“At that time the Lord said to me: Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and ascend to Me to the mountain, and make for yourself a wooden Ark” (Deuteronomy 10:1). “At that time the Lord said to me: Carve for yourself” – halakha: A person of Israel who betrothed a woman; who must pay the wages [of the scribe] for [writing] the document of betrothal? So the Sages taught: One writes documents of betrothal and marriage only with the consent of both, and the groom pays the wages.
From whom did they learn this? From the Holy One blessed be He, when the Holy One blessed be He sanctified Israel at Sinai, as it is written: “The Lord said to Moses: Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow” (Exodus 19:10). Who wrote that document? It was Moses.
From where is this derived? “Moses wrote this Torah” (Deuteronomy 31:9). What reward did the Holy One blessed be He give him? It was the radiance of his face, as it is written: “Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant” (Exodus 34:29).
When? “Upon His speaking with him” (Exodus 34:29). Reish Lakish said: When he wrote the Torah, Moses received the radiance of his face. How so?
Reish Lakish said: The Torah that was given to Moses, its parchment was white fire, it was written with black fire, sealed with fire, and bound with fire. As he was writing, he wiped the quill in his hair, and it was from there that he received the radiance of his face. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: Moses received the radiance of his face from the Tablets. As the Tablets were given to him, from hand to hand, he received the radiance of his face.
When Israel performed that act, he took [the Tablets] and shattered them. The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘When you served as an intermediary for Israel, I gave you the reward of radiance of the face, now, you shattered the Tablets.’ Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Our Rabbis taught: If the barrel broke, it broke for the intermediary.26He is the one who must replace it. The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘You were the intermediary between Me and my children – you shattered it, you replace it.’
From where is this derived? From that which is written: “The Lord said to Moses: Carve for yourself two tablets of stone, like the first, and I will write on the Tablets the words that were on the first Tablets that you shattered. And be prepared for the morning, and you shall ascend in the morning to Mount Sinai, and you shall stand there for Me at the top of the mountain. No man shall ascend with you and no man shall be seen on the entire mountain. The flocks and the cattle shall not graze facing that mountain” (Exodus 34:1–3).