Parshas Tetzaveh - Moshe Rabbeinu binds and connects Jews with Hashem - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:00 Parshas Tetzaveh is the only parsha in the Torah—as noted by the early commentators and in the Zohar—in which Moshe Rabbeinu’s name is not mentioned. The Baal Haturim, one of the great early commentators, explains that the reason is what Moshe Rabbeinu said at the time of the sin of the Golden Calf: “And if not, please erase me from Your book that You have written.” Moshe Rabbeinu told Hakadosh Boruch Hu that if, G-d forbid, He would not forgive the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf, He should erase his name. And although Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave them, “the curse of a sage takes effect even when it is conditional.” That is why his name is not mentioned in Parshas Tetzaveh. The question is: Why specifically Parshas Tetzaveh? After all, the verse “And if not, please erase me” appears in Parshas Ki Sisa, not in this parsha. Why was “please erase me” fulfilled specifically in Parshas Tetzaveh? The commentators offer several explanations. The Me’or Einayim, Rabbi Nachum of Chernobyl, says that Parshas Tetzaveh always falls around 7 Adar. [unclear] The Magen Avraham notes that 7 Adar is the yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu. Parshas Tetzaveh is always read around 7 Adar. It is the day of Moshe Rabbeinu’s birth and passing. And it is precisely in this parsha that his name is not mentioned. But there are other views as well, as the Me’or Einayim says, and as is written in the Or Hachaim Hakadosh and by other great commentators who explain it this way. Another view is that although Moshe Rabbeinu’s name is not mentioned, the parsha opens with the words “And you shall command.”

02:27 And the Zohar says that the name of the parsha is “And you shall command,” not merely “You shall command.” [unclear] In the Zohar, the parsha is called “And you shall command.” In other words, Moshe Rabbeinu is specifically present in the name of the parsha. And another point: “And you shall command”—“you,” from your very essence. In other words, Moshe Rabbeinu, in his very essence, is the “you shall command.” Though this is the only parsha in which Moshe’s name is not mentioned, there are explanations that reveal Moshe Rabbeinu on a deeper level: “And you shall command,” from his very essence, from the depths of Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul. And the Me’or Einayim explains the verse “And you shall command the children of Israel”: “Tetzaveh” does not only mean “command”; it is also related to the word tzavsa, joining and connecting. “And you shall command the children of Israel”—you, Moshe Rabbeinu, the essence of Moshe Rabbeinu—and this is how it is explained in Chassidus—Moshe Rabbeinu joins and connects the Jewish people with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. By giving the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu made the Jewish people, through the Torah, “Yisroel and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one,” one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And this is how the Rebbe explains it: “Tetzaveh” means joining and connecting. “And you shall command the children of Israel” means that Moshe Rabbeinu joins and connects the Jews, the children of Israel, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This was in 5687. The year 5687 was a difficult year; it was during the hard times in Russia. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Russia then. He was the Rebbe, the leader. It was one of the most difficult periods

04:54 . It was about ten years after the revolution in Russia, when the Communists seized power and fought against Judaism. They closed yeshivos, closed chadarim, closed mikvaos. And as we know from the historical accounts, the Frierdiker Rebbe was then fighting Hashem’s battles with actual mesirus nefesh, even in the face of the entire government. It was a formidable government, and he waged a real struggle, sending chassidim to build mikvaos and yeshivos. It was truly actual mesirus nefesh, so that they could continue to observe Judaism and build Jewish life in Russia in those days. This was in 5687. Already a year earlier, the Frierdiker Rebbe had said [unclear] that it would be a difficult year. And the Rebbe would say that knowing a year will be difficult is itself a form of mercy. There was another practice introduced then: saying Tehillim. The custom among Chabad chassidim is to say each day’s portion of Tehillim. That is one of the customs the Frierdiker Rebbe instituted that year, in 5687. The chassidim did not know just how far-reaching this would be. But they saw that a difficult period was coming, and they sensed it around the Frierdiker Rebbe. All the time, they felt that something else was about to happen... This was in Adar I 5687, on Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Leningrad, in Petersburg, and this...

