Meeting Princess Diana - Part 3

It is not enough to have relationships. We must nurture and grow these relationships. As we think of ways to act towards those around us with a giving nature, then not only will we be developing our character and growing as a person, but we will also become more like God. And, by emulating and acting like God, we will also be developing our relationship with God.

 Our relationship with God is so important that it’s mentioned in the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are divided into two tablets or sections. The first five are:

1. I am the Lord your God

2. Have no other gods before Me

3. Do not take God’s name in vain

4. Observe Shabbat

5. Honor your parents

These first five commandments all deal with the relationship between us and God. When we adhere to these obligations, we come to understand that there are standards expected of us by God. By making these demands upon us, God shows us that He believes that we can raise ourselves up to His standards. It is inspiring to realize that God has such confidence in us that He knows that we can achieve a certain level of Godlike behavior.

With these first five commandments, God empowers us to act properly and with dignity. Once we are elevated to meet God’s expectations, then it is a small step to begin performing the next five commandments, which deal with the relationship between one person and another person, namely:

6. Do not murder

7. Do not commit adultery

8. Do not steal

9. Do not bear false witness

10. Do not be jealous of your neighbor’s possessions  

When we have a relationship with God, we realize that it is not merely out of social convention and fear of the breakdown of society that we refrain from stealing and murdering. It is because God expects this standard of behavior in our interpersonal relationships as well.

Allow me to prove to you, based on the insights of the Maharal of Prague*, that God always intended for our relationships with Him to lead to a proper standard of behavior in our relationships with others. If we line up the Ten Commandments in the two sections of the Ten Commandments  side by side, then we can see that there is a correlation or underlying theme that connects the commandments that are found opposite each other.

1. I am the Lord your God—6. Do not murder

The underlying theme that connects these two commandments is that if we are able to see the “I am God” or the Godliness in other people then we will never come to murder anyone, or even hurt them physically or emotionally. This includes not putting them down and not speaking badly about them to others which comprise the laws of loshon hara-evil speech. If we look for the Godliness or goodliness in the next person then we will be motivated to relate to him or her in a positive fashion. The appellation God is a play on the word Good.

2. Have no other gods before Me.—7. Do not commit adultery

If we act with faithfulness and loyalty to our spouses, which, these days, is no easy task, then we will learn to relate with loyalty, to God. Under the chuppah, the wedding canopy, each of us pledges loyalty to our soul mate. At that moment we could never imagine being unfaithful. But there is a big jump between theoretical emotion and practical day-to-day temptations.

It is amazing how one moment of immediate physical gratification can be allowed to destroy a lifetime of loyalty and bonding. The more we work on our loyalty to our spouses the better we will be able to maintain our faith in God, even when He challenges us with things that we feel we do not deserve. Believing in God is one thing. Living our faith-with faithfulness, and putting our faith into practice is much harder—but it’s very rewarding.

3. Do not take God’s name in vain—8. Do not steal

Swearing in the name of God is an attempt to steal God’s name from His rightful place and to ascribe Godliness somewhere it just doesn’t belong. Even the everyday swearing and cursing that is so prevalent today, even amongst small children, is taking the God-given power of speech and God’s name in vain.

When we belittle ourselves through this type of speech, we are lowering the Godliness in ourselves. This is not a matter of being prudish. It is a matter of maintaining our own dignity and bearing. If we swear at every careless driver, then we are introducing a hostile and unhealthy attitude into our personal environments.

4. Observe Shabbat—9. Do not bear false witness

When we look at the wonders of nature and the amazing order in our lives, we are reminded that we did not create “all this.” We were created and we are not the Creator. True, we are creative, but we are only using the raw materials—brain power and silicon—to create and develop the world. We make things from preexisting things—something from something.

God, however, makes the raw materials themselves; something from nothing. Therefore, He requires us to remember this on a weekly basis by observing Shabbat as the day that He created the universe.

If we rest our creative abilities on Shabbat then we are acknowledging God as the Source of our creative abilities. Therefore, we do not turn on the lights from Friday night at sundown until Saturday at nightfall because turning on a light “creates” a circuit and in order to act as a witness to God’s Creation of the universe we do not perform acts of creativity that show our mastery over the universe on Shabbat. Hence, those who observe Shabbat witness and give testimony to God as the Creator.

5. Honor your parents—10. Do not be jealous of your neighbor’s possessions

Everything we have, including our talents, abilities, color of our hair and our socio-economic condition come from a combination of our genes and our immediate environment. Nature and nurture. Well, that solves the debate right there. Of course we can develop what our parents have bequeathed to us by heredity. But the foundation genes come from a partnership of our parents and God.  Thus, whatever we have has been handpicked for us by a higher authority-God.

Being jealous of our neighbor’s spouse, looks, abilities, Jaguar or new swimming pool is to deny that God has basically handpicked our abilities and socio-economic class to meet our particular challenges. What our neighbor has was handpicked for him to meet his needs and challenges. It is not a matter of our not being allowed to be jealous of our neighbor. Since we have what we need to fulfill our unique destiny and they have what they need to fulfill their unique destiny,  we simply do not have to be jealous of our neighbors. There is no point. We need only to concentrate on our own challenges and develop our skills, abilities and financial status. (Well, don’t just stand there take a course!). But being jealous is a waste of energy that can be better exerted on developing ourselves.