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The Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, Tablets of Law, or Tablets of Testimony (in Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
: ????? ????? Luchot HaBrit - "the tablets [of] the covenant") in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
, were the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, were authored by God and given to Moses on the mountain referred to as "Biblical Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb" in the form of two stone tablets....
 when Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
 ascended Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gebel Musa or Jabal Musa by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula....
 as recorded in the Book of Exodus.






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The10commandments
The Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, Tablets of Law, or Tablets of Testimony (in Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
: ????? ????? Luchot HaBrit - "the tablets [of] the covenant") in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
, were the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, were authored by God and given to Moses on the mountain referred to as "Biblical Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb" in the form of two stone tablets....
 when Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
 ascended Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gebel Musa or Jabal Musa by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula....
 as recorded in the Book of Exodus. refers to the tablets as the "Tablets of Testimony" because they give insight into the nature of God.

According to the Bible, there were two sets: the first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf
Golden calf

The golden calf was an idolatry made for the Israelites during Moses' absence, as he went up to Mount Sinai. According to the Hebrew Bible, the calf was made by Aaron to satisfy the Israelites, whereas the Quran indicates the maker to be Samiri....
; and the second, later cut by Moses and rewriten by God.

According to traditional teachings of Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 in the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, they were made of blue sapphire
Sapphire

Sapphire refers to gem varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby....
 stone as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne
Throne

A throne is the official chair or seat upon which a monarch is seated on state or ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monarchy or the Crown itself, an instance of metonymy, and is also used in many terms such as "power behind the throne"....
. Both the first shattered set and the second unbroken set were stored in the Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant is described in the Bible as a sacred container, where in rested the Tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments as well as Aaron's rod and manna....
 (the aron habrit in Hebrew).

Appearance of the tablets according to Jewish tradition

The tablets are popularly described as semi-flat rounded off rectangles but this understanding has little basis in religious tradition. According to rabbinic tradition, they were rectangles, 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 (for example ?
?

or is a letter derived from the Latin alphabet. Both glyphs of the majuscule and Lower case forms of this letter are based on the rotated form of a minuscule e; a similar letter with identical minuscule is used in the Pan-Nigerian Alphabet, but has the capital form majuscule , based on a horizontally flipped majuscule E....
 or ?
?

or is a letter derived from the Latin alphabet. Both glyphs of the majuscule and Lower case forms of this letter are based on the rotated form of a minuscule e; a similar letter with identical minuscule is used in the Pan-Nigerian Alphabet, but has the capital form majuscule , based on a horizontally flipped majuscule E....
) were not supported by anything, yet the unsupported stone remained in position.

Content

In Jewish religious tradition
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
, the arrangement of the commandments on the two tablets is interpreted in different ways. Rabbi Hanina ben Gamaliel said that each tablet contained five commandments, "but the Sages say ten on one tablet and ten on the other". Because the commandments establish a covenant, it is likely that they were duplicated on both tablets. This can be compared to diplomatic treaties
Treaty

A Treaty is an agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely states and international organizations. A Treaty may also be known as: agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, exchange of letters, etc....
 of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
, in which a copy was made for each party.

Christian replicas

Replicas of the tablets, known as tabot
Tabot

Tabot , is a Ge'ez language word referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto which the Bible Ten Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church....
s 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
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most important church of Ethiopia. The original church is believed to have been built during the reign of Ezana, the first Christian emperor of Ethiopia, during the fourth century AD, and has been rebuilt several times since then....
 in Axum
Axum

Axum, or Aksum, is a city in northern Ethiopia named after the Kingdom of Aksum, a naval and trading power that ruled from the region ca....
.

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