06:50 [unclear] It was foolish, and it could have affected his steps, what would happen to him. So the work was difficult. In any case, on Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh 5687, the Frierdiker Rebbe said a maamar on the verse “And you shall command the children of Israel,” and spoke about these subjects. We will discuss them in detail. He began with the verse “And you shall command”; that was the verse the maamar addressed. Afterward, on Purim Katan, the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Moscow. He made a trip in those years: the Frierdiker Rebbe traveled from Petersburg, from Leningrad, to Moscow. When he was in Moscow, the chassidim asked him to say a maamar. It was at the great synagogue in Moscow, the synagogue on Arkhipova Street. The Frierdiker Rebbe came there, and hundreds of Jews, chassidim, were there at the time. They sent word to warn him that there were spies there, that the place was full of spies. These were people working for the government, which had planted people there—rachmana litzlan, even Jews who were informers. At that time there was a large group who were, really, how should one put it, the true persecutors. They were literally “your destroyers and those who lay you waste will come from among you”; this was the Yevsektsiya. They were Jews, of all people, nebach, who had become enemies and worked for the government, and

08:38 they did all kinds of things under its direction, rachmana litzlan. They were spies for the government, and the concern was that the Rebbe not speak about anything that might, G-d forbid, put him in danger—that he not speak against the government or about matters of Jewish education. Purim Katan arrived, [unclear]. The Frierdiker Rebbe then said a maamar of Chassidus beginning with the words “And the Jews accepted what they had begun to do,” a verse from the Megillah. He cited the Gemara’s words: “They fulfilled what they had accepted.” In other words, at Matan Torah there was only a beginning. When Haman’s decree came, on Purim, then “the Jews accepted”; that was the acceptance. Only then did the Jews accept the Torah. Until Purim there was a “substantial claim of coercion regarding the Torah”: the Jews could have argued that they had not wanted to accept the Torah, and that their acceptance had been compelled, forced upon them. When did the true acceptance of the Torah take place? At the time of the miracle of Purim. And the question is: How can that be? It is astonishing. At Matan Torah, the Jews were at the height of spiritual elevation, with the greatest miracles and the greatest revelations. They saw Hakadosh Boruch Hu, saw the revelation of the Shechinah at the Exodus from Egypt, even more so at the Splitting of the Sea, and still more at Matan Torah. With such revelations of the Shechinah, that was only a beginning? And when did the acceptance and the actual fulfillment of

10:11 Matan Torah take place? Precisely in a time of decrees, a time of suffering, a time when the decree was “to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews.” How can that be? It is astonishing. The Jews were in a lowly state at the time of Purim. The Frierdiker Rebbe devoted an entire maamar to this. And that maamar was a continuation of the maamar he had said on Shabbos. He opened with the verse, “And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall bring you pure olive oil, crushed for the light.” He raised several questions here that all the commentators ask. One question, already asked by the early commentators—the Ramban, Ibn Ezra, and others—is: What does “And you shall command the children of Israel” mean? Is Moshe Rabbeinu the one commanding? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the one commanding. The Torah always says, “Hashem spoke to Moshe: Command the children of Israel.” Moshe Rabbeinu is Hashem’s emissary, conveying the commands from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The wording “And you shall command” implies that Moshe, specifically, is the one commanding. What does that mean? He then asked: What does “and they shall bring you” mean? Should they bring the olive oil to Moshe? The Ramban asks this question. After all, Aharon the Kohen is the one who lights the Menorah. They should bring the olive oil to Aharon, not to Moshe. He then asked: What does “and they shall bring pure olive oil, crushed for the light” mean? What is the significance of “crushed for the light”? Yes, “crushed”—that is what it says there. What does it mean that the oil must be crushed,

11:38 That the olives must be crushed to produce pure oil—pressed and crushed—so that it will be “for the luminary,” so that it will give light? What does “for the luminary” mean? It is an interesting expression. And then, “to kindle a lamp continually.” What does “a lamp continually” mean? As Rashi asks, it was not lit continually. The menorah was lit only from evening until morning, as the verse goes on to say. If it was from evening until morning, what does “continually” mean? The Frierdiker Rebbe then delivered a remarkable maamar. It is one of the remarkable maamarim, one that had enormous consequences at the time. He knew he was being watched. He knew that spies were there, following his words, looking for a few words they could later use to inform on him to the government. Nevertheless, the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke with full force, without any fear. And what did he speak about? He said that the verse states, “And you shall command the Children of Israel.” With Moshe Rabbeinu, “command” also means joining and connecting. The Frierdiker Rebbe said these very words: “And you shall command the Children of Israel.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: Moshe Rabbeinu, you, Moshe Rabbeinu. And as he says in the Zohar, specifically in this Zohar, “And you shall command.” He says that this refers to the Moshe of every generation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu: “And you”—you, Moshe Rabbeinu—“shall command,” meaning join and connect, the Children of Israel. What is

