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Why did Moshe break the luchos when all the mitzvos remained written in the Torah (תורה)? The jewelry Eliezer gave Rivka—a ring and two bracelets—hints that the luchos symbolized a marriage covenant with Hashem (ה׳), not just commandments. Breaking them dissolved the marriage dimension, preventing Klal Yisrael from becoming a sotah after the eigel.
Rabbi Zweig analyzes Rashi (רש"י)'s interpretation of the jewelry Eliezer gave Rivka in Parshas Chayei Sarah. Rashi explains that the golden ring weighing a half-shekel hinted to the machatzis hashekel, and the two bracelets weighing ten gold shekels hinted to the two luchos and the Aseres Hadibros. The obvious difficulty is: what kind of hint is this to Rivka, a three-year-old girl growing up in Charan who knew nothing of these future institutions? Rabbi Zweig proposes that this is not a remez to Rivka, but rather a remez to us—the Torah (תורה) establishing a paradigm to help us understand what would later transpire at Sinai. This leads to a fundamental question: what was the purpose of the luchos? Every word written on the tablets appears in the Torah itself. When Moshe broke the luchos in anger after the sin of the golden calf, did that exempt the Jewish people from the mitzvos? Obviously not—all the commandments remained obligatory. Rashi himself notes that at Maamad Har Sinai, Moshe had already read the Torah to the people from Bereishis through Parshas Mishpatim. So what exactly did Moshe accomplish by breaking the luchos?
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Bereishis 24:22 (Chayei Sarah)
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