A Time to Cast Stones: Parashat Hashavua Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot 5786

(1)ה׳ said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered.

What did Moses witness that compelled him to break the tablets? It may be compared to a king who travels abroad while his wife remains at home with the servants. Because she was alone with them, rumors began to circulate concerning her behavior. The king heard them, and when he returned home, he wanted to kill her. His advisor learned this and tore up her marriage certificate. He said: “If the king should say, my wife has done such and such, we can reply, she is no longer your wife.” The king inquired about her and found that she had done nothing wrong. Only the maidservants had acted shamefully. He became reconciled with her immediately. His advisor then said to him: “Master, write another marriage contract, since the first one was torn up.” “You tore it up,” the king replied, “so now you must bring the parchment and I will write the document with my own hand.” So too here...

(1) AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES: HEW THEE. Pesal lekha (hew thee) is similar to lekh lekha (get thee out) (Gen. 12:1) and ve-attah kach lekha (take thou also unto thee) (Ex. 30:23).

(2) [LIKE UNTO THE FIRST.] The same size as the first. Saadiah Gaon says that the second tablets were more precious than the first, for the second tablets were given on a holy day, on the Day of Atonement. This was not the case with the first tablets. The first tablets descended on the seventeenth day of Tamuz, on a weekday. Furthermore, three covenants are mentioned with regard to the second tablets; and that it may go well with thee (Deut. 5:16) was inscribed on the second tablets; and the first tablets were broken.

Now these things [that Saadia saw] are similar to that which is seen in a dream: They neither help nor hinder. Both tablets had God’s writing on them. Furthermore, the first tablets were the work of God whereas the second tablets were the work of Moses.

(2) Another matter: “Carve for yourself” – that is what is written: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose.…A time to cast stones” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5) – “the wrath of Moses was enflamed, and he cast [the tablets] from his hands” (Exodus 32:19). “And a time to gather stones” – “carve [pesol] for yourself” – the carving debris [pesolet] is for you.