“It is also important to note that the Law does not take into account exceptional circumstances; it is not based on conditions which rarely occur.” “We must therefore not be surprised when we find that the object of the Law does not fully appear in every individual case.” “From this consideration it follows that the Law cannot, like medicine, vary according to the different conditions of persons and times. Whilst the cure of a person depends on his particular constitution at the particular time, the Divine guidance contained in the Law must be certain and general, although it may be effective in some cases and ineffective in others. If the Law depended on the varying conditions of man, it would be imperfect in its totality, each precept being left indefinite. For this reason, it would not be right to make the fundamental principles of the Law dependent on a certain time or a certain place. On the contrary, the statutes and the judgments must be definite, unconditional, and general, in accordance with the Divine words: ‘As for the congregation, one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger’ (Num. xv. 15). They are intended, as has been stated before, for all persons and for all times” (ibid. xxxiv.). In the present treatise our religious duties will be expounded under the following seven heads:— 1. Exposition of the Decalogue. 2. General ethical principles— (a.) Duties towards God. (b.) ,, ,, our fellow-men. (c.) ,, ,, ourselves. 3. Outward reminders of God’s Presence. 4. Sabbath, Festivals, and Fasts. 5. Divine Worship. 6. Dietary Laws. 7. Jewish Life. I. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. ‏עשרת הדברות‎ The “Ten Words” are distinguished from all other lessons of the Torah both on account of their intrinsic value and on account of the extraordinary manner in which they have been revealed by the Almighty on Mount Sinai. They form the contents of “the covenant which God made with us” (Deut. v. 3). But it must not be forgotten that they are not the only Divine commandments. When, therefore, Moses repeated them before his brethren in the plain of Moab, he prefaced it by the exhortation: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak unto you to-day, and learn them and keep them to do them” (ibid. 1); and after he had finished reciting them he reminded the Israelites how they received the Ten Commandments from the midst of the fire, and how they prayed that further commandments should be given to them through Moses; adding that the Almighty, in compliance with their petition, said to him: “Stand thou here with me, and I will tell thee the whole commandment, both the statutes and the judgments which thou shalt teach them” (ibid. 28). “And God spake all these words, saying:” FIRST COMMANDMENT. “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”