When they ask about…the 10 commandments

Shavuot today is associated in many people’s minds with cheesecake, baskets of flowers, and an image of the 10 commandments inscribed on two tablets.

The first two are simple and joyous ways of celebrating. The latter gives rise to many questions about what we believe.

Why these 10 commandments? Are they really more important than the other 603 in the Torah? What happened on Mt Sinai and what can the stories of that momentous event teach today’s children?

In ancient times, Shavuot was a harvest festival, one of the three pilgrim festivals when the people of Israel brought offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. Shavuot means "weeks" and refers to the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot during which each day is counted, blessed and correlated with the ripening of barley. It is also known Chag hakatzir, meaning "festival of the harvest".

As Judaism moved from being largely land-based to largely text-based, the festival gained another moniker Zman matan Torateinu, "the time of the giving our Torah".

The linking of Shavuot with the 10 commandments and revelation of Torah is anchored in calculations that determine it was exactly 49 days from the time the people of Israel left Egypt until their arrival at the foot of Mt Sinai. On the morning of the 50th day, the Jewish people received the text that gave them their distinctive identity, becoming a nation bound to God and one another through the renewed and extended covenant.

Exactly what was transmitted at Sinai goes to the heart of Judaism itself. Was it the 10 commandments only? Or the five books of Moses that form the Torah scroll? Or all of the written Torah and Oral Torah, even though the latter would only come to light centuries later?