Parshas Ki Tisa - Self-sacrifice to do a favor for a fellow Jew - Rabbi Asher Perkash

00:00 On Purim, before [unclear], the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Moscow and delivered the maamar “Vekibel Hayehudim.” In those days, in that situation and at that time, this was genuine mesirus nefesh: the Frierdiker Rebbe stood in the great synagogue in Moscow, knowing that he was being followed and that his actions were being watched; there were spies there. Nevertheless, the Frierdiker Rebbe delivered the maamar “Vekibel Hayehudim,” in which he spoke about mesirus nefesh. He compared that period to the time of Purim. He spoke about “The Jews accepted what they had begun to do”: precisely because of the harsh decrees, Jews displayed a mesirus nefesh that had not been seen before. This led to their acceptance of the Torah—“They upheld and accepted”—as the Gemara says in Shabbos: the Jews accepted the Torah anew at the time of the mesirus nefesh of Purim. Delivering the maamar was itself genuine mesirus nefesh. And, of course, so were the things he said then and demanded of the chassidim and of the Jews: that they stand with mesirus nefesh and not be deterred by any of the decrees imposed in Russia at the time; that they continue to build yeshivos and cheders, teach children, and stand with genuine mesirus nefesh for every aspect of Jewish life. The Frierdiker Rebbe recounts

01:49 in an account he wrote about that period—a very rich account in which he describes many details of the situation in those days. From them, one can understand the depth of mesirus nefesh needed to withstand the difficult trials of that time. Among the things he recounts is that, that night, after the maamar, there was a farbrengen. The Frierdiker Rebbe sat there and farbrenged with the chassidim. He relates that among the chassidim were two whom he mentions by name. One was a great and renowned chossid, Reb Itche der Masmid. His name was Rabbi Yitzchak Horowitz. He was a great chossid, deeply devoted to serving Hashem, and a great Torah scholar. He was a great man, one of the foremost chassidim. Reb Itche der Masmid sat there at the farbrengen, and with him was the well-known chossid, Rabbi Yaakov Landau, a great Torah scholar; years later, he served as the rabbi of Bnei Brak. They sat together, said l’chaim, and a discussion—an argument—developed among the chassidim: What is the purpose of Chassidus? What were they arguing about? They were asking one another: What is its goal? What is its intent? What does Chassidus want from us? As the Frierdiker Rebbe describes the details in his account, Rabbi Yaakov

03:38 Landau held that the main thing in Chassidus should be inner work in the mind and heart. A person must serve Hashem, understand G-dliness, contemplate G-dliness, and awaken love and awe; that is the primary work. Reb Itche der Masmid argued that the main thing in Chassidus is the work of mesirus nefesh. The central purpose of Chassidus is for a Jew to awaken within himself the power of mesirus nefesh, the yechidah of the soul, and to act with mesirus nefesh—to go beyond his nature and devote himself to doing good for another Jew, both materially and spiritually. Mesirus nefesh—that is the purpose of Chassidus. They discussed it, each bringing proofs for his position. Afterward, they wanted the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was sitting there at the table, to decide, of course, and say what the point was, what Chassidus is about. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates the details in his account, and in any event gives the gist of his answer. To respond to their question, he said: I will first tell a story about the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Tanya, when he traveled to the Maggid of Mezritch. As chassidim know, the Alter Rebbe stayed with the Maggid of Mezritch for several months, and it was there that he became close to the Maggid. And as is known, the Maggid, according to the arrangement [unclear], assigned him a study partner: his holy son, Rabbi Avraham the Angel. They...

05:15 studied Torah together: Rabbi Avraham the Angel studied Kabbalah, the inner dimension of Torah, the secrets of Torah, and Chassidus with him, while the Alter Rebbe studied the revealed dimension of Torah—Gemara—with Rabbi Avraham the Angel. Chassidim have many stories about that study partnership and what happened there. One story is that when the Alter Rebbe took his leave before returning home, the Maggid of Mezritch asked his son, Rabbi Avraham the Angel, to accompany him. The Alter Rebbe set out, and the Maggid told him to travel by horse and wagon. Rabbi Avraham the Angel traveled part of the way with him. When they reached the place where they thought they should part, Rabbi Avraham the Angel was about to get down and return home, while the Alter Rebbe was about to continue his journey. They were standing by the horse and wagon, ready to part. Rabbi Avraham the Angel said to the Alter Rebbe—and here the Frierdiker Rebbe relates two versions; chassidim have two versions of what was said there. According to one version, Rabbi Avraham the Angel said to the Alter Rebbe: “You have to whip the horses so they know they are horses.” This

