Teaching Team
The Ten Commandments and Frankie Lee
In the days of the Master the Ten Commandments were recited daily in the Temple along with the Shema. This was most likely the practice throughout all of Israel. Then for various reasons which I won’t go into right now it was eliminated from a prominent position in the daily liturgy. Today it is found in most prayer books as part of the after Shacharit [morning prayers] readings.
Since it is most probable that the Master recited this everyday I decided to incorporate it into my morning prayers as well. It ends up being the last thing I read from the siddur in the morning and the last command always sticks with me throughout the day.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17)
Think of this verse’s implications in our modern society where covetedness is such a part of our culture. Commercials, billboards, the list goes on and on. There always seems to be something that catches our eye that we want. Often times whether we can afford it or not makes no difference we just have to have it.
Sometimes it’s not even material things. We simply see that someone’s life appears better than ours and we want it. “Then I would be happy,” we reason. This last commandment of the Decalogue is a sober reminder that this is not Godly behavior. Daily we must learn to be happy with the lot that HaShem has given us. To be dissatisfied is to be unhappy with the Father’s care.
This brings me naturally to the lyrics of a Bob Dylan Song. It’s called “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest”. In the song Frankie Lee needs some money from Judas and ends up paying a dear price for it. The song ends with a verse that I ponder often:
Well, the moral of the story, The moral of this song, Is simply that one should never be Where one does not belong. So when you see your neighbor carryin’ somethin’, Help him with his load, And don’t go mistaking Paradise For that home across the road.
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