{"id":93360,"date":"2026-07-24T18:10:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=93360"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:10:02","slug":"tablets-of-stone-hewing-to-the-historic-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/tablets-of-stone-hewing-to-the-historic-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Tablets of Stone: Hewing to the Historic Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n<p>Parshat Va-etchanan, read this Shabbat, revisits the Ten Commandments, carved into stone and delivered to our Israelite forebears at Mount Sinai. Those stone Tablets are almost universally imagined today \u2013 based on medieval and modern art, church and synagogue iconography, depictions in movies and illustrated Bibles, military chaplains\u2019 insignia, etc. \u2013 as rectangular in shape, with rounded tops. This was not always the case.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Michelangelo\u2019s famous sculpture of Moses (c. 1515) depicts the Lawgiver holding rectangular Tablets bearing the Decalogue. Artwork by Andrea Mantegna (c 1461) and Philippe de Champaigne (1648) also show rectangular Tablets. The Dura Europos synagogue \u2013 a richly frescoed Third Century synagogue in what is now Syria clearly depicts the Tablets as rectangular \u2013 free of stylized or rounded tops.<\/p>\n<p>Baba Batra 14a describes the Tablets of the Decalogue as perfect squares (thus, by definition, also rectangular): six handbreadths high, by six handbreadths wide, by three handbreadths deep!<\/p>\n<p>Rounded Tablets \u2013 the innovation of Christian artists \u2013 met with the approval of some rabbis, who cautioned against overly precise representations of the allegedly rectangular originals!<\/p>\n<p>Whether the Tablets were rounded, rectangular, or square is a mystery&#8230; and far less important than the extent to which the Commandments themselves shape our conduct&#8230; and keep us from cutting corners as we carve out a sanctified moral and spiritual path.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the editor of \u201cMasorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.\u201d The latest edition of Masorti was published online for the winter of 2025-26. A subscription is $18 per annum.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Tablets%20of%20Stone%3A%20Hewing%20to%20the%20Historic%20Record\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9415],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,9156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93361,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93360\/revisions\/93361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}