Parsha_Push Parshat Va’etchanan

Art is often an interpretation as well.
We are accustomed to dividing the Ten Commandments into five commandments “between man and God” and five “between man and his fellow,” with honoring parents on the borderline between the two domains, but associated with “between man and God.” This consciousness is related to the five-five division, but it is also based on and reinforced by Jewish art that we encounter in many synagogues.
The problem with this division, among other things, is expressed in art, where the prohibitions “do not murder,” “do not commit adultery,” “do not steal” can be written relatively easily, while the text of “between man and God” is abbreviated due to lack of space.
I saw a solution to this problem on a “parochet” displayed today at the Israel Museum, where on the “right tablet” are depicted the commandments of “I am the Lord your God” and “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The rest of the commandments were placed on the left tablet. There is much charm in this division. It places the foundations of faith on one side, and the implications of these foundations on the other. It also manages to divide the text more equally between the tablets.
In fact, one could say that there is an “inherent” problem in the gap between the commandments between us and God, and the human, rational commandments. The “between man and God” commandments were given many more words than the other commandments (about 182 compared to 27 in the version in the Book of Deuteronomy). Does this say something about the value of these commandments? Are they more important?
Two perspectives can be offered on the abundance of text specifically in these commandments. One, the less self-evident something is, the more it needs to be explained. The commandments between man and his fellow are simpler to understand, and therefore can be satisfied with short and simple instructions.
Additionally, let’s imagine the tablets of the covenant. The Torah says “they were written on both sides,” and the Sages understood that the letters were engraved from one side to the other, creating hollows within the stone. According to this understanding, the tablet of “between man and God” was a “lighter” tablet with more hollows, while the tablet of “between man and his fellow” had less hollows, and therefore can be said to have more weight, literally and figuratively.
Sometimes it seems that the “religious” world captures more attention, but perhaps this is because of the simplicity of the social and interpersonal world, which, when taken seriously, has greater weight.