This week's Torah portion is Vaetchanan and Shabbat Nachamu, which has in it the Ten Commandments and the Shma prayer.
Of all the moments in Jewish history, none is more sacred than the giving of the Ten Commandments. It was the moment Heaven touched earth,
when G-d revealed His will to humanity. Yet the Torah records something surprising. The greatest moral code ever given was not written on gold, silver,
or parchment. It was engraved on two ordinary stones.
Why stone?
Because everything else changes. Stone endures. Civilizations rise and fall, cultures redefine morality, governments rewrite laws, but the Torah remains as solid and unchanging as the rock upon which it was engraved.
Then the Midrash tells us something astonishing. These were not just ordinary stones. They had a history. Suddenly the Midrash is no longer talking about rocks. It is talking about us.
Which stone do we live on?
Is Judaism primarily about prayer, Shabbat, tefillin and kosher?
Or is it primarily about kindness, honesty, compassion and helping others?
G-d says: Neither. They are one stone.
You cannot claim to love G-d while hurting people created in His image.
And you cannot truly love people while ignoring the G-d who gave every human being infinite dignity.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik once studied with one of Germany's leading ethicists. When the Nazis rose to power, that same professor completely reversed his moral philosophy to justify evil.
The lesson was unforgettable: reason alone can rationalize anything. Without an eternal moral authority, yesterday's virtue can become today's crime.
Perhaps that is why G-d united Jacob's stones before He divided them into two tablets.
Because there were never really two commandments.
There was only one Torah.
Loving G-d without loving people is incomplete.
Loving people without G-d eventually loses its anchor.
The first tablet and the second tablet belong together.
Only when both become one can we become the people G-d intended us to be.
The Nazis prove what happens when you ignore the first tablet. Hamas and Islamic extremism prove what happens when you ignore the second tablet.
May we merit to build lives that unite Heaven and earth, holiness and kindness, faith and compassion—and through that, may we soon merit the rebuilding of the Third Beis Hamikdash, speedily in our days. Amen.
Shabbat Shalom and Shabbat Nachamu,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky