What Rests Alongside the Ark and Inside it? The Tablets of the Covenant

 

            Of what type of stone were the tablets made?[1]

 

            Chazal in several places write that the tablets were formed of sapphire. Several sources refer to "sanpirinon," which is equivalent to "sapir," sapphire:

 

Hew for yourself – R. Huna said: The [first] tablets were not created from an earthly material, but from a heavenly material, the handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: “Hew for yourself two tablets of stone,” a sapphire quarry was created for Moshe in his tent and he hewed them, as it is stated: "And he hewed two tablets of stone like the first ones."  (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 46)

 

R. Levi and R. Yochanan said: From where were they hewn? One said: He hewed them from under the Throne of Glory, and one said: A quarry was created for him in his tent and from there he quarried two tablets of stone, and he took the chips, and from there he became rich, as they were sapphires. (Tanchuma, Parashat Ekev 9)

 

Tablets of stone – Our Rabbis of blessed memory said: They were cut from the Throne of Glory, and they were of sapphire. And so too it says: "And there was under His feet a kind of paved work of sapphire stone [livnat sapir]" (Shemot 24:10), and it says: "The likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone" (Yechezkel 1:26). (Midrash Lekach Tov, Shemot 31:18)

 

            The correspondence between sapphire-like appearance of the tablets and the appearance of sapphire seen by Nadav and Avihu and the seventy elders is also expounded in the Sifrei (Beha'alotekha, 101). The verses cited there imply that the reference is to both the first set of tablets and the second set of tablets.

 

            What was the appearance of the sapphire? The Rishonim offer several explanations:

 

1. Rabbeinu Bachya in the name of the Ibn Ezra (Shemot 24:10), as well as the Bekhor Shor and the Chizkuni – The appearance of sapphire seen by Nadav, Avihu and the seventy elders was an appearance of blue; the appearance of the sapphire of the tablets is derived from there.

 

2. Rabbeinu Bachya in the name of R. Saadya Gaon (ibid.) – The phrase "livnat ha-sapir" (Shemot 24:10) is derived from the word "loven," whiteness. This indicates great purity, that the light is visible behind them. To this we may perhaps add the view of R. Saadya Gaon, who explains that the stones were made of pearl; it is possible that he maintains that the tablets were white.

 

3. Ibn Ezra (ibid.) – The sapphire was red in appearance.

 

            The midrashim and the commentators who draw a connection between the stone of which the tablets were formed and the "paved work of sapphire stone" wish to connect the tablets to God's throne and presence. The tablets, as it were, were taken from the seat of the Shekhina, the throne of God, and the very material of which they are formed expresses more than anything else God's appearance in the world.

 

            This explanation is connected to the intimate relationship between God and His Torah, from which, as it were, He is unable to separate Himself (according to Midrash Shemot Rabba, the beginning of Parashat Teruma). He therefore asks Israel to make a room for Him so that He can dwell among them, a room containing the Torah and, as it were, God's presence owing to the Torah.

 

Tablets of Stone

 

            What is the significance of the fact that the tablets were made of stone? We find answers to this question in several midrashim.

 

Tablets of stone – Why of stone? Because most of the punishments in the Torah involve stoning. Therefore, it says: "Tablets of stone." (Shemot Rabba 41:8)

 

Tablets of stone – Why tablets of stone? So that they should overpower their hearts which is like stone, as it is stated: "And I shall remove the heart of stone." (Midrash Ha-Gadol, ad loc.

 

Tablets of stone – By the merit of Ya'akov, about whom it is written: "From thence from the shepherd, the Stone of Israel." (Tanchuma Yashan 12)

 

The Chizkuni writes in the wake of the Bekhor Shor:

 

Tablets of stone – Which are not subject to rot.  (Shemot 31:18)

 

The midrash expounds the following verse:

 

And the Lord said to Moshe, “Come up to Me to the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, and the Torah and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” (Shemot 24:12)

 

Tablets of stone – "I went down into the garden of nuts" (Shir ha-Shirim 6:11). Just as a nut is broken by a stone, so too the Torah is called a stone and the evil impulse is called a stone. The Torah is called a stone, as it is stated: "And I shall give you the tablets of stone," and the evil impulse is called a stone, as it is stated: "And I shall remove the heart of stone from your flesh." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: The Torah is called a stone and the evil impulse is called a stone. Let the stone watch over the stone. (Midrash Shir Ha-shirim Rabba 6:17)

