출애굽기 20:13의 주석

לא תנאף THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY — The term ניאוף, “adultery”, is technically only applicable to the case of a married woman, as it is said, (Leviticus 20:10) […the wife of his neighbour], the נואף and the נואפת shall surely be put to death”, and it further states, (Ezekiel 16:32) “The woman that comitteth adultery, that taketh strangers instead of her husband”.

THOU SHALT NOT MURDER. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL. He is stating: “Now I have commanded you to acknowledge in thought and in deed that I am the Creator of all, and to honor parents because they joined [Me] in your formation. If so, guard against destroying the work of My hands and spilling the blood of man, whom I have created to honor Me and acknowledge Me in all these matters.⁴⁷⁷See Ramban at end of Seder Bo. And do not commit adultery with your fellow-man’s wife, because you will thereby destroy the principle of honoring parents, [causing the children] to deny the truth and acknowledge falsehood. They will not know their fathers and will thus give their honor to another, just as the idol-worshippers do, who say to a block of wood, ‘thou art my father,’⁴⁷⁸Jeremiah 2:27. and they do not know their Father who created them out of nothing.” After that, He warned against stealing a human being,⁴⁷⁹Mechilta on the verse here. for that too brings about a similar [disintegration of values].⁴⁸⁰See Ramban further, 21:15.
With respect to their stringency and penalties, the order of the commandments is as follows: after idolatry comes bloodshed, and after that adultery, and then stealing of a human being and false testimony and robbery;⁴⁸¹Since coveting also relates to action by robbery, Ramban mentions here “robbery” although the tenth commandment speaks of coveting. and he who does not covet, will never harm his neighbor. Thus, He completed all obligations that a person owes towards his neighbor. After that, [in the Seder of Mishpatim which follows], He will explain the ordinances in detail, for he who has been found guilty in any suit to pay his neighbor will pay the amount he is so obligated if he does not covet or desire that which is not his.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote⁴⁸²In his introduction to the Ten Commandments. [of the commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house… thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, etc.], that Scripture adopted a normal course of life. First, it mentioned the neighbor’s house, for an enlightened person will first acquire a house, and then marry a woman to bring her to his house, and only afterwards will he acquire a manservant or a maidservant. But in the Book of Deuteronomy,⁴⁸³Deuteronomy 5:18. it mentions the wife first, because young men desire to marry first [before they acquire a house]. It may be⁴⁸⁴This is Ramban’s own comment. that because the coveting of a neighbor’s wife is the greatest sin of all things mentioned in that verse, [it is listed first].
Thus, of the Ten Commandments, there are five which refer to the glory of the Creator and five are for the welfare of man, for [the fifth commandment], Honor thy father, is for the glory of G-d, since it is for the glory of the Creator that He commanded that one honor one’s father who is a partner in the formation of the child. Five commandments thus remain for the needs and welfare of man.
In some commandments, He mentioned their recompense, and in others He did not. Thus, in the second commandment, He mentioned a jealous G-d;⁴⁸⁵Verse 5. in the third, for the Eternal will not hold him guiltless;⁴⁸⁶Verse 7. in the fifth, that thy days may be long.⁴⁸⁷Verse 12. But in the others, He mentioned neither punishment [for transgression], nor reward [for fulfillment]. The reason for this is that the last five commandments deal with the welfare of man, and behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.⁴⁸⁸Isaiah 40:10. In other words, the recompense for the last five commandments is self-evident. If man observes them, his society will prosper, and if not, the whole fabric of society will collapse. But in the case of idolatry, a warning of punishment is needed because of its great stringency, involving as it does the glory of the Creator.
It appears to me that His saying a jealous G-d⁴⁸⁵Verse 5. refers to the commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods,⁴⁸⁹Verse 3. and that His saying, And He showeth mercy⁴⁹⁰Verse 6. refers to I am the Eternal,⁴⁹¹Verse 2. for punishment comes for [transgressing] the negative commandments, and reward for [fulfillment of] the positive commandments. [He did not mention the reward immediately in the first commandment because] the acceptance of the Kingdom of G-d, [as mentioned in the first commandment], and the admonition against the worship of anything besides Him, constitute one subject. Therefore, He first finished that entire matter and then warned the idol-worshipper of punishment, and then He assured reward for he who fulfills the commandments.
He warned of punishment in case of a vain oath, the Eternal will not hold him guiltless,⁴⁸⁶Verse 7. but He mentioned no reward [for observing it]. For profaning the Sabbath, He mentioned neither excision⁴⁹²Further, 31:14. nor any other punishment, neither did He mention a reward for him that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it.⁴⁹³Isaiah 56:2. This is because it is included in the first two commandments. He who observes the Sabbath testifies to the Creation and acknowledges his belief in the commandment, I am the Eternal, while he who profanes the Sabbath denies the Creation and admits the eternity of the universe, thereby denying the commandment, I am the Eternal. Thus, [the punishment for profaning the Sabbath] is included in: a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity,⁴⁸⁵Verse 5. while [the reward for he who keeps the Sabbath] is included in the verse, And He showeth mercy unto the thousandth generation.⁴⁹⁰Verse 6. In the fifth commandment, which concerns the honor due to parents, He mentioned the reward because it is a positive commandment, [and as mentioned above, reward is for fulfillment of the positive commandments].
With reference to the writing on the Tablets of law, it would appear that the first five commandments were on one Tablet, for they are for the glory of the Creator, as I have mentioned, and the second five commandments were on another Tablet. Thus there were five opposite five, something like the Rabbis mentioned in the Book of Creation:⁴⁹⁴Sefer Yetzirah 1:3. This is one of the earliest books on the Cabala. Saadia Gaon was among the first great scholars to write a commentary on it. It is written in profound symbolic language. “With ten emanations,⁴⁹⁵In our version of Sefer Yetzirah: “Ten Emanations”; the word “with” is not present. intangible, as is the number of ten fingers, five opposite five, and the Covenant of the Unity placed directly in the middle.” From this it will be made clear to you why there were two Tablets, for up to Honor thy father, it corresponds to the Written Torah, and from there on it corresponds to the Oral Torah. It would appear that it is this that our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have alluded to in saying⁴⁹⁶Shemoth Rabbah 41:7. that the two Tablets correspond to heaven and earth,⁴⁹⁷Since the Torah was the instrument with which the world was created, the first Tablet containing our duties towards G-d thus corresponds to heaven, while the second Tablet which states our duties to man corresponds to earth (Eitz Yoseph, ibid.) to a groom and bride,⁴⁹⁸The symbol is that of the bestower and the bestowed. Heaven is the bestower and earth is the bestowed. So also is the relationship between G-d and man. to the two friends [of the groom and bride], and to the two worlds [this world and the World to Come]. All these constitute one allusion, and the person learned in the mystic lore of the Cabala will understand the secret.

