This week’s Torah portion is Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23) which contains the Ten Commandments. Each day, a member of the Wise clergy will share their insights on one of the commandments.
The tale of our People’s acceptance of the Ten Commandments at Sinai—which, with its second command, forbids the worship of other gods—portrays an essential component of our People’s understanding of God’s will, but it is hardly alone.
Our ancestors, throughout the millennia, provided a multitude of records of their understanding of God’s will for them. These records, from the Hebrew Bible to the Mishnah, the Talmud, and beyond, reveal a dynamic, evolving relationship between Judaism and the Divine.
As new developments and discoveries continually altered the world, visionaries like the prophets, the sages, and the rabbis helped Judaism integrate new discoveries into our tradition’s teachings, developing new understandings of our relationship with the Divine.
In fact, in the 8th Century, when the Karaites rejected the teachings of the sages and urged Jews to model their lives solely after laws contained within Hebrew Bible, they were labeled apostates, not because they had departed from the faith of their forebears, but, rather, because they had clung too closely to it, even after developments in Jewish history showed that it was time for Judaism to evolve.
Today, we remain engaged in this process of redefining Jewish belief and Jewish practice. Each new discovery—each new challenge to our ancient ways—represents a test of faith to see if we remain true to our dynamic heritage or if, like the Karaites, we have stubbornly made idols of our ancient texts and practices, preventing us from recognizing our ever-evolving relationship with the Divine.
But how do we so? In an era of misinformation, how do we recognize when we should embrace or reject ideas that challenge our sacred beliefs?
Luckily, our sages anticipated this dilemma. According to Maimonides, Jews shouldn’t hesitate to change their understandings of God—in cases where the weight of scientific evidence is overwhelmingly clear. Rather, as he wrote, “We must accept God’s truth from whatever source it proceeds.”
Following the second commandment, then, is not a passive task, but an active endeavor that requires persistent, deliberate engagement with the world at large. Only through study, empiricism, and a commitment to truth can we hope to maintain fidelity to our heritage and to the God of Israel.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel