That Time an Orthodox Rabbi Gave Cecil B. DeMille Advice for “The Ten Commandments”

Moses stands at the burning bush. His head is covered. He’s holding a stick. He hears the voice of God.

“Moses?” God asks.

“I am here,” Moses says.

“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

This is a scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film, “The Ten Commandments,” which depicts Moses’ journey as an adopted Egyptian prince who discovers his Hebrew roots and delivers the Ten Commandments to the Jewish people.

While the movie is a well-known masterpiece based on the true story from the Torah, recently, Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and rabbi at Ohr Saadya in Teaneck, New Jersey, revealed that his grandfather, Rabbi Moses J. Feldman of Los Angeles (of blessed memory), wrote a letter to help DeMille depict the voice of God. He shared this the week of the parsha of Yitro, last week, where God proclaims the 10 Commandments to the Jewish people.

In the letter, his grandfather, who lived in Boyle Heights and knew the Warner Brothers, wrote how he heard the director could not decide how he should portray God when He was giving Moses the Ten Commandments. The rabbi wrote, “This challenge has been giving you no rest — and my own restlessness chimed in with yours… You have assumed a task that must test the imagination to the utmost in a matter that demands the utmost reverence.”

After showing his admiration for the director, he wrote, “What impressed me particularly was the following quote [of yours]: ‘God’s voice (in handing down the Commandments) would have been heard by all the peoples in their own languages; so it will have to be understood by all audiences. We’ve been working steadily on it and we’ll use a voice that can be understood!’ Here, Mr. DeMille, you have by some intellectual process or other sensed a passage int the Talmud.” The rabbi goes on to explain how, according to the Talmud, God’s voice was understood by people who spoke all languages.

In another part of the letter, the rabbi wrote, “May I also suggest that the breathtaking scene and oratorical exchange at the Burning Bush be included? It was there where Moses received the charge and it was that experience which prepared him for the superb climax.”

In the scene where Moses receives the Torah in “The Ten Commandments,” Moses, played by Charlton Heston, stands on Mt. Sinai as God appears to him in a tornado of fire. They both speak to each other in English, and only they can hear God’s voice. Below, the Jewish people are creating their golden calf while the fire carves the commandments on the mountain. Of course, the movie also included the Burning Bush scene.

Rabbi Daniel Feldman, in an interview with Jew in the City, said that he wasn’t sure if the director took his grandfather’s advice, but that the letter was “very typical of his approach to Torah and to life and to the world. He saw this as an opportunity to sanctify God’s name and to show the majesty of the Torah’s approach and the insights of rabbinic literature. When he read in the LA Times that Cecil B. DeMille was struggling, he took the opportunity to share these insights.”

He continued, “He was a tremendous Torah scholar who wrote very widely and broadly and took a lot of opportunities to write to newspapers, such as op-eds, poetry, and essays in addition to his Hebrew volumes that were intense and numerous. He loved Torah learning, but also tried to translate that not only to the LA community; he also was very much focused on opportunities to try to address the broader population.”

While Jew in the City has been providing guidance to Hollywood in recent years, in turns out that Orthodox Jews have been doing it for decades. Whaddya know?

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