When Did Moses Descend from the Mountain

"Carve for yourself." When did Moses come down from the mountain? Rabbi Yehudah bar Shalom said: One hundred and twenty days Moses spent with the Holy One, blessed be He. How so? "In the third month after the children of Israel went out," and so forth (Exodus 19:1). On the sixth of the month He gave them the Ten Commandments, and it is written concerning it: "And Moses went up to God" (Exodus 19:3). And he spent there forty days, twenty-four of Sivan and sixteen of Tammuz, behold, forty days. He came down on the seventeenth of Tammuz, saw the calf and broke the tablets, and chastised those who had gone astray on the eighteenth and nineteenth. And he went back up on the twentieth, as it is said: "And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up to the LORD," and so forth. And it is written: "And Moses returned to the LORD and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin," and so forth. He spent there ten days of Tammuz and the whole month of Av, behold, forty days. He went up on the first day of the month of Elul, when He said to him, "Carve for yourself, and be ready by the morning," and so forth; "and he carved, and Moses rose early in the morning and went up." He spent there all of Elul and ten days of Tishrei, and he came down on the tenth. And Israel were dwelling in prayer and fasting, and on that very day it was said to Moses: "I have forgiven according to your word" (Numbers 14:20). And the Holy One, blessed be He, established it as a day of pardon and forgiveness for the generations, as it is said: "For on this day He shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you" (Leviticus 16:30). And immediately He commanded Moses: "And they shall make Me a sanctuary." "Carve for yourself, and be ready by the morning." So it was at the first time: "And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning," and so forth (Exodus 19:16). And here: "and let no man be seen." The first tablets, because they were given in public, therefore the evil eye took hold of them and they were broken. And here the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: There is nothing more beautiful than modesty, as it is said: "And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly" (Micah 6:8).