Vaera: 5786 - "Why have You done evil to this people? Why have You sent me?" How could Moshe specifically question Hashem's attributes? Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld, at the end…

00:02 Speaker 1 This week was 24 Teves, the yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe. One of the stories told is that the Maggid of Mezritch, his teacher, asked him to be the one to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. The Alter Rebbe said to the Maggid, “I don’t know all the kavanos. If you teach me all the kavanos for blowing the shofar, I can do it.” So he taught him all the kavanos for blowing the shofar according to Kabbalah and the teachings of the Arizal. After teaching him all the kavanos, the Alter Rebbe said, “I don’t know how to blow the shofar.” The Maggid asked him, “Then why didn’t you tell me from the start that you don’t know how?” The Alter Rebbe said, “I learned this from Moshe Rabbeinu. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu sent Moshe Rabbeinu to redeem the Jewish people, Moshe asked: If they ask me what Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name is, what should I tell them? So Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed it to him. And then Moshe said to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: But I am of uncircumcised lips; I don’t know how to speak.” So the Alter Rebbe said, “I learned it from Moshe Rabbeinu.” “And G-d spoke to Moshe.” Rashi says that He spoke to him in judgment. Hakadosh Boruch Hu spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu in judgment. What was the judgment? Elokim signifies the attribute of judgment. What was it? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to him, “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov,” and they did not question My ways. But Moshe Rabbeinu asks, seemingly challenging the ways of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Why have You brought harm upon this people?” And Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks to him in judgment. The question is: How could it be that Moshe Rabbeinu, of all people, challenged the ways of Hakadosh Boruch Hu? “Why have You brought harm upon this people? Why did You send me? You have not rescued them at all.” The Rambam says that one of the foundations of faith

02:14 Speaker 1 is that we must believe Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest of all human beings. That is a foundation of faith. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says of Moshe Rabbeinu in the Torah, “He is faithful in all My house.” He was on an even higher level than Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. So how is it that they did not challenge the ways of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, while Moshe Rabbeinu did, coming to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the claim, “Why have You brought harm upon this people?” How does that fit? There are several explanations. One explanation the Rebbe brings in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek is that it was precisely because Moshe was on an even higher level than the Patriarchs. Moshe Rabbeinu embodied the attribute of chochmah. “And what are we?” What is chochmah about? Precisely because he was connected to the attribute of chochmah, he asked, “Why have You brought harm upon this people?” Avraham embodied the attribute of chesed, Yitzchak the attribute of gevurah, and Yaakov the attribute of tiferes. Moshe Rabbeinu, precisely because he was connected to chochmah—to understanding and comprehension—saw that the Jewish people’s labor had grown heavier and things had become worse, and he came to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the claim: “Why have You brought harm upon this people?” So it was precisely because of Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness that he was the one to ask, “Why have You brought harm upon this people?” That is one explanation. There is another explanation I saw: Moshe Rabbeinu did this precisely because he loved his fellow Jews. The Gemara in Sanhedrin says that Moshiach ben David will come only in a generation that is entirely guilty or a generation that is entirely meritorious. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted the Jewish people to be redeemed immediately. Now, a generation that was entirely meritorious was not possible, because there were idol worshippers in Egypt. So an entirely meritorious generation was not possible. As for an entirely guilty generation, there was Moshe Rabbeinu, who was a tzaddik. So

04:18 Speaker 1 Moshe Rabbeinu, as it were, came with complaints so that he would be counted together with them. He spoke as though against Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“Why have You brought harm upon this people?”—so that it would be a generation that was entirely guilty and, consequently, there would be Geulah. In the same vein, they explain what happened when the Jewish people sinned with the calf: Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the Tablets and broke them. Why did he break the Tablets? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to him, “Well done for breaking the Tablets.” Why did he break them? They explain it this way too: The Jewish people had worshipped idols, and Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to plead their case so that Hakadosh Boruch Hu would forgive them. What did Moshe Rabbeinu do? He took the Tablets and broke them. The Gemara says, “One who breaks an object in anger is as though he worships idols.” So Moshe Rabbeinu, as it were, joined them by breaking the Tablets, as though he too were worshipping idols, so that it would be a generation that was entirely guilty. Consequently, by rights, Hakadosh Boruch Hu would have to forgive them. That was Moshe Rabbeinu’s intention, out of his love for his fellow Jews. May you have a peaceful Shabbos, in Heaven’s name. Good news.

05:29 Speaker 2 Shabbos shalom, then.