:Project Aseret's Curriculum Summary
The Ten Commandments as Core Values
The Ten Commandments contain only a small number of verses of the Bible, but they are its heart and soul. According to the Bible, only the Ten Commandments were heard by the entire Jewish people directly from God on Mount Sinai. Only the Ten Commandments were written on the Two Tablets “by the hand of God.” And only the Ten Commandments — nestled in the Ark of the Covenant — became the physical focal point of the Temple, and Jerusalem. Jewish tradition teaches that the Ten Commandments contain the entire Torah. So while it is true that the Ten Commandments should be understood as specific mitzvot, they also represent ten core values, each one being a wellspring for an entire area of life .
