However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was wanton hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the three severe transgressions [that had led to the destruction of the First Temple]: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed.
“If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love — ahavat chinam. (Orot HaKodesh vol. III, p. 324)
--http://ravkooktorah.org/TISHA-AV-70.htm
חמשה דברים אירעו את אבותינו בשבעה עשר בתמוז וחמשה בתשעה באב בשבעה עשר בתמוז נשתברו הלוחות ובטל התמיד והובקעה העיר ושרף אפוסטומוס את התורה והעמיד צלם בהיכל בט"ב נגזר על אבותינו שלא יכנסו לארץ וחרב הבית בראשונה ובשניה ונלכדה ביתר ונחרשה העיר:
Five things befell our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five on the nineth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tamuz, the tablets were shattered, the daily offering ceased, the city was breached, Apostamos burned a Torah and put up a statue in the Temple. On the Ninth of Av, it was decreed that our ancestors would not enter the land, and the First and Second Temples were destroyed, Beitar was captured, and the city was plowed.
....(שמות לב) ויחר אף משה וישלך מידיו את הלחת וישבר אתם תחת ההר. תני רבי ישמעאל הקב"ה אמר לו שישברם שנאמר (דברים י) ואכתב על הלחת את הדברים אשר היו על הלחת הראשונים אשר שברת אמר לו
(Exodus 32): Moses became angry and cast the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Rabbi Yishmael taught: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him that he should break them, as it is said, (Deut. 10), "And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first set of tablets that you broke." He said to him,
יפה עשית ששיברת. ר' שמואל בר נחמן בשם ר' יונתן הלחות היו אורכן ששה טפחים ורחבן שלשה והיה משה תפיש בטפחיים והקב"ה בטפחיים וטפחיים ריוח באמצע כיון שעשו ישראל אותו מעשה ביקש הקב"ה לחוטפן מידו של משה וגברה ידו של משה וחטפן ממנו הוא שהכתוב משבחו בסוף ואומר (דברים לד) ולכל היד החזקה ייא שלמא על ידה דגברת עליה מינאי [יהא שלום על היד שגברה כביכול על הקב"ה]. רבי יוחנן בשם רבי יוסה בר אביי א"ל הלוחות היו מבקשין לפרוח והיה משה תופשן דכתיב (דברים ט) ואתפש בשני הלחות. תני בשם ר' נחמיה הכתב עצמו פרח ר' עזרה בשם ר' יהודה בי רבי סימון הלוחות היו משאוי ארבעים סאה והכתב היה סובלן כיון שפרח הכתב כבדו על ידיו של משה ונפלו ונשתבר
"You did well in breaking them." Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan, "The tablets were six handbreadths long and three broad. Moses held onto two handbreaths and the Holy One, Blessed be He, held onto two of them and there was a space of two handbreadths in the middle. When the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, the Holy One, Blessed be He, tried to snatch the tablets out of Moses's hand. But Moses's hand was stronger, and he snatched them from God, as Scripture praises him in the end and says (Deut. 34), "For all the mighty hand..."--May there be peace on the hand that "overcame" Him... Rabbi Yochanan in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Abaye, "The tablets wanted to fly but Moses was holding on to them, as it is written (Deut. 9), "And I held onto the two tablets." Rabbi Ezra in the name of Rabbi Yehudah from the house of Rabbi Shimon, "The tablets weighed forty seahs, and the writing was holding them up. When the writing flew off, the tablets became heavy in Moses's hands, and they fell and were broken."
Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams, Ph.D. The Other Talmud, The Yerushalmi: Unlocking the Secrets of the Talmud of Israel for Judaism Today (Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights, 2012), p. 169.
"...So the tablets could be seen as living things. We tent to think of them as stones, but they might be better thought of as coral. Coral seems to be a rock, but it's actually a living being. The writing is alive as well.
All four participants in this story have an independent will. God, Moses, the tablets, and the writing. All four participants witness the Israelites worshiping the golden calf, and all four react in their own way. We could also see the different opinions as describing a step by step process rather than alternative scenarios.
At first, the tablets and the writing stay passive, leaving it up to God and Moses. God tries to withdraw the tablets, but Moses overpowers God(!). Then the tablets try to withdraw, but Moses overpowers them, as well. Finally, the writing flies off. The writing is the animating force that makes it possible for Moses to hold up the tablets at all. Once it flies (or flees--the Hebrew words differ by only one letter [lifvroach/livroach], the tablets become rocks. At that point, Moses simply cannot manage their weight and drops them. This scenario is not to be found in the Bavli or midrash collections. It is recorded only in the Yerushalmi.
The fast on the seventeenth of Tammuz is one that might not have too much meaning for today's Jews. But the Yerushalmi lets us imagine it as an epic moment in which the tablets, themselves, have a say in where they want to go. And this allows us to experience Judaism as a religion in which our holiest things are, in a very real sense, alive. This is a life of religious imagination that you'll find most vibrantly in the Yerushalmi."