מדתני רב יוסף דתני רב יוסף (דברים י, ב) אשר שברת ושמתם מלמד שהלוחות ושברי לוחות מונחין בארון
Babylonian Talmud Baba Batra 14b
Rav Yosef taught, as Rav Yosef taught The Torah states: “At that time the Lord said to me: Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first…and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the Ark” (Deuteronomy 10:1–2). This teaches that both the second set of tablets and the broken pieces of the first set of tablets were placed in the Ark.
What do the first set of tablets represent?
Why were the first set of broken tablets placed next to second complete set?
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk
Nothing is more whole than a broken heart.
In what ways do you agree or disagree with the Kotzker Rebbe's quote?
Dr. Erica Brown, Director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership
Many experiences in life try to break us: illness, loneliness, the death of those we love, rejection, insecurity, loss. But such experiences also make us more whole as human beings. They expand our range of consciousness and compassion. They enlarge our capacity for inclusion. They make us stronger and help us reach out to others with greater empathy and concern. When we acknowledge that we are broken, we enter a universe where we are not measured by perfection but by our willingness to repair ourselves and the world. We stop judging others only when we can recognize our own inadequacies.
Her full quote is here.
Based on the Dr Brown's comments how can the idea of brokenness make us more tolerant of ourselves and of others?
What may hinder us from acknowledging our own inadequacies?
שבעה דברים נבראו קודם שנברא העולם ואלו הן תורה ותשובה וגן עדן וגיהנם וכסא הכבוד ובית המקדש ושמו של משיח
Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 54a
Seven phenomena were created before the world was created, and they are: Torah, and repentance, and the Garden of Eden, and Gehenna [hell], and the Throne of Glory, and the Temple, and the name of Messiah.
This enigmatic text teaches that teshuva/repentance, the ability to repair our mistakes, was created before the world came into existence.
What could it mean that something was created before the world was?
What is the text teaching us about making mistakes?