Here is a multiple choice question: What does the term Aseres Hadibros mean?

a) Ten Commandments
b) Ten Laws
c) Ten Statements.

Many people will answer: Ten Commandments. But this is not correct. Ten Commandments would be "Aserer Hamitzvos." Besides, there are many more than "Ten Mitzvos" in the Torah. There are 613 mitzvos! So, the real meaning of "Aseres Hadibros" is "Ten Statements", since the word "dibros" comes from the word "dibbur" which means "saying". G-d really gave us Ten Statements, not Ten Commandments!

What's the difference between "commandments" and "statements" anyway? In Chapter 24:12 of the Sedra, the Torah says:

Hashem said to Moses, "Ascend to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I shall give you the stone Tablets and the teaching and the commandment that I have written, to teach them."

Rashi, quoting Rav Saadiah Gaon, says that "Luchos Haeven V'Hatorah" - "the tablets of stone and the teaching" - means that the entire Torah -- "the teaching" -- was on the tablets of stone. Now, how can you get all 613 commandments onto two tablets of stone? The answer is that if the ten statements on the tablets are "ten statements or categories" of law, they could contain within them all of the other commandments. For example, the law of Shabbat includes all of the laws that deal with the number 7, i.e. shmitta - six years of work and one where the land lies fallow; slaves - six years of work and on the seventh all slaves go free; seven species of fruit; seven holidays in the Torah, etc. The law of "do not kill" includes not speaking lashon hara, because it "kills" a person's dignity. The law of "do not steal" includes all of the laws of business. So we see that the Ten Statements are a mini Judaism. That is why we always put so much emphasis on the two tablets of stone.

The more we study the words of the Torah commentators like Rashi, the greater depth we have in understanding the Torah. The more we learn the "word of Hashem" - the "statements of Hashem" - the closer we will get to the Ratzon Hashem - G-d's Will. The Torah is the expression of G-d' s Will, and the more we learn Torah, the closer we will get to G-d.