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Generally, each of the Ten Commandments is written in its own paragraph in the Torah, except for the 1st two. Shmot (Ex.) 20:2 is the 1st commandmnet - "I am G-d" and the 2nd commandment is from Shmot (Ex.) 20:3-6). These two commandments are written in a single paragraph.

Additionally, there is a special form of Torah trope known as "ta'am elyon" which is customarily used when reading the 10 commandments in shul. This format treats all the verses that comprise one commandment as if it were a single verse, rather than the way it is "divided" as separate verses. (Yes, I am aware that the concept of psukim - verses is only possible by knowing the trope. In viewing the written Torah scroll, one would not know this.)

So, my question is that based on both the written format as well as the trope usage - whether ta'am elyon or tachton, how did chaza"l derive two separate commandments from this single paragraph?

Scimonster
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DanF
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    From where do you know that you can only derive one commandment per paragraph? – Y     e     z May 29 '14 at 20:11
  • Are you bothered by the two commandments in Devarim 14:21 contained in a single verse? – Y     e     z May 29 '14 at 20:14
  • @YEZ - I know about the possibilities that you mentioned. I figure that 10 commandments are an exception to the other mitzvot. As I asaid, the special trope )elyon) is plainly obvious to denote that it ignores the standard verse breakdown but groups a whole parsha as a single unit ... almost. The 2 "Lo Tachmod" at the end are grouped together even though they are separate paragraphs. But, there, they are considered part of the same commandment. That fact, also proves part of my premise is correct - one commandment per paragraph (or, in this case, 2 paragraphs.) – DanF May 29 '14 at 21:10
  • I'm not sure why the fact that it happens to be one commandment per paragraph says that it is a rule. Just because here it is a different trop, does that mean that you should interpret the pesukim backwards or maybe in these pesukim every lamed is meant to be read as a gimmel. Why does that difference lead to your premise? And Lo Tachmod proves that it is not splitting by paragraph, otherwise it messed up the pattern by spreading Lo Tachmod between multiple paragraphs. – Y     e     z May 29 '14 at 23:36
  • @yEz Maybe there is a sense in which lo tachmod is two commandments? The fact that taam elyon, taam tachton and the paragraphs lead to three separate sets of 10 is hopefully an intentional part of God's writing. – Double AA May 26 '15 at 19:46
  • You should know the traditional Taam Elyon has a Pasuk break after מבית עבדים. (You don't clarify in your question where you think it has breaks, but it seems you may have missed that one.) – Double AA Dec 29 '15 at 18:57
  • Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/79964 – msh210 Feb 19 '17 at 07:01
  • @DoubleAA See Wikipedia on the splitting up of the commandments, according to Jewish and Christian traditions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#The_Ten_Commandments – Yaabim Jan 20 '19 at 00:06
  • @DoubleAA How does taam tachton lead to a set of 10? I'm not seeing it. – Heshy Jan 30 '19 at 15:02
  • @Heshy the idea would be that the first includes לא יהיה and the second is לא תעשה. Look at the Luchot above the Aron in the old Italian Shul in Jerusalem for instance (top pic http://caariprogram.blogspot.com/2016/02/feb-22-italian-synagogue-and-old-city.html ) – Double AA Jan 30 '19 at 15:06
  • @DoubleAA I see. But I don't understand how that's implied by taam tachton. You could just as well keep the whole first paragraph together and split ששת ימים תעבד by itself, or put the split at לא תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם. In all three cases, there's a sof pasuk and a new but closely related mitzvah. – Heshy Jan 30 '19 at 15:48
  • @Heshy it's not 100% logically compelling but I think in contrast to the Ta'am Elyon's parsing of that bit it's instructive. Consider https://www.harova.org/torah/view.asp?id=1706 – Double AA Jan 30 '19 at 15:52

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