Let us consider but one of the Ten Commandments from the Torah portion that we read this week: Thou shalt not kill. Any civilized people know enough instinctually to obey that commandment. Without that one commandment society can hardly exist and most probably will disintegrate into chaos.
Yet, thou shalt not kill is one of the most violated of all of the Ten Commandments. All over the world murder happens in every hour of every day, in every minute of every hour. And day people walk away from those deeds and tell themselves that they have done no wrong.
For a moment do you think that suicide bombers consider the affront of their acts before God?
For a moment do you think that soldiers of any nation who kill only because they have been ordered to kill by someone in authority consider the magnitude of their acts before God?
For a moment do you think that terrorists of any nation believe that they are committing acts of murder?
For a moment do you think that those who script killing and murder for the television or for the screen believe for a moment the lessons that life is cheap which they are teaching to their viewers?
For a moment do those who support war believe that they are guilty to some extent for the killing that takes place on the battlefield?
Does anyone in Afghanistan or in Iraq believe that his or her act of murder is immoral?
No one in our modern world considers murder to be a serious offense because all of us to some extent support murderous acts on battlefields someplace in the world.
Thou shalt not kill is not a frivolous commandment to be read with the smug belief that at least that that commandment is one that we need not consider; that that commandment is one that we certainly do not do.
Sadly, of all the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not murder is the one that most people commit by tacit approval to national policies that do incorporate deeds of murder.