לא תנאף, this commandment is phrased as applying to sexual intercourse with someone else’s legal wife because this is the most likely scenario; it applies to all forbidden sexual intercourse.

לא תרצח. Wherever the term רציחה appears it refers to killing without adequate justification. A deliberate murderer is to be executed as we know from Numbers 35,16-16. Similar verses in Kings I 21,19 when King Achav had framed someone resulting in judicial murder is also included in this definition of לא תרצח, [though he could have claimed that Naval, the victim, could have been found innocent by the judges. Ed.] When the terms הריגה, or מיתה are used to describe killing this means that there was no excuse for the killer to commit his act. (compare Kayin slaying his brother in Genesis 4,8) On the other hand, in Leviticus 20,16 where the Torah decrees והרגת את האשה, this refers to judicial killing for cause. Concerning the use of the word רוצח, murderer, in Deuteronomy 4,42 as applicable to someone who killed inadvertently, the reason why the Torah used this term there was only because in the same context deliberate murder was also discussed. This is my answer to the heretics who have admitted to me that the Latin translation of the Bible describing רציחה “killing,” without distinction as to the reason for the killing, is sloppy, most inaccurate. They were so careless in spit of the fact that in their “own” books such as Deuteronomy 32,39 we have the line אני אמית ואחיה, “it is I Who kill and resurrect,” showing that the Torah uses different expressions describing different kinds of killing.

