Avot305

25:
The letters, the writing and the tablets. Tanna Kama in our mishnah lists ten things that were created "on Erev Shabbat at twilight". Our review of these ten things now concludes with the last three items, which are directly connected with the Giving of the Torah, Matan Torah.

26:
Every time we sing the hymn Yigdal we proclaim our belief that God "has no physical appearance and is not a body". That a Deity whose existence is purely spiritual, with absolutely no physicality attached of any kind, should be able to give Moses two stone tablets which contained the Divine law is an enormous enigma. When we speak of God hearing, seeing, speaking etc we can explain that the terms are being used anthropomorphically: that is to say, we are ascribing to God actions and qualities that are purely human because this ascription is the best that our poor abilities permit. But, two stone tablets can have no existence but a physical one. So how does a Deity who is devoid of all physicality 'write' anything at all on two stone tablets and then hand them to Moses for delivery to Israel?

27:
In midrashim we find attempts to spiritualize this interplay. The most clear of such attempts is to be found in Midrash Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah [5:15]. When Moses gives Israel his valedictory blessing we find written [Deuteronomy 33:2] that

Or, at least, that is how the sages understood the last phrase of the verse. The enigmatic phrase 'fire of law' gives Rabbi Shim'on ben-Lakish the opportunity to 'explain':

28:
But this artful explanation of an Amora from Eretz-Israel living in the 3rd century CE completely ignores the fact that the Torah itself [Exodus 31:18] states quite categorically:

And just to make sure, Moses himself reminisces [Deuteronomy 9:10]:

29:
Therefore, conclude the sages in our present mishnah, those physical things that Moses received on Mount Sinai must have been specially created "on Erev Shabbat at twilight" to be delivered at the pre-ordained moment. In this manner they attempt to obviate the problems not only of the delivery itself but also of "the letters, the writing and the tablets" themselves.

To be continued.

In Avot 303 I wrote: In his commentary on our present Mishnah Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro tells us that this rod was made of sanperion.

Martin Berman writes:

That is right out of Rashi on Shemot 17:6 who in turn is quoting the Mekhilta.

I respond:

Whether or not Rabbi Ovadya 'copied' from Rashi or was directly quoting the Mekhilta is a moot point: it could have been either. However, Rabbi Berman is quite right that I should have brought the original Mekhilta rather than the commentator. At the time it just did not seem to me to be important, and I was wrong. For the sake of completeness: the sanperion is immortalized in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shim'on bar-Yoĥai, Vayyassa 6.