 

            The more recent commentators also assigned significance to the fact that the tablets were made specifically of stone. For example, the Maharal of Prague relates to the issue in several places:

 

In the midrash [see Torah Sheleima, Bereishit 49:24, no. 333, and in the notes, ad loc.]: Stone - this is Ya'akov, as it is written: "From thence from the shepherd, the Stone of Israel" (Bereishit 49:24). What this means is that owing to the great strength that these four kingdoms have, for God gave these four kingdoms human strength… and there was no cancellation of this strength but by the hands of Ya'akov whose strength is called the strength of stone. This is a very profound matter, that Ya'akov's strength is called the strength of stone, for Ya'akov has separate holy strength, as we explained elsewhere. For Ya'akov is the especially holy one, as is known in many places. And therefore it is written: "For they shall sanctify the Holy One of Ya'akov" (Yeshaya 29:23)… And because of his holy standing, he cancels the strength of these kingdoms. Therefore, he is called stone, as it is written: "From thence from the shepherd, the Stone of Israel," as we have elsewhere spelled out at length. For a separate being is similar to a stone, for matter is effected, but a separate being is not effected. It merely acts upon others, but is not acted upon. Yaakov is therefore called a stone, because a stone is not effected, since it is very strong, and it acts upon others. Therefore, the Torah was not written on a tablet of gold or silver, but only on stone, as we have explained in tractate Eiruvin. (Ner Mitzva, p. 19)

 

            According to the Maharal, the midrash connects Ya'akov to stone because Ya'akov enjoyed holy and separate strength, and that which is separate is similar to stone. Matter is effected, but a separate being is not effected and only acts upon others.

 

            Elsewhere, the Maharal adds another dimension:

 

You should also know that the intellect is similar to stone. This will be explained soon with respect to "a land whose stones are iron," that the intellect is similar to stone. It seems that those who used to throw stones at Merculis did so because a stone is something very hard and similar to a being that is separate from matter. For the material is easily acted upon, as we explained regarding the tablets of stone. Therefore, anything that is separate is called stone, because stone is something hard, as will be explained below. Their intention was that the idol is something separate and immaterial, and therefore it is specifically a stone that is fit for it. Therefore, one who teaches an unfit disciple is similar to a stone that is thrown at Merculis. Because from the perspective of the Torah and its standing, it is not right that it should be given to an unfit disciple. Therefore, the Torah goes out to something strange, and it is as if he is throwing a stone at Merculis, which is something strange, because it is idolatry. Since the Torah goes out to something strange, it too leaves its standing, and it is considered like stone, for a stone is similar to a separate being, but it has no substance. (Netiv ha-Torah, chap. 8)

 

            R. S.R. Hirsch explains the matter as follows:

 

Tablets of stone - Whereas the ark that was to receive it was made from "tree" material, the tablet of the law is of stone. The given law is unchangeable; we, its receivers and observers, are to develop ourselves on it, and about it and through it in constant progress. (Shemot 31:18)

 

            The comparison between the wooden ark and the stone tablets sharpens the fact that no changes will ever be made in the Torah. Rather, man, who receives the Torah, will be elevated by it, through a course of constant and uninterrupted development. R. Hirsch similarly comments on the command to build the ark:

 

An ark of shittim wood – Israel receives the Torah with its, Israel's, eternally fresh ability for development and progress and for this progressive development. The Torah is given complete, concluded; the tablets are stone ones. The two together form a complete cube of stone. Each tablet is six handbreadths long, six handbreadths wide, and three handbreadths thick, so that together they form a solid cube of six cubic handbreadths, a cubic cubit, the largest unit in cubes (see Sanhedrin 14a). Not the Torah, but we are the tree; we can, and we should develop and ennoble ourselves in unending progress through the Torah. Israel receives the Torah to become thereupon: "And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water" (Tehillim 1:3). (Shemot 25:10)

 

            Rav Kook also relates to the meaning of the stone tablets:

 

