Based on the above, we can now appreciate why Rashi specifically comments on the word “לֻחֹת” written in deficient form after verse 9, and not on the two earlier instances where the word “לֻחֹת” appears at the beginning of verse 9: “When I ascended the mountain to take the לוּחֹת of stone, the לוּחֹת of the covenant”:
Verses 10-11 describe the Luchos as they were actually given to Moshe — {as it says:} “And Hashem gave to me,” “And it was at the end of forty days... Hashem gave to me.” In verse 9, however, the verse speaks about Moshe ascending to receive the Luchos, referring to the Luchos as they were still with Hashem.
The emphasis and precise reference to the tremendous virtue of the Luchos (to add gravity to the words of rebuke to the Jewish people about their breaking) does not relate to the Luchos as they still existed with Hashem — “When I ascended the mountain to take the Luchos of stone, the Luchos of the covenant.” Rather, it relates specifically to when they came into Moshe’s hands to give to the Jewish people.
Even in the way Hashem gave them to Moshe, they were completely sublime — something Divine (“written with the finger of Hashem,” etc.), unlike any created thing.
Physical
Based on this, we can explain an additional point (according to “the wine of Torah”): The word “לֻחֹת” which appears in deficient form in verse 11 is stated in connection with “stone” — “לֻחֹת of stone.” The word Luchos appearing afterward in full spelling is stated in connection with the covenant — “לֻחוֹת of the covenant.”
One might ask: This virtue of the Luchos — that they were given from Hashem and that they were “written with the finger of Hashem” — is primarily present in (and because of) the fact that they were “לֻחוֹת of the covenant that Hashem made with you,” the covenant between the Holy One and the Jewish people, and not in their being “stones,” (physical objects). If so, it would seem that verse 11 should have been written the opposite: “לֻחוֹת of stone” in full spelling, and “לֻחֹת of the covenant” in deficient spelling — so that “לֻחוֹת is written, indicating that they were both equal” — to emphasize regarding the Luchos of the covenant their virtue of being connected to Hashem.
However, based on what was explained above, we can understand this: The primary emphasis here is not on the spiritual content — that the Luchos of the covenant are a Divine matter — but rather that even the physicality of the Luchos, their being “Luchos of stone,” (where the breaking occurred — “and I shattered them before your eyes”), is a Divine matter, to the extent that “they were both equal.”
This manifested in two contradictory aspects: They were equal even though one tablet had many more letters and words than the other (all written in the same size letters) — yet “they were both equal.”
Based on talks delivered on Shabbos Parshas Eikev and Shabbos Parshas Re’eh, 5743 (1983)
