The Secret of the Tablets of Stone and the Gateway to the World to Come

Class No. 12 | * Friday, Parashas Bechukosai, 19 Iyar 5755 - At the Yeshiva (Continued from No. 11)

This article reveals the original plan for the Giving of the Torah, in which the Torah was meant to be engraved directly upon the heart without the need for physical tablets. Through understanding the sin of the Golden Calf, the deep secret of the Land of Israel is explained—not as a place for physical settlement, but as a spiritual gateway designed to catapult the Children of Israel directly into the World to Come and the Resurrection of the Dead.

The Torah was given on tablets of stone in order to remove our heart of stone. We thought we had already merited a heart of flesh, but the heart reverted to being a heart of stone, and therefore we needed to receive tablets of stone. The Torah is written on parchment made of animal hide, and Reb Noson explains in Likutey Halachos that through the light of the Torah scroll, our own skin is purified. All physical desires reside in the skin (the physical body), and the skin of the Torah scroll refines our skin, just as the tablets of stone refine the heart of stone.

The Sages say that had the first tablets not been broken, the Torah would never have been forgotten from the Jewish people. The tablets had the power to refine the heart of stone and return it to being a heart of flesh, so that the Torah would be engraved upon our hearts, fulfilling the verse:

"Write them on the tablet of your heart" (Proverbs 3:3)

In truth, the original plan was that we would not need tablets at all. Initially, the Torah was supposed to be engraved directly upon the heart of Adam HaRishon (the First Man), and subsequently upon the hearts of his sons, Seth and Abel. But then Cain came and ruined everything.

The Torah Engraved in the Limbs

At the revelation at Mount Sinai, the Children of Israel reached a spiritual level where "their spiritual impurity ceased" (the impurity from the primordial serpent was removed). They returned to the level of Adam HaRishon before the sin, becoming as pure as the very essence of the heavens. The moment we stood at Mount Sinai, the entire Torah was engraved upon our hearts. Immediately, the Torah was etched into every single limb, and each limb cried out its corresponding mitzvah.

However, the Children of Israel said to Moshe Rabbeinu: "We have no strength; we are weak people." Hashem replied: "You are weak? You will receive tablets of stone." The tablets of stone were meant to break and refine the heart of stone, transforming it back into a heart of flesh. But then, instead of continuing to ascend from level to level, they decided to make the Golden Calf. It was difficult for them to obey Moshe Rabbeinu, and they preferred a silent calf into which they could project their own words, making it say whatever they wanted to hear.

The Throne of Glory for the Tablets

Following the sin of the Golden Calf, the tablets had to be placed inside an Ark. Tablets of stone are essentially a form of punishment, but even then, initially, the tablets were not supposed to go into an Ark at all. The plan was for Moshe Rabbeinu to hold the tablets in his hands twenty-four hours a day.

It is well known that "the Ark carries those who carry it" (a Talmudic principle that the holy Ark miraculously carried its bearers), and the tablets carry themselves. Moshe Rabbeinu's hands were meant to be like two holy vessels, and Moshe himself was supposed to be the 'Throne of Glory' for the tablets and their precious resting place.

The Land of Israel as the Gateway to Heaven

If they had not sinned with the Golden Calf, on the very day they received the tablets—on that exact day, they would have entered the Land of Israel. And entering the Land was not intended for physical settlement. The Land of Israel and Zion are merely the gateway to the World to Come.

The moment a person entered the Land of Israel, they were supposed to immediately fly up to heaven. However, a person commits sins, opens their eyes again to the physical world, and brings back materialism. The Chesed LeAvraham writes that when Mashiach arrives, all those who came to the Land of Israel, all those who had mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice) for it, will immediately receive wings and fly to heaven. They will instantly rise for the Resurrection of the Dead and see everything taking place in the Supernal Worlds.

"Let Me Cross Over and See"

This is the reason Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded:

"Let me cross over, I pray, and see the good land" (Deuteronomy 3:25)

Moshe asked for just one minute, just one second to be in the Land. Just to step on the soil. Because the moment one steps on the soil of the Land of Israel, they receive the momentum and the thrust to fly into the World to Come.

The Generation of the Wilderness was on a spiritual level far higher than the level of the Land of Israel itself. They were in the aspect of "Leah," which belongs to the Supernal Worlds (the hidden, higher spiritual realms). Therefore, they did not understand what the Land of Israel could possibly give them. But Moshe knew that entering the Land would immediately grant them the Resurrection of the Dead. Moshe said: "Just let me set foot here, and I will already bring the entire generation into the World to Come." The goal was not to sit in the Land and settle down physically, but merely to pass through it, to see it, to reach the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'aras HaMachpelah) which is the gateway to the Garden of Eden, to remove the flaming, ever-turning sword, and to reopen the path to the Tree of Life.

Part 3 of 3 — Class No. 12

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