13:16 Moshe Rabbeinu’s role? Moshe Rabbeinu is the one who binds and connects the Children of Israel with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is precisely what the Torah is saying, what it means to convey in this verse. The Torah says: What is your task, Moshe Rabbeinu? What is your role? “And you”—you, Moshe Rabbeinu—“shall command”: you shall bind and connect. Your role is to connect Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The same interpretation applies to the Moshe of every generation. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu, in his time, taught this and connected Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu—that was Moshe’s way—so in every generation there is a Moshe Rabbeinu of that generation, whose role is to strengthen Jews in their faith so that faith becomes internalized. That is why Moshe Rabbeinu is called “Ra’aya Mehemna.” “Ra’aya Mehemna” also means, as we have said, “faithful shepherd”; that is its simple meaning. But here there is a deeper meaning to “Ra’aya Mehemna”: he is the shepherd of faith. Moshe Rabbeinu shepherds, nourishes and sustains the Jews in their faith, so that a Jew’s faith becomes internalized. Faith must not remain something abstract: he believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but his faith has no bearing on his day-to-day life. Faith must nourish and sustain him; Moshe nurtures that faith and gives it life, so that it lives within the person—in his thoughts, speech and actions, in his day-to-day life,

14:52 to the point of mesirus nefesh. And this is where the Frierdiker Rebbe comes in. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu was the Ra’aya Mehemna of his generation, so was Mordechai the Jew. For when Haman came and sought “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews,” Haman targeted the children. As the Midrash relates, Haman saw the children coming from cheder and saw that Mordechai had gathered the schoolchildren—twenty-two thousand children—and was learning Torah with them. He taught them things connected to nothing but Torah in its plain sense—statutes and mitzvos, as recorded in the Midrashim. When Haman saw this, he understood that this was the strength of the Jewish people, and he wanted to harm the children. Mordechai strengthened the Jews’ faith in those days and awakened their mesirus nefesh. As the Alter Rebbe says in his teaching, the Jews stood firm with mesirus nefesh throughout that entire year. Not only did they not [unclear], G-d forbid, but they stood firm in observing Torah and mitzvos, to the point of [unclear] studying Torah in public, [unclear]. And the Frierdiker Rebbe explained how this applies to our own days, as it did then, in that period we are discussing [unclear]. We must know that there is a Haman in every generation who wants “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews.”

16:15 And we must know that the power to defeat Haman comes through educating Jewish children. “From the mouths of infants and nursing babes You have established strength, to silence the enemy and the avenger.” Through the infants and young children, through children learning with their teacher, “to silence the enemy and the avenger” is fulfilled. This comes through refusing to be intimidated, through strength and mesirus nefesh. Precisely through this, we reach “to silence the enemy and the avenger”—the Purim miracle of those days. This is how he interpreted the verse “And you shall command the Children of Israel”: it speaks of Moshe Rabbeinu, who connects Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “And they shall bring to you”—the Frierdiker Rebbe explained here the question about “And they shall bring to you pure olive oil.” What does “And they shall bring to you” mean? The Jews must bring Moshe pure olive oil. In other words, because Moshe Rabbeinu binds and connects the Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, this brings about “And they shall bring to you”: the Jews bring Moshe Rabbeinu pure olive oil. The Jews add light to Moshe’s own spiritual levels. The meaning is this: It is known that Moshe and the Children of Israel are like a head and feet. Speaking of Moshe and the Children of Israel, there is a verse in Parshas Behaaloscha: “The six hundred thousand on foot, the people in whose midst I am.” Moshe Rabbeinu calls the Jews “the people on foot.” And it is explained that Moshe Rabbeinu is the head of the Children of Israel; that is what the initials of “Rebbe” stand for: the head of the Children of Israel. He is the head, and the Children of Israel are Moshe’s feet. And in the relationship between the head and the feet, as