לא תרצח , “Do not commit murder.” The order in which the Torah lists the following prohibitions needs to be understood as follows: The Torah, implies that the listener (reader) has appreciated that first and foremost G’d had insisted that He be recognized as THE Creator of the universe and all that there is in it. Next, He had commanded that the parents be accorded honour and respect seeing they are partners in the creation of new human life. It follows that you, human being, must not do things which directly result in your undoing what I had done. First and foremost do not shed the blood of a human being who was created in order to honour Me. You would deprive Me of the honour due to Me by My creatures. The prohibition against committing adultery is similarly motivated, as violating the wife of your fellow man not only is a serious injury, affront to the contractual bond between that wife and her husband, but it undermines the whole principle of enabling children to know who these parents are to whom they are duty-bound to show respect. It introduces lies as something normative into this world, whereas G’d stands for truth, and we are to emulate Him if we claim to be His partners. Stealing, i.e. kidnapping, preventing human beings to live the kind of life G’d wishes them to live, similarly deprives G’d of the worship of Him by the kidnapped person held prisoner. Similar considerations are at the core of the laws not to testify falsely nor to plan to deprive others of their rightful possessions. Such actions proclaim the lie as an acceptable means to achieve one’s ends, the opposite of G’d’s outstanding attribute of אמת, “truth,” the attribute we are to emulate if we really want to be His partners. The first three negative commandments refer to actions performed with one’s body, i.e. with one’s external organs, such as stealing, followed by sins committed with one’s mouth (testimony) and with one’s heart (coveting). In the next portion the Torah deals with a long list of משפטים, violations of the norms of inter-personal relations which need to be judged by a court. As long as one violates only the commandment not to covet without taking action to illegally or even legally acquire the desired object no judges will be involved. In commenting on the sequence of items coveted, described in the Tenth Commandment, Ibn Ezra says that the reason that the house of your fellow man is mentioned first, even before the taking of your fellow man’s wife, is that any intelligent person makes certain that he has suitable accommodation to offer a woman before he asks her to marry him. Only after he has acquired a wife does he acquire man and woman servants to assist in the household chores. The reason why this order is reversed in the version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy is that there the Torah addresses young men, who, in their urge to find a mate to marry, do not have the patience to wait until they are economically well established. It is also possible that there Moses talks about someone, who because he lusts after a woman forbidden to him, makes her the focus of all his desires. Nachmanides writes that the first 5 Commandments are designed to honour the Lord, the Creator, the fifth doing so indirectly seeing that in honouring parents one does so as they are the nearest link to the Creator that we have. In honouring them, we indirectly honour Him. All the remaining 5 Commandments are designed to enhance the dignity of the individual person. In some of the Commandments the consequences of observing it or not are spelled out, such as that G’d is jealous and will demand an accounting from those who slight Him, or that He will not easily forgive someone who uses His name in vain, or that the reward for honouring father and mother, though almost a natural in most instances, will be extremely worthwhile. On the other hand, most of the Commandments are not accompanied by promises of reward if observed or threats of retaliation if ignored. This may be explained in that acceptance of the first Commandment and non violation of the second Commandment are really two sides of the same coin, i.e. he who does refrain from all that is forbidden in the second commandment has in fact observed the first Commandment without lifting a finger. The absence of a warning of specific penalties for violations, or the mention of any reward, is also because Sabbath observance, i.e. recognition of G’d as the Creator both by sanctifying the day and by abstaining from work performed as a duty on the six days of the week is actually a way of fulfilling both the first and the second Commandment. The first 5 Commandments appear on the first of the Tablets, whereas the second five appear on the second Tablet [although if the numbers of words or letters were to be matched evenly the arrangement would have at least the fifth Commandment on the second Tablet, Ed.] This is to remind us that the Commandments on each of the Tablets correspond to one another. The Commandment not to commit murder parallels the Commandment of believing in the Lord the Creator, as murdering G’d’s creature undoes some of His work, diminishes His stature. The Commandment not to be disloyal to one’s wife or husband is parallel to the Commandment not to make or serve other deities. We are under oath to the One and Only Creator. The commandment not to use the name of the Lord in vain is parallel to the Commandment not to steal. Eventually, every thief will commit false testimony when he denies the accusation of having stolen. The Commandment to honour father and mother parallels the Commandment not to covet one’s neighbour’s wife, for if he does so successfully and illegitimate children are born from such a union, these children will eventually curse their parents instead of honouring them.

