Shattered Tablets

Rabbi Melanie Aron

March 17, 2001

For me the most vivid image, from this very dramatic Torah portion, is the picture of Moses smashing the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

I've always wondered: what was going through his mind at that moment? Was he thinking about what he was about to do- and counting on this dramatic gesture to bring the Israelites back under control- or was this just an emotional reaction to the sight of his people, the Israelites he had invested so much energy into- dancing and carrying on in front of the Golden Calf? Was Moses acting out of passion, as when he struck and killed the Egyptian taskmaster, and as he would act again at the end of his life, in the matter of bringing water from the rock? Why did Moses get so angry at that moment, I wondered, after all he knew what the Israelites were doing, God had told him while he was still on the top of the mountain. Why wasn't Moses more prepared emotionally for the reality of what he was going to see?

The tablets of the Ten Commandments were a unique creation of heaven and earth. We are told that they were stone etched by the finger of God. Though they were carved through, they were written such that they could be read from either side, a real problem in topography. Shattering the tablets could be viewed quite literally as "breaking the agreement" and one wonders if God would not be angry at this lack of respect. Imagine if a rabbi got angry with the congregation, and threw the Torah down on the floor-- how much the more so with tablets brought down from Mt Sinai.

On the whole our tradition is supportive of Moses' action. The Talmud describes the shattering of the tablets as one of three actions that Moses undertook on his own which God applauded. It is understood to be an example of the words from Ecclesiastes: "to everything there is a time and a season for every purpose under heaven, a time to cast away stones," the rabbis comment:" this is the time when Moses was forced to cast down the tablets of the Law." The same Hebrew verb, lehashlich, is used in both texts.

Some rabbis go further to learn from this a lesson about sanctity not being in objects themselves, even objects from God, and conclude that there is no object or holy site, that has sanctity in and of itself. We are to learn from this that we are not to make idols even of holy things, like the Torah or Jerusalem.

The image of Moses smashing the tablets must have been vivid for the rabbi's as well as they talk repeatedly in the commentaries about the shattered pieces of the Ten Commandments. There is a tradition repeated in several places in the Talmud, that the shattered pieces of the Ten Commandments were also kept in the Ark of the covenant, next to the second set of tablets Moses received when he went back up the mountain.

The shattered tablets are compared in one text to an elderly scholar, who has lost his memory and is no longer a repository of learning. Though he is broken and not himself, still he must be treated with respect, just as the pieces of the Ten Commandments were kept in the ark.

The shattered pieces are also seen as witnesses to the mistake made by the people. Most of the time when we make a mistake, we are so embarrassed that we don't want to think about what happened and we destroy any remembrance of the incident. But when we do so, we have lost a great opportunity to learn. Trying to block out our remembrance of our mistakes can prevent us from probing their cause. Keeping the shattered tablets, reminds us not to hide from the evidence of our mistakes, but to learn from them.

One final midrash: The Kabbalists tell us that the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments were incredibly heavy, well beyond any man's strength to carry. The tablets were almost as large as the ark in which they were placed and the ark was two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high (a bout 4 feet by 2 _ feet). A piece of stone that size would be very heavy.

But the letters on the tablets, God's words, were very spiritual. They were always reaching, straining towards heaven. That is why Moses was able to carry the tablets, the Kabbalists explain, because the letters kept them up.

But when the letters saw that the Israelites to whom they were about to be handed over, were dancing in front of the golden calf, the letters lost their spiritual aspirations. They stopped straining upwards, and the tablets became so heavy, that Moses dropped them.

So too with us. If we lose our sense of aspiration, our spiritual goals and direction, then our burdens become too heavy. But if we are straining in the direction of heaven, aspiring towards our loftiest goals, then we will find strength that exceeds our physical capabilities.