The “10 Utterances,” עשרת הדברות, represent the quintessential requirements of Israelite behavior in all of the Hebrew Bible. I don’t need to impress upon you the overwhelming awe that the scene evokes in the audience to this narrative. The עשרת הדברות are so important they must be re-revealed directly from God on the second round after the first tablets are broken. And the story of their revelation is repeated again in Deuteronomy, in ואתחנן. We know them, learn them in religious school, and they are often a reference point in the greater society in which we live. They even hang in some judges’ chambers despite orders to have them removed.
If they are so important, why don't they appear in our סידור, שים שלום? Interesting question. They can be found in no סדור that I’m aware of, not in Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox, Renewal, BuJu, or Kara’ite – but they might be found in the prayer services of the so-called Messianic Jews.
If they seem to inform so much of our essence as Jews, it would seem extremely odd that עשרת הדברות cannot be found in the Jewish prayer-book, which, we’ve learned from Rabbi Elliot Dorf, is the most essential book of theology that we have in Judaism.
The truth of the matter is that once, עשרת הדברות were in the prayer book. They were at the core of our traditional prayer-service, along with שמע ישראל and the עמידה. Why were they removed (for those of you who know the answer, no telling).
In the 2nd Temple, the משמרות, the orders of the priests of duty, stopped the sacrifices every morning to go into the לשכת הגזית to pray, and the Mishnah tells us what was in their liturgy. This is the oldest liturgical list we have (M. Tamid 4:3 [end] & 5:1):
וירדו ובאו להם ללשכת הגזית, לקרות את השמע. [5:1] אמר להם הממונה, ברכו ברכה אחת, והן ברכו, קראו עשרת הדברות, שמע, והיה אם שמוע, ויאמר. ברכו את-העם שלוש ברכות, אמת ויציב, ועבודה, וברכת כהנים; ובשבת מוסיפין ברכה אחת למשמר היוצא.
[All the priests serving in the Temple] then came down into the Chamber of Hewn Stone in order to recite the Shema. The priest appointed for the task said to them: "Recite one benediction," and they recited it. Then they recited עשרת הדברות, the Shema (including ve'ahavta), the second paragraph of the Shema (vehaya `im shamoa`), and the third paragraph of the Shema called tzitzit. They [then] recited these three benedictions: "True and enduring" [1st blessing after the Shema], the blessing of the Amidah praying that God accept our prayers, and the Priestly Blessing. And on the Sabbath they added one [more] benediction for the priestly watch that departed.
ברכות יב. …אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: אף בגבולין בקשו לקרות כן, אלא שכבר בטלום מפני תרעומת המינין... רבה בר בר חנה סבר למקבעינהו בסורא, אמר ליה רב חסדא: כבר בטלום מפני תרעומת המינין. אמימר סבר למקבעינהו בנהרדעא, אמר ליה רב אשי: כבר בטלום מפני תרעומת המינין.
Berakhot 12a: (after giving the same list) Rav Yehudah said that Shmuel said: Also outside of the Temple they wanted to recite it [the 10 Commandments], but they abolished it because of the insinuations (complaints) of the heretics....Rabba bar Bar Huna wanted to reinstate the tradition [of reciting the Ten Commandments] in Sura, but Rav Hisda said to him: [The practice] has already been abolished because of the insinuation of the heretics. Amemar wanted to reinstitute the practice in Nehardea. But Rav Ashi said: It has long been abolished because of the insinuation of the heretics.
What was the "insinuation of the heretics?" Rashi:
מפני תרעומת המינין: שלא יאמרו לעמי הארץ: אין שאר תורה אמת, ותדעו שאין קורין אלא מה שאמר הקדוש ברוך הוא ושמעוּ מפיו בסיני.
Because of the Insinuation of the heretics: So that they [the heretics] would not be able to say to ignorant folk: "The rest of the Torah is not truth, for you know that we only recite what the Holy One Blessed be He commanded from what they heard straight from His mouth at Sinai. [i.e., the remainder of the laws in the Torah are not really commanded by God – therefore we aren’t obligated].
Who are
the "heretics?"
Rashi: המינין:
עכו"ם (השמטת
הצנזורה:
תלמידי
ישו)
Heretics: Idol-worshippers (what was removed by the Christian censors: "the students of Jesus.")
What is going on here?
The term, מין = "species" or “type,” refers to the classification of any group. It eventually came to refer to all who separate themselves from the way of Torah, as defined by the rabbis; therefore, "heretic". In rabbinic literature, the term may refer to Samaritans, Gnostics, or Christians.
Why Christians?
A number of Jews in the early days of Rabbinic Judaism were also Christians. That is, they were Jews who accepted the messiahship of Jesus. They, it seems, like most Christians to this day, began taking the position that the “10 commandments” are the only divine law that was directly given מי פי הגבורה, from the mouth of the Almighty. Ten commandments are plenty. They have no need for 613.
The Jews involved in the Jesus Movement eventually went beyond the outer limit of acceptability to Rabbinic Jews. The issues between those Jews that accepted the messiahship of Jesus and those who did not became prominent enough that there was an attempt to separate the Jewish Christians from Rabbinic Jews. To kick them out. But it seems that they didn’t want to leave.
The solution? ברכת המינים in our daily עמידה. You know, of course, that there are actually 19 “benedictions” in our “18.”
