Commandments
According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 3 positive and 14 negative commandments in the parshah:
- To know there is a God
- Not to believe in divinity besides God
- Not to make an idol for yourself
- Not to worship idols in the manner they are worshiped
- Not to worship idols in the four ways we worship God
- Not to take God's Name in vain
- To sanctify the Sabbath with Kiddush and Havdalah
- Not to do prohibited labor on the Sabbath
- To respect your father and mother
- Not to murder
- Not to commit adultery
- Not to kidnap
- Not to testify falsely
- Not to covet another's possession
- Not to make human forms even for decorative purposes
- Not to build the altar with hewn stones
- Not to climb steps to the altar.
Read more about this topic: Yitro (parsha)
Famous quotes containing the word commandments:
““Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.””
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 22:36-40.
“Not for nothing does it say in the Commandments ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any image’ ... Every image is a sin.... When you love someone you leave every possibility open to them, and in spite of all the memories of the past you are ready to be surprised, again and again surprised, at how different they are, how various, not a finished image.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes...then...Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Kings 9:6-7.