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Whereas the first tables had been given on Mount Sinai amid great ceremonies, the
presentation of the second tables took place quietly, for God said: "There is nothing
lovelier than quiet humility. The great ceremonies on the occasion of presenting the first
tables had the evil effect of directing an evil eye toward them, so that they were finally
broken." 304 In this also were the second tables differentiated from the first,
that the former were the work of God, and the latter, the work of man. God dealt with
Israel like the king who took to himself to wife and drew up the marriage contract with
his own hand. One day the king noticed his wife engaged in very intimate conversation with
a slave; and enraged at her unworthy conduct, he turned here out of his house. Then he who
had given the bride away at the wedding came before the king and said to him: "O
sire, dost thou not know whence thou didst take thy bride? She had been brought up among
the slaves, and hence is intimate with them." The king allowed himself to be
appeased, saying to the other: "Take paper and let a scribe draw up a new marriage
contract, and here take my authorization, signed in my own hand." Just so did Israel
fare with their God when Moses offered the following excuse for their worship of the
Golden Calf: "O Lord, dost Thou not know whence Thou hast brought Israel, out of a
land of idolaters?" God replied: "Thou desirest Me to forgive them. Well, then,
I shall do so, now fetch Me hither tables on which I may write the words that were written
on the first. But to reward thee for offering up thy life for their sake, I shall in the
future send thee along with Elijah, that both of you together may prepare Israel for the
final deliverance." 305
Moses fetched the tables out of a diamond quarry which God pointed out to him, and the
chips that fell, during the hewing, from the precious stone made a rich man of Moses, so
that he now possessed all the qualifications of a prophet - wealth, strength, humility,
and wisdom. In regard to the last-named be it said, that God given in Moses' charge all
the fifty gates of wisdom except one.
As the chips falling from the precious stone were designed for Moses alone, so too had
originally the Torah, written on these tables, been intended only Moses and his
descendants; but he was benevolent of spirit, and imparted the Torah to Israel. 306 The
wealth that Moses procured for himself in fashioning the Torah, was a reward for having
taken charge of the corpse of Joseph while all the people were appropriating to themselves
the treasures of Egyptians. God now said: "Moses deserves the chips from the tables.
Israel, who did not occupy themselves with labors of piety, carried off the best of Egypt
at the time of their exodus. Shall Moses, who saw to the corpse of Joseph, remain poor?
Therefore will I make him rich through these chips." 307
During the forty days he spent in heaven, Moses received beside the two tables all the
Torah - the Bible, Mishnah, Talmud, and Haggadah, yea, even all that ever clever scholars
would ask their teacher was revealed to him. When he now received the command from God to
teach all this to Israel, he requested God to write down all the Torah and to give it to
Israel in that way. But God said: "Gladly would I give them the whole in writing, but
it is revealed before Me that the nations of the world will hereafter read the Torah
translated into Greek, and will say: 'We are the true Israel, we are the children of God.'
Then I shall say to the nations: 'Ye claim to be MY children, do ye not know that those
only are My children to whom I have confided My secret, the oral teaching?'" This was
the reason why the Pentateuch only was given to Moses in writing, and the other parts of
the Torah by word of mouth. Hence the covenant God made with Israel reads: "I gave ye
a written and an oral Torah. My covenant with you says that ye shall study the written
Torah as a written thing, and the oral as an oral; but in case you confound the one with
the other you will not be rewarded. For the Torah's sake alone have I made a covenant with
you; had ye not accepted the Torah, I should not have acknowledged you before all other
nations. Before you accepted the Torah, you were just like all other nations, and for the
Torah's sake alone have I lifted you above the others. Even your king, Moses, owes the
distinction he enjoys in this world and in the world hereafter to the Torah alone. Had you
not accepted the Torah, then should I have dissolved the upper and the under worlds into
chaos." 308
Forty days and forty nights Moses now devoted to the study of the Torah, and in all the
time he ate no bread and drank no water, acting in accordance with the proverb, "If
thou enterest a city, observe its laws." The angels followed this maxim when they
visited Abraham, for they there ate like men; and so did Moses, who being among angels,
like the angels partook of no food. He received nourishment from radiance of the Shekinah,
which also sustains the holy Hayyot that bear the Throne. Moses spent the day in learning
the Torah from God, and the night in repeating what he had learned. In this way he set an
example for Israel, that they might occupy themselves with the Torah by night and by day.
During this time Moses also wrote down the Torah, although the angels found it strange
that God should have given him the commission to write down the Torah, and gave expression
to their astonishment in the following words, that they addressed to God: "How is it
that Thou givest Moses permission to write, so that he may write whatever he will, and say
to Israel, 'I gave you the Torah, I myself wrote it, and then gave it to you?'" But
God answered: "Far be it from Moses to do such a thing, he is a faithful
servant!"
When Moses had complete the writing of the Torah, he wiped his pen on the hair of his
forehead, and from this heavenly ink that cleaved to his forehead originated the beams of
light that radiated from it. 309 In this way God fulfilled to Moses the promise:
"Before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the
earth, nor in any nation." 310 On Moses' return from heaven, the people were
greatly amazed to see his face shining, and there was fear, too, in their amazement. This
fear was a consequence of their sin, for formerly they had been able to bear without fear
the sight of "the glory of the Lord that was like devouring fire," although it
consisted of seven sheaths of fire, laid one over another; but after their transgression
they could not even bear to look upon the countenance of the man who had been the
intermediator between themselves and God. 311 But Moses quieted them, and instantly set
about imparting to the people the Torah he had received from God.
His method of instruction was as follows: first came Aaron, to whom he imparted the word
of God, and as soon as he had finished with Aaron, came the sons of Aaron, Eleazar and
Ithamar, and he instructed them, while Aaron sat at his right hand, listening. When he had
finished with the sons of Aaron, the elders appeared to receive instruction, while Eleazar
sat at the right hand of his father, and Ithamar at the left hand of Moses, and listened;
and when he had finished with the elders, the people came and received instruction,
whereupon Moses withdrew. Then Aaron went over what had been taught, and his sons
likewise, and the elders, until every one, from Aaron down to every man out of the people,
had four times repeated what he had learned, for in this way had God bidden Moses impress
the Torah four times upon Israel. 312
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