07:01 might seem like a joke, though of course there was a profound point to it; he expressed it as a parable. The horses are standing there, ready to run, and he says: “You have to whip the horses so they know they are horses.” Another version has it: “You have to whip the horses so they stop being horses.” The Alter Rebbe heard this saying, or these two sayings, and said: “For this I must return to Mezritch, so I can absorb this path of serving Hashem inwardly.” In other words, the Alter Rebbe did not hear a joke. He understood that Rabbi Avraham the Angel, a holy Jew and a holy tzaddik, had told him something about serving Hashem. He therefore decided to return to Mezritch so he could internalize this path of service. He returned to Mezritch and stayed another few weeks to absorb it inwardly. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells the story and asks: “What are these two ideas? What are these two versions?” These are versions we received from our holy Rebbeim, so there must be an explanation and an interpretation: What do the two sayings mean—to whip the horses so they know they are horses, and to whip the horses so they stop being horses? Well, the horse refers to the physical substance

08:31 of the body. Yes, a person is, after all, a person. A person is made up of a body and a soul, and working with the horse, with the donkey—there is a donkey here. A donkey alludes to the physical substance of the body. At any rate, the story is about a horse. All of these are parables for serving Hashem through working with the human body. And for a person to be a person, he must refine his body. What does that work entail? It has two levels: the first is to whip the horses so they know they are horses. The second is to whip the horses so they stop being horses. What does that mean in serving Hashem? In serving Hashem, there is a level called “man” and a level called “not man,” as the verse in Shmuel says: “For He is not a man, that He should relent.” That is the idea. What does it mean? There is a level called “man.” A person is made up of intellect, character traits, and emotions. A person’s task, in order to be a person, is to make his intellect and character traits vessels for G-dliness. In other words, he must use his mind, study Torah, understand G-dliness, recite Tehillim, and contemplate the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This will awaken good qualities in his heart: love of Hashem, awe of Hashem, Ahavas Yisroel, and love of Torah. All these good qualities, both between a person and Hashem

10:08 and between one person and another. That is a person’s work: to be a person. But afterward one must rise above the level of “man”; there is a level of “not man.” As it is written, speaking of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it were: “And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.” So says the prophet Yechezkel. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is called “man,” as it were—the supernal man, the man upon the throne. This is the “man” above: chochmah, binah, and the sefiros, chesed and gevurah. All ten sefiros above are called the level of “man.” But there is a level called “not man.” As it says in Shmuel: “And also the Eternal One of Israel will not lie or relent, for He is not a man, that He should relent.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is at the level of “not man,” beyond any defined form, beyond “man.” And correspondingly, he says, so it is with a person’s service. First comes the work of whipping the horse so it knows it is a horse. In serving Hashem at the level of “man,” we must take our intellect and character traits and refine them: use our intellect for G-dliness, for Torah and mitzvos; use the qualities and emotions of the heart and refine them, so they become good qualities. This is the meaning of serving Hashem according to reason and understanding, through the work of intellect and character traits, the level of “man”: whipping the horse so it knows it is a horse. But that alone is still not enough to fulfill one’s duty. That alone does not yet make one a chossid. What

11:30 What is the ultimate purpose of the avodah? He said: to whip the horse so that it stops being a horse. To stop being a horse means mesirus nefesh—going beyond yourself and the limits and constraints of your intellect and emotions. That is the avodah of mesirus nefesh. And that is the true meaning of the level of “not man,” which is the ultimate purpose of the avodah, the ultimate purpose of Chassidus. Of course, this followed the maamar he had delivered that night on “The Jews accepted what they had begun to do.” In other words, this concerns the Torah and its acceptance, the Torah they received at Sinai. Torah is wisdom, Torah is character, Torah is the entire Torah. It is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And the entire Torah is [unclear]. But the ultimate purpose of the Torah was realized in the time of Haman, in the time of Mordechai, when the Jews gave themselves over with mesirus nefesh. Through this, they reached the level of “not man.” And this is the ultimate purpose of the avodah: a Jew’s mesirus nefesh, beyond the natural order, for another Jew. Today’s parsha is Parshas Ki Sisa. In today’s parsha, we see how far one Jew’s mesirus nefesh can go, what mesirus nefesh means. When we speak of mesirus nefesh, we [unclear] give up one’s life for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And mesirus nefesh is not only [unclear] to give up one’s life, but even [unclear] material things for another Jew. Chassidus sought to bring this mesirus nefesh into practice. And mesirus nefesh really is mesirus nefesh—what does it mean to give up one’s own self?

