Êxodo 34:1 Comentário: Rashi, Chizkuni, Rabbeinu Bahya & Malbim

פסל לך HEW THEE — He showed him a quarry of sapphire in his tent and said to him: The chips (פסל = פסלת) shall be thine (לך). It was from this that Moses became so rich (cf. Midrash Tanchuma 3:9:29; Leviticus Rabbah 32:2).

ויאמר ה' אל משה פסל לך, “Hashem said to Moses: “carve out for yourself, etc.;” This was said to Moses on the night of the 29th day of Av.

פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים כראשונים וכתבתי, “carve for yourself two stone tablets similar to the original ones and I shall write, etc”. When G’d said: וכתבתי, “I will write,” the meaning is “with a finger,” just as we had been told of the first Tablets that they had been written “with the finger of G‘d” (32,18). When G’d spoke of the second Tablets being כראשונים, “like the first ones,” the reference was to the writing not to the material they were made of. The first Tablets were made of material provided by G’d, not material provided by man which Moses carried all the way up the mountain.

Another explanation of פסל לך is: פסל לך HEW THYSELF — thou hast broken the first tablets, do thou therefore hew others. A parable: this may be compared to a king who travelled to a remote country (more lit., to a province over-sea) leaving his betrothed at home with her handmaids. Through the immoral conduct of her handmaids she also gained a bad reputation (more lit., there went forth against her an evil name). Her bridesman arose and tore up the marriage-contract saying: If the king proposes to kill her I shall say to him, “She is not yet thy wife” (the marriage contract which might have served as evidence being destroyed. The king made enquiry, found that the immorality had been only on the hand maids’ side and became reconciled with her. Her bridesman then said to the king, “Write another marriage contract for her because the first has been torn up”. Whereupon the king replied: You tore it up; do you therefore purchase for her new paper and I will write it for her in My handwriting. So, here, too: the King is the Holy One blessed be He, the handmaids are the mixed multitude, the bride’s friend is Moses, and the betrothed of the Holy One, blessed be He, is Israel — therefore it is said פסל לך, “Hew thyself the new tablets” (Midrash Tanchuma 3:9:30).