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Posting Ten Commandments
The conversation about whether or not the Ten Commandments should be posted in schools is much more significant that we might suppose. In fact, not only does the Book of Deuteronomy provide for writing them on house posts and gates, but for regularly speaking of them to children upon arising, when sitting in the house, before going to bed, and when walking by the way.
And since people are motivated by fear to love and obey authority, the Contract for the Promised Land also specifies the punishment for infractions: death by stoning. In the event people fail to enforce the law, a long series of curses are bound to follow, the sum of which is Hell on Earth.
To further impress the importance of obedience, Moses composed a Warning Song to be taught to the children of Israel, reminding them of the benefits of obedience and of the terrible consequences that are sure to follow when Israel, as usual, gets fat, corrupt, and abandons its Rock of Salvation.
As we can see, there are other laws set forth in Deuteronomy, besides the Ten described on the Two Tablets, several of which demonstrate a great deal of love and compassion for the oppressed, for strangers, for the needy; and affection is even extended to birds, trees, and oxen. Indeed, if the Rock is not forsaken, the land of milk and honey is assured. Even the severe punishments are evidence of Yahweh's love for Israel.
Deuteronomy provides for ample written and oral schooling of children, so that both the literate and the illiterate have access to the higher education. In ancient times, the education written on the house posts and gates was supplemented by the oral education provided by each father to his son. Unfortunately, before the establishment of formal schools, a fatherless son or the son of an ignorant man received inadequate instruction.
Although the Bible does not mention the existence of schools in the most ancient times, there were in fact a few schools even prior to the Babylonian exile, Be that as it may, it was inconceivable for any Hebrew child to be brought up without learning the Torah.
Immediately preceding the exile and during the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple, a universal elementary school system for boys was developed. A copy of the Torah was requisite for each school. Each student was required to bring supplies to schools, including little parchment rolls, or readers, which included the Ten Commandments. The Torah had to be recited loudly: residents occasionally sued to keep schools out of their neighborhoods.
The teachers charged with introducing boys to the high life were esteemed even more highly than the boy's fathers. Use of the rod at the school was prohibited in favor of the strap: some boys were strapped daily for their own good.
Most importantly, the pupils were provoked to ask intelligent questions. The more clever the question, the better it was received and responded to. Simply reading the laws of the good life, and placing the words in a box or book for safekeeping will not suffice for our mutual and continuous education. Neither will posting the laws on walls in plain view: most people will eventually pass them by without the slightest notice or consideration: the sorry business shall continue as usual.
Of course, some superstitious people will worship the Decalogue itself, in the same fashion as those with blind faith in the Eighteenth Amendment in the Constitution, amended to keep people off the bottle. But unless the law is firmly planted in our hearts and continuously cultivated in our respective skulls, it will go the way of the Eighteenth Amendment, which served as a vain fetish for those who disliked alcoholic spirits, righteously hating their demonic affect on the community; alas, the spirits were not in the bottle or in the Amendment.
Therefore, before posting the Decalogue or any other law we must have and be in the spirit of the law. Perhaps asking clever questions of ourselves and of each other shall bring us into a more intimate conversation with and in that spirit. It is only through asking questions that the student is finally counseled by the voice of silence in the perfect eternity where all questions are moot and no further questions are meet.
