Tablets of the Covenant

From Miriam leading the women in a tambourine-accompanied victory dance at the parting of the Sea to King David leaping and dancing before the Ark of the Covenant, the Bible celebrates dance in many forms. The whirling, ecstatic motion of dance unites the people, carrying them into a trance and bringing them closer to the divine. Yet when Moses sees Israel dancing around the golden calf in a festival dedicated by Aaron to YHWH, he erupts in anger. Why?

The Talmud has God congratulating Moses for shattering the Tablets, however, a midrash criticizes him for venting his anger, quoting the verse, “Anger resides in the bosom of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9). Was his act commendable or lamentable? 

And Moses’ decision to break the tablets

“YHWH said to Moses: ‘Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I might give you the tablets of stone and the teaching and the commandment that I have written to teach them.’”—Exodus 24:12

Surprising misconceptions and ambiguities about God’s central and unmediated revelation