A TALE OF TWO SETS OF TABLETS

 This week's parsha - Ki Tisa - discusses the way Moses shattered the Two Tablets he received from G-d when he came down the mountain and saw how the people degenerated into idol worship. Moses ascended Mount Sinai once again to procure G-d's forgiveness. After G-d acceded to Moses' request, He asked Moses to hew a new set of Tablets from the mountain in which G-d etched the Ten Commandments. This second set of Tablets was finally brought down by Moses and given to the people on the day of Yom Kippur.

There were two salient differences between the two sets of Tablets. The first difference is that the first Tablets were shattered, whereas the second set are intact to this day. According to Maimonides (based on the Talmud) the Tablets are contained within the Ark which has been hidden in a subterranean chamber beneath the Temple in Jerusalem. And although the first set of Tablets that were shattered were always kept in the Ark together with the second set, they were nevertheless not functional as the second set. One could not read the words on them.

A second difference between the two sets of Tablets is that the first set was entirely the handiwork of G-d. G-d not only engraved the words of the Ten Commandments in the stone, He actually provided the stone as well. The stone for the second set, however, was hewn and supplied by Moses. G-d then etched the Ten Commandments into the stone provided by Moses.

On the surface, these two differences are not connected. If anything, they appear antithetical. It would have seemed that the first Tablets that were entirely the creation of G-d and were therefore holier, should have endured, whereas the handiwork of Moses should have been more vulnerable. Yet, the opposite was true. Precisely the Second Tablets, which were contributed by Moses, would remain intact, while the holier First Tablets were shattered. How do we explain this anomaly?

In truth, the reason the Second Tablets endured is precisely because Moses had a share in their making. And this leads us to a point that goes against the popular way of viewing the difference between the so-called "man-made" products and those that we refer to as "natural."

It is almost axiomatic in many ideological circles that anything that is natural is good because it represents G-d's handiwork, whereas the things that were produced by humans are, by definition, defective. At first glance, this analysis holds water since we know that G-d is perfect and man is inherently flawed. When flawed humans take a creation of G-d and alter it, they have the capacity to taint that product. At the very least, humans will compromise some of natures intrinsic beauty, sanctity and integrity.

And while this distinction between G-d's creations and ours is valid in some areas of life?we do indeed have the capacity to mess up G-d's world?it is a distinction that Judaism fundamentally rejects on several grounds.

First, the distinction between natural and man made is an artificial one. The same G-d that created natural products also created the human brain and the ingenuity to alter nature. One cannot postulate that an herb is more G-dly than a synthetic chemical. Whether one should use a natural medication or a synthetic one, for example, lies solely on the results they will yield. If the natural one does a better job of treating the illness with fewer risks and side-effects, than of course, one should prefer the natural one. But, if the synthetic one proves to be more effective then it is not a repudiation of G-d's handiwork to prefer that which was synthesized by humans, for the human being and his or her knowledge is also a creation of G-d. 

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the debate of natural versus man-made hinges on what man does with the natural.

When the Torah records the story of creation in the beginning of Genesis it sums it up with the following words that have been incorporated into the Friday night Kiddush service with which we usher in the Sabbath:

"And G-d blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because in it He rested from all His work which G-d in creating had made." The final words of this verse are problematic. It could have just stated: He rested from all His work that He created."

Chassidic thought cites a more profound understanding of this verse that is also more consistent with its literal meaning: "In it He rested from all His work that G-d created for us to perfect."

In this verse lies the Torah's philosophy concerning the interplay between the G-d created natural universe and the role of humans:

G-d deliberately created a world that is lacking perfection. And the definition of "lacking perfection" ranges from things that are downright harmful such as poisons and destructive natural forces to things such as diamonds that are exquisite in their beauty, but need human hands to extract them, cut them, polish them etc., so that their intrinsic beauty can be seen and enjoyed by all.

Why did G-d create an imperfect world? Because He wanted us to lend our G-d given talents to make the world a perfect world. But He also gave us free choice to either fulfill our mission or ignore it, and even worse, to corrupt the world. Thus, when we live up to G-d's expectation of us and make the right choice by contributing our own ingenuity to making the world a more G-dly place, thereby perfecting G-d's handiwork, as it were, we endow the world with even more G-dly energy than it possessed previously.

We can now understand why "Moses' Tablets" endured while G-d's were shattered.

Precisely because the Tablets Moses hewed from the mountain represented the fusion of Moses' positive efforts with G-d's words, his work represented, in many ways, a superior Divine product than the Tablets in which there was no human participation.

Moreover, it was not just Moses' physical efforts at hewing the stone from the quarry that we are discussing. Moses expended much physical, emotional and spiritual energy (by praying to G-d for forty days and nights, offering his own life, etc.) in getting G-d to agree to forgive the Jews and give them a second set of Tablets. All of these self-sacrificing efforts contributed a higher dimension of G-dly, and endowed the Tablets with a greater power of endurance than the Tablets that were entirely G-d's handiwork.

The application of this thought to our lives in this day and age relates to our role in bringing about the Messianic Age.

For thousands of years we are waiting for the coming of Moshiach and the ultimate Redemption from exile. Besides the benefits of peace and prosperity the Messianic Age will usher in, the most important aspect of this glorious age is that it will reveal unprecedented dimensions of G-dly light.

What is it that will introduce this incredible revelation of G-dly light that was not present even when the world was created?

It is the cumulative effects of the good deeds of human beings that can and will generate a more sublime and permanent revelation of Divine energy. Only human action when it is fused with G-d's words etched into it?akin to the Second Tablets?can contribute such Divine power and light.