Take Two Broken Tablets

By the semi-refrocked Bray of Fundie

We fasted on 17 Tamuz to remember 5 tragedies that occurred on that day. The first (chronologically at least) was Moshe’s breaking of the “two tablets of the covenant” upon which the Decalogue was inscribed. As my stomach growled my calorie deprived mind pondered these points:

Per Rambam all public fast days are meant to do Teshuva. If so why do we mourn the wages of the sin (busted tablets) rather than the sin itself (golden calf)? A review of the liturgy reveals that 2 of the 3 slikhos for 17 Tamuz do not even mention the sin of the golden calf and that the one that does makes only passing reference to it as the cause of the busted tablets.

What’s the big tragedy? What precisely did we lose? If it’s Lukhos… we got a second set. If it’s the Decalogue they appear twice in the Torah. Come to think of it, whats the big significance of the Decalogue anyway? For those of us who believe in TMS the prohibition against wearing wool-linen combinations is as binding as the one prohibiting covetousness.

[DB: This sounds like a job for MISTER BIBLE CRITIC!]