The final words of the Torah mention about what Moshe did לעיני כל ישראל, before the eyes of all of Israel. To which event is this referring? Our Sages teach us that this refers to Moshe's having broken the Luchos, the two Tablets. It seems very puzzling that this is how the Torah should end, that the crescendo at the conclusion of the Torah should be emphasizing this act of Moshe's. Is this the be-all-end-all summation of his accomplishments?
At the beginning of the Torah we are told that וחושך על פני תהום, and there was darkness on the face of the depths. The ARIZA"L points out that the final letters of that phrase spells out the word כלים, vessels, specifically vessels that are dark. This is an allusion to the well-known Kabbalistic concept of the breaking of the vessels. Namely that God created ten Sefirot, spiritual entities, that form the spiritual building blocks of creation. At Creation God poured the Sefirot into vessels to contain them, however the vessels proved to be too weak, they shattered. The Sefirot and the broken vessels tumbled out and were scattered throughout creation. It is our job to find these lost lights, rebuild the vessels, and by doing so to perfect the world.
This was not a mistake; it was not some Godly blooper of misjudging how much the vessels could handle. Rather, this exemplifies how God created the world. He shows us tantalizing views of what can be and should be, but he leaves it up to us to make it so. He doesn't make it so Himself. But, if he were not to show us what could be, we would never realize what could be and aspire to accomplish it.
The breaking of the Tablets by Moshe was another manifestation of this phenomenon. The first Tablets were made by God Himself. The Nation had not worked on self-perfection to achieve what they saw at Mt. Sinai, God took them out of Egypt and raised them up to levels beyond what they truly were. Since it was not a point they had come to on their own, it was unsustainable. But they had seen and comprehended enough to know what they could become. God took Himself away from them, the people turned to the עגל הזהב (Golden Calf) and Moshe came down and shattered the Tablets.
This was lesson one, you cannot sustain something you have not earned. Lesson two was having Moshe make the new Tablets; not God-like the first ones, this time a human would make them. Only through human hands could they last. This was teaching the Nation the most fundamental lessons of what God wants from us in our lifetimes. This was the lesson of Teshuva, of how to return to God and to repair the world. There was no greater lesson that Moshe could possibly teach us. But this ability to grow, to change, to become and to sustain, required a destruction to precede it; to destroy what God had created and for man to remake it.
This is why the final strains of the Torah allude to Moshe's having broken the Tablets, it was his crowning achievement. There is an allusion to this also in the final words of the Torah: ,משה לעיני כל ישראל, Moshe before the eyes of all of Israel. If you take the first letter of each word, and unscramble them, you once again get the word כלים, vessels. Unlike the allusion to vessels at the beginning of the Torah which we mentioned earlier, which was hinted to with the letters at the end of the words, showing that it was the dark-side of the vessels, this time it is alluded to with the letters at the beginning of the words, to lets us know that Moshe had taught how the vessels can be made whole and proper.
At the beginning of the Torah we are told that וחושך על פני תהום, and there was darkness on the face of the depths. The ARIZA"L points out that the final letters of that phrase spells out the word כלים, vessels, specifically vessels that are dark. This is an allusion to the well-known Kabbalistic concept of the breaking of the vessels. Namely that God created ten Sefirot, spiritual entities, that form the spiritual building blocks of creation. At Creation God poured the Sefirot into vessels to contain them, however the vessels proved to be too weak, they shattered. The Sefirot and the broken vessels tumbled out and were scattered throughout creation. It is our job to find these lost lights, rebuild the vessels, and by doing so to perfect the world.
This was not a mistake; it was not some Godly blooper of misjudging how much the vessels could handle. Rather, this exemplifies how God created the world. He shows us tantalizing views of what can be and should be, but he leaves it up to us to make it so. He doesn't make it so Himself. But, if he were not to show us what could be, we would never realize what could be and aspire to accomplish it.
This was lesson one, you cannot sustain something you have not earned. Lesson two was having Moshe make the new Tablets; not God-like the first ones, this time a human would make them. Only through human hands could they last. This was teaching the Nation the most fundamental lessons of what God wants from us in our lifetimes. This was the lesson of Teshuva, of how to return to God and to repair the world. There was no greater lesson that Moshe could possibly teach us. But this ability to grow, to change, to become and to sustain, required a destruction to precede it; to destroy what God had created and for man to remake it.
This is why the final strains of the Torah allude to Moshe's having broken the Tablets, it was his crowning achievement. There is an allusion to this also in the final words of the Torah: ,משה לעיני כל ישראל, Moshe before the eyes of all of Israel. If you take the first letter of each word, and unscramble them, you once again get the word כלים, vessels. Unlike the allusion to vessels at the beginning of the Torah which we mentioned earlier, which was hinted to with the letters at the end of the words, showing that it was the dark-side of the vessels, this time it is alluded to with the letters at the beginning of the words, to lets us know that Moshe had taught how the vessels can be made whole and proper.
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