Broken and Whole The Tablets, Forgiveness and Living with Pain

(1) When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” (2) Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” (3) And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. (4) This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (5) When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Eternal!” (6) Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance. (7) The Eternal spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. (8) They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” (9) The Eternal further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (10) Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.” (11) But Moses implored the Eternal his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. (12) Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. (13) Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” (14) And the Eternal renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.

(2) REMEMBER FOR ABRAHAM, FOR ISAAC, AND FOR ISRAEL — ... If, however, they cannot be saved by their ancestors merit what is the good of You saying to me, “and I will make of you a great nation”? If a chair with three legs cannot stand before You in the moment of Your wrath, how much the less a chair with only one leg? (Berakhot 32a)

(1) ושני לוחות העדות בידו. He thought that as soon as he would return to the people they would become penitents; in the event that they would not, he planned to smash the Tablets in front of their eyes so that they would return in penitence after this shock.

Moses became angry and cast the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Rabbi Yishmael taught: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him that he should break them, as it is said, (Deut. 10), "And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first set of tablets that you broke." He said to him, "You did well in breaking them." Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan, "The tablets were six handbreadths long and three broad. Moses held onto two handbreaths and the Holy One, Blessed be He, held onto two of them and there was a space of two handbreadths in the middle. When the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, the Holy One, Blessed be He, tried to snatch the tablets out of Moses's hand. But Moses's hand was stronger, and he snatched them from God, as Scripture praises him in the end and says (Deut. 34), "For all the mighty hand..."--May there be peace on the hand that "overcame" Him... Rabbi Yochanan in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Abaye, "The tablets wanted to fly but Moses was holding on to them, as it is written (Deut. 9), "And I held onto the two tablets." Rabbi Ezra in the name of Rabbi Yehudah from the house of Rabbi Shimon, "The tablets weighed forty seahs, and the writing was holding them up. When the writing flew off, the tablets became heavy in Moses's hands, and they fell and were broken."

Nevertheless, Moses did not prevent himself from breaking the tablets for he was enraged upon seeing this evil spectacle, and he could not bear it.

(3) And, yet, there are certain tendencies which man is forbidden to follow in the middle-way, but must distance himself from extreme to extreme... So is anger an extremely evil tendency and it is proper for man to remove himself from it to the other extreme. One should teach himself not to get angry, even over a matter which befits anger. If one desires to engender awe in his children and his household, or in the public, if he be at the head of a community, even if he desire to get angry at them so as to bring them back to the good way, he should only act angry in their presence so as to reprove them, but his disposition must remain calm within himself, even as a man imitates, who is angry when the time calls forth anger but in reality he is not angry. The sages of yore said: "He who yields to anger is as if he worshiped idolatry".¹See Nedarim, 22b. G. They also said: "Whosoever yields to anger, if he be a wise man his wisdom leaves him, and if he be a prophet his prophecy leaves him."²Pesahim, 66b. C.

(4) So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Eternal had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. (5) The Eternal came down in a cloud; He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name Eternal. (6) The Eternal passed before him and proclaimed: “Adonai! Adonai! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, (7) extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”