After having received the two tablets of the covenant on Mt. Sinai, Moses was descending the mountain with them in his hand when he saw the golden calf and the people of Israel dancing around it. Exodus 32:19 states that his “anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” Since the text states that Moses’ “anger burned hot,” commentators have traditionally presumed that his hurling of the tablets was an act of anger. In this paper, I will propose that Moses’ act of shattering the tablets was a ritual action that demonstrated that the Israelites had abrogated their covenant with YHWH by worshiping the golden calf. I will begin with a brief introduction to ritual theory, followed by a survey of selected passages in ancient Near Eastern legal texts that mention the breaking of contractual or covenantal tablets. An examination of these passages makes it clear that the breaking of a tablet was viewed as a ritual action that invalidates the contract to which it attests. In light of this background, I will propose that Moses’ shattering of the tablets was not primarily an expression of anger, but a statement that the Israelites had abrogated the covenant by worshiping the golden calf.