Our God and ‘opium-gods’

They begin — these Ten Commandments — with the declaration: “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2) The sheer majesty of these words is unparalleled in all the annals of man. They are — these words of the First Commandment — the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Declaration of Independence of all mankind. They say with crystal clarity that the supreme meaning of the knowledge of God is the freedom of man. The first, the topmost, the cardinal association is that of God with the emancipation and redemption of humanity. Any contrary association is not in consonance with the Mosaic concept of God. Attention (if thou canst), O Spirit of Karl Marx! For if this be opium, what then is medicinal?

“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3) That is the Second Commandment, an inevitable corollary of the First. More than men have observed the First have they violated the Second. The history of humanity has been a long succession of false gods, idols and ideals. These indeed have been “opium gods,” axes in the hands of unscrupulous grinders, gods invented, devised and sold by men with shadowy, sordid, selfish motives. These were — and are — enslavement of their deluded worshippers. These were — and should continue to be — to gods who inspire Abrahams and Jacobs and Josiahs and Mattathiases to iconoclasm. These are gods against which all the Godly and the free should wage unrelenting, unconditional and unmitigated warfare. In the destruction of these gods lies the salvation of mankind.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord they God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) Those who sanctify and sanction mundane and unworthy pursuits in the name of God are the chief violators of the Commandment. Anything associated with God must perforce be noble and pure and dignified and exalted. There is no room in the synagogue for card playing; neither ought there be room in our statute books for the legalization of Bingo.

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8) A Jew who “remembers” is a Jew who posts a fence around his soul at least one day in the week on which is written clearly: “all base pursuits, all materialistic considerations, all petty nonsense — keep out. Man at work within communing with his God.”

“Honor thy father and thy mother.” (Exodus 20:12) A society that does honor to its elders is a society that does itself honor. A society that has no respect for age or seniority is a society bound to lose its self-respect. Like charity, the quality of deference and respect must begin at home — or it will begin not at all. Nor is the disrespectful and arrogant son to be fully blamed. Most of the guilt must fall upon the shoulders of pampering parents.

“Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor. Thou shalt not covet.” (Exodus 20:13-14) These are the second half of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Moral-minded atheists (if there are such) might be tempted to place these first. Jews cannot do so at all. Jews understand that without acceptance of the letter and the spirit of the first Five, the second Five might just as well be dashed at the foot of Sinai.
History has proved the Jews right.

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