13:18 It means setting aside even one’s own spiritual concerns for another Jew, even for that Jew’s material needs. That is true mesirus nefesh, and that is the path of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov revealed: When we speak of mesirus nefesh, what do we mean? Does mesirus nefesh always mean jumping into a fire? Does mesirus nefesh mean giving up one’s life? The Baal Shem Tov explained that “giving over the nefesh” means giving over one’s will. “Nefesh” can mean “will.” The verse says, “If it is your wish,” and Rashi says: “Your will.” Giving over the nefesh means giving over one’s will. A Jew must be able to give up his own will, his personal desire, [unclear]. Mesirus nefesh means helping another Jew, setting aside one’s material concerns for another Jew, and setting aside one’s spiritual concerns. Setting aside material concerns means giving up material pleasures and material matters in order to do a favor for another Jew. And even setting aside spiritual matters—one’s Torah and mitzvos, one’s Torah study and prayer; stepping down from one’s level in the service of Hashem to help a Jew, not only spiritually but materially as well. That is mesirus nefesh. And we learn this from the weekly parsha, Parshas Ki Sisa. In the weekly parsha, we find Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people, stepping forward to defend the Jews. There had been a terrible sin—the sin of the Golden Calf. The sin of the Golden Calf was a dreadful sin. After forty days, while Moshe was receiving the Torah, the Jews went looking for a golden calf to be the god of Israel. It was a dreadful sin. And when Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it says in the parsha, [unclear]

15:12 May Hashem protect us, that was the sin of the Golden Calf. Nevertheless, we see Moshe Rabbeinu putting himself at risk, literally giving himself over with mesirus nefesh for the entire Jewish people. One of the most powerful verses in the weekly parsha is what Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “And now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: If You forgive them—good. If You do not forgive them—“erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” Moshe Rabbeinu is ready to give up all his greatness: “Your book that You have written,” the Torah of Moshe, “Remember the Torah of Moshe My servant.” Moshe Rabbeinu says: Erase my name “from Your book that You have written.” This raises a striking question. The commentators ask: The wording of the verse is strange. “And now, if You will forgive their sin”—he does not finish the sentence. Rashi says: “This is an abbreviated verse.” If You forgive them—good; the verse does not say what will happen then. “And if not”—if You do not—“erase me, please, from Your book.” Erase me. What is the meaning of this wording? It is related in the name of the holy Ruzhiner that he explained that Moshe Rabbeinu was then in such a state of mesirus nefesh, out of Ahavas Yisroel, that he gave himself over completely for the entire Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “And now”—right now I am in such a state that “if You will forgive

17:00 their sin, and if not, erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” I am so bound to the entire Jewish people, so connected to the entire Jewish people, that whether You forgive them or not—even if You do not forgive them—I am ready for “erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” I am ready to take everything upon myself, all of it, all the suffering, even to have my name erased. I want to remain with the Jews. That was Moshe Rabbeinu’s great cry to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On a deeper level, there is an explanation from the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, one of the great Kabbalists, who was the rabbi in Yekaterinoslav. He explained Moshe Rabbeinu’s words to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “And now, if You will forgive their sin, and if not, erase me, please,” as follows: When Moshe Rabbeinu heard Hakadosh Boruch Hu say that He now wanted to wipe out the Jewish people, may Hashem protect us—“I will destroy them and make you into a great nation”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu was saying to Moshe Rabbeinu: Now I will take the Jewish people, “I will destroy them,” may Hashem protect us, I will wipe the Jewish people from the world, and you will remain here, “and I will make you into a great nation.” I still have you, and a new nation will come from you. Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “And now”—now that I hear You want to rely on me and make a great nation from me, do You want to wipe out the Jewish people? Then “if You will forgive their sin, and if not”—whether You forgive them

18:47 or do not forgive them—“erase me, please, from Your book that You have written.” Erase me. I do not want to be here if, because of me, may Hashem protect us, Jews will suffer and be punished. Tremendous Ahavas Yisroel, tremendous mesirus nefesh—we see it in Moshe Rabbeinu in this verse. And so it is throughout the parsha: Moshe Rabbeinu steps forward to defend the Jews, asks for forgiveness and pardon, and asks that Hakadosh Boruch Hu continue to go with the Jews. Even after Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgives them, he goes on to say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself should go with them: “If Your Presence does not go,” “and we shall be distinguished, I and Your people.” I want [unclear] and Your people. And what will that distinction be? That Hakadosh Boruch Hu will treat the Jews with a shining countenance, with closeness—“Your Presence goes”—with complete inward closeness. That is Parshas Ki Sisa. In the weekly parsha, we see what true mesirus nefesh out of Ahavas Yisroel is. And in connection with this aspect of the weekly parsha, we speak about the breaking of the luchos. What was the sequence of events in Parshas Ki Sisa? What happened there? There was an immense and terrible descent among the Jewish people, the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe Rabbeinu came down and saw the Jews sinning, and then the luchos were broken. Afterward comes the rest of the parsha, with all its details, until later Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave them and said: “Carve for yourself two tablets, like those you broke.” And the Rebbe dwells on the subject of the luchos. As he says,