17:57 the Alter Rebbe explains, the head directs the feet, as is obvious even in the literal sense. But the feet have an advantage over the head: the feet carry the head. When the head wants to get somewhere, it needs the feet to take it there. The feet carry the head to a place the head cannot reach on its own. And this is the Frierdiker Rebbe’s interpretation of the verse here: because Moshe Rabbeinu binds and connects the Children of Israel with the Infinite Light, this brings about “And they shall bring to you”—the Jews bring Moshe Rabbeinu pure olive oil. “To you”—specifically to Moshe. The Jews add further light to Moshe’s spiritual levels, so to speak. Moshe rises to a higher level by virtue of connecting the Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The verse then says, “crushed for the luminary.” The Frierdiker Rebbe explains the word “crushed.” It refers to exile and its decrees, to the darkness of exile. The Jews are in a state of being crushed. They are broken and downtrodden by that crushing, by the suffering in the darkness of exile. And through concealment, it becomes “for the luminary.” He interpreted “luminary” as referring to the essence of the soul. The luminary is the source of light. This is the essence of the soul, its yechidah. The luminary within the soul, the Jews’ true faith, rises through the crushing, through the decrees. This is what we saw with Mordechai: the crushing—when Haman brought the decree “to destroy,” rachmana litzlan—awakened the Jews’ true mesirus nefesh,

19:34 and they stood firm with true mesirus nefesh throughout that entire year. Similarly, as was discussed then, in that period, the crushing of exile, brought about by all the decrees, becomes “for the luminary”: the Jews’ true mesirus nefesh rises to the fore. And this was something people saw with their own eyes. This is “to kindle a lamp continually”: through mesirus nefesh, the constant lamp is awakened. Not mesirus nefesh only “from evening until morning,” only in difficult times, but “a lamp continually”—mesirus nefesh must remain the same at all times, without change. That was the Rebbe’s teaching. And as is known, the decree leading to his arrest came soon afterward. His words reached the government. He spoke about it in a sicha as well, and the message was absolutely clear: there is no need to be afraid, and the government should not even try. They must know that they cannot prevent Jews from educating Jewish children or close the cheders, mikvaos and yeshivos, and so on. And of course, this was the reason. Shortly afterward—a few weeks later, a month or two, on 6 Sivan—it led to his arrest, that harsh imprisonment. The Frierdiker Rebbe was held in prison under a death sentence, from which, rachmana litzlan, the great miracle later emerged that led to the Geulah of 12 Tammuz: the Frierdiker Rebbe left prison against all odds, contrary to everything the government at the time was certain it could carry out. And in this respect it was [unclear]. This was the imprisonment of 5687. Yes, “And you shall command the Children of Israel.” And this

21:13 This parsha falls in the week of 7 Adar. We need to understand that this is the generation of Moshe Rabbeinu, but the Torah says otherwise. The fact that the Torah does not mention Moshe Rabbeinu by name means just the opposite: the Torah wants to express Moshe’s very essence, not merely his name. A name is a name; it expresses a person’s actions and particular qualities, as explained in Chassidus. On the contrary, “And you shall command” goes beyond the name. The true, essential role of Moshe Rabbeinu, as the Kli Yakar says—Moshe Rabbeinu’s very essence—is to connect and unite Jews with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That makes the Jews one, united together, as it says in Meor Einayim. To become one—that is what Moshe Rabbeinu reveals, and these are things Moshe Rabbeinu’s name does not express. Moshe Rabbeinu is present, quite literally, in every generation; Moshe Rabbeinu’s essential being remains, and that is the Moshe Rabbeinu of every generation. Moshe is present in the generation, as the Moshe of that generation. And so it is in every generation, through the leaders of the Jewish people, through the tzaddikim who illuminate the yechidah, the self-sacrifice, the essence of the soul within Jews. This is the power of self-sacrifice through which Jews hold firm, and this is “crushed for the luminary,” revealing the true luminary, the true light. 5752. That was one of the years [unclear]. On Purim Katan 5752, the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, instructed that this maamar be printed. It was a maamar the Rebbe had delivered in 5741. And every year, as is customary, for every Yom Tov, every special day, every important day, they bring the Rebbe a maamar delivered by the Frierdiker Rebbe or by the Rebbe. In 5752, they brought the maamar the Rebbe had delivered in 5741, on Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh 5741. It is the maamar that begins, “And you shall command the Children of Israel,” and it is based on the Frierdiker Rebbe’s maamar “And the Jews Accepted” from 5687. It is that same maamar that the Rebbe

