![]() ![]() Moses knew that if he gave the tablets while Israel danced around the Golden Calf, they’d merely trade the Calf’s emptiness for an equally empty sense of the tablets. Moses acted superbly in breaking the tablets… to teach that nothing has inherent sanctity….” And if had brought the tablets, it would be as if they were exchanging the calf for the tablets…. “‘Moses became angry and cast the tablets from his hands’ – meaning that there is no sanctity or divinity without the existence of the Creator. Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk (1843-1926), in Meshech Chochma, offers this teaching about breaking the tablets: The past crumbles into raw material to build the future. Old institutions can’t evolve with hearts and souls. Structures suitable for one era don’t serve another. Sometimes our buildings (physical and spiritual) fall. ![]() “As above, so below”: as in the cosmos, so too for us. Spiritually, we’re all pieces of the Infinite, and shattered shards surround us waiting for us to lift them to light. Physically, we’re all stardust, recycled remnants of faraway stars that exploded, fusing the elements we know on Earth. In this creation story, the world is sparks of light concealed by shards of the primordial breaking.Įverything we know is a product of breaking. G!d began creation anew, from shards of that cosmic shattering. G!d created vessels to hold infinite light, but they shattered, unable to hold Infinity. In Isaac Luria ’s kabbalistic description of creation, breaking is how G!d created the universe. Some principles are paramount above all, even what we believe comes from G!d’s own Self.īreaking is the way of the world. ![]() Why? Precisely to teach that nothing, not even G!d’s tablets, or whatever we imagine to be holy, is too precious to break for the sake of core principle. But those tablets are exactly what Moses breaks, and G!d applauds. If Jewish tradition would hold anything to be too important to break (“too big to fail”), then surely it’d be the tablets of the Ten Commandments. ![]() We might imagine that some things are too important to break. Sometimes behaviors, structures and things must break so new ones can arise. We learn a key lesson: sometimes things must break. Talmud records G!d to say, in essence, “More power to you!” ( Yevamot 6a ). Surprisingly, G!d isn’t upset that Moses shatters the tablets. They build a Golden Calf, point to it and celebrate: “This is your god, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Moses sees the Golden Calf and shatters the two stone tablets on it ( Exodus 32:19 ). Sinai for 40 days, the people get nervous that he’ll never return. This week’s paresha ( Ki Tisa ) redirects us with two related teachings: (1) nothing is too important to break, even purposefully and (2) spiritual builders mustn’t confuse building with purpose, lest spiritual life itself become an idol.Īfter chapters of instruction to build the Mishkan, the story gets interrupted by the Golden Calf. Spiritual builders sometimes so deeply invest in their call to build that they can forget what that call is really about. Part of a yearlong series on Torah’s wisdom about building and builders in Jewish spiritual life. ![]()
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