Commento su Deuteronomio 9:17

AND I TOOK HOLD OF THE TWO TABLETS. This is also meant to be part of the chastisements. He is saying: “your sin was greater than could be borne,¹³⁸See Genesis 4:13. to the point that when I saw you being merry before the calf I could not restrain [my anger] and I broke the Tablets.” He had to mention this because he wanted them to realize the significance of the second Tablets, as he will explain [in the section that follows]. Possibly he is alluding further to the favor he did them when he endangered his own life by breaking the Tablets of G-d for their sake, as our Rabbis have said:¹³⁹Shemoth Rabbah 46:1. “It is better that you [Israel] be judged like an [unchaste] unmarried woman and not like an [adulterous] wife.”¹⁴⁰The Tablets represented the testimony of Israel’s “marriage” to G-d. Under such circumstances the sin of the golden calf would have brought a severe punishment upon Israel, like that of an adulterous wife. By risking his life in breaking the Tablets, Moses turned their status into that of an “unmarried person” and thus lessened their punishment. The second Tablets re-established the original bond between G-d and Israel.

ואתפש בשני הלחות ואשלכם, "and I took hold of the two Tablets and I flung them, etc." Why did Moses have to mention that "he took hold" of something which was already in his hands? Perhaps as long as the Israelites had not yet been guilty of sin the Tablets were suspended in the air slightly above Moses' hands so that he could not actually touch them. This may be what is meant when we were told in verse 16: "and the two Tablets of the covenant "were above my two hands." Moses had not said that the two Tablets were "in his hands." They seemed to carry themselves. Once Moses espied the golden calf, the Tablets lost their holiness so that Moses had to "take hold of them" with his hands.

ואשברם, for I had run out of strength to hold on to them. I have explained this on Exodus 32,19.

I did not tilt my hand and let them fall by themselves, but rather I grasped them and threw them. This was miraculous, for they were placed on his two hands, such that it was impossible for Moshe to grasp them and throw them. He received Divine help for this, which shows that even Hashem had no mercy for these holy tablets.

ואתפוש בשני הלוחות, “I grasped the two Tablets;” this too is part of the admonition, i.e. Moses described that he was unable to refrain from smashing the Tablets. He mentioned this as he wants to elaborate on the second set of Tablets, and what had occasioned the need for such a second set. It is also possible that he hinted at the favour he had done for the people at that time when he had risked immediate death by destroying G’d’s handiwork deliberately. He had done so for the sake of the people, as our sages explain in Shemot Rabbah 46 it is better to be convicted of infidelity while still only betrothed, than to be convicted after already being properly married. As long as the people had not received the Tablets, the final step in the nuptials between G’d and the people begun on the day of the revelation had not yet been taken.

ואתפוש בשני הלוחות ואשליחם מעל שתי ידי , “I took hold of the two Tablets and threw them from my two hands.” Nachmanides writes that Moses describes that he placed his life in jeopardy smashing G’d’s Tablets for the benefit of the people. He considered it as preferable that the people committed infidelity while not married than to their being married at the time (if they had already received the Tablets).

V. 17. ואתפש. Bis dahin trug ich sie auf meinen Händen, ich war nur Träger und Überbringer eines mir anvertrauten Gutes. Beim Anblick eurer Versündigung ergriff ich, handelte ich aus eigenem Antriebe, nach eigenem Entschluss, ich begriff, dass mein Auftrag zu Ende war, dass es Verrat an dem mir anvertrauten Gute wäre, euch zu dessen Depositären zu machen, ואשלכם מעל שתי ידי und warf das zu Boden, was mir zu überbringen anvertraut war.

ואשליכם מעל שתי ידי, “I cast them out of my two hands;” this is what Kohelet 3,5 had in mind when he wrote: עת להשליך אבנים, “there is an appropriate time for throwing stones.” (instead of gathering them in)” He referred to the first set of Tablets. When he continued with: עת כנוס אבנים, “an appropriate time for gathering in stones,” he referred to the second set of Tablets.

ואשברם לעיניכם, “I smashed them in front of your eyes.” I did this in order not to make you guilty of transgressing the laws written thereon. It was written on them that you are not to have other deities, and you had made a golden calf for yourselves.!”.