Bob Schwartz

How many commandments are there in the Decalogue? Do you know them by number? That’s a trick question, because different religious traditions divide and number the Hebrew text differently.

This will make it easy. There is only one commandment, even though it doesn’t appear in the “official” list.

To explain, I turn to the movie A Serious Man (2009) (playlist of clips) by Joel and Ethan Coen, nominated for two major Academy Awards, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Larry Gopnick, a physics professor in the 1960s, is up for tenure. Even as he lectures on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, there is a sense that he really doesn’t understand uncertainty at all. His professional and personal life seem to be falling apart. A student tries to bribe him for a passing grade. His wife is having an affair with his friend, his dentist espouses weird mystical tooth theories, and there is a question whether Larry may have a serious health problem. Larry looks for answers in Judaism. His attempts to see Rabbi Marshak, elder spiritual head of the congregation, fail.

Larry’s son Danny is about the be bar mitzvah. At Hebrew School, the transistor radio Danny was listening to in class is taken away by the teacher. Danny is sent to see Rabbi Marshak. Rabbi Marshak proceeds to discuss the situation through the lyrics of the Jefferson Airplane’s song Somebody to Love and with a simple piece of advice:

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Rabbi Marshak stares at Danny from behind a bare desktop. His look, eyes magnified by thick glasses, is impossible to read.

Danny creeps to the chair facing the desk. He gingerly sits on the squeaking leather upholstery, self-conscious under Marshak’s stare.

Marshak’s slow rmouth-breathing is the only sound in the room. The two stare at each other.

Marshak smacks his lips a couple of times, wetting surfaces in preparation for speech.

Finally:

MARSHAK
When the truth is found. To be lies.

He pauses. He clears his throat.

. . . And all the hope. Within you dies.

Another beat. Danny waits. Marshak stares. He smacks his lips again. He thinks.

. . . Then what?

Danny doesn’t answer. It is unclear whether answer is expected. Quiet.

Marshak clears his throat with a loud and thorough hawking. The hawking abates. Marshak sniffs.

. . . Grace Slick. Marty Balin. Paul Kanta. Jorma. . .somethin.
These are the members of the Airplane.

He nods a couple of times.

. . . Interesting.

He reaches up and slowly opens his desk drawer. He withdraws something. He lays it on the bare desk and pushes it across.

. . . Here.

It is Danny’s radio.

. . . Be a good boy.

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And that is the one commandment. Be a good boy or girl. Thousands of years of wisdom have developed directives, guidelines and practices to get us there. There is even a concise list of ten. But if you forget or ignore them, as we do sometimes, this will be your quick reminder.