Shabbos Parashas Ki Sisa - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Ki Sisa - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

Moshe turned and descended from the mountain, with the two Tablets of the

Testimony in his hand, Tablets inscribed on both their sides--they were inscribed

on one side and the other. The Tablets were G-d's handiwork, and the script was

the script of G-d, engraved on the Tablets. [Shemos 32:15-16]

Why does the Torah go to such length to describe the writing on the Tablets? It would

seem sufficient to get the point across just to say, "inscribed on both their sides." What

do we learn from the seemingly extra words, "they were inscribed on one side and the

other"?

Our verse goes on to specify that G-d Himself wrote this writing. That certainly explains

the importance of what was written, but not why these words were repeated. We find the

answer in the last portion of the verse, "engraved on the Tablets."

Ramban points out that this description of the Tablets probably should have come at

verse 31:18, where G-d actually gave them to Moshe. Rav Hirsch explains that there must

be some connection between our verse and what was going on at the time. He says that

had the Tablets been written only on one side, Moshe would have been reading them to

the people, and only he would have seen the words. This would have made Moshe, or

any other leader, indispensable. Instead, as Moshe read them, the people could see the

Divine writing themselves. G-d was speaking directly to the people, albeit not in sound.

There need be no intermediary between G-d and a regular Jew. This was particularly

relevant at that point in time, as the people had just rebelled because Moshe delayed

coming down the mountain. G-d, by engraving this, was telling them that Moshe is merely

one of them, and they needed to maintain their faith in Hashem directly.

When a page has writing on both sides, we picture different writing on each side, both

sides either left-to-right or right-to-left. The verse's repetition is to teach that the writing on

each side was identical, with letters that actually extended right through, each letter

viewable from each side, yet it appeared right-to-left for Moshe as well as the people

looking at the opposite side.

Thus, "inscribed on both sides" tells us just that, written on both sides. But "they were

inscribed on one side and the other" tells us that the writing was miraculous, thus was

engraved directly by G-d. It tells us that G-d Himself speaks directly to all of us, in all

generations.