[Avodah] Counting the Aseres Hadibros

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 06:58:00PM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> This struck me as odd. My understanding is that Christians consider "I am
> Hashem..." to be an introduction...

Even many rishonim who consider Anokhi H' to be part of the first diberah
do not count it as one of the 613 mitzvos. After all, to accept a tzivui
presupposes the existence of a metzaveh. Commanding us to believe in
Him makes no sense.

And that is the problem of bringing in Christian interpretations. We
count 14-16 mitzvos included in the 10 Diberos (or "Devarim", to use
the Author's title). They're talking 10 Commandments. The concepts
don't mesh.

Perhaps they consider it a preamble because it cannot be a commandment,
and since they think the 10 are commandments, they cannot include it
within #1. That line of reasoning has nothing to do with our take on
the subject.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Problems are not stop signs,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   they are guidelines.
Author: Widen Your Tent              - Robert H. Schuller
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF