Shkoyach, Well Done, for Breaking My Two Tables of the Torah!
The following blog is an answer to the question that I received: Was Moses a bad shaliach?
The word shaliach - meaning "agent" and "emissary" - is a halachic (Torah-legal) term for a person who is authorised by someone else to act in his place. The first shaliach appears in the Torah in the person of Eliezer, who was commissioned by Abraham to find a wife for his son, Isaac. Eliezer brought many gifts in case he found a suitable wife. If he did not find one, he would have to return the gifts to Abraham. "The shaliach of a person is like himself." He is a "postman". But not a puppet, he has to use his own initiative, ingenuity and creativity to carry out the task he has been given to the best of his ability.
A shaliach is responsible for what he has to deliver. If the addressee is not at home, he keeps it for a second or third attempt, or he returns it to the owner. If the owner is too far away, he keeps it until the owner comes to get it back.
What if something happens to that which was given for safekeeping? Rashi's explanation of Ex. 22:9 [From B.M. 94b]
"If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, a bull, a lamb or any other animal for safekeeping, and it dies, breaks a limb or is caught, and no one sees [it],"
I interpret this to mean that if something happens to it, over which someone has no control, he is not liable for any damage or loss. He is also not liable if the owner is there. (Ex. 22:14)
Which brings me to the question: Was Moses a bad shaliach? After all, as G-d's shaliach, he had the responsibility over the 2 stone Tablets containing the Torah when he brought it to the people, and he should have made sure they did not break.
Before Moses went up the mountain, the people had heard the Torah from the mouth of G-d Himself. From that moment on, the people were engaged to G-d and their whole mentality was: we will hear everything and do everything, we can do it! The Written Torah that G-d Himself wrote on the tablets was their marriage contract. Moses descended with the marriage contract and saw what the people [led by the erev rav - traveling Egyptians] did with the golden calf.
This first setting of stone Tablets was of a high sanctity/high spiritual level because it was written by G-d Himself. After the people heard the Words of G-d and took in the Oral Torah, they had come to the level of holiness as before the mistake of the Tree of Knowledge. That made them worthy of this first set of stone Tablets - on which the 10 Commandments were written - capable of living up to them.
When Moses came down the mountain and saw what the people were doing, these Tablets lost some of their holiness and became too heavy for Moses to carry. The mentality of the people also changed when they saw the tablets with the Torah: a sense of failure came over them: we cannot do this! When Moses realised all this, he made the decision - not to put them safely on the ground - but to let them fall, which would cause them to break.
Moses saw that the people - being in wedlock with G-d - had committed a grave sin, that their mentality was now inadequate, and that therefore the acceptance of the two stone tablets was now not the right moment.
A person does not have to accept a message from a shaliach if it would be detrimental to him. Moses, as part of the people, knew that accepting these two Tablets of the Torah would not do the people any good. The people as recipients - with Moses as part of the people and leader - were allowed to refuse the sent message.
The way Moses, for the sake of the people, refused the stone Tablets was by tearing up the marriage contract [breaking the tablets], which would have reduced the punishment of the people and allowed them to turn back to G-d.
But however well-intentioned Moses was, that does not answer the question of whether he was allowed to do that if he had the responsibility of the two stone tablets.
A shaliach is only responsible when the owner is not present. G-d was always with Moses, as we shall see. In addition, we have stepped too quickly over the word "shaliach" in the question. Moses is called an oved, servant/slave of G-d, in Num. 12:7 and Deutr. 34:5. With a servant/slave the owner always remains the final responsible person, as we saw in Ex. 22:14. So whatever happened to the 2 stone Tablets, G-d Himself was responsible for them. Nothing could happen to it that was not meant to happen or that would not be good. After all, you could say that G-d could have made sure that they were not so heavy that Moses could not hold them, or that it had not entered Moses' heart to break them.
Moses and G-d were so close that Moses knew what G-d wanted, and G-d made sure that Moses would not falter and would only make the right decisions. We see this in the words of King David in Tehillim/Psalms 16:8
שִׁוִּ֬יתִי יְהֹוָ֣ה לְנֶגְדִּ֣י תָמִ֑יד כִּ֥י מִֽ֝ימִינִ֗י בַּל-אֶמּֽוֹט׃
I have set the H-r continually before me; because [He] is at my right hand, I shall not falter.
Tehillim/ Psalms 27:4 says that King David wants to live in the house of G-d all the days of his life. That is, to be in His Presence. G-d's Presence was always with Moses. Hence, he could always consult Him whenever the people had a question.
G-d was thus very pleased, Skoiyech* Moses! For his actions showed that he was a true leader of the people, he understood the halachot of the Torah well and was a great psychologist:
1) G-d had previously said to Moses, let Me destroy the people, and from your Moses I will bring forth a new people. By breaking the tablets, Moses made it clear that he too - like the people - deserved the death penalty, and G-d could not "fall back" on this option. Moses would rather die together with the people than keep the Torah, and in this he showed himself to be a true leader. A leader who united himself completely with the people. He was not above them but in the middle. This we also find in Ex. 33:14. Moses draws the conclusion from G-d's words that He unites with the people for Moses' sake. Moses experiences His Presence, His favour and receives rest for his soul. Moses argues with G-d that this should be the situation for all the people. In verse 17 G-d tells Moses that He will do this.
2) Moses showed that he had understood the halachot well. When it comes to prioritising, Israel and the life of the people comes first and Torah second. Just as one may save a life on Shabbat instead of observing the rules of Shabbat carefully. So if the breaking of the Torah could save the life of the people, then that was what he had to do.
3) The people had the mentality when they heard the Torah that they would hear and do. Their identity was: we can! Now they had made a mistake at the golden calf and saw the Torah in the hands of Moses they said: "we can't do the Torah, it is too difficult". Their identity was: we can't do it! It is true that the Torah was broken, but this was a reflection of this new identity that the people had adopted. The "we cannot do this" was broken and preserved so the people could always see that this was not the right mentality. The mentality should be: we can!
After the people turned back to G-d, Moses would write a new marriage contract by order of G-d. The second time he went up the mountain he took tablets with him and Moses wrote down the Words of G-d. These tablets were of a different level than the first move. They were now not "only" from G-d, but were now made together with Moses - in partnership. These tablets also contained the Halacha, the Midrash and Aggada. Because of this detailing, they were easier for people of a lower level of holiness to observe. This level is the desired level, because only on a level of cooperation can a sincere relationship with G-d arise and man can develop further.
* God commanded Moses to "carve a new set and inscribe the same words as were on the first set, asher shibarta - that you broke."(Exodus 34:1) These last words are creatively interpreted by commentators to mean, "Yishar kochacho sheshivarta - your strength shall be validated for having broken. "2From this expression comes the familiar Yiddish phrase yasher koach, usually translated as 'good on you' or 'well done' and often further shortened to the colloquial shkoyach!
A lesson we Noahides can learn from this is. That if we keep G-d in mind, keep His interest in mind, we can do His will. The 7 Noahides commandments are logical, and even though they may be difficult to observe in a society with different values and norms, we can do it!
Brought By Angelique Sijbolts
Angelique Sijbolts is one of the main writers for the Noahide Academy. She has been an observant Noahide for many years. She studies Torah with Rabbi Perets every week. Angelique invests much of her time in editing video-lectures for the Rabbis of the Academy and contributes in administrating the Academy's website in English and Dutch. She lives in the north of the Netherlands. Married and mother of two sons. She works as a teacher in a school with students with special needs. And is a Hebrew Teacher for the levels beginners and intermediate. She likes to walk, to read and play the piano.
Sources
Chabad Article: The Emissaries
Culmulation of Shaliach: https://etzion.org.il/en/talmud/seder-nashim/massekhet-gittin/culmination-shaliach
Thanks for the input and feedback from Rabbi Moshe Perets, Rabbi Baruch Simcha en Rabbi W. van Dijk.
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