Ki Tisa: 5786 - "Mordechai in his generation - like Moshe in his generation": In every generation there is the Nasi of the generation, who gives his life for the Jewish people. Rabbi Shimon Sonnenfeld, at the conclusion of the Daf Yomi class of Rabbi…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:03 Speaker 2 It is written that Mordechai in his generation was like Moshe in his. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu gave his life for the Jewish people, so too Mordechai gave his life for them. And so it is with the leaders of the Jewish people in every generation—the extension of Moshe in every generation—who give their lives for the Jewish people. In the weekly parsha, the Torah tells us about the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe Rabbeinu gives his life and says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “If You forgive their sin, well and good. But if not?”

00:45 Speaker 1 “Erase me, please.”

00:46 Speaker 2 “Erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” Look, there seems to be a word missing here. “If You forgive their sin”—it doesn’t say what will happen. We have to understand it to mean that if You forgive their sin, then all is well, “but if not, erase me, please, from Your book.” But something is missing. The Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, explained it this way: Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who had said, “Leave Me be, and I will destroy them” because of the sin of the Golden Calf: What about the promise You made, the oath You swore to our forefathers, to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov—“I will greatly multiply your descendants”? What will happen to that oath? Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, “I will make you into a great nation.” Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: That means I would be the reason You destroy the Jewish people, because You would make a great nation out of me. So Moshe Rabbeinu says: “If You forgive their sin—but if not, erase me, please, from Your book.” If I can be the reason You destroy the Jewish people, I am ashamed of my very existence. I cannot accept that. So, “If You forgive their sin—but if not, erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” That is how the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, explained these verses. Since we are still in the month of Adar and still close to Purim, here is something connected to Purim: The Rebbe explains that all the mitzvos of Purim are connected with Ahavas Yisroel. Haman came to Achashverosh and said, “There is one people, scattered and dispersed among the nations.” So the mitzvos we observe on Purim show that we are not scattered and dispersed. That is why we have mishloach manos, gifts to the poor, feasting and rejoicing. All the mitzvos we observe on Purim show that even though we are scattered and dispersed, we are nevertheless one people.

02:58 Speaker 2 All the mitzvos of Purim. There is a story about the rabbi of Jerusalem. Once, someone from the General Committee came to him—

03:09 Speaker 3 Your grandfather.

03:10 Speaker 2 Yes.

03:11 Speaker 3 Remind me.

03:12 Speaker 2 Yes, of course. We learned in the Gemara that one should not boast about one’s lineage. So once, an attendant from the General Committee came and told him that the head of the committee was calling for him. He immediately got up and went. When he arrived, the man was astonished: “What? Why have you come here?” He said, “The attendant came and told me you were calling for me.” The man replied, “If I needed you, I would have come to you. I wouldn’t have called you to come to me.” Then it suddenly dawned on him. Above where the rabbi lived was a widow named Rosenfeld. The attendant had made a mistake: he had confused Rosenfeld with Sonnenfeld, and thought the head of the committee was calling for him when he was actually calling for her. So he called the rabbi, and the rabbi went immediately. The man apologized profusely and said how sorry he was. He said he would give that attendant a talking-to when he came. The rabbi told him, “G-d forbid. It happens; people make mistakes. G-d forbid that you should scold him or shout at him. Don’t do anything to him.” Then the rabbi went back home. But before he did, he first went up to Mrs. Rosenfeld and told her that the head of the committee needed her and had something to tell her. He went to her first so she would come, and only then went home. That is Ahavas Yisroel—not hurting someone, G-d forbid. And one more short story: On Purim, as soon as the sun rose and it was daytime, he immediately brought mishloach manos to his principal teacher in Jerusalem, the Maharil Diskin, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin. It was still early in the morning, just sunrise. So he asked him, “Why

05:16 Speaker 2 are you so eager to bring me mishloach manos so early?” He answered, “You made me quick.” What did he mean? In his youth he had been very, very ill. His original name was just Chaim, and the Maharil Diskin added the name Yosef, making it Yosef Chaim. Yosef Chaim has the same numerical value as zariz, meaning “quick.” “You made me quick,” he said, and that is why he hurried to bring him mishloach manos first thing in the morning.

05:44 Speaker 4 Indeed. Beautiful. Good Shabbos.