Av 30 – He cut two tablets of stone like the first ones

September 3, 2024

Av 30, 5784; from sunset September 2, 2024, to sunset September 3, 2024

(The thirtieth day of the fifth month)

This is the name “Mosheh” (מֺשֶׁה – Moses) as seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls, written over two thousand years ago.

We’re taking a break from our study of the names of the men who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem after the armies of Nebuchadnezzar destroyed them. Today, we’re catching up with Moses and the children of Israel who have had quite a year…full of plagues, deliverance from the bondage of the Egyptians, a trip through the sea where Pharaoh’s army was drowned. Then they were led into the desert to face the unknown. If that wasn’t enough, God brought them to Sinai and made a covenant with them, making them a special treasure, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Moses ascended the mountain and was gone for 40 days when the sin of the golden calf occurred and, suddenly, everything was in jeopardy.

According to tradition, today is the day that Moses was instructed to cut a second set of stone tablets after having smashed the first ones.

Then Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones… – Exodus 33:12-34:4a (NKJ)

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