Jewish Commandments

Offered with all the context I am aware of.

• Break the neck of a calf by the river valley following an unsolved murder.
• Not to pity the pursuer.
• Make a guard rail around flat roofs
• The court must not let the sorcerer live.
• Prepare a shovel for each soldier to dig with.
• The Levites must transport the ark on their shoulders (obsolete).
• Not to put oil on the meal offerings of wrongdoers.
• Not to kidnap.
• Not to be afraid of killing the false prophet (historically significant).

If I ever teach a Hebrew class, like at a college level, the students will have to translate these on tests. They have just the right, simple sentence structure and uninteresting vocabulary. "The Gauls are attacking the ditches with arrows and spears."

These rules are also invaluable in telling us what the day-to-day religious life of a very religious Jew must be like. It's not something you hear about a lot. You hear what the precepts of Buddhism are, and maybe the important religious holidays, but you seldom get to hear how the average Joe Buddah spends his day, at least as it pertains to Buddhism. We know that Scientology is evil, and that you have to pay thousands of dollars to learn the theory behind it, but what do Scientologists do every day? Do they say their Scientological grace before meals? Do they have e-meter readings every afternoon? Every week? Do they say Scientology prayers at bedtime? To whom? Do they talk in that amusing jargon all the time?

I don't even know what very devout Christians usually do. They go to church on Sundays and sometimes on other days, where they hear a sermon and sometimes take a sacrament. They pray on some occasions but not others. I guess they often think about God? And I was watching some of them on a TV program and they kept saying they were thankful for everything. I guess they were referring to God, but I'm not sure if they meant it. It sounded kind of like a verbal tic, like saying "OK".

At least with Judaism, if Jews have to "serve the Almighty with prayer daily", at least that's right out there in print. Just memorize these 613 simple rules (a lot of them are redundant; it's probably less) and hey presto.