In its eulogy for Moses, the Torah chooses this episode of smashing the Tablets as the highlight and climax of Moses’ achievements.
In the closing verses of Deuteronomy, we read: “Moses, the servant of G-d, died there in the land of Moab... And there arose not since a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom G-d knew face to face; all the signs and wonders which G-d sent to do in the land of Egypt... that mighty hand, those great fearsome deeds, which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel.”
What did Moses do “before the eyes of all Israel?” Rashi, in his commentary on Torah, explains, “That his heart emboldened him to break the Tablets before their eyes, as it is written, ‘and I broke them before your eyes.’ G-d’s opinion then concurred with his opinion, as it is written, ‘which you broke—I affirm your strength for having broken them.”
This is shocking. Following all of the grand achievements of Moses, the Torah chooses to conclude its tribute to Moses by alluding to this episode of breaking the Tablets! Granted that Moses was justified in breaking the Tablets, but can this be said to embody his greatest achievement? How about his taking the Jews out of Egypt? Molding them into a people? Splitting the Red Sea? Receiving the Torah from G-d and transmitting it to humanity? Shepherding them for forty years in a wilderness?
Why does the Torah choose this tragic and devastating episode to capture the zenith of Moses’ life and as the theme with which to conclude the entire Torah, all five books of Moses?!
IN THE FRAGMENTS
We must examine this entire episode from a deeper vantage point.
Moses did not break the Tablets because he was angry and lost his control. Rather, the breaking of the Tablets was the beginning of the healing process. Before the Golden Calf was created, the Jews could find G-d within the wholesomeness of the Tablets, within the spiritual wholesomeness of life. Now, after the people had created the Golden Calf, hope was not lost. Now they would find G-d in the shattered pieces of a once beautiful dream.
Moses was teaching the Jewish people the greatest message of Judaism: Truth could be crafted not only from the spiritually perfected life but also from the broken pieces of the corrupt and demoralized human psyche. The broken Tablets, too, possess the light of G-d.
Which is why the Sages tell us that not only the whole Tablets, but also the broken ones, were situated in the holy of holies. This conveyed the message articulated at the very genesis of Judaism: From the broken pieces of life you can create a holy of holies.
G-d, the Sages tell us, affirmed Moses’ decision to break the Tablets. G-d told him, “Thank you for breaking them.” Because the broken Tablets, representing the shattered pieces of human existence, have their own story to tell; they contain a light all their own.
Truth is found not only in wholesomeness, but also—sometimes primarily—in the broken fragments of the human spirit. There are moments when G-d desires that we connect to Him as wholesome people, with clarity and a sense of fullness. There are yet deeper moments when He desires that we find Him in the shattered experiences of our lives.
We hope and pray to always enjoy the “whole Tablets,” but when we encounter the broken ones, we ought not to run from them or become dejected by them. With tenderness, we ought to embrace them and bring them into our “holy of holies,” recalling the observation of one of the Rebbes, “There is nothing more whole than a broken heart.”
What Moses accomplished by breaking the Tablets was the demonstration of the truth that the stuff we call holiness can be carved out from the very alienation of a person from G-d. From the very turmoil of his or her psychological and spiritual brokenness, a new holiness can be discovered.
It is on this note that the Torah chooses to culminate its tribute to Moses’ life. The greatest achievement of Moses was his ability to show humanity how we can take our brokenness and turn it into a holy of holies. There is light and joy to be found in the fragments of sacredness.
RABBI YY JACOBSON
