Shattering the Tablets
“Shatter, shatter for me, you who understand, the old tablets.”
No, these words were not said by Moses, but rather by Zarathustra, the protagonist in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” written in 1883 by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
This Shabbat falls during Chol Hamoed Sukkot (an intermediate day during the holiday of Sukkot); therefore, we read a special holiday reading rather than continuing with the portions chronologically.
The assigned reading is a curious one. One portion before beginning to read the Torah all over again, we are transposed back to the aftermath of the Golden Calf ordeal, specifically into what I would argue is probably the most important conversation the Torah contains.
The conversation takes place between Moses and God and centers around the renewal of the covenant between God and the people of Israel, who moments ago committed the ultimate betrayal and created a false God to replace Adonai.
Moses, the leader who is responsible for this renewal, asks deep theological questions and confronts God directly about his own nature.
"וַֽיְהִ֗י כַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר קָרַב֙ אֶל־הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וַיַּ֥רְא אֶת־הָעֵ֖גֶל וּמְחֹלֹ֑ת וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֣ף מֹשֶׁ֗ה וַיַּשְׁלֵ֤ךְ מִיָּדָו֙ אֶת־הַלֻּחֹ֔ת וַיְשַׁבֵּ֥ר אֹתָ֖ם תַּ֥חַת הָהָֽר׃
“As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.”
Commentaries of this verse are numerous. Why did Moses break the tablets? Did he break them, or did they slip out of his hands due to the shock of what he saw? Was it a calculated decision or a heat of the moment act? A lot has been written.
One commentary which stands out is of the Meshech Chochma (Rabbi Meir Simcah HaChohen of Dvisnk 1843-1926):
“...And do not think that the Temple and the Mishkan are holy things in and of themselves. God forbid! God, may God’s Name be blessed, is found amongst God’s children, and if they transgress the covenant, all of the holiness of the Temple and mishkan is removed from them, and [the Temple and mishkan] become profane… Titus entered the Holy of Holies and degraded it and he was not harmed because of it, since its holiness had been removed. In addition, the tablets which had God’s writing, even they were not themselves holy, but only holy for the Israelites, and since the Israelites acted as a prostitute underneath the wedding canopy, the tablets were considered to be like profane vessels without any holiness in and of themselves, but rather only if you observe [the commandments in] the tablets. The sum of the matter is that there is nothing sacred in the world…”
אין שום עניין קדוש בעולם- there is nothing sacred in the world.
What Meshech Chochma tells us, which is very similar to what Yeshayahu Leibovich will later say, is that nothing in the world is inherently sacred. Not the Temple and not the tablets. Once holiness has been removed from them, they are no longer worthy of protection.
The tablets may have contained an important, worthy and sacred message, but unfortunately there was no one ready to receive it. This is why, Meshech Chochma suggests, Moses broke them. Even moreso, the Israelites’ state of mind was that of people who were looking for worldly objects or images to make holy and to worship, and had they been given the tablets, they would make them objects of idol worship too. By making the actual object, their God, and following it blindly, they would turn a moral code into a dangerous doctrine.
Here comes Nietzsche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a work which encompasses many of Nietzsche’s core ideas, and in particular his idea of the Ubermentsch (Superhuman), which is translated in modern translations into the Overman.
In the heart of Nietzsche’s philosophy, the goal of every human is to reach their true potential and fulfill it. To reach one’s true potential, one must first find out who they really are. Nietzsche describes this journey through a few stages humans should go through, the transitioning from the Camel to the Lion to the Child.
The Camel is us as were shaped by everything around us, a reflection of what we were told to do or not to do since birth, a burden, which like the Camel, we carry upon ourselves — and it just keeps accumulating.
The Lion is the phase where we begin to question this burden which is on our back and begin to relieve ourselves of it, one layer at a time. This process is not an easy one; it is a struggle, a war if you will, against what he describes as a dragon, which keeps lashing us with numerous “Thou Shalt Not!!’’ In that war between the Lion and the Dragon, we are supposed to come out on top with the “Tablets” we were carrying, shattered.
“Thou shalt not rob! Thou shalt not kill!'-such words were once called holy; before them one bent the knee and bowed the head and took off one's shoes. But I ask you now: Where have there ever been better robbers and killers in the world than these holy words have been? Does all life not itself comprise-robbing and killing? And that such words were called holy, was truth itself not thereby-killed? Or was it a preaching of death that called holy whatever contradicted and spoke against all life? - O my brothers, shatter, shatter for me the old tablets!”
Nietzsche’s message here is very similar to the Meshech Chochma. These very tablets which were supposed to liberate us and protect us, have become the exact mechanism which oppressed us. The cry against crime becomes the crime itself.
In that Nietzsche criticizes organized religion. Incredibly, just as the Meshech Chochma does — only he calls it idol worship.
So what now? The tablets are shuttered. We shattered them so as not to turn them into our new false God. Then what are we left with? This is the moment, according to Nietzsche, where we can transition in to the final stage, that of the Child. What does it mean to become a Child?
The answer lies in our special holiday reading this week, in that profound conversation between God and Moses.
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל לִרְאֹ֣ת אֶת־פָּנָ֑י כִּ֛י לֹֽא־יִרְאַ֥נִי הָאָדָ֖ם וָחָֽי׃ - “But you cannot see My face, for a human being may not see Me and live.”
In this famous verse God tells Moses that faith and God are not of this world, and living beings cannot perceive God. And there is a reason. As soon as something becomes worldly, we are in danger of worshiping it like a false idol, turning it into a crime.
True faith in God is on one hand full of doubt and on the other hand creative. We can glimpse or feel just enough of it in order to do the work ourselves, repair the world on our own, not deviating from the path, following a thin trail of what in our reading is described as God’s backside.
וַהֲסִרֹתִי֙ אֶת־כַּפִּ֔י וְרָאִ֖יתָ אֶת־אֲחֹרָ֑י וּפָנַ֖י לֹ֥א יֵרָאֽוּ׃ {פ}
“Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.”
We read it this Shabbat instead of the last portion of the Torah - Vezot Haberacha.
The last verse of the entire Torah is:
וּלְכֹל֙ הַיָּ֣ד הַחֲזָקָ֔ה וּלְכֹ֖ל הַמּוֹרָ֣א הַגָּד֑וֹל אֲשֶׁר֙ עָשָׂ֣ה מֹשֶׁ֔ה לְעֵינֵ֖י כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.
What is the great power which Moses displayed before all Israel? Why did the author choose to end the entire Torah with those words?
To that rashi explains: “לעיני כל ישראל [WHICH MOSES SHOWED] BEFORE THE EYES OF ALL ISRAEL — This refers to the fact that his heart inspired him to shatter the Tablets before their eyes.”
