The Ten Commandments and the Sefirot
Wonders | February 14, 2025
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The Ten Commandments and the Sefirot

Wonders | June 27, 2025

PARTZUF

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND THE SEFIROT

The most explicit instance of a model with ten elements in the Torah is the Ten Commandments. Though the English term “commandments” is not precise, the Torah explicitly mentions that “he [Moses] was there with God for forty days and forty nights... and he wrote down on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.”

The phrase “the ten words” (יםרבדת הרשׂע) has been translated by many as “the Ten commandments.”

Clearly, it would make sense to correspond the Ten Commandments in our parashah, Yitro, with the ten sefirot. Before we begin discussing how to do this, let us look at a beautiful mathematical allusion to the propriety of this correspondence. The “filling” of “the ten words” (יםרבדת הרשׂע) is עין שין ריש תו הא דלת בית ריש יוד מם whose value is 2868. Incredibly, this is the same as the sum of the names of all ten sefirot: “crown, wisdom, understanding, loving-kindness, might, beauty, victory, acknowledgment, foundation, kingdom” (דסחה ינבה מכר חכת כותל דמ סודי חהוצ נתרפיתה תרבוּג).

BUILDING THE STRUCTURE

To properly correspond the Ten Commandments with the sefirot, we must begin by understanding their structure in the Torah. As it turns out, structure-wise this is one of the most complex passages in the Torah and even identifying ten distinct elements is not so simple.

TEN PARAGRAPHS (PARSHIYOT)

Let us start by looking at the way in which the “ten words” referred to by the Torah itself appear in a Torah scroll. The Torah’s text is divided both into verses and into paragraphs—parashot, both of which were given to Moses. In a Torah scroll, the end of a paragraph is marked by whitespace; outside the Torah scroll, the convention is to mark the end of paragraph with a letter פ or ס. The “ten words” referred to are thus:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me. (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it. (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder.
  • Do not commit adultery.
  • Do not steal.
  • Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.

Note that according to this authoritative division in the Torah scroll itself what are usually identified as the first and second commandments (“I am Havayah your God,” and “You shall have no other gods”) appear in the same “word”—meaning, in the same paragraph (parshiyah)—reflecting the sages’ statement that these two commandments were heard directly from God. Moreover, only in these first two commandments does God appear as a first-person object, meaning that He is speaking about Himself. Everything else is written with a second-person object, “you.” Also, the phrase, “I am Havayah your God” (יכנואיךהלֱהוי' א) appears twice in this paragraph, once in the first “commandment,” and once in the second.

TWO TABLETS

The way the “ten words” or elements are colloquially identified can be seen in any representation of the two Tablets of the Covenant on which they were written found in every synagogue. The colloquial division presents 5 commandments on one tablet and 5 on the other and looks like this:

Left TabletRight Tabletחָצְרִּא תֹל
Do not murderיִכֹנָא
I amףָאְנִּא תֹל
Do not commit adulteryָךְה לֶיְהִא יֹל
You shall have noבֹנְגִּא תֹל
Do not stealאָּׂשִא תֹל
You shall not swearהֶנֲעַא תֹל
Do not bearרֹכוָז
Rememberדֹמְחַא תֹל
Do not covetדֵּבַכּ
Honor

LOWER CANTILLATION

A third way to divide the text into 10 follows the lead of the cantillation marks. Here we encounter a unique phenomenon that has no parallel: there are actually two different sets of cantillation marks for the text of the Ten Commandments. One is called the “lower” (טעם תחתון), the other is known as the “upper” (טעם עליון). In principle, when one reads the text in private, one would use the lower cantillation marks. When reading the text in public, the upper set of marks is used.

According to most of the commentaries on the Masoretic text, the upper set of marks divides the Ten Commandments into 9 verses. But the lower set of cantillation marks divides the text into 13 verses:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage.
  • You shall have no other gods besides Me.
  • (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.
  • (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me.
  • (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it.
  • (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work
  • (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.
  • (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.

HIGHER CANTILLATION

As noted, the higher set of cantillation marks divides the text into 9 parts:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me. (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it. (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder.
  • Do not commit adultery.
  • Do not steal.
  • Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.

PARTZUF

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND THE SEFIROT

The most explicit instance of a model with ten elements in the Torah is the Ten Commandments. Though the English term “commandments” is not precise, the Torah explicitly mentions that “he [Moses] was there with God for forty days and forty nights... and he wrote down on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.”