"R. Levi bar Chama said in the name of Resh Lakish: What is that which is written: 'And I will give you the tablets of stone, and the Torah, and the commandments which I have written; that you may teach them' (Shemot 24:12). 'And I will give you the tablets of stone' – these are the Ten Commandments; 'and the Torah' – this is Scripture; 'that you may teach them' – this is the Gemara; this teaches that all of them were given to Moshe at Sinai.” That the tablets are called here "tablets of stone" is, in my opinion, precise and intentional, and so too in other places. R. Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenberg already commented upon this in his siddur, Iyyun Tefilla, in the morning service for Shabbat, and in his commentary, Ha-Ketav ve-ha-Kabbala. In my opinion, stone is the material upon which was engraved the writing of God. Now those who change the Torah with their wicked opinions say that we have to preserve only the spirit of the Torah and its general intent, but the actions, the matter of the Torah, they change in accordance with the spirit of the time. In order to exclude such false ideas, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Ten Commandments, which are a sign of the covenant regarding the entire Torah, made of stone, a hard material not subject to any change. As Chazal said, they were of sapphire, so that even a hammer is smashed by them. This teaches that even the matter of our Holy Torah is not subject to any change, God forbid. All the actions regarding which we were commanded by God regarding the performance of the commandments are an eternal statute, commanded from generation to generation. Now the destroyers among us – their evil opinions are directed at matters of the Oral Law, which we find at times to be contrary to the plain sense of Scripture, and they imagined, God forbid, that Chazal changed our holy Torah. But in truth, they were all given to Moshe at Sinai in the Oral Law. Therefore it says: "The tablets of stone" – these are the Ten Commandments, whose matter as well is strong, not subject to change, and it is impossible that change should apply to them; "and the Torah, and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach them" – all of them were given to Moshe at Sinai; they were not changed, and not one iota will ever change, and the word of our God will remain forever. (Ayin Ayah, Berakhot 27)

 

            The Torah and the tablets were given in stone, which is not subject to any change, and all the actions that we have been commanded by God to perform are an eternal statute. This is of special importance in light of those who say that it suffices to keep the spirit of the Torah, but the actions, the matter of the Torah, may be changed in accordance with the spirit of the time.[2]

 

What was written on the tablets

 

And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words. (Shemot 34:28)

 

            We read in the Mekhilta:

 

How were the Ten Commandments given? Five on one tablet and five on the other tablet.

It is written: "I am the Lord your God," and corresponding to it: "You shall not murder." Scripture teaches that whoever sheds blood, Scripture ascribes to him as if he has diminished the image of the king. This may be likened to a king of flesh and blood who entered a city and set up statues and made images and minted coins. Later, they overturned his statutes, smashed his images, and cancelled his coins, and diminished the image of the king. So too, one who sheds blood, Scripture assigns to him as if he has diminished the image of the king, as it says: "One who sheds the blood of man."

It is written: "You shall not have," and it is written corresponding to it: "You shall not commit adultery." Scripture teaches that whoever serves idols, Scripture ascribes to him as if he committed adultery against God, as it is stated: "A wife that commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband" (Yechezkel 16:32). And it is written: "Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go yet, love a woman who is beloved by a paramour, and an adulteress’" (Hoshea 3:1).

It is written: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." And it is written corresponding to it: "You shall not steal." This teaches that whoever steals will come to an oath taken in vain. As it is stated: "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery" (Yirmiya 7:9), and it is written: "There is swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery" (Hoshea 4:2).

It is written: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," and corresponding to it, it is written: "You shall not bear false witness.” Scripture teaches that whoever desecrates Shabbat testifies before He who spoke and the world came into being that He did not create His world in six days and He did rest on the seventh day. And whoever keeps Shabbat testifies before he who spoke and the world came into being that He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, as it is stated: "You are My witnesses, says the Lord" (Yeshaya 43:12).

It is written: "Honor your father and your mother." And corresponding to it, it is written: "You shall not covet." Scripture teaches that whoever covets will in the end sire a son who curses his father and honors someone who is not his father.

Therefore the Ten Commandments were given five on one tablet and five on the other; these are the words of R. Chanina ben Gamliel. But the Sages say: There were ten on the one tablet and ten on the other tablet, as it is stated: "Which He commanded you to perform, the ten words: and He wrote them upon two tablets of stone" (Devarim 4:13). And it says: "Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle" (Shir ha-Shirim 4:5). And it says: "His hands are like rods of gold set with emeralds" (ibid. 5:14). (Yitro, parasha 8)

 

            The midrash brings here two main positions: The position of R. Chanina ben Gamliel, according to which five commandments were written on each of the tablets, and the position of the Sages, according to which all ten commandments were written on each of the tablets.

