“Between Man and God” and “Between Man and his Fellow”— Categories in Polemical Context: categories in polemical context

One of the best known distinctions among the precepts of Judaism is that between the precepts that apply “between man and God” and those that apply “between man and his fellow.” It is generally assumed that this distinction has been a matter of consensus since the time of the talmudic sages. The present article examines this assumption by means of a close reading of the earliest sources that draw the distinction between the two categories. The discussion of the tannaitic sources will reveal disagreements about this categorization. We will review this disagreement in the context of a hidden debate between the talmudic sages and early Christian literature.In this context, we will also address the question of the enumeration of the Ten Commandments and their division on the tablets into two sets of five precepts. We will propose that the talmudic sages’ position on this question is also a polemic response to the approach that emerged in early Christianity.