Having seen examples of contraction (as a condensed state) in Creation, we turn our attention to contraction as it appears in the Ten Commandments.
First, there are 620 letters in the Ten Commandments. These 620 letters correspond to the 613 commandments mandated by the Written Torah (the Pentateuch) and the 7 rabbinic commandments mandated by the rabbis. In fact, the Komarna Rebbe wrote an entire book dedicated to explicitly explaining the correspondence between each of the letters of the Ten Commandments and its corresponding mitzvah. Thus, the entire Torah, as it were, is contracted into the Ten Commandments. For this reason, we refer to the day the Ten Commandments were given as the day on which the Torah was given.
Since the Ten Commandments, like the rest of the Torah, are comprised of both positive commandments and negative prohibitions, all the mitzvot in the Torah are condensed into the first two of the Ten Commandments. All the positive commandments are encapsulated in the first commandment, to believe in God, and all the prohibitions in the Torah are rooted in the second commandment: “You shall not have any other gods before Me.”
This tradition is supported by the sages’ statement that stresses the uniqueness of the first two commandments; it was only these two commandments that the people heard directly from God. The Midrash teaches that the people, petrified by God's awesome revelation, asked that the other eight be transmitted to them by Moses.
Next, the second commandment, prohibiting the worship of any other gods, is obviously predicated on the first commandment commanding belief in one God. Therefore, not only are all positive commandments encapsulated in the first of the Ten Commandments, in a certain sense, so are all the negative prohibitions. Since the prohibitions in the Torah serve as stepping-stones to building a positive relationship with God, other human beings, and the world, from a certain perspective, they can be classified as positive commandments. Thus, all the prohibitions relating to the second commandment are in essence included in the first commandment.
Further, Kabbalah teaches that the Ten Commandments and even God Himself, as it were, are condensed into the opening word Anochi (אנכי), which the sages explain is an acronym for the phrase (אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית), “I have written Myself down and given Myself to you.” This is not merely another instance of contraction in the Ten Commandments, it parallels the epic event discussed above wherein God contracted and condensed His infinite Being to allow creation to come into being. At the Giving of the Torah, God in a manner of speaking, contracts His infinite Being and will into the finite Hebrew letters that are subsequently learned and transmitted from generation to generation. This is why whenever we learn Torah, we find that every word contains infinite depths, because every word reflects (in a miraculous way) the infinite nature of the Giver of the Torah. Just as God is limitless, so every word of His Torah is limitless.
Finally, just as the beit, the first letter of the Torah, contains all of creation in embryonic form, so too the alef, the first letter of the first word in the Ten Commandments, Anochi (אנכי), in essence contains the entire Torah. Furthermore, the Torah’s first letter, beit, whose numerical value is two, symbolizes the revealed duality that structures nature, whereas the first letter of the Ten Commandments, alef, whose numerical value is one, represents the essential oneness of all reality that is revealed through the Torah.
Having described the Divine process of contraction as manifest in both Creation and in the Giving of the Torah, we can now ask: How can we apply this understanding into our own lives? One possible answer is that we too should view ourselves as an example of God’s contraction, through God’s choice to create us in His image. Hence, understanding the dynamics of Creation and the expression of God’s will through the Ten Commandments provides us with tools to actualize our own potential as well as function on a higher spiritual plane when interacting with the world around us.
