Chagalll often created a variety of figures of the same biblical personality, and so he has more than one Moses, one unlike the other. They all have in common a graceful mobility and spiritual distinction which not even utter frustration or black anger can destroy. Such is the case with Moses smashing the Tablets of the Law into the ground.
The scene is diagonally divided in two triangular fields, one black, the other greyish-white; one packed with emotion and action, the other empty and eerie. The sharp distinction between the two areas indicates two opposed and clashing world views. Here is the world of God with its messenger and the conditions -hewn in stone -of a lasting covenant with humanity. On the other side, we have the senselessness and empty clamor of those who dance around the calf, a symbol of Israel's lack of faith.
Moses is enraged, but is he really possessed by black anger? Or is his posture not rather that of utter despair and frustration. Is this his night of the spirit and a most personal drama? Hanging there between the smashed tablets and God who can no longer be reached, Moses is groping for a thread of meaning and a glimmer of hope. But Moses' drama is not his alone, it is that of the whole people.
Moses' hands reaching beyond the margin of the plate denote a popular device used by Impressionist and Expressionist painters (Manteuffel) .The tablets are not actually broken but chipped, and they have lost their lustre. According to some commentators, Chagall did not want to shatter them completely out of respect for the law of God (Rosensaft).
Related scripture reading: Exodus 32:15-19
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