From Roger Froikin
         ראובן בן צמח עפרים


 A WARNING TO THOSE WHO USE RELIGION FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES

Sometimes,  questions come to mind out of the blue so yo speak.  Here’s one that deserves some consideration.

Why is it that the 3rd Commandment of the 10 Commandments is the only one where the author specified that a violation of the law could never be forgiven.

If one murders,  steals, commits adultery, covers, and dishonors his parents,  he (or she) can always be forgiven by others and by G-d,  but not if one violates the 3rd Commandment.

And how might this be an important lesson to the world today?   And why is this appropriate to address it to Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others today?

א אֶת־שֵׁם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לַשָּׁוְא
כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה, אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂא אֶת־שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your G-d in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

The problem is that the traditional translation is missing an important point and the answer might be in a more accurate translation.

The Hebrew Original does not say “take”.  It says, literally, “carry” and implies linguistically, “to use” or “to take authority of”.

The interpretation we hear in the West is related to making oaths in a court, or on a less legalistic plane, to bad language.  Again,  would that mean that an old woman who says “god damn” will be unforgiven while a mass murderer could be?  Does not make sense.

What does make sense is if we translate and interpret this Commandment as saying “You shall not carry or use or claim the authority of G-d for your purposes, for your interests,  for that is a violation that is so harmful,  so dangerous,  so bad, as to be beyond G-d’s forgiveness.

Think about it.   All the religious wars, all the hate, all the violence, all the discrimination initiated and pursued in the name of religion,  dictated by some religious leader or politicians for their own purposes.  All those who claim special authority to decide who will go to heaven and who will not by virtue of conforming to this or that belief.  All those “religious institutions and movements and experts” who claim the authority to tell people what they should do and not do to please G-d

Without those leaders who routinely violate this commandment,  there could not have been the Crusades,  the Inquisition,  the ingrained anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust, nor the Arab and Muslim movements that justify and praise hate and violence,

And it should never be forgiven,  not by us, not by the author of the commandment.