THE 3RD COMMANDMENT AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

By

Roger Froikin -

"THE 3RD COMMANDMENT

People read the 10 commandments,  but I think it is time to focus on one that is abused most frequently and often dangerously

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF THE FAMOUS 10 IS GENERALLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISUSED

The real meaning is much more serious and much more far-reaching than the popular translations appear to indicate.

לֹ֥א תִשָּׂ֛א אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לַשָּׁ֑וְא כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יְנַקֶּה֙ יְהוָ֔ה אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂ֥א אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ לַשָּֽׁוְא

You shall not carry the Name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not forgive one who does so.

Note that my translation is quite a bit different from what you will find in the translations to English or other non-Semitic languages.   There is a reason for that.  It is because all those translations were wrong and are a demonstration of how translation not only loses meaning but changes meaning when under the influence of non-Jewish cultures.

Why is this a serious issue?   Because this is the only commandment,  the only law,  in the Torah,  in which it is specified that a violation of it is not forgivable.   You can steal,  murder,  commit adultery,  or a whole range of sinful things,  and do Tshuva,  do some act to show regret and an effort to fix things,  and be forgiven by G-d,   but not when it comes to this commandment.   That,  in itself,  should indicate how important, how serious,  this one is.

This is not about profanity.  It is not just about off handily saying some curse or making some stupid pledge.  We know this because at Yom Kippur,  we get rid of that burden and are forgiven individually and collectively.

So this has to be more serious.

What this is about,  is 2 things.

 It is about those who assume to themselves the authority of G-d and dictate with that assumed authority to others to control others.   A person who does this “carries the Name” claims authority to impose his will in the name of G-d,  or in modern times,  in the name of some ideology.,without any real authority from G-de to do so.  Look ate human history and see how many have suffered and died because of some person doing this,  how much destruction has happened because of some person doing this — the Crusades,  the Inquisitions,  the Pogroms of the last 2000 years,   Haman and his sons in the Book of Esther.  Mao in China.  Stalin in the USSR,  Hitler in Germany, the Ayatollas in Iran,  the leaders of Hamas and Da’esh,  in the modern Middle East. , and the list is a lot longer than these.   Never to be forgiven.  Religious leaders or Ideologues are out of control.  Never to be forgiven.   And so not think that just because they do not mention G-d,  that some in modern times are any different.  Communism, Toynbee argued, is a species of Christianity, “a Christian Heresy”,  where Toynbee explained that where Christianity promised Heaven in the afterlife as a reward for conformity of belief,  Communism promised Heaven on Earth as a reward for conformity to its dictates.  But Toynbee failed to remark that throughout history,  it has always been the case that those who held power and wanted to continue doing so,  have used conformity and discouragement of dissent as a political tool, and invariably that has led to persecution, exclusion, and even extermination of those who refused to conform.  

 And the Commandment is a warning against superstition.  Using G-d as an excuse,  a rationale,  or a case of someone to beg.  Those who abandoned belief because of the Holocaust, asking how could G-d do that.  Or those who use G-d as a lucky charm.  I would not say that this is the equivalent of evil that cannot be forgiven,  but it may be part way there,  using spirituality as a crutch or an excuse for not acting responsibly and viewing life rationally.

Some things to consider."