לא תרצח, “do not murder!” The five commandments on the second Tablet are all negative commandments, and I will explain to you the reason for the order they appear in and how they relate to one another. Seeing that the commandment not to worship idols was expressed as a negative commandment, G’d continues here with a list of negative commandments commencing with the commandment not to murder. This commandment and the one following it, i.e. not to commit adultery, share the death penalty for deliberate violation, but seeing the kind of death penalty applicable to these three commandments is not identical the Torah lists the sins according to the severity of the death penalty applicable in descending order. Idolatry is punishable by stoning, (the most severe kind of death penalty); murder is punishable with death by the sword, decapitation, whereas adultery is punishable by death through strangulation. Our sages always mention the following three sins in one breath, i.e. idolatry, sexual licentiousness, incest and murder. [In order to avoid committing any of these in a context of religious coercion and in public, one must choose death rather than violate either of them. Ed.]
The seventh commandment i.e. “not to steal,” speaks of stealing people, kidnapping, not inert objects or animals (Mechilta bachodesh section 8). This kind of theft too is punishable by death through strangulation (compare 21,17). The last three commandments which all deal with different forms of theft, robbery, i.e. greed, are listed in descending order of their severity.

V. 13. Die ersten fünf Sätze proklamieren mit אנכי und לא יהי׳ לך die Erkenntnis und Anerkennung Gottes als Lenkers und Leiters unseres Geschickes und unserer Tat in ihrer positiven und negativen Bedeutung, setzen sie in לא תשא als Basis unseres Einzel- und Zusammenlebens überhaupt, sichern ihr in זכור die immer erneute huldigende Betätigung, und in כבד את אביך ואת אמך die ewige Vererbung durch die Wirksamkeit des Hauses. Die folgenden fünf Sätze proklamieren nun die Konsequenzen dieser Erkenntnis und Anerkennung für das soziale Leben. Ist Gott der eine einzige Lenker der Geschicke und will Er Leiter aller Taten sein, so steht auch jeder deiner Mitmenschen neben dir mit jeder Fuge seines Geschickes unter Seiner Obhut, und jede deiner Handlungen gegen ihn unter Seinem Blick, so ist auch jeder Mensch neben dich von Seinem Willen dahin gestellt, ist durch Ihn Mensch und berechtigt, gleich dir, sein Recht ist von Gott geheiligt, seine Güter alle, sein Leben, seine Ehe, seine Freiheit, sein Glück, seine Ehre, sein Eigentum, sind von Gott ihm angeheiligt: Du sollst sein Leben nicht morden, seine Ehe nicht brechen, seine Freiheit nicht rauben, sein Glück und seine Ehre durch falsches Zeugnis nicht schmälern, ja, sollst selbst die Lust nach allem, was das Haus deines Nebenmenschen ausmacht, und das umfasst alles, was er in dem Bereiche seines irdischen Daseins sein nennt, nicht in dir aufkommen lassen! —

לא תרצח, “do not murder!” The absence of any qualifying adjectives or adverbs means that murder by hand, by tool, or even by silence is equally forbidden. Example: you have obtained information that someone is about to be murdered and you fail to warn the prospective victim. The expression רצח is not applicable unless applied to death caused by illegal means. The expressions מיתה, or הריגה can be applied to death by other means whether legal or illegal.

