On the complicated and winding development of Jewish liturgy, as seen from the perspective of the Ten Commandments, a short thread.



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In general, the 10 Commandments appear to have been in more regular liturgical use in antiquity, but were then largely sidelined.

The Nash papyrus from c. 1st BCE Egypt contains the 10 C. & Shema.

This is similar to the liturgy of the temple according to Mishnah Tamid 5:1!

Tefillin or Phylacteries now contain the same 4 biblical passages.

In antiquity, some included other passages, like the 10 Commandments. Examples were discovered at Qumran (pic).

The rabbis condemned this practice: "'Bind them...' but not the 10 Commandments" (Sifre Deut 35).

The rabbis claim that the recitation of the 10 Comm. was abolished b/c of heretics (minim):

"It would be proper to read the 10 Commandments every day. Why don’t we? B/c of the zeal of the heretics, lest they say: These alone were given to Moses at Sinai."
- y. Berakhot 1:3c

Rabbis in Babylonia appear intent on reinstating their recitation:

Rabbah...sought to reinstitute them in Sura... [later] Amemar sought to reinstate them in Nehardea, but Rav Ashi said to him, They already abolished them because of the arguments of the heretics. 
b. Berakhot 12a

In Medieval Fustat, however, the Ten Commandments were recited as part of liturgy, showing that some reinstated them.

Similarly, in some versions of the Babylonian R. Amram Gaon's liturgical handbook, it is "the right custom for individuals" to recite the 10 Comm. each day.

The Ten Commandments are just one example of how Jewish liturgy developed over time, often non-linearly, in different ways depending on community, based on real & perceived pressures within & "outside" communities, and on the enduring attraction of certain passages.

Fin