Transforming Ourselves

You probably remember there were actually two sets of the Ten Commandments.  Moses broke the first set when he came down the mountain and saw the people had turned to idolatry.  Have you ever wondered what happened to the pieces of the first set of commandments?  After all, even though they were broken, they were the original Ten Commandments.   Rabbinic tradition tells us they were placed in the Ark of the Covenant together with the second set of the commandments. 

Some say the past can be completely forgotten.  This rabbinic story teaches otherwise.  What we can and must do is take the past and build upon it to reach a better future.  The past need not doom us, but it similarly can not be forgotten.  We can learn from it, and we can transform it.