23:37 delivered in 5741. In 5752, they brought the maamar to the Rebbe for him to review. They bring the maamar to the Rebbe, yes, and the Rebbe has to review it, refine or correct it, so it will be ready for print. This was on Purim Katan 5752, a few days before the difficult day of 27 Adar. A few days later came 27 Adar I 5752, when the Rebbe, may we be spared, [unclear]. That was the period when, for the Rebbe, [unclear], there were severe concealments and obscurity, and to this day we are still in a time of darkness, concealment and obscurity. This was the last maamar the Rebbe released for us. “And You Shall Command” appeared in the Purim Katan 5752 booklet, and there the Rebbe addressed this maamar. Not only did the Rebbe reiterate the Frierdiker Rebbe’s words, but the Rebbe added something else, something wonderful that we can live with and live by. Yes, this is what gives us the strength to withstand all the trials of exile. The Rebbe added another wonderful point. But let us look at the Gemara in Tractate Shabbos: when it quotes the words “They accepted it again in the days of Achashverosh,” the Gemara says that at the Giving of the Torah there was the matter of Haman’s decree. Sorry—at the Giving of the Torah, there was the matter of the Jews’ claim that they had not wanted to accept the Torah; “He held the mountain over them like a barrel.” And in the days of Achashverosh, it was “They fulfilled and accepted.”

25:28 When we look at Rashi, Rashi says: “Out of love for the miracle.” In other words, in Torah Or, the Alter Rebbe says it was because of the decrees, as discussed earlier in the maamar. He says, then, that it was specifically the decree, the hardships following Haman’s decree, that brought out self-sacrifice in the Jews. But Rashi says it was “out of love for the miracle”: seeing the miracles awakened their acceptance of the Torah. The Rebbe gives this another wonderful interpretation in serving Hashem. There are two kinds of exile. There is a situation of decrees and hardships, bitter decrees. There is Haman, as there was in Mordechai’s time, who wants “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews,” may we be spared. This reveals the power of self-sacrifice in Jews. We saw this in Russia too, in times that called for self-sacrifice: there were harsh decrees, a difficult period under the Communists, who wanted to wipe out Judaism entirely, to “destroy and kill” it from the world. And through the Moshe Rabbeinu of that generation, through the Frierdiker Rebbe, who demanded actual self-sacrifice from the chassidim, we saw with our own eyes those exceptional individuals who stood firm with immense self-sacrifice and did not retreat, but continued to observe all aspects of Torah and mitzvos. That was how it was in times of decrees, and that is what we saw throughout the generations. We saw it at the time of the expulsion from Spain, yes, among the Jewish people,

27:04 throughout Jewish history, we always saw that it was precisely during the most difficult periods Jews endured that there was true self-sacrifice, as Jews stood firm in their faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Indeed, Torah and mitzvos always flourished precisely in the hardest times. But that is one side. There is also a second kind of “crushed for the luminary,” and that is what the Rebbe spoke about in that maamar: there are times specifically after the miracle, when people have already seen that a miracle occurred. We must remember that in 5752, this was the period when the gates of Russia opened and it became possible to study Torah and observe mitzvos. Not only that: people were allowed to come in and build yeshivos, and we saw that the situation had changed, that things had been turned around. We actually saw the reversal: the government opened the gates and allowed any Jews who wished to leave, and also allowed people to come in to build shuls and yeshivos, with the greatest support. That remains the case to this day. There was a miracle here, and we saw it openly. Nevertheless, “crushed for the luminary” among Jews is not only during a difficult period, when there are decrees and darkness, concealment and obscurity. Even when times are good and everything is fine—materially there is food to eat, spiritually there are yeshivos and chadarim, one can study and daven, and one can study and daven with peace of body and mind, and everything is as it should be—a Jew is still “crushed,” broken by the fact that we are in exile. A Jew,

