The Kids Are Seething

bill_sheehan got his godless preach on the other day and dropped knowledge about The Ten Commandments. It turns out there aren't ten, but about 24 listed do's and don'ts mentioned in Exodus, the book describing Moses and his solo ascent of the mount. It turns out that each Abrahamic religion picks from that legal menagerie those commandments they like best. Heck, not even the papists and those that later followed Martin Luther in protest can agree on which should be included in the Letterman-esque format.

I've known about this smattering of shattered tablet droppings for some time now, this inconsistency that brings a giggle when people thunder about keeping the ten of their Christian faith sacred. ("Why bother?" I think, "Moses himself smashed those. Why shouldn't we?") I've also known that many of the kosher acts that sets practicing Jews apart from others can be found in the ten not only adopted by their religious tradition, but also kept intact by Moses and later stored in the Ark of the Covenant. Monotheism itself is Number One (and Two, in case you goldsmiths with idol thoughts weren't listening); official feasting and use of only unleavened bread therein gets mention in Three, Six and Eight; and finally, the root of Jewish and Halal dietary laws governing the separation of milk and meat finds its origin in the final:

X. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

I haven't given much thought recently to any of the commandments. Let's remember, I'm not religiously inclined. A commenter on bill_sheehan's post, though, gave some background on the Tenth that put the prohibition in a completely new perspective, making me realize once again that the observant may have completely missed the point of the commandment. What if the Tenth has to do not with the stuff of Holsteins ( but with stuff like Palestine? )