“And for all the awesome power”: The miracles and acts of might which took place in the great, awesome wilderness.
The crowning glory, the last item that the Ribbono Shel Olam says about Moshe Rabbeinu is... “Before the eyes of all Yisrael.” Rashi interprets: That his heart inspired him to break the luchos before their eyes, as it says, “And I smashed them before your eyes.”
Why was the breaking of the luchos Moshe’s greatest act?
The answer is that it took tremendous strength of character for Moshe to break the luchos. It is the nature of humans that when we invest in something, and put our hearts and souls into something, it becomes so dear to us that we rarely, if ever, want to walk away from that accomplishment. That is the way we are. Once we become invested in an item or a project, we do not want to abandon it. The last thing a person ever wants to do is to admit that he was wrong, and to walk away from something in which he has invested a great deal of time and effort.
This explains why in different eras we have seen generals fighting wars despite the fact that it had already become obvious to everyone around them that the war was a losing endeavor. Yet they persisted in pursuing the battle. Why is that? Why is it that it took so long for the generals to realize that they were not fighting the Vietnam War in the way that it should be fought? Once they became invested in the war and in a particular strategy for victory, it became part of them. It was very difficult to say out loud, “Guess what? I made a mistake. It is time to walk away from this.”
We read in the Haftorah for Parshas Zachor how Shaul HaMelech was instructed, in no uncertain terms, to kill out everyone from Amalek; men, women, and children — including animals. When Shaul came back from the battle, the first words out of his mouth were, “I have fulfilled the Word of Hashem” (Shmuel I 15:13). When Shmuel asked him: “How can you say that? It is not true!” What does the King say again? “...Because I have hearkened to the Voice of Hashem...” (Shmuel I 15:20). How can he say that? He was told explicitly what he was supposed to do, and now Shmuel calls him on the carpet for not following instructions, and yet he still claims to have “hearkened to the Voice of Hashem.” The answer is, because he became invested in the project. It became him. It is hard for a person to say, “I am sorry. I made a mistake. You are right and I am wrong.”
There was a book written about an incident that happened during World War II. It is the story of “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”. The Japanese had a prisoner camp located on the River Kwai in what today is Burma. The Japanese, as part of their war effort, wanted to build a bridge between Burma and another place which would have given them strategic military advantage. This prison camp contained an entire battalion of captured British soldiers. The Japanese wanted these prisoners to build a railroad bridge over the River Kwai. The British soldiers, particular their Lieutenant Colonel who was the head of the brigade, refused. “We are not going to build a bridge to help the Japanese in their war effort.”
To cut a long story short, after a while the British soldiers and their commanding officer agreed to build this bridge. Not only did they agree to build the bridge, it became this man’s life preoccupation to build the bridge right! “The Japanese don’t know how to build a bridge. They picked the wrong spot on the river to build the bridge. We are going to show them! We British know how to do things right!”
So they went about this amazing feat of engineering to build a bridge over the River Kwai, to the extent that this Lieutenant Colonel became obsessed with building this magnificent bridge over the River Kwai. Someone escaped from the prison, went to the British command and told them what was happening with their imprisoned soldiers. The British military headquarters set up a commando team to mine the bridge and blow it up.
They mined the bridge and waited for “opening day” when the first train was supposed to cross the bridge filled with Japanese dignitaries. The Lieutenant Colonel was waiting expectantly for the first train to come when everyone would be able to see his masterpiece. However, the level of the river sank, and he noticed that the bridge was wired. He understood what was going to happen and he made frantic efforts to cut the wires so that the British commanders would not be able to blow up the bridge that the Japanese needed for their war effort!
What happened to this fellow? He was part of the allies. The British plan to blow up the bridge might hasten the end of the war. It might save lives of allied soldiers. What was he thinking? Was he crazy? Why would he prefer saving his bridge over saving the lives of his fellow British soldiers?
He became so obsessed with his bridge that he lost sight of what was really going on. In the end, the British shot their own Lieutenant Colonel and blew up the bridge. What happened to this fellow? He became preoccupied with the bridge to the extent that nothing else really mattered.
Moshe Rabbeinu spent literally forty days and forty nights on the mountain — drinking no water and consuming no food. He exhibited tremendous self-sacrifice to receive the luchos. But when he came down from the mountain and he saw Klal Yisrael dancing around the eigel hazahav [golden calf], he said “Guess what? This is not for them.” He did not rationalize, and he did not procrastinate. It was now necessary for these luchos to be broken. It took a tremendous amount of strength of character for Moshe to say “I’m walking away from this.”
One of the most difficult things for a husband to do in a marriage — after having long argued a certain issue with his wife – is to walk away and say, “You know, maybe she’s right.”
Many newlyweds start their marriage and say about themselves, “we are literally two peas in a pod; we think the same way about everything. We have no disagreements, etc., etc.” Then, two weeks after the marriage, he wants the window open she wants the window closed, and the list goes on and on as to how differently they view life. These are just the small things...
A marriage requires a person to sometimes say, “Guess what? You know, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe her way of looking at this is in fact the more correct way.” That is very difficult. The prime example of this is Moshe Rabbeinu, who broke the luchos. In spite of the fact that he put his heart and soul into something, he was prepared to reverse course and write off his exertion and his investment.
This is why we break a glass under the chuppah. We break the glass to remind us that Moshe broke the luchos. It is the ultimate reminder that sometimes it is necessary to step back from deep investment in a certain project or position, and say, “Guess what? I am not right.” In the case of marriage, this represents having the strength of character to say, “Maybe I am wrong, and she is right.”
