EXOD124 The biblical Pharaoh epitomizes an insincere penitent. When plagues continue to strike Egypt, he acts as if he were seized by remorse, and summons Moses and Aaron to tell them, "The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong. Plead with the Lord that there may be an end to God's thunder. I will let you go; you need stay no longer." A short time later, however, "When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways ... and he would not let the Israelites go" Exodus 9:34-35

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD125 See [[EXOD124]] Exodus 9:27 guilty TELVOL1 177

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD193 Perhaps the most famous biblical example of keeping a long-standing commitment was Moses' taking Joseph's bones with him when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. Centuries earlier, Joseph had exacted an oath from his brothers, saying, "When God has taken notice of you [and brings you back to Canaan], you shall carry up my bones from here" Genesis 50:25. On the day the Jews left Egypt, Moses was unquestionably very busy, and the commitment to Joseph had not even been made by him, but by his ancestors; nonetheless, the Bible tells us that he" took with him the bones of Joseph".

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD243 On the same page on which the Rabbis record Hillel's statement of Judaism's essence [That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.], the Talmud proposes that the first question the Heavenly Court puts to someone who has died is "did you conduct your business affairs honestly?" Shabbat 31a. Another rabbinic source suggests just how significantly the Rabbis regarded business honesty: "One who deals honestly in business, and his fellow men are pleased with him, is considered as if he fulfilled the entire Torah" Mechilta, Beshalach on this verse.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

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."

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD379 In most translations of the Bible, this verse (which begins, "Lo tissa …") is rendered as "you shall not take God's Name in vain," and people often are taught that this commitment means that it is blasphemous to utter God's name in a curse, or that they must write God as God. But the Hebrew word tissa means "carry," and what the verse seems to forbid is using (i.e., carrying) "God's Name" to justify selfish and/or evil behavior. For example, during the 19th-century, it was common for American Southerners to justify their practice of slavery as something approved of by the Bible and by God. But even though the Torah permitted slavery, it hedged it with many restrictions that were ignored and violated in the South, restrictions that made biblical slavery very different from that practiced in 19th-century America. ... Therefore, when Southern clergy tried to justify their practice of slavery with a claim that the Hebrew Bible (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament) and God would have approved of their behavior, they "carried" God's Name in vain, and associated God with heinous acts. From Judaism's perspective, it is a Chillul Hashem [profanation of God's Name-AJL] to associate God with evil; that may well be why God announces that He cannot forgive those who violate the Third Commandment ("the Lord will not clear one who carries His Name in vain"; this verse] The reason would seem to be obvious: when we commit evil acts such as murdering or stealing, we discredit ourselves, but when we do evil in God's Name, we discredit God and alienate people who might otherwise have become drawn to God and religion.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD413 [This verse is one of] three laws in Torah for the obeying of which God promises either long national or personal life, and all three involve issues of ethics and kindness. [The others are letting the mother bird go when collecting fledglings or eggs -- Deuteronomy 22:6-7, and using honest weights and measures -- Deuteronomy 25:15].

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD477 Coveting, an offshoot or outgrowth of envy, is the only emotion (as opposed to action) outlawed in the Ten Commandments. … While envy refers, among other things to wanting what others have for ourselves, coveting--in the context of the Ten Commandments and the usage of this term in Jewish life--refers to desiring what others have so much that we start scheming to acquire it.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD559 We should not follow the letter of the law if doing so will lead to the opposite of what the Torah intended. For example, biblical law rules that striking one's parents is forbidden, and a capital crime. According to the rabbinic understanding of this verse, the offense merits a death sentence only if the child draws blood. [We have no record of this punishment ever being carried out]. Later Jewish law further qualified the law, permitting a child to bleed a parent in a surgical procedure. [Bleeding was a procedure used in pre-modern medicine by which supposedly sick blood was drawn from an ill person with the intention of improving the person's health]. Surprisingly, the Talmud justifies this provision on the basis of the verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself." What is the possible connection between bleeding one's parents and loving one's neighbor as oneself? Common sense caused the Rabbis to reason thus: treat your neighbor-in this case , your parents-as you would want to be treated; since you would want your own blood drawn in such a circumstance to improve your health, it is fine to draw your parent's blood for the same reason.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

EXOD672 When Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was about to die, his disciples sat before him, and asked, "Rabbeinu [our teacher], teach us only one thing" (i.e., one fundamental final teaching). "He replied, 'My children, what can I teach you? Every one of you go and be very careful of the dignity of others'" Derech Eretz Rabbah, chapter 3. Preserving the dignity of orphans, and protecting them from hurt, is a deeply embedded Jewish value: for example [this and following verses]. Maimonides, in a twelfth-century form of affirmative action, rules that a teacher who has orphans among his students "should not treat them like others, but make a distinction in their favor. He should guide them gently, with the utmost of tenderness and courtesy." Laws of Character Development 6:10.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT