B"H

Friday, Adar1 17, 5779 / February 22, 2019

In this week’s Parsha, Ki Tisa, we read about Moshe’s breaking of the Tablets, as he came down Mount Sinai when he saw the Golden Calf.  We also read that after Moshe prayed for their forgiveness, G-d gave him a second set of Tablets.

Q.   What happened to the broken Tablets?

A.  They were kept together with the Second Tablets inside the Ark.

Q.  Why were the first Tablets so special that they were preserved after getting the second Tablets?

A.  The first Tablets were completely the work of G-d.  The Tablets were Divine made and the writing in them was divinely engraved.  In the second Tablets only the writing was engraved by G-d, but the Tablets themselves were brought up to Mount Sinai by Moshe. They were man made.

Q.    The Parsha tells us that, after the people worshipped the Golden Calf, G-d told Moshe, who was on the mountain, “Go down because your people have sinned, they made a molten Calf.” Yet, only after Moshe saw the Golden Calf did he break the Tablets. Why didn't he break them immediately? After all, G-d told him that they made the Golden Calf?

A.  Even though G-d told him that the people sinned; Moshe didn't judge them until he saw it for himself. Our sages tell us that this is a lesson never to judge anyone based on hearsay.

Q.   How long after he broke the first Tablets did Moshe receive the second Tablets?

A.   Eighty days later. It was on Yom Kippur that he came down with the second Tablets.

Q.   What happened to the Golden Calf?

A.  The Torah tells us that Moshe took the calf and burned it in fire, he then ground it to fine powder and scattered it upon the surface of the water and gave it to the people of Israel to drink.  Whoever sinned perished after drinking the water.

Q.   Where did Michelangelo get the idea to put horns on his sculpture of Moshe?

A.  In the Parsha it says that when Moshe came down with the Tablets his face “shone.” The Torah used the word “Koran” which means to shine.  “Horn” in Hebrew is “Keren.”  Michelangelo's Bible was a Latin translation and it was mistranslated to “horns” instead of “shine.”  Moshe definitely didn't have horns!  It teaches us that when studying Torah one must be very careful to study from an authentic and proper translation.

SHABBAT SHALOM

Montreal candle lighting time: 5:13 / Shabbat ends: 6:17