is a unique, eternal being!" to demonstrate that whenever it is a question of the eternal truths of reason, Scripture does not say "believe," but "understand" and "know," in order that we may know that the Eternal is the true God, and there is no other. Nowhere does Scripture say: "Believe, O Israel, and you will be blessed; do not doubt, O Israel, or this or that punishment will befall you." Thus Mendelssohn concluded that Scripture does not command faith, but accepts no other commands than those that come by way of conviction. Its propositions are presented to the understanding, submitted for consideration, without being forced upon our belief. Belief and doubt, assent and opposition, in Mendelssohn's view, are not determined by desire, wishes, longings, fear, or hope, but by knowledge of truth and untruth. Hence, Mendelssohn concluded, ancient Judaism has no articles of faith. The 20th century Reform Rabbi Gunther Plaut argued that the discussions of cities of refuge in and and were composed during a later, settled period, in order to accommodate the disappearance of local altars that previously served as places of refuge. Explaining the origins of the law that one can see in the Cities of Refuge, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that early forms of legal procedure were grounded in vengeance. Roman law and German law started from the blood feud, which led to the composition, at first optional, then compulsory, by which the feud was bought off. Holmes reported that in Anglo-Saxon practice, the feud was pretty well broken up by the time of William the Conqueror. The killings and house-burnings of an earlier day became the appeals of mayhem and arson, and then the legal actions now familiar to lawyers. Deuteronomy chapter 5 In 1980, in the case of Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court of the United States held unconstitutional a Kentucky statute that required posting the Ten Commandments on the wall of each public classroom in the state. The Court noted that some of the Commandments apply to arguably secular matters, such those at and , on honoring one's parents, murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, and covetousness. But the Court also observed that the first part of the Commandments, in and , concerns the religious duties of believers: worshipping the Lord God alone, avoiding idolatry, not using the Lord's name in vain, and observing the Sabbath Day. Thus the Court