פּירוש אויף שמות 32:16

מעשה אלהים המה [THE TABLETS WERE] THE WORK OF GOD — This means what it literally implies: God Himself (Hebrew: in His glory) made them. Another explanation (taking מעשה in the sense of “occupation”) is: Just as a man says to his fellow, “All that Mr. So-and-so occupies himself with is only with such-and-such a work”, so is the delight of the Holy One, blessed be He, confined to the Torah alone (cf. Proverbs 8:31 the whole of which chapter is taken as a description of God’s relation to the Torah) (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 16).

והלוחות מעשה אלוקים המה, “the raw material that the Tablets consisted of was of Divine manufacture.” This is pointed out here in order to impress the reader of the magnitude of losing such a gift made by G-d’s own hands.

AND THE TABLETS WERE THE WORK OF G-D. It would have been proper for Scripture to mention everything connected with the work of the Tablets of the Law in the verse, And He gave unto Moses [… the two Tablets of the Testimony],³⁵³Above, 31:18. as He said [there], written with the finger of G-d.³⁵³Above, 31:18. It is, however, mentioned here in order to tell of their high distinction [that they were the work of G-d], thus stating that despite all this Moses did not hesitate to break them, because he was angered upon seeing that evil sight and he could not restrain himself from breaking them. Or the matter may be as our Rabbis have mentioned,³⁵⁴Shemoth Rabbah 46:1. that the writing vanished from the Tablets as he approached the border [of the camp] where the calf was, the place of defilement and transgression.

חרות — The expressions חרת (which occurs only here in Scriptures) and חרט have the same meaning, both of them signifying engraving; entailler in old French