[Avodah] moshe broke the luchot

[saul newman via Avodah]

[This was posted to Areivim. But I think the point being made about
Rashi, really his choice of quoting this Sifri, is worth discussing
here. -micha]

from the LSS shabbat bulletin---

Why did Rashi choose to end his commentary in this way?

I would like to try and answer this question with a personal story. I was a
seven year old second grader at the Ramaz Academy (that's what the Ramaz
School was called then). We started each day with the Shacharit morning
prayers. Our He-brew teacher was a new addition to the staff. Mr. Gottlieb
was a middle aged man, a recent immigrant from Germany. He spoke with a
very distinctive heavy German accent. We were not the best behaved students
during the service, and talking, passing notes and other such inappropriate
behavior was all too common. Mr. Gottlieb t on an almost daily basis
explained that proper decorum was expected of us. We were talking to the
Almighty and were not being respectful. As the weeks went by with little
improvement Mr. Gottlieb went from trying to reason with us, to ultimately
raising his voice, sending individuals out of the room and other such
actions in attempting to have us do the right thing. Then one day something
happened that be-came etched in my memory. How many things do any of us
remember from our early elementary school years? Well this one did.

The day began as all others with Shacharit. The buzzing started again and
got louder and louder with Mr. Gottlieb's face getting increasingly red.

Suddenly Mr. Gottlieb took his siddur, his prayer book, and flung it on the
floor across to the other side of the room. A large gasp was heard coming
from all of the class. Hands went up to our mouths. We were all shocked and
stunned. The teacher deliberately throwing his siddur, a book that we
kissed if we accidently dropped it? There was a deafening silence in the
room. Mr. Gottlieb then explained that if we could not respect the prayer
service, then the book in which we prayed had also been disrespected. He
then said he would give us one more chance. Each of us began to pray and
there was not a hint of any further disturbance or distraction. This
decorum continued day after day and almost all of us began to concentrate
on the prayers. And to this day, that incident has remained with me. As for
Mr. Gottlieb? He was fired soon thereafter for the action taken that day
that was unbecoming for a teacher, despite our protestations.

At least for me, I understand why Rashi chose to complete his commentary on
the Torah with the Almighty congratu-lating Moses for breaking the Tablets
in the heat of anger. Tablets on which God Himself had written the Ten
Commandments.

And Mr. Gottlieb, wherever you are, I just want you know that you had a
life-long effect at least on one little boy in your class. Yasher Koach!