Broken Glory

By Rachel Kraus

Kintsugo is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery – mending the breakage with powdered gold, silver or platinum, treating breakage and repair as the art – rather than disguising the fractures it becomes a feature.

The roots of broken beauty are firmly planted in our history – in Parshat Eikev.

Moshe recounts the shattering of the luchot (Devarim 10:1):

“Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe on the tablets the commandments, that were on the first tablets, that you smashed, and you shall deposit them in the ark.”

This is not the first time HaShem blames—overtly and blatantly blames—Moshe for smashing the luchot. It not only seems like an unnecessary detail, but one that casts Moshe as the villain. The pasuk easily could have read “I will write the same words that were on the first.” Period. The end . Why do we need

When the luchot are first shattered back in Sefer Shemot (Shemot 34:1), there too the pasuk states:

“Carve two tablets of stone like the first… and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered .”

And in Parshat Eikev it repeats, punctuating yet again, ָתְּרַבִּשׁ רֶשֲׁא , the luchot you, Moshe broke. In the reading of both versions, the phrasing and emphasis on ָתְּרַבִּשׁ רֶשֲׁא is more than just an included fact, there is something about the second set of luchot that requires us to know the emphasized, repeated and explicit detail that it was Moshe who broke them.

The Gemara Bava Batra (14b) famously notes:

“Both the first set of shattered luchot and the second, intact luchot, lived side by side in the Ark.” But the gemara continues, Reish Lakish said,: ‘Great job Moshe! What a winner! How praiseworthy that you broke the luchot.’

And the broken trophy is placed side by side in the Ark in the Kodesh HaKedoshim. Not only is the first set not an unfortunate splintering loss or disintegration from the closeness with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it is celebrated!

This cherished celebrated brokenness presents a further problem. We know that on Yom Kippur, the holiest day, the kohen gadol would change out his golden garments before entering the Kodesh HaKedoshim, as famously noted

“A defense attorney cannot be the prosecutor.”

How can the kohen gadol enter in gold, which is reminiscent of the golden calf, and ask for forgiveness on behalf of the nation? So, the kohen gadol changes his clothes in order not to flaunt the memories of the golden calf, and yet, in permanent, proud residence, a celebrated artifact, were the broken luchot, which are not a hint to the golden calf, it is a direct result, an actual symbol OF the golden calf, and that has permanent stature, not just stature, PRAISED ESSENCE –

These broken tablets are a reminder of what HaShem cherishes most, the broken pieces. The broken pieces in fact serve as the defendant, a corroborating testimony to the love, affection, and prized closeness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and his people – an honorable symbol - the cherished shivrei luchot.

The Midrash describes that on the second set of luchot HaShem tells Moshe not to worry, not to be distraught at what was broken, but this second set would be replete with even greater depth.

How wonderful, how praiseworthy that Moshe broke the luchot, the last word is ָתְּרַבִּשֶּׁשׁ , Moshe’s legacy as framed by Rashi is

“Thank you, Moshe, for the luchot you broke.“

is an integral description of what was written into, what needed to be luchot. The brokenness of the first luchot will be included and emblemized in the second set. ‘Mending the breakage with powdered gold, treating the breakage and repair as the improved art, fractures become the features.’ The Torah is emphatic and deliberate –

The very fragmented pieces of the first set – the brokenness of the first set, will be part of the reality, vitality and eternal essence of the second luchot - a permanent, cherished and celebrated feature. The pieces don’t just live side by side; it’s not merely that our fractures are klei kodesh, holy and live next to the intact second set: the second set was formed from the pieces of the first.

“The second will be even more robust, full of halakhah, midrash, agada, Hidden wisdom that will be double comforting.” Comforting, celebrated brokenness? And our question deepens even further – why do we need the explicit repetition that Moshe broke the luchot?

At the very end of Moshe’s life, his lasting legacy, the very last words of the Torah at the end of Sefer Devarim:

“I will write the second set, with the broken words of the first.” Emerging from the pieces of destruction, from the ashes of Tisha B’Av, we are migrating from broken and fractured priorities, betrayal, and detachment, towards something that is deeper and beyond teshuva, the pieces become cherished, recast and transformed, glorified as they are woven into and mended into the new set.

Moshe is praised for the shattering, because that unleashed exponential power, transforming acts of betrayal into cherished mended beauty. This second set was endowed with deeper appreciation, deeper love – not only is hope not lost, the second set not only compensates the first – but offers something so much bigger, “and for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.”

Rashi there explains, on the very last words of the Torah, and in fact Rashi’s very last commentary on the Torah, – what was it that he did? What was Moshe’s lasting legacy in the eyes of the entire nation?!

Rashi continues, and concludes his words, his very last commentary on the Torah: , double comfort, transformed fragments into feature, transposing pieces into center pieces. There is a beauty and closeness in the shattered pieces. Not estranged, not lost in chaos, it is restored in cherished glory:

Moshe's finest moment, his final legacy, was showing humanity how to take brokenness and transform it into Kodesh HaKedoshim – an arresting grace of beauty in the cracks – not just side by munachim b’aron.

Moshe taught us about exponential return, transforming shattered into sacred, repairing ruptures into cherished glory.

Delivered at KJ, Parshat Re’eh, 2023/5783