10 Aug EIKEV: DON’T BE AFRAID TO VISIT YOUR BROKEN PLACES WHY BREAKING THE TABLETS WAS MOSHE’S GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

“The world breaks
everyone, and
afterwards some are
stronger in the
broken places.” —
Ernest Hemingway
Broken

The simple reading of the story (recorded
twice in Torah, in Shemot, and then again in
Devarim, in this week’s parsha) goes like
this: After the Jews created a Golden Calf,
Moshe smashed the stone tablets created by
G-d, engraved with the Ten Commandments.
Moshe and G-d then “debated” the
appropriate response to this transgression
and it was decided that if the people would
truly repent, G-d would give them a second
chance. Moshe hewed a second set of stone
tablets; G-d engraved them also with the Ten
Commandments, and Moshe gave them to
the Jewish people.
Yet a few major questions come to mind.
1. Moshe, outraged by the sight of a golden
calf erected by the Hebrews as a deity,
smashed the stone tablets. He apparently felt
that the Jews were undeserving of them, and
that it would be inappropriate to give them

this Divine gift. But why did Moshe have to
break and shatter the heavenly tablets?
Moshe could have hidden them or returned
them to their heavenly maker?
2. The rabbis teach us that, “The whole
tablets and the broken tablets nestled inside
the Ark of the Covenant.” The Jews
proceeded to gather the broken fragments of
the first set of tablets and had them stored in
the Ark, in the Mishkan, together with the
second whole tablets. Both sets of tablets
were later taken into the Land of Israel and
kept side by side in the Ark, situated in the
Kodesh Hakodashim in the Beit Hamikdash
in Jerusalem.
This seems strange. Why would they place
the broken tablets in the Kodesh
Hakodashim, when these fragments were a
constant reminder of the great moral failure
of the Jewish people? Why not just disregard
them, or deposit them in a safe isolated
place?
3. In its eulogy for Moshe, the Torah chooses
this episode of smashing the tablets as the
highlight and climax of Moshe achievements.
In the closing verses of Devarim we read:
“Moshe, the servant of G-d, died there in the

land of Moab… And there arose not since a
prophet in Israel like Moshe, 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 Moshe did before the eyes of
all Israel.”
What did Moshe 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 Moshe, the Torah chooses
to conclude its tribute to Moshe by alluding
to this episode of breaking the tablets!
Granted that Moshe 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
Moshe’s life and as the theme with which to
conclude the entire Torah, all five books of
Moshe?!
In the Fragments
We need to examine this entire episode
from a deeper vantage point.
Moshe 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 have created the golden
calf, hope was not lost. Now they would
find G-d in the shattered pieces of a once
beautiful dream.
Moshe 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 human corrupt and
demoralized 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 Kodesh Hakodashim.
This conveyed the message articulated at
the very genesis of Judaism: From the
broken pieces of life you can create a
Kodesh Hakodashim.

G-d, the sages tell us, affirmed Moshe’s
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 “Kodesh Hakodashim,”
recalling the observation of one of the
Rebbe’s, “there is nothing more whole than
a broken heart.”
We often believe that G-d can be found in
our moments of spiritual wholesomeness.
But how about in the conflicts that torment
our psyches? How about when we are
struggling with depression, addiction or
confusion? How about when we feel despair
and pain? How about in every conflict

between a godless existence and a G-d-
centered existence? We associate “religion”

with “religious” moments. But how about
our “non-religious” moments?
What Moshe accomplished with 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 Moshe’s life. The
greatest achievement of Moshe was his
ability to show humanity how we can take
our brokenness and turn it into a Kodesh
Hakodashim. There is light and joy to be
found in the fragments of sacredness.