לא תגנוב THOU SHALT NOT STEAL — Scripture here is speaking about a case of one who steals human beings, whilst the command (Leviticus 19:11) “Ye shall not steal” speaks about a case of one who steals money (another person’s property in general). Or perhaps this is not so, but this speaks about the case of one who money and the other about the case of one who steals human beings! You must, however, admit that the rule applies: a statement must be explained from its context. How is it in regard to, “Thou shalt not murder” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery”? Each, speaks of a matter for which one becomes liable to death by sentence of the court; similarly, “Thou shalt not steal”, must speak of a matter for which one becomes liable to death by sentence of the court, and this is not so in the case of theft of money but only in that of kidnapping (Sanhedrin 86a; cf.Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:3:13).

לא תגנוב, the term “stealing” also includes the “stealing,” i.e. kidnapping of human beings. Even deceiving your fellow man deliberately is called “stealing” גנבת דעת הבריות, “stealing people’s minds, misleading them to believe that lies are truth. (compare Sanhedrin 86)

לא תענה ברעך עד שקר, “do not bear false witness against your fellow.” Please note that the Torah does not write “against your brother,” as it does when forbidding charging interest, (Deut. 23,20) or when it commands you to return found property (Deut. 22,3), or in similar legislation. In all those instances our sages explain the word אחיך as excluding non-Jews. In other words, while it is forbidden to charge (or pay) interest to a Jew, it is not forbidden to charge interest to a Gentile. While one must go out of one’s way to restore lost property owned by a Jew, there is no legal obligation to spend time, energy, and even money to restore lost property to a Gentile. Here the reason the Torah fails to limit the legislation to אחיך, “your brother.” It is clear that one must not bear false testimony against a Gentile, i.e. against Egyptians. Moreover, we find in Exodus 11,20 וישאלו איש מאת רעהו, “they asked each person from his fellow;” it is clear that the word רעהו refers to the Egyptians as the verse would not make any sense otherwise. Not bearing false testimony therefore is a commandment of universal application.
Furthermore, if the Torah had written the word אחיך in our verse we might have concluded that it is in order to testify against (or on behalf of) other relatives, whereas generally speaking a whole list of relatives are unfit to testify together (as a team), on behalf of each other or against each other. Not only is false testimony illegal in such instances but even true testimony is unacceptable. Were this not so the Torah should have written לא תענה ברעך עדות שקר, “do not lie in your testimony against your fellow.” Such wording would have been very misleading as it would have meant that only the actual false testimony is prohibited but that someone who is in collusion with people arranging false testimony would be exonerated by the legal process. The Torah therefore uses ambiguous wording to cover as much ground as possible, i.e. in order to include as many people as possible in the parameters of guilt governing the subject of false testimony. The very word תענה means to “assist,” or “invite.”

רצח .לא תרצח: die höchste Potenz von רשה .רשע, chaldäisch: dürfen, רצה: das berechtigte Wollen. רשע: das Recht und das Gesetz brechende Wollen, rechtlose Willkür (רצע, konkret: durchbohren), רצה: der höchste Rechtsbruch, der Mord. (Nebenher: רזה, der Zustand unbefriedigten Verlangens, mager. רזח, das Schmerzgefühl herbsten Verlustes: die Trauer über Sterbefall). Während הרג und המית auch von dem berechtigten Töten vorkommt, ist רצח immer der Mord. Nur von der an dem Mörder zu vollziehenden Tötung kommt zweimal auch רצח vor, Bamidbar 35, 27 u. 30. Es scheint vom Standpunkt des Mörders gesprochen zu sein. Er fühlt denselben Stahl gegen sich gezückt, den er gegen den Nebenmenschen gebraucht. Vielleicht auch in beiden Fällen nur von der Tötung durch den גואל הדם. Es hängt davon ab, ob — wie es allerdings scheint, — das ירצח את הרוצח des V. 30 auf den גואל הדם zu beziehen ist. — Jede Lebenskürzung, und wäre es auch nur die Beschleunigung des Todes um eine Minute, wird unter שפיכת דמים begriffen Schabbat 151 b.).

