What Do The Ten Commandments Mean?

Why are the Ten Commandments important to Judaism? Do you ever wonder what’s so special about the Ten Commandments? Why were they singled out to be part of God’s momentous speech at Mount Sinai? Why do we make such a big deal about reading them on Shavuot, or putting them up in our shuls and on our courthouses? Why do we treat them as if they are somehow more special, or more fundamental, than all of the other parts of the Torah?

The answer that’s often given is that they are more fundamental than the other parts of the Torah because they somehow represent the core ideas of the Torah. That every law in the Torah can be somehow reduced to one of these Ten Commandments. It’s as if these are the ten most essential concepts that God is trying to convey to us.

So go with that theory for a second, and now ask yourself this: What if we told you that the Ten Commandments, these ten essential concepts, do express a fundamental Torah truth, but they aren’t actually ten? That the “ten commandments” are actually one single idea – the idea, the big, central message that God wanted the Israelites to hear, the one message that the whole Torah boils down to? The most core truth at the heart of all of Judaism, as it were?

Don't you want to know: What's the one big idea??

Take a look at this course, in which Rabbi Fohrman approaches the Ten Commandments almost as an archaeologist, identifying multiple hidden layers that are baked into the text, peeling them back one by one, and revealing the single core truth that lies beneath them all.

Discover other great Shavuot videos at Aleph Beta, including ‘The Book of Ruth Explained’, ‘The Scandalous Backstory of Boaz & Ruth’, and ‘Why Do We Celebrate Shavuot Laws’