 

            According to R. Chanina ben Gamliel, it may be suggested that one tablet dealt with the commandments between man and God (the mitzva of honoring one's father and mother are included among the commandments between man and God in a certain sense), whereas the other tablet dealt with the commandments between man and his fellow. What we have here is not just a general division between the two areas; the midrash finds a particular parallel between each of the commandments on one tablet and one of the commandments on the other tablet, and therefore there is particular significance to the location of each commandment corresponding to another commandment.

 

            According to the Sages, all ten commandments were written on each of the tablets. Why was this doubling necessary?[3]

 

            The Ten Commandments were given as part of the making of the covenant between God and Israel. With every covenant and contract between two parties, it is accepted that each party receive a copy of the contract.[4] Here too, then, there are two copies of the covenant, one for God and one for the people of Israel.

 

            In light of this answer, it may be asked: What is the meaning of the location of the contract documenting the covenant that was designated for Israel in the ark of the Testimony?

 

            An answer to this question is brought in Dr. Margoliot's article. In his view, it was customary in the Ancient Near East that when a covenant was made between two parties, the junior party (the vassal) had to deposit the copy of the covenant that he had received from the great kings in his god's temple. The vassal had to take the oath of the covenant in the name of his god to the great king. Depositing the vassal's copy of the covenant in a holy place emphasized his obligation toward the king. Therefore, it was necessary to add the element of holiness that was attributed to the covenant itself regarding which the gods were seen as partners.[5]

 

            Since the people of Israel were vassals, junior partners in their covenant with God, two tablets of stone rested in the ark of the Mishkan, and afterwards in the First Temple.[6]

 

            This line of thinking to explain the doubling of the Ten Commandments, one copy on each of the two tablets, emphasizes the representation of the people of Israel in the ark in the Holy of Holies, as it were,. In a certain sense, this parallels the daring assertion of Chazal that "whenever Israel came up to the Festival, the curtain would be removed for them and the keruvim were shown to them, whose bodies were intertwined with one another, and they would be thus addressed: ‘Look! You are beloved before God as the love between man and woman’" (Yoma 54a). In the case of the two keruvim as well, the one, as it were, represents the presence of the Shekhina, while the other represents the people of Israel.

 

            According to the understanding brought above, the two keruvim parallel the two tablets. The number "2" is not accidental either in the case of the two keruvim or in the case of the two tablets – they reflect the two copies of the covenant between God and the people of Israel. The people of Israel are represented, as it were, in the Holy of Holies, both in the tablets inside the ark and in the keruvim above the kaporet. When God meets with Moshe above the kaporet from between the two keruvim, Israel's copy of the covenant is found together with God's copy at the foot of the site of meeting and revelation, and the two keruvim, the one representing the people of Israel and the other representing the Shekhina, are the two witnesses to the meeting taking place between the two keruvim.

 

            It is possible to propose[7] that in Parashat Yitro, which relates directly to the Ten Commandments themselves and to their contents, the internal correspondence between the commandments is more relevant. Therefore we are dealing with five commandments on each of the tablets. In Parashat Ki-Tisa, in contrast – which expresses in the clearest manner the giving of the tablets as a covenant and the breaching of that covenant with the sin of the golden calf – it is more understandable if each of the tablets contains the Ten Commandments, as mentioned above.[8]

 

            It turns out that there are also other opinions in Chazal on the matter. The Yerushalmi brings four viewpoints:

 

How were the tablets written?

 

Chananya ben Achi Yehoshua says: Five on the one tablet and five on the other tablet, as it is stated: "And He wrote them upon two tablets of stone."

 

The Rabbis say: Ten on the one tablet and ten on the other tablet.

And R. Yochanan said: Twenty on the one tablet and twenty on the other tablet.

 

And R. Simai said: Forty on the one tablet and forty on the other tablet, as it is stated: "On the one side and on the other were they written" – in a square.

