Chapter 5
The Root of TEN (5:1)
During the hot, lazy weeks of summer when our spiritual guard is down, we review the moral treatise par excellence, Ethics of our Fathers. This week's fifth chapter begins by detailing various aspects of Creation that follow the singular pattern of ten. Examples include how the universe was created by ten Divine Utterances, that the early formative years of the world's development contained ten generations from Adam to Noach, that the father of our people, Abraham, only appeared after another ten generations had passed and how that same Abraham was tested exactly ten times. But the number ten, our Sages wish to remind us, is not limited to just these instances. Ten is also the tally of plagues in Egypt, the miracles He performed for the Jews at the splitting of the sea and the amount of rebellious uprisings by the wandering Israelites in the desert. read more »
