Ah... the Ten Commandments. What a glorious moment in the world’s history when G-d revealed Himself to His nation! To much of the world, this is the definitive list of things G-d wants from Mankind and there is nothing more required of us. As Jews, we know this is far from the truth as we have been blessed with so many mitzvos and opportunities to fulfill Hashem’s desire and enjoy life.
There is a clear distinction between the first five commandments and the second. They were placed on separate tablets. One way of categorizing them is that the first five are between “Man and G-d” while the second are between “Man and Man.” The mitzvah of honoring one’s parents falls in the first category as one’s parents are partners with Hashem in his creation and showing them honor honors Hashem as well.
Interestingly, the first five have something else in common. They have reasons attached to them. I am Hashem your G-d, ‘Who took you from Egypt.’ It is this fact which makes Hashem deserving, as it were, of our devotion and belief in Him. The Ramban points out that the events of the Exodus are witnesses to Hashem’s sovereignty. The other four commandments tell us that we should obey because of some punishment Hashem will mete out, or a reward He will give us. What me must ask ourselves is: Why do we need these things to convince us to serve Him? Why isn’t it enough to say, “I am your G-d” as a statement of fact?
The answer is that Hashem wants us to want to do mitzvos. The second five make sense to us. Don’t kill, don’t steal, etc. We know that we would not want these done to us so we can understand why we should do them even if they were not commanded. The first five, however, are more intangible. We would not feel a normal need for them. Thus, Hashem, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, gives us some rationale behind them. While we don’t fully understand the reasons for mitzvos, we can at least make some logical argument of our own as to why these things make the mitzvos worth observing.
This also follows with what Hashem says initially: “I have taken you from Egypt, from slavery.” A slave is given orders and expected to listen unthinkingly. Hashem wanted to make sure that Klal Yisroel did not feel they were merely trading one taskmaster for another. He gave us the ability to understand, albeit limitedly, why we do the mitzvos. Though we would have mitzvos later on for which we had no explanation, the initial impression that we were making our own choices would remain with us.
The fact that Hashem did this and gives us opportunities to rationalize why to do a mitzvah every single day is just one more reason to love Him. He makes us feel important and worthwhile by giving us the freedom to obey His commands because we want to. This is a lesson we can learn for dealing with our fellow men as well. Rather than argue and order people to do things, we must understand their need to feel in control of their destinies. By explaining what we want of them and letting them decide it makes sense, we will be emulating HaKadosh Boruch Hu, and we will likely end up getting what we want.
