The Jewish holiday of Shavuot begins on June 8 and concludes 48 hours later. Shavuot occurs seven weeks and a day after Passover, and commemorates when Moses received the Torah, including the Ten Commandments, on Mt. Sinai. Shavuot is an annual reminder of the Jewish people’s “irrevocable covenant”-using Pope John Paul II’s words-with God. In today’s litigious America, attempting to post the Ten Commandments in public buildings remains a continuing source of legal battles and community divisiveness. Many political and religious leaders constantly cite the Ten Commandments as the foundation of our nation’s ethics and laws. But despite all that attention, few people can accurately name and list God’s “Big 10.” Indeed, the Commandments have morphed into an “American Idol” that millions of people adore without probing their actual meaning.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)