Broken Tablets: Restoring the Ten Commandments and Ourselves

Broken Tablets: Restoring the Ten Commandments and Ourselves, edited by Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva, is a collection of writings that attempt to explain why the Ten Commandments exert such a powerful hold on so many people--even those who do not consider themselves Jews or Christians. Introduced by Lawrence Kushner, this collection includes essays by 10 prominent rabbis about each individual commandment, as well as two shorter pieces that, in rabbinical fashion, interrogate and locate the others' arguments in Jewish tradition. What all of these essays have in common is the effect of personalizing the commandments for today's readers, by demonstrating the power of this short scriptural passage to touch every aspect of a person's life. Each essay makes provocative and surprising observations. Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, writing on the third commandment, asks, "By too easily claiming and naming God, by encouraging others to do the same, did I take the name of the Lord in vain?" Writing on the second commandment, Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi observes, "Real idolatry today is the worship of money, technology, addictions, absolute political systems--even of 'Judaism' and of the personal ego." This is a book that will help readers become more aware of God's claim on their lives, more honest with themselves, and more attuned to the ways that Scripture has shaped the way believers live together and in the wider world. --Michael Joseph Gross