The Luchot
The covenant code of Shemot 21-23 is not really the code of a Covenant. It lacks a section that says what will happen if the decrees are not kept. Although it has a verse in this direction (Shemot 23:21), it lacks a Tochachah. The law code of Devarim has such section. It is in truth the code of a Covenant. The kernel of the book of Devarim is quite old. Probably, therefore, Devarim was originally written down on tablets. We imagine tablets written on one side with the introduction , on the other side with the law code, starting at Devarim 12:1. If many tablets were needed for the law code, the introduction was the same. Such was the purpose of the introduction, to be on the front side of each and every one of the tablets. Like the tablets described by Shemot 32:15, which were written on two sides. One side was for the Ten Commandments, the other side for the Covenant (Shemot 34:28). But we have an alternative to the law code of Devarim. It is also a law code with a Tochachah, and it ...