Why did Moses break the tablets? – Ki Tissa
Moses knew the law of destruction, bal tash’chit, which prohibits deliberate destruction. How then could he consciously throw down the tablets of the Ten Commandments and smash them to pieces?
Some say his action was involuntary: seeing the people dancing round the Golden Calf, he lost the physical or moral strength to hold the heavy tablets in his hands. But it is more likely that his action was deliberate.
So what was he trying to prove, and was he really justified?
These are some of the explanations:
1. He wanted to punish the people: once they worshipped an idol they no longer deserved the Ten Commandments.
2. He wanted to shock them and bring them to their senses.
3. He wanted to lessen the severity of their sin: if the tablets were in pieces there was no longer any reminder of the law they had broken.
4. He wanted to throw in his own lot with them (the Midrash puts into his mouth the words, “They have sinned; I too have now sinned. Forgive both of us, or neither!”)
Whichever view is correct, they all indicate that Moses knew what he was doing. True, his action was contrary to the law in his own Torah that prohibited deliberate destruction. But he may have had in mind the verse, “It is time to act for the Lord, for they have violated Your teaching” (Psalm 119:126; see the end of Mishnah B’rachot).
And how did God respond? According to rabbinic tradition, He replied, Yeyasher kochacha sheshibarta – “Well done that you broke the tablets!”
