The torah portion that we read this week, Yitro, contains one of the repetitions of the 10 statements - or as they’re commonly called, the ten commandments. Ironically we much more often discuss the narrative sections of this portion than we do the contents of the ten commandments. After all, we all know and understand those commandments pretty well, right?
The Kli Yakar, commenting on 20:13 cites the mechilta, saying that the first five commandments parallel the second five, with the first five being bein adam l’makom - between humans and God - and the second five are bein adam l’chavero - between one person and another. But he goes on to explain that not only are they grouped this way, but also that each of the first five are attached to the adjacent second five.
One of the pairings that he explains is the one between the second commandment against idolatry, and the seventh, against adultery. He specifically cites verses in which Israel commits idolatry and is referred to as an adulterer, such as Ezekiel 16:32.(1) The sages generally view idolatry as a form of adultery - describing Israel’s idolatry as a bride who whores under the chuppah.
The reason that the analogy between the two works so well as a description of Israel’s sin against God is because Judaism considers adultery to be among the most severe of sins. It is a capital crime for both participants (2). Not only is idolatry a form of adultery, but adultery is also a form of idolatry.
Adultery, like idolatry, is an elevation of the self over all other considerations. It is a claim that core relationships can be broken at will, that oaths are not to be taken seriously, that contracts may be broken unilaterally. It is a statement that one’s personal desires take precedence over any obligations to others. One can see how this neatly mirrors idolatry: it is a direct parallel to the denial of God like that of Pharaoh standing over the Nile in Exodus 7:15 (as the great commentator Rashi brings from the midrash (3)). By committing adultery, one is declaring oneself to be God, not subject to judgment for one’s behavior to others, not obligated to keep one’s promises, and having one’s feelings and desires take absolute precedence over others.
This explains why adultery is seen as such a serious crime. In fact, it is one of the most serious crimes - it is categorized together with incest as one of the three sins (along with idolatry and murder) that one must die rather than violate. It subsumes violating all of the ten commandments into itself - not only idolatry, but also: theft, of love and affection promised and contracted to a rightful partner but given to another; it is dishonoring one’s mother and father and the family and its safehaven; it is akin to murdering the one whose trust was in them, and also of course the humiliation, which The talmud equates directly to murder (see Bava Metzi’a 58b and many many commentaries, e.g. Rabbeinu Yonah in shaarei teshuvah 3:139) ; it is coveting -taking action to harm others to possess what one has no right to; and so on - there are numerous commentaries that fill in the rest. But most importantly, it violates both the divine and social covenants, asserting that one’s current urge is more important than either.
The talmud (Sotah 3a) states, “A man commits a transgression only if a spirit of folly enters him.” But in speaking of adultery, the sages clearly saw that folly was only the first step to an act that deeply violated multiple foundational moral principles.
It is the very embodiment of “each one does what is right in his own eyes.” In the American social milieu, the idea of “doing what is right in one’s own eyes” is generally understood as a positive thing - that each person has the right to decide what is moral “for them.” But in the Jewish tradition, this is the ultimate statement of social chaos and destruction - where this phrase appears in Shoftim 17:6, it is the background for the story of the concubine among the tribe of Benjamin - one of the most brutal and violent episodes in Scriptures.
1.Actually 16:30-32 is all very appropriate: How sick was your heart—declares the Lord GOD—when you did all those things, the acts of a self-willed whore, … Yet you were not like a prostitute, for you spurned fees; the adulterous wife who welcomes strangers instead of her husband.
2.Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22
3. Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 14; Exodus Rabbah 9:8
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