Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L
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The Second Tablets
Moshe relates how at the end of the 40 days, which came out to the 1st of Elul, G-d agreed to reconcile, telling Moshe to rise up and return to the Israelites in spite of their having sinned with the golden calf, and lead them to the Land of Israel. He told Moshe to make 2 stone tablets and a wooden ark*. Although the order of G-d's instruction was the tablets and then the ark, Moshe made the ark (out of acacia wood) before the tablets, thinking that if he were to make the tablets first he would have no where to put them (and G-d had told him that they should be placed in the ark).
Moshe relates how G-d told him that He would inscribe the same words which were on the first tablets onto the new ones.
So with tablets in hand, he ascended the mountain, and G-d inscribed the Ten Commandments onto them, after which he placed them in the ark.
*Side note: This was not the same ark which Betzalel made, as the constructions for the Mishkan which included that ark only began forty days later (after the 1st of Elul) which came out to Yom Kippur, at which point Moshe returned from the mountain and told the nation to begin constructing the Mishkan. Betzalel led this project, constructing first the Mishkan and then its furnishings, including another ark (not the same one Moshe made on the mountain). The ark Moshe made went out with the Israelites to battle. The ark Bezalel made only went out for the battle of Eli, for which the nation was punished by having it be captured by the Philistines.
Moshe rebukes the nation over the death of Aaron at Mount Chor, relating how after his death the clouds of Glory left and the Israelites were scared of the upcoming war with the king of Arad, so they appointed a leader to take them back to Egypt and traveled backwards via 8 stations until they reached Bnei Yaakan and then Moserah. At Moserah, the sons of Levi battled with the Israelites who had retreated, and people died on both sides of the battle until the point where they were forced to return back to their initial travels (away from Egypt) to Gudgodah which is in Chor HaGidgad and then to Yotvath.
During their time at Moserah, they mourned the death of Aaron which had caused them to travel back towards Egypt.
Moshe relates this occurrence near the retelling of the breaking of the tablets to teach the idea that the death of the righteous is as tragic to G-d as the breaking of the tablets and the day that the Israelites decided to appoint a leader to take them back to Egypt was as tragic as the day that they constructed the golden calf.
Due to the tribe of Levi not participating in the sin of the golden calf, as well as its battle on behalf of the nation continuing towards the Land of Israel, G-d separated them to be responsible for carrying the ark of the covenant and to bless G-d's name (i.e they would be entrusted to wash the hands of the Kohanim for the Priestly Blessing.
Due to the tribe of Levi's special status of having to be involved with the service of the altar, they would not have time for farming, thus they were not given a portion or inheritance in the land. Instead, they would be given their daily payment from the gifts given to the Kohanim.
Eikev, 4th Aliya