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    Changing the Ten Commandments – Va’et’channan

    The sidra contains a second version of the Ten Commandments, but the wording does not entirely accord with the more common version found in Parashat Yitro in the 20th chapter of Sh’mot. Check one version against the other and you will see the differences as well as the commonalities.

    We wonder what gave Moses the right to alter the wording. The answer is that what he wrote in both versions is not on his own initiative but at the command of the Divine Lawgiver.

    The basic content of the Commandments is the same in both places, but here the emphasis is a little different because alternative interpretations – all emanating from God – needed to be brought to the people’s attention.

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