The Tablets Have Shattered Again – Parshat Ki Tissa |
There are moments in Jewish history when it feels as though the tablets have shattered all over again.
October 7 was such a moment.
The images.The names.The unbearable stories.
And now, as another war unfolds, as rockets fall and threats multiply — from Hamas to Hezbollah, from the Ayatollahs in Tehran to the ancient hatred that wears new uniforms — it can feel as though our national story is once again being written in shards.
But Parashat Ki Tissa insists that shattered tablets are not the end of the story.
They are the beginning of the second ones.
The Sound of Stone Breaking
The Torah describes the moment with devastating simplicity:
“וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר קָרַב אֶל הַמַּחֲנֶה… וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ מִיָּדָו אֶת הַלֻּחֹת וַיְשַׁבֵּר אֹתָם תַּחַת הָהָר.”“And when he drew near to the camp… he cast the tablets from his hands and shattered them beneath the mountain.” (Exodus 32:19)
“וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר קָרַב אֶל הַמַּחֲנֶה… וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ מִיָּדָו אֶת הַלֻּחֹת וַיְשַׁבֵּר אֹתָם תַּחַת הָהָר.”“And when he drew near to the camp… he cast the tablets from his hands and shattered them beneath the mountain.” (Exodus 32:19)
Moshe sees the Golden Calf. The covenant in his arms meets a people in betrayal.
And he breaks the tablets.
Rashi, citing the Midrash, offers a daring interpretation. Moshe reasons: if Israel, who are commanded in 613 mitzvot, have violated the covenant so quickly, how can they be worthy of the tablets? He breaks them to protect the people — like a groom who tears up a marriage contract before presenting it to a bride who has already betrayed him. And astonishingly, God later says to Moshe: “יישר כוחך ששיברת” — “Well done for breaking them.”
There are moments when breaking is not destruction but protection.
There are moments when the illusion must shatter before something deeper can emerge.
October 7 shattered illusions.
Illusions of safety.Illusions of moral clarity.Illusions that hatred had faded into history.
The sound of stone breaking echoed again.
We Cannot Let Our Enemies Write Our Tablets
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