Many of us find the notion of “commandments” oppressive and hierarchical. Yet we know that a community cannot be built on the principle of only doing what feels right at the moment––it requires a sense of responsibility to each other.
Rabbi Michael Lerner and Rabbi Cat Zavis have each written a version of the 10 speech acts/divine utterances based roughly on a re-interpretation of the Torah’s ten commandments. (They incorporate some of the framework and many specific ideas articulated by Rami Shapiro in his book Minyan.)
We encourage community members to take on aspects of these that speak to you and/or to create your own––ones that speak to your heart and to which you can actually commit.
We invite you to start each day with ten minutes of meditation on these ten principles, followed by the Shema. You may find that it brings a new level of joy in your life.