28:40 as long as Moshiach has not yet come and G-dliness has not yet been revealed in the world, knows that when Moshiach comes, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea,” and “the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh will see together that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” There is still no Beis Hamikdash, and the Shechinah has still not been revealed in the world. The very fact that we are in exile brings a Jew to this state of being “crushed,” of being “broken and contrite.” A Jew wants to see G-dliness revealed. That is the meaning of “crushed,” as the Rebbe says in the maamar: a Jew wants to see G-dliness revealed, and “Anyone in whose days the Beis Hamikdash was not built, it is as though it was destroyed in his days.” Because a Jew’s innermost desire is for G-dliness to be openly revealed in the world. As we say every day, again and again, both on weekdays and on Shabbos and Yom Tov: “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy.” A Jew asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu: I want to see “Your return to Zion”; I want to see G-dliness revealed. And as long as G-dliness is not revealed, a Jew is not satisfied. A Jew cannot be satisfied; he is “crushed for the luminary.” That is the feeling of brokenness this brings, and that is why he asks that the complete Geulah be brought about. This is the meaning of “And you shall command the Children of Israel.” There is a Moshe Rabbeinu in every generation: there is a Moshe Rabbeinu in a time of decrees, and there is a Moshe Rabbeinu in a time when there are no actual decrees against Judaism. But

30:10 even then, there is “And you shall command.” The Moshe Rabbeinu of every generation connects and unites the Children of Israel with the Infinite Light. How? Through “crushed for the luminary”: a Jew has this feeling of being “crushed,” this sense of brokenness, and that sense of brokenness comes from the luminary, from the essence of the soul. For the essence of a Jew’s soul waits and longs to see G-dliness openly revealed in the world—for G-dliness to be revealed before our physical eyes, so that “the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh will see together.” And that is “a constant lamp,” not only “from evening until morning.” “From evening until morning” refers to difficult times, when it is night, when it is dark, when there is darkness. Then faith is strong. But there is also “a constant lamp.” At all times and in every situation, Jews have “and they shall bring to you.” That is how the Rebbe explained it in the maamar. Afterward, the Rebbe instructed that the maamar be printed in hundreds and thousands of booklets. And that night the Rebbe stood for many hours. The Rebbe was then ninety years old. The Rebbe stood for many hours, and the Rebbe himself, with his holy hand, distributed the maamar to each person. Men, women and children—the Rebbe gave the maamar to every one of the chassidim who were there then. Thousands of people. It went on for many hours. The Rebbe gave the maamar to each person with his holy hand. The Rebbe also wrote a note then, following the maamar: “May...”

31:50 A desire that her actions be pleasing.” And a few days later came 27 Adar. This was the last maamar we received from the Rebbe. The fact that the Rebbe gave it out with his holy hand was unusual; it had happened only a few times. The Rebbe gave his maamar to each person. And this maamar contains a lesson for us: the strength that enables a Jew to get through the hardest times, even amid the concealment of exile, is the strength of “crushed for the luminary.” It awakens the true power of self-sacrifice in Jews. “And they shall bring you pure olive oil.” I want to read three or four lines from the maamar that speak to something relevant to us, to every one of us. The Rebbe says: When we look at the verse “And you shall command the Children of Israel,” its meaning is that Moshe Rabbeinu commands them to “bring you.” In other words, “bring you” comes through “and you shall command.” What Jews bring to Moshe comes through “and you shall command.” And at the end of the maamar, the Rebbe says the following about the Moshe Rabbeinu of our generation: that he

33:19 awakens and reveals the faith within each and every Jew, so that afterward they do their work through their own strength—“bring you.” A Jew can do his work through his own strength, until it becomes “a constant lamp,” unchanged even at the level of his conscious faculties. A Jew can be “a constant lamp” in his service of Hashem at all times and under all circumstances. And through this, may we merit the true and complete Geulah very soon. The Rebbe concludes the maamar by saying that then there will be a revelation of G-dliness here below, arising from below, and there will be an abundance of oil and the lighting of the lamps—“and they shall bring you pure olive oil”—in the future, physically, in the third Beis Hamikdash, with the true and complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, very soon.