[Avodah] Insights Into the Aseres HaDibros

[Yitzchok Levine]

Towards the end of his extensive commentary on 
the Aseres HaDibros in Parshas Yisro RSRH writes

It is precisely this prohibition of Lo Sachmod  and Lo sisaveh  that sets the
seal of God on the social part of the Decalogue. Even a mortal lawgiver
can decree “You shall not murder,” and so forth. But only God can
decree “you shall not covet.” He alone probes the mind and the heart.
Before Him, not only deeds, but also thoughts and feelings, are manifest.
A human being can forbid only the crime, and when the crime is committed,
he can — with difficulty — bring the criminal to justice. But
the source and breeding place of the crime eludes human sight. And
once the crime has matured in a person’s heart, he is seldom deterred
from carrying it out by fear of the punishment meted out by human
courts of law.

Hence all human state-building is in vain, for the edifice remains
unfinished and shaky as long as it is based solely on human glory. Even
if the builders do lay the cornerstone “in God’s Name,” the building is
erected without Him. They profess respect for the “Ten Commandments,”
but pay homage to man. They do not subordinate human power
to the state, the state to the law, and the law to God; on the contrary,
they pay lip service to God as a means of gaining support for faltering
homage to man.

Only when God will be “King over all the earth” and His Will will
become the Law in the midst of mankind, only then will prisons be
closed and will wretchedness disappear from the earth.

Let us add that the “Ten Commandments” do not have greater holiness
or greater importance than any other of the Torah’s commandments.
They are neither the whole Law nor are they holier laws than
all the rest. God expressly declared them as being merely an introduction
to and preparation for the whole main Lawgiving that would follow
after them: “I am coming to you . . . so that the people may hear when
I speak with you and so trust in you forever” (above, 19:9). Thus it is
expressly stated that the purpose of the revelation on Sinai was none
other than to prepare the people for the acceptance of all the other
commandments that would be transmitted to them by Moshe, and to
prove to them beyond the shadow of a doubt, by their own experience,
that “God did speak to your entire assembly” (Devarim 5:19). Thus,
they would receive all the other commandments, too, as the Word of
God through Moshe, and would fulfill them — forever — with steadfast
faith.

Nevertheless, the Ten Commandments are basic principles and general
headings for all the other laws and commandments.
If we consider the order in which these basic principles are set forth,
we find in it a truth that sheds light on the whole conception of God’s
Torah. 
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