Re: 10 Commandments (Sept. 8)

Posted

I am sure that the author of “The 10 Commandments of the Religious Reasonable” did not mean to insult the millions of thoughtful, sincere and intelligent Jews (and, in fact, people of all faiths) who take the doctrines of their religion seriously.

The author proposes that in her estimation it is entirely reasonable for a person to pass judgment on which mitzvot are important and which are not, or more drastically to simply reject tenets that do not pass one’s personal ethical code. 

If I am not misunderstanding the author’s message, this sounds much like creating God in one’s own image rather than the other way around, or as the old cliché has it, of turning the Ten Commandments into the Ten Suggestions.  To a person of religious faith in the Judaism of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that sounds awfully unsound and … unreasonable.

Russell D. Raskin

Pawtucket, R.I.