לא תענה ברעך עד שקר, this includes spreading slander about people surreptitiously, something generally known asמוציא שם רע, “defaming someone, ruining his reputation.” The principal meaning in our verse is perjuring oneself when testifying against a fellow man

Unter לא תנאף wird Schebuoth 47 b. auch die Warnung vor Kuppelei begriffen und (Nidda 13 b.) darin auch Warnung vor jeder Art Unzucht in weitem Sinne verstanden.

לא תנאף, “do not commit adultery!” Do not argue that whereas it is forbidden to reduce the number of living human beings through murder, there is nothing wrong with increasing the human population even through sleeping with a woman who is someone else’s wife.

לא תגנוב wird vom Menschendiebstahl verstanden, auf welchem ebenso wie auf Mord und Ehebruch Todesstrafe steht.

ענה .לא תענה ברעך ist immer eine veranlaßte Rede. Daher gewöhnlich: antworten. Auch wo es ein Beginnen der Rede bezeichnet, ist es immer eine Rede, die von einem Vorgang, Zustand etc. etc. veranlasst ist, mit der also dem Moment genügt wird. Die Zeugenaussage setzt immer voraus, dass sie von dem wahrgenommenen Vorgange veranlasst ist. Daher ענה ב־ ohne weiteres: Das gegen jemanden aussagen, was der Wirklichkeit der Verhältnisse entspricht, gegen jemanden zeugen. — עד שקר, vergl.: עד שקר העד (Dewarim 19, 18), also: nicht ein falsches Zeugnis, sondern ein falscher Zeuge. Es kann daher auch hier das עד שקר nur als Apposition zu dem in לא תענה enthaltenen Subjekt verstanden werden: Du sollst nicht als Lügenzeuge gegen deinen Nächsten aussagen. Das Gesetz unterscheidet zwischen עד מוכחש und עד זומם, zwischen sachlicher und persönlicher Falschheit der Zeugen, jenes: wenn der Zeuge bei dem bezeugten Vorgange gegenwärtig war, jedoch den Vorgang unwahr aussagt, dieses: wenn er überall bei dem Vorgange gar nicht gegenwärtig gewesen, somit in der Tat gar nicht als Zeuge auftreten konnte; jenes wäre ein Zeuge der Lüge, dieses ein erlogener Zeuge. עד שקר umfasst beides, den erlogenen Zeugen und den Zeugen der Lüge, und eben weil es zugleich אזהרה לעד זומם sein soll (Makkoth 4 b.) heißt es nicht: לא תענה ברעך דבר שקר, was auch schon: "zeuge nichts Unwahres gegen deinen Nächsten" ausdrücken würde, sondern עד שקר: "zeuge nicht als Lügenzeuge gegen deinen Nächsten", so, dass sich die Lüge sowohl auf die Person, als auf die Sache beziehen kann. Dewarim 5, 17 wird das עד שקר durch עד שוא erläutert, und damit ist wohl eben die eine Seite, der erlogene Zeuge, der falsche Zeuge, עד זומם, besonders hervorgehoben. Das Zeugnis eines solchen ist an sich "nichtig"; selbst wenn seine Aussage wahr ist, kann sie doch nicht von ihm bezeugt werden, da er nicht gegenwärtig war. Es liegt darin zugleich die allgemeine Warnung, selbst wenn man von der Wahrheit des Faktums, durch Indizien, durch völlig glaubwürdige Mitteilung anderer etc. etc. subjektiv vollkommen überzeugt ist, dennoch es nicht als Zeuge zu bezeugen, da ein Zeuge nur das bezeugen kann, wovon ihm durch eigene Wahrnehmung Kunde ist. Nur die eigene Wahrnehmung macht ihn zum עד, indem durch geistiges Bewahren des von seinen Sinnen Aufgefassten das sonst Verschwindende: "עוד,", "Dauer" in einem Menschenbewusstsein erhält (siehe zu Bereschit 21, 30).