Rabbi Sholom Twerski
July 31, 2026
בַּעֲלֹתִי הָהָרָה לָקַחַת לוּחֹת הָאֲבָנִים לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר־כָּרַת ה עִמָּכֶם וָאֵשֵׁב בָּהָר אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לַיְלָה לֶחֶם לֹא אָכַלְתִּי וּמַיִם לֹא שָׁתִיתִי׃
I had ascended the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant that GOD had made with you, and I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water.
וָאֶתְנַפַּל לִפְנֵי ה כָּרִאשֹׁנָה אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לַיְלָה לֶחֶם לֹא אָכַלְתִּי וּמַיִם לֹא שָׁתִיתִי עַל כׇּל־חַטַּאתְכֶם אֲשֶׁר חֲטָאתֶם לַעֲשׂוֹת הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי ה לְהַכְעִיסוֹ׃
I threw myself down before GOD—eating no bread and drinking no water forty days and forty nights, as before—because of the great wrong you had committed, doing what displeased and vexed GOD.
וְאָנֹכִי עָמַדְתִּי בָהָר כַּיָּמִים הָרִאשֹׁנִים אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לָיְלָה וַיִּשְׁמַע ה אֵלַי גַּם בַּפַּעַם הַהִוא לֹא־אָבָה ה הַשְׁחִיתֶךָ׃
I had stayed on the mountain, as I did the first time, forty days and forty nights; and GOD heeded me once again: GOD agreed not to destroy you.
כימים הראשנים. שֶׁל לוּחוֹת הָרִאשׁוֹנוֹת, מַה הֵם בְּרָצוֹן אַף אֵלּוּ בְּרָצוֹן, אֲבָל הָאֶמְצָעִיִּים שֶׁעָמַדְתִּי שָׁם לְהִתְפַּלֵּל עֲלֵיכֶם הָיוּ בְכַעַס:
AS THE FORMER DAYS — those of the first tablets. How was it with those? They were passed in God’s goodwill! So these, too, were passed in God’s goodwill. But the intervening forty days when I remained there to pray for you were passed in God’s anger.
This parsha discusses the three different times that Moshe went up the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. The first was after Maamid Har Sinai, when he went up to receive the Torah. The second, after coming back down, and smashing the luchos, was to attain forgiveness. Those were stormy days when he pleaded with Hashem to forgive the nation. The third set was spent carving out the new luchos and receiving the Torah again. That ended on Yom Kippur with Hashem saying, “Salachti K’dvarecha- I have forgiven as you requested.” Our sages tell us that the third set was like the first. Hashem had a loving relationship with us like He had originally. It was the middle set when Hashem was angry with us.
The Chasam Sofer points out that in all three sets it says 40 days and 40 nights. This is unusual because for Jews, in almost all matters, the day begins with the night. Here the days always seem to begin with the daytime and end at night. Why is that?
To explain, the Chasam Sofer first seeks to understand why is it that for Jews the day begins at night, while for the other nations of the world, the day begins with dawn.
For Jews, this life is night. It is filled with confusion and Hester Panim- Hashem’s hidden face. Our lives our filled with conflict and turmoil as we attempt to pierce the veil and seek out Hashem’s Presence. We look forward to Olam Haba when things will be clear and we will serve Hashem with the clarity of day.
For the other nations, who embrace the philosophy of, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” this world is the daytime while after death is viewed as night where only a cold, lonely, grave awaits them. For them, the night follows the day as they feel themselves living in the day and what follows is night.
However, even among the Jews, there is a group of special people for whom the night follows the day. Tzadikkim Gemurim, completely righteous people, want to serve Hashem faithfully while they still have becheira, free-will, because that is the greater service. They would rather live in a world that requires the struggle to recognize Hashem because Hashem has more nachas from that. To them, the service they can provide when it’s clear, is darkness because they live to provide the most nachas to Hashem they possibly can.
This is represented by kodshim or korbanos where the nighttime follows the day. Our tefillos, Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv also begins in the daytime and concludes with the nighttime for the same reason. Tefillah represents Korbanos which is the very highest level of service to Hashem. For the tzaddikim, now is daytime and the clarity in the next world is not as desirable.
In all three times when Moshe ascended the mountain, Klal Yisroel had a status of the night following the day- but for different reasons. In the first time and the third time, when we were eagerly anticipating Hashem’s revelation of His Will for us, we were on the very highest level. We were like the tzaddikim gemurim. Unfortunately, when we worshipped the Egel Hazahav, we fell all the way down to where we were treated like the other nations for whom the night follows the day.
May we live like Jews where the day follows the night and look forward to a time of absolute clarity and revelation of Hashem’s Presence. May we climb even higher so that we revel in serving Hashem in the stormy turbulence of Olam Hazeh and dedicate our every move and moment to serving Him with all our might!
Have a great Shabbos!