Rabbi Yaakov Raskin | The 10 commandments: Unlocking the key to God's heart

I had the honour of meeting Ziggy Marley in 2024. He was in Jamaica for a concert and I really resonated with his song Love is My Religion, because it reminded me of the teaching I'd heard since childhood. A man once challenged Hillel the Elder to teach the entire Torah while standing on one foot, convinced it could not be done. Hillel responded: "Love your Fellow as yourself, and the rest is commentary." (Shabbat 31a)

This story is particularly relevant as, next week on May 21 to 23, Jews around the world will celebrate the giving of the Torah during the festival of Shavuot.

The scene is familiar – booming thunder, flashing lightning and a celestial fire fill the sky as Moses stands on the top of Mount Sinai. In a booming voice, God utters the Ten Commandments and hands Moses two tablets with the commandments inscribed upon them. They say:

I am the Lord Your God You shall have no other gods before me You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy Honour your father and your mother You shall not murder You shall not commit adultery You shall not steal You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

These commandments form the basis not only for Judaism, but for most Abrahamic religions and all of Western civilisation. They are core to what it means to live a moral and ethical life.

How does the idea that "Love is my religion" square with the idea that we should obey these 10 commandments? Isn't it a contradiction to say "all you need is love" on one hand, and "thou shalt not" on the other?

Not at all.

When driving on the road, if the only instruction were "drive safely" – to protect pedestrians and other drivers – everyone would agree that this would be a good principle. However, every person has their own interpretation of what "drive safely" might mean. And not everyone is going to agree on how to implement this principle.

For that reason, we have stop signs, guardrails, lane lines, and many other rules to govern how we drive on the road. While most people agree that safety on the road is important, these traffic guidelines are put in place to ensure that we all can use the roads safely.

The Ten Commandments work the same way. They aren't an imposition or a nuisance given by a tyrannical God. They were lovingly given to teach us how to express love and care for one another. These 10 laws are the foundation of the 613 commandments which Jews follow from the Torah.

Jewish tradition teaches that we follow the commandments not only because they appeal to our sense of logic and reason, but because they are given to us by God. Rules like "don't commit murder", "don't steal" and "don't lie" make reasonable sense to most people, but our logical minds bend under pressure. Thieves and killers convince themselves that what they are doing is right, using their own logic.

The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory, made this point with an analogy that speaks to our times. When someone asked whether the details of the commandments really matter – whether trying our best isn't enough – the Rebbe said ‘yes, the details matter’. He compared it to a computer program: if even one character is off, the program will not run. It doesn't matter how much of the code is correct. One error and the whole thing fails. The same is true of our moral and spiritual lives. God didn't give us general suggestions. He gave us precise instructions, and the precision is what makes them work.

That's why, when accepting the word of God, we must transcend logic. Like a car whose instruments can sometimes fail, our own reasoning is also prone to error. We can convince ourselves that wrong is right and that evil is good. It's only when we receive the commandments with humility and faith that we can live by them.

As the verse says "You shall keep my laws and walk in the way of my rules ... for when a person does this, he shall live by them (Leviticus 18:3-5)."

By following God's rules, we are not burdening ourselves. In fact, we are freeing ourselves to live.

As we approach Shavuot, we will prepare not only to remember the historical revelation at Sinai, but also to receive the 10 commandments into our own lives today. As part of that, we will be reading the 10 commandments aloud from the Torah scroll in synagogue, and all members of the Jewish community are invited to join in that ritual. It's a holy and powerful moment where we can accept the divine commandments into our lives once again, with the intention to live by them.

Whether you have heard these commandments hundreds of times or never before, you are invited to join us for this special event, which will be followed by a delicious holiday meal. We will experience the lesson that, if we open ourselves to God's word with humility, we can then “love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might”. And we may find that, by doing that, we see that love is our religion.

Rabbi Yaakov Raskin has served as the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Jamaica since 2014. Known to many as “Jamaica’s rabbi”, he and his wife Mushkee direct Chabad Jamaica, providing Jewish education, community services and humanitarian outreach to locals and visitors across the island. You may reach him at Jewishjamaica.com