20:19 a wonderful explanation of this subject, a wonderful and rich explanation that I had the privilege of hearing myself from the Rebbe of Lubavitch, at a farbrengen on Simchas Torah in 5747. I was there when it happened, and I remember with emotion and tears how the Rebbe delivered that sicha. It remains engraved in my mind and heart forever. It was the night of Simchas Torah. The custom was that after Maariv, on the second night—in America there are two days of Simchas Torah—a farbrengen would be held on the night of Simchas Torah. It was a farbrengen called a preparation for hakafos. The farbrengen usually continued until close to midnight, and afterward everyone would go to hakafos with great joy, tremendous, tremendous joy, which continued until dawn. The Rebbe devoted one of the sichos at that farbrengen to the breaking of the luchos. He spoke about how, on Simchas Torah, we finish reading the parsha, the entire Torah. What is the last verse of Parshas Vezos Haberachah? It is the last verse of Vezos Haberachah, the last verse of the entire Torah: “And for all the strong hand and all the great awe that Moshe performed before the eyes of all Israel.” All the very greatest things, “the strong hand,” that Moshe performed

22:03 “Before the eyes of all Israel.” Rashi asks: What is “the mighty hand,” and what was it that Moshe did “before the eyes of all Israel”? Rashi says: “His heart emboldened him to break the Tablets.” “The mighty hand” means that Moshe Rabbeinu took the Tablets in his hands, threw them down and broke them. That is “before the eyes of all Israel,” as it says, “And I broke them before your eyes.” It happened before the eyes of all the Jews. “And Hakadosh Boruch Hu agreed with him, as it says: ‘which you broke’—well done for breaking them.” Rashi cites the earlier verse, from Parshas Ki Sisa: Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “‘Which you broke’—well done for breaking them.” Yes, He agreed, and even said “well done” to him, warmly, for breaking the Tablets. And with that, the entire Torah ends. The Rebbe raised a sharp, forceful question about this verse: How can the last verse of the Five Books of the Torah speak to the discredit of the Jewish people? How can the last verse, which speaks about Moshe Rabbeinu—actually, these are two questions. The first is: How can the Torah end with something to the discredit of the Jewish people? After all, the rule is that “we end on a good note.” Yet here the Torah ends with “which you broke,” with the breaking of the Tablets. The second question is: This passage is about Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness. The Torah wants

23:40 to tell us, “Never again did a prophet arise in Israel like Moshe,” describing all of Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness—who he was and what he was. The Torah reaches the end of the Chumash, and what does it tell us in praise of Moshe Rabbeinu? That there was an incident in which the Jews sinned with the Golden Calf, and Moshe took the Tablets and broke them. Is that Moshe Rabbeinu’s praise? Is that his greatest praise? The Torah seems to move from lesser to greater, as though the final statement in praise of Moshe Rabbeinu is that he broke the Tablets. Granted, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu agreed with him.” That shows Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness: he did something so unprecedented, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu agreed with him. But surely there are greater praises than that. Is this how we should end the Torah? And specifically, the Torah must end with something that is the breaking of the Torah. The third question: The Torah, the Five Books of the Torah, tells us in its final verse, at the conclusion of the Five Books, that there was a breaking of the Torah. And again, from the perspective of the Jewish people too, this is the opposite of praise for them—to tell such a thing here and end the Torah with it. “And this is the blessing with which Moshe blessed the Children of Israel”—this is the blessing, the merit of the Jewish people. We should end with those subjects, not with the opposite of praise for the Jewish people, not with the opposite of their praise, and I...

25:05 This is Moshe Rabbeinu’s praise, because it expresses his greatest praise, and the Torah’s praise. The breaking of the Torah—that is the Torah’s praise. That is the beauty of this verse. What do I mean? If we look back at Parshas Ki Sisa, we can understand this too. Looking at the sequence of events in Parshas Ki Sisa, we find two explanations in Rashi when we examine why the Tablets were broken. The first is what Rashi says about Moshe Rabbeinu coming down, seeing what was happening, taking the Tablets, and “throwing them down and breaking them.” Rashi asks about that verse: What was Moshe Rabbeinu’s reasoning? What led him