Imposing belief – Ask the Rabbi
Q. If the first of the Ten Commandments commands us to believe in God how is this possible? Can belief be imposed?
A. Maimonides says that the First Commandment does not tell us to believe but to know there is a God, to accept the evidence of God’s existence.
Where do we find the evidence? In our own experience, since He “brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”.
The so-called Ten Commandments are called by the Torah the “Ten Words” or “Ten Statements”, which means that Number 1 is not necessarily a command but a basic principle, the foundation of all that is to follow.
