EXOD351 Perhaps the Torah's most consequential statement of Judaism's ethical essence is the Ten Commandments Exodus 20:2 – 14, the biblical document that is the bedrock of Jewish and Western morality. The Ten Commandments obligate Jews to affirm God (who brought them out of slavery), to observe the Sabbath (on which day they must make sure that even their animals are not put to work), and ban idolatry. The Ten Commandments also prohibit murder, adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, taking God's Name in vain and covetousness. "Where are all the sacrifices? why no mention of Passover or of circumcision?" asks Rabbi Schubert Spero."The testimony of the Decalogue seems overwhelming: Moral rules regulating relations between human beings are primary. Morality is the essence of Judaism."