The phrase “the ten words” (יםרבדת הרשׂע) has been translated by many as “the Ten commandments.”

Clearly, it would make sense to correspond the Ten Commandments in our parashah, Yitro, with the ten sefirot. Before we begin discussing how to do this, let us look at a beautiful mathematical allusion to the propriety of this correspondence. The “filling” of “the ten words” (יםרבדת הרשׂע) is עין שין ריש תו הא דלת בית ריש יוד מם whose value is 2868. Incredibly, this is the same as the sum of the names of all ten sefirot: “crown, wisdom, understanding, loving-kindness, might, beauty, victory, acknowledgment, foundation, kingdom” (דסחה ינבה מכר חכת כותל דמ סודי חהוצ נתרפיתה תרבוּג).

BUILDING THE STRUCTURE

To properly correspond the Ten Commandments with the sefirot, we must begin by understanding their structure in the Torah. As it turns out, structure-wise this is one of the most complex passages in the Torah and even identifying ten distinct elements is not so simple.

TEN PARAGRAPHS (PARSHIYOT)

Let us start by looking at the way in which the “ten words” referred to by the Torah itself appear in a Torah scroll. The Torah’s text is divided both into verses and into paragraphs—parashot, both of which were given to Moses. In a Torah scroll, the end of a paragraph is marked by whitespace; outside the Torah scroll, the convention is to mark the end of paragraph with a letter פ or ס. The “ten words” referred to are thus:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me. (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it. (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder.
  • Do not commit adultery.
  • Do not steal.
  • Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.

Note that according to this authoritative division in the Torah scroll itself what are usually identified as the first and second commandments (“I am Havayah your God,” and “You shall have no other gods”) appear in the same “word”—meaning, in the same paragraph (parshiyah)—reflecting the sages’ statement that these two commandments were heard directly from God. Moreover, only in these first two commandments does God appear as a first-person object, meaning that He is speaking about Himself. Everything else is written with a second-person object, “you.” Also, the phrase, “I am Havayah your God” (יכנואיךהלֱהוי' א) appears twice in this paragraph, once in the first “commandment,” and once in the second.

TWO TABLETS

The way the “ten words” or elements are colloquially identified can be seen in any representation of the two Tablets of the Covenant on which they were written found in every synagogue. The colloquial division presents 5 commandments on one tablet and 5 on the other and looks like this:

Left TabletRight Tabletחָצְרִּא תֹל
Do not murderיִכֹנָא
I amףָאְנִּא תֹל
Do not commit adulteryָךְה לֶיְהִא יֹל
You shall have noבֹנְגִּא תֹל
Do not stealאָּׂשִא תֹל
You shall not swearהֶנֲעַא תֹל
Do not bearרֹכוָז
Rememberדֹמְחַא תֹל
Do not covetדֵּבַכּ
Honor

LOWER CANTILLATION

A third way to divide the text into 10 follows the lead of the cantillation marks. Here we encounter a unique phenomenon that has no parallel: there are actually two different sets of cantillation marks for the text of the Ten Commandments. One is called the “lower” (טעם תחתון), the other is known as the “upper” (טעם עליון). In principle, when one reads the text in private, one would use the lower cantillation marks. When reading the text in public, the upper set of marks is used.

According to most of the commentaries on the Masoretic text, the upper set of marks divides the Ten Commandments into 9 verses. But the lower set of cantillation marks divides the text into 13 verses:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage.
  • You shall have no other gods besides Me.
  • (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.
  • (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me.
  • (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it.
  • (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work
  • (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.
  • (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.

HIGHER CANTILLATION

As noted, the higher set of cantillation marks divides the text into 9 parts:

  • (2) I am Havayah your God who has brought you out of the Land of Egypt, from a house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. (3) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. (4) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I am Havayah your God, I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me. (5) But I show kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
  • (6) You shall not swear falsely by the Name of your God, Havayah, for Havayah will not clear one who swears falsely by His Name.
  • (7) Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it. (8) Six days you shall labor and do all your work (9) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Havayah your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (10) For in six days Havayah made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore, Havayah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  • (11) Honor your father and your mother so that you may long endure on the land that your God, Havayah, is giving you.
  • (12) Do not murder.
  • Do not commit adultery.
  • Do not steal.
  • Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
  • (13) Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or any of his possessions.
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Wonders | February 14, 2025