 

Chananya ben Achi Rabbi Yehoshua said: Between one commandment and another commandment were the details and letters of the Torah, as it is written: "Set with emeralds," like the great sea. When Resh Lakish reached this verse he said: Chananya ben Achi Rabbi Yehoshua taught me well: Just as this sea, between one great wave and another great wave there are small waves, so too, between one commandment and another commandment were the details and the laws of the Torah. (Shekalim 6:1)

 

            The first two opinions parallel the view of R. Chananya ben Gamliel and the view of the Sages cited earlier in the Mekhilta. Two other opinions are added to them, those of R. Yochanan and R. Simai. The Maharal of Prague relates to the first two positions, explaining that the tablets allude to the cause and the caused, and so they contain different and opposing relationships: on the one hand, a relationship of partnership and connection, while on the other hand, a relationship of separation. On the one hand, on each tablet were written the Ten Commandments, while on the other hand, there were two tablets of stone. The Maharal writes as follows:

 

The fact that there were two tablets and not one is because there are two aspects to them. Because from the perspective that these Ten Commandments are one thing that begins with God, who is the cause, and ends with man, who is caused, and man who is caused joins with the cause, it is therefore fitting that all ten be on one tablet, so that God's work, which is the tablets, should not be lacking. And from the perspective that there is a difference between the cause and that which is caused, for the first five are between man and the cause, and the last five are between man and man, therefore they were divided into two to be on two tablets. (Tiferet Yisrael, 35)

 

            In the continuation, the Maharal relates to the two additional viewpoints, according to which each tablet contained twenty or forty commandments. His primary argument is that an element of perfection is absolute symmetry between right and left. He says as follows:

 

And R. Shimon ben Yochai says that there were twenty commandments on each tablet, for on the right side of the tablet were written ten commandments and similarly on the left side of the tablet were written ten commandments, "their faces looking one to another." The first was read from right to left, and the second from left to right. This is fitting, for were this not so, there would be a deficiency in the tablets which are a Divine creation, for they are the work of heaven from God (blessed be He). This is because whatever is perfect, right and left are symmetrical. As you see in a person who has a right and a left, and the two are absolutely symmetrical. Were the tablets written exclusively from the right to the left, there would be a difference between the right and the left, and something like that is deficient. For it is fitting that in something that is perfect the left be symmetrical to the right, but here they are not symmetrical, and there would be a deficiency in the work of God, i.e., the tablets. When in all natural things the right and the left are symmetrical, and in that way they are perfect – how could it not be so in the work of God. (ibid.)

 

            It is interesting to see that the Maharal uses the expression "their faces shall look one to another," which is of course reminiscent of the keruvim which faced each other. This point is significant in the context of what the Maharal is saying with respect to the equality between right and left, and also with respect to the correspondence between the tablets and the keruvim, as we mentioned above.

 

            In the end, the Maharal brings the words of R. Simai, according to which there were forty commandments on each tablet:

 

R. Simai, however, maintains that the tablets which are a work of God must be perfect, and anything that is perfect must be absolutely symmetrical, for if it is not absolutely symmetrical it is deficient… Therefore, there were forty commandments on each tablet, ten commandments from right to left, and ten from left to right. And it is fitting that the top and the bottom of the tablet be symmetrical just as the right and the left are symmetrical, so that it is absolutely symmetrical. Therefore, another twenty commandments were written, ten were written from the bottom to the top, and ten were written from the top to the bottom, so that there were ten written from the right and ten written from the left, ten from the top and ten from the bottom, until all sides were symmetrical. In this way the work of God was perfect without any deficiency whatsoever, with absolute symmetry on every side. (ibid.)

 

            The idea of forty is that we have here something that is perfect and absolutely equal, not just between right and left, but also above and below.

 

            The two main views are as follows:

 

1. Five commandments on each tablet which parallel each other. It is not just that the five commandments between man and God on the one tablet parallel the five commandments between man and his fellow on the other tablet, but that each of the commandments on the one tablet parallels a specific commandment on the other tablet.

 

2. Ten commandments on each tablet. This approach emphasizes the dimension of the covenant between God and the people of Israel, with one tablet representing, as it were, God, and the other tablet representing Israel, when both copies of the covenant, both that of God and that of Israel, were placed in the ark.

 

(Translated by David Strauss)

 

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