Shavuot

What strikes me, (concerning the Ten Commandments), is that we Jews count them differently from the way Christians do…For Christians, the first commandment is “You shall have no gods other than Me,” whereas Jews begin numbering at the prior verse, “I am Adonai your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.”…In general, Judaism thrives on discussion of commandments, to the point where we have been accused of being overly legalistic. In contrast to Christianity, we hold that what we do, not what we believe, matters most…

Lawrence Hoffman (Contemporary – Reform)

If the Ten Commandments are really commandments then, How do we understand the first of God’s words, “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt?”…Maimonides…insists that this is precisely the first of the commands, indeed the primary command, the one on which all of Judaism depends…other commentators disagree. How, they ask, can we be commanded to believe in anything? They view this passage as the historical prologue that justifies God’s right to command Israel to obey all of the Torah. In this view, the first of the ten commands is the next statement, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Neil Gillman (Contemporary – Conservative)

The story of Ruth is about how to survive in a situation of scarcity and, ultimately, how to preserve a family in the face of potential extinction. The lessons drawn from the narrative are that Jews are called to be faithful and “cleave” to those who appear to have no future (Ruth’s cleaving to Naomi) and that Jews must extend themselves and share their resources with those who are in need (Boaz’s relationship to Ruth). In all, the book of Ruth teaches that Jews must directly encounter others, pay attention to their needs, and offer them emotional and material support. These lessons can readily be extended to the contemporary debates about the allocation of scarce medical resources and access to state-funded health care.

Louis Newman (Contemporary)

Megillas Ruth has been referred to ignorantly and sacrilegiously by people far from Torah as history’s first love story. That such a statement makes any Torah Jew shudder with disgust and bristle with anger goes without saying. Just the same, it is a valid indication of the depth of ignorance and the shallowness of scholarship with which most of the Tnach is studied – or, better said, read…To be sure, Israel fell short of the goals set for it – but les us never forget that it fell short of its goals, not of ours. Even during its period of deepest decline; Israel was far, far above the moral, ethical, scholarly, and religious standards of the twentieth century which so enjoys basking in the self-anointed status of occupant of civilization’s highest rung.

Art Scroll on Ruth