[Avodah] moshe broke the luchot

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 07:32:46AM -0800, saul newman via Avodah wrote:
: 
: Why did Rashi choose to end his commentary in this way?
: 
: I would like to try and answer this question with a personal story...

: 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.... He then said he would give us one more chance...
: 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!

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

If I may quote myself, this is how I explained the problem of ignoring
"derekh eretz qodmah ... leTorah":

    The Vilna Gaon, as quoted in Even Sheleimah, also warns that
    following halachah and studying Torah are not a complete definition
    of following the Word of G-d. He writes that the relationship of the
    Torah to the soul is described by a comparison to rain for the ground;
    it causes what was planted there to grow, whether a sam hachaim
    or a sam hamaves. Similarly, Torah causes what is in his heart to
    grow. If what is in his heart is good, his yirah will grow; if what
    is in his heart is a root sprouting poison weed and wormwood then
    the bitterness that is in his head will grow. The Vilna Gaon bases
    himself on our gemara, and then concludes pragmatically, Therefore,
    one must cleanse ones heart every day, before study and after it,
    of impure attitudes and middos, with a fear of sin and with good
    deeds. If you start with desirable plants, it will produce healthier,
    more beautiful plants. But if you water weeds, you will only produce
    more weeds. Learning Torah without attention to character refinement
    will simply produce more forceful personalities with bad middos.

    Rav Yisrael Salanter makes a similar point with a different
    metaphor. He compares poor middos to being a burglar. If a robber
    approaches someones home without any tools, he isnt particularly
    dangerous. However, if he comes bringing a lock-pick, weapons and
    other tools of the trade, he poses a threat to society. Similarly,
    someone with poor middos but no Torah does far less damage than
    someone who arms those bad middos with learning. Perhaps Rav Yisrael
    is referring to all the damage people can do when they justify their
    actions by attributing their destructive decisions to the Will of
    G-d or justifying them as really being for the best.

Moshe came down the mountain, sawq a nation that was worshipping AZ
"lehatir lahem es ha'arayos". They were not only unready for the Torah,
their having access to it would be counter-productive.

As R' Shimon writes in his haqdamah to Shaarei Yosher:

    One can use this to explain the whole notion of breaking the [first]
    Tablets, for which I have not found an explanation. At first glance,
    understanding seems closed off.

    Is it possible that Moses our teacher would think that because the
    Jews made the [Golden] Calf they should be left without the Torah? He
    should have just waited to teach them until they corrected their
    ways, not break them altogether and then have to fall before Hashem
    to beg for a second set of Tablets.

    Our sages received [a tradition that] there was a unique ability
    inherent in the first Tablets. As it says in Eiruvin (page 54[a]),
    What does it mean when it is written [in the Torah], engraved on
    the Tablets? Had the first tablets not been destroyed, the Torah
    would never have been forgotten from Israel. Which is, they had the
    power that if someone learned them once, it would be guarded in his
    memory forever.

    This quality Moses felt would cause a very terrible profaning of the
    holy to arise. Could it happen that someone destroyed and estranged
    in evil deeds would be expert in all the rooms of the Torah? Moses
    reasoned a fortiori from the Passover offering about which the
    Torah says, no outsider shall eat of it. Therefore, Moses found it
    fitting that these Tablets be shattered, and he should try to get
    other Tablets.

    The first Tablets were made by G d, like the body of writing as
    explained in the Torah. The latter Tablets were made by man [Moses],
    as it says Carve for yourself two stone tablets. (Exodus 34:1)
    Tablets are things which cause standing and existence, that its not
    letters fluttering in the air. Since they were made by Hashem, they
    would stand eternally. But the second ones, which were man-made,
    only exist subject to conditions and constraints.

    The beginning of the receiving of the Torah through Moses was a
    symbol and sign for all of the Jewish people who receive the Torah
    [since]. Just as Hashem told Moses, Carve for yourself two stone
    Tablets, so too it is advice for all who receive the Torah. Each
    must prepare Tablets for himself, to write upon them the word of
    Hashem. According to his readiness in preparing the Tablets, so
    will be his ability to receive. If in the beginning or even any time
    after that his Tablets are ruined, then his Torah will not remain.

    This removes much of Moses fear, because according to the value and
    greatness of the person in Awe/Fear of Hashem and in middos, which
    are the Tablet of his heart, this will be the measure by which heaven
    will give him acquisition of Torah. And if he falls from his level,
    by that amount he will forget his Torah, just as our sages said of a
    number of things that cause Torah to be forgotten. Upon this great
    concept our sages told us to explain the text at the conclusion of
    the Torah, and all the great Mighty Hand [and Awe Inspiring acts]
    which Moses wrought before the eyes of all of Israel.

To my mind, this thought is a worthy note on which to end the Torah. Torah
is of great value, but only if you are already determined to develop yir'as
Hashem and midos.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to
micha at aishdas.org        suffering, but only to one's own suffering.
http://www.aishdas.org                 -Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)
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