Tablets of stone

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The Tablets of Stone or Stone Tablets, also known as the Tablets of Law, (in Hebrew: Luchot HaBrit - "the tablets [of] the covenant") refers to the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as recorded in the Book of Exodus. Exodus 31:18 refers to the tablets as the Tablets of Testimony because they give insight into the nature of God, and they have also been known as the Tables of Law.

According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, they were made of blue sapphire stone as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne. There were two sets: the first was inscribed by God himself, and which were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf and the second set inscribed by Moses which he carved out later, as commanded by God, as an atonement. Both the first shattered set and the second unbroken set were stored in the Ark of the Covenant (the aron habrit in Hebrew).

[edit] Appearance of the tablets according to Jewish tradition

The tablets are popularly, but incorrectly, described as semi-flat rounded off rectangles: . According to rabbinic tradition they were perfect cubes, with sharp corners. Also according to tradition, the words were not engraved on the surface, but rather were bored fully through the stone.

(At least) two miracles are mentioned in connection with the tablets: even though they were bored fully through the stone, and you would expect the reverse side to be a mirror image, it was not, and both sides appeared normally.

Since the letters were bored fully through the stone, the inner part of the letters were not supported by anything (cf. the empty space in the letter P), yet the unsupported stone remained in position.

[edit] Christian replicas

Replicas of the tablets, known as tabots or sellats, are a vital part of the practice of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which claims that the original Ark of the Covenant is kept in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum.