Ki Tisa: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld; an interesting point in Parshas Ki Tisa: the entire parsha has 189 verses, but the majority of them are in the first and second aliyos. Why? At the conclusion of the Daily Daf shiur…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:01 Speaker 2 Parshas Ki Sisa. Here’s something new and interesting. The entire parsha has 189 verses, but the first and second aliyos contain most of them. Why weren’t they divided evenly? There are seven aliyos. One explanation is that no one from the tribe of Levi sinned. So, to avoid embarrassing anyone, a kohen and a Levi—who did not sin—are called up for the first and second aliyos, which tell the whole story of the Golden Calf. That way, no one is embarrassed by being called to the Torah while the story of the calf is read. They give those aliyos to kohanim and Levi’im, who aren’t affected by it, since no one from the tribe of Levi—

00:50 Speaker 1 sinned.

00:51 Speaker 2 Sinned. In any case, Moshe Rabbeinu comes down from the mountain and sees what happened. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him, “Go, descend from your greatness. This people has sinned and made a golden calf.” Then Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, “Leave Me be, and I will destroy them.” But Hakadosh Boruch Hu had promised the Patriarchs that He would multiply their descendants. What would become of the promise He made to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov—“I will greatly multiply your descendants”—if He now destroyed all the Jewish people? Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu, “And I will make you into a great nation.” I will make a great nation from you. Later, a few verses on, Moshe Rabbeinu prays and says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “And now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of Your book.” A word seems to be missing here. “If You will forgive their sin”—then what? It doesn’t say. Rashi says that if You forgive them, well and good. But why doesn’t the verse say that? The verse only says “if You will forgive”; it doesn’t say what follows. “And if not, please blot me out of Your book.” A word seems to be missing here. So there’s a very interesting explanation from the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak. He explained it this way: Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—Hakadosh Boruch Hu had told him, “Leave Me be, and I will destroy them.” Ah, but what about the promise? “And I will make you into a great nation.” Moshe Rabbeinu says: That means I am the reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu can destroy the Jewish people—“I will make you into a great nation.” In other words, I would be the reason You destroy the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “If You will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of Your book.” If I could be the reason You want to destroy the Jewish people, then “if You will forgive their sin—and if not”—it is as though the thought continues—

03:10 Speaker 2 “And if not, please blot me out of Your book which You have written.” Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people. He put himself on the line for them. If there is even a possibility that Hakadosh Boruch Hu could destroy the Jewish people because He would make Moshe Rabbeinu into a great nation, Moshe Rabbeinu says, “If You will forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of Your book which You have written.” Here we see Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness: he put himself on the line for the Jewish people, even for those who had sinned. Shabbos shalom and sheva brachos.