ברכות כח:
הני תְּמָנֵי סְרֵי, תְּשָׁסְרֵי הָוְויָין? אמר רבי לוי: ברכת המינים ביבנה תקנוה.... תנו רבנן: שמעון הפקולי הסדיר שמונה עשרה ברכות לפני רבן גמליאל על הסדר ביבנה. אמר להם רבן גמליאל לחכמים: כלום יש אדם שיודע לתקן ברכת המינים? עמד שמואל הקטן וְתִקְנָהּ
Berachot 28b. These 18 [benedictions of the Amidah] are really 19? Rabbi Levi said: The benediction relating to the minim was instituted in Yavneh....Our rabbis taught: Shim`on HaPaquli arranged the 18 benedictions in order before Rabban Gamliel in Yavneh. Rabban Gamliel said to the sages: Isn't there anyone who knows how to create a benediction for the minim? Shmuel HaQatan arose and composed it.
Rabban Gamliel II, took over from Yohanan b. Zakkai around 80 CE. The so-called ברכת המינים may have actually originated during Maccabean/Hasmonean times and was directed against those who collaborated with the Syrian Greek enemy; and there is evidence that a version of this prayer may have been used at the end of the Second Temple period to curse the Sadducees. But by the end of the 1st Century, it was applied to Jews who accepted the messiahship of Jesus. There were a number of different versions of this prayer, and today there are still variations even among Orthodox communities.
The Church Father, Justin Martyr (b. near Shekhem mid-2nd cent.) reports that the Jews curse Christian believers three times a day in their synagogues, and Epiphanius (b. Judea d.403) says explicitly that Jews pray for God to destroy the Christians.
The most common current Ashkenazi version of the "Blessing of the minim" doesn’t even mention minim!
למלשינים אל תהי תקוה, וכל הרשעה כרגע תאבד, וכל אויבי עמך מהרה יכרתו, והזדים מהרה תעקר ותשבר ותמגר ותכניע במהרה בימינו. ברוך התה ה', שובר אויבים ומכניע זדים.
Let there be no hope for the slanderers, and may all evil perish immediately. May all the enemies of Your people be cut down speedily. May You uproot, smash, cast down, and humble the wanton sinners speedily and in our own days. Praised are You, God who breaks enemies and humbles wanton sinners.
But an old and uncensored version found in the Cairo Geniza is a bit different.
לִמְשׁוּמָדִים אל תהי תקוה אם לא ישובו לתורתך, הנוצרים והמינים כרגע יאֹבֵדוּ, יִמָּחוּ מִסֵּפֶר חיים, ועם צדיקים אל יִכָּתֵבוּ, ברוך אתה ה' מכניע זדים.
Let there be no hope for apostates if they do not return to Your Torah; and may the Christians and minim immediately perish. May the days of their lives be wiped out and may they not be written along with the righteous. Praised are You, God, who humbles wanton sinners.
But why would such a hateful prayer be inserted into the absolute core of our prayer service?
It seems that the earliest Christians (who were all Jews) had no Christian liturgy or unique prayer service, so they continued to pray in synagogues. No one prevented them from doing so at first, and nothing in the Jewish liturgy conflicted directly with their theology. We have evidence that Jewish Christians continued even to be שליחי ציבור. But tensions arose between Jewish Christians and the larger Jewish community, especially with their increasing deification of Jesus, mostly because of Gentile Hellenistic influence.
Apparently, Jewish Christians began occasionally to recite benedictions for the community that were abhorrent to other Jews, but it wasn’t always known that Hayyim-Yankel the Jew had become a Christian. So a rule developed that when a suspected מין recites a benediction, Jews are not to respond, "amen," until the benediction is absolutely completed and you know exactly what he said.
As Christians began currying favor with Roman authorities, stopped longing for the rebuilding of the Temple and the revival of the sacrificial system, etc. and then finally, not accepting all of the Torah Law as divine (only עשרת הדברות), they went beyond the pale. As a result, a movement within the Rabbinic community began to expel Christians from the synagogue, which was a natural place for missionizing.
Shmuel HaQatan composed a new version of the old prayer against heretics directed specifically toward Christians, which made it unbearable for them to continue to pray with Jews.
Evidence showing us how this worked can be found in the Midrash:
תנחומה בובר, ויקרא ב, א
ילמדנו רבינו העובר לפני התבה וטעה [ולא אמר ברכת קללת המינין, מהו שמחזירין אותו, כך שנו רבותינו העובר לפני התבה וטעה] בכל הברכות כולן אין מחזירין אותו, בברכת המינין מחזירין אותו בעל כרחו, חיישינן שמא מין הוא, ולכך מחזירין אותו שאם יהיה בו צד מינות יהיה מקלל את עצמו והקהל עונין אמן.Tanhuma, Buber, Levit. 2a.
Our rabbis taught: If one passes before the Ark [technical term referring to the one who leads the service] and errs by not [or not fully] reciting the "benediction of the heretics", they make him repeat it. However, our rabbis taught that if one passes before the Ark and errs in any other blessing [of the Amidah], they do not make him repeat [the blessing in which he erred]. They make him repeat the "benediction of the heretics" even against his will, for they suspect that he is a heretic. Therefore, they make him repeat it, for if he espouses any aspect of heresy, he curses himself and the congregation answers, "Amen!".
Our rabbinic liturgy has a long tradition, and each part of it emerged or fell out in response to some spiritual – or political – need. But times change, and as our social, religious and political situation changed, we Jews have always managed to re-interpret and even sometimes re-write our tradition, including our prayers.
שבת שלום