninth commandment tells us not to lie to ourselves or to others. This commandment forbids any lies, gossip and gossip.
- Don't wish for anything else.
The tenth commandment tells us that envy and jealousy are sinful. Desire itself is only a seed of sin that will not germinate in a bright soul. The tenth commandment is aimed at preventing the violation of the eighth commandment. Having suppressed the desire to possess someone else's, a person will never steal.
The tenth commandment is different from the previous nine, it is New Testament in nature. This commandment is not aimed at prohibiting sin, but at preventing the thought of sin. The first 9 commandments talk about the problem as such, while the tenth about the root (cause) of this problem.
The seven deadly sins is an Orthodox term denoting the main vices that are terrible in themselves and can lead to the emergence of other vices and violation of the commandments given by the Lord. In Catholicism, the 7 deadly sins are called major sins or root sins.
Sometimes laziness is called the seventh sin, this is typical for Orthodoxy. Modern authors write about eight sins, including both laziness and despondency. The doctrine of the seven deadly sins was formed quite early (in the II - III centuries) among ascetic monks. The Divine Comedy of Dante describes the seven circles of purgatory, which correspond to the seven deadly sins.
The theory of mortal sins developed in the Middle Ages and received coverage in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. He saw in the seven sins the cause of all other vices. In Russian Orthodoxy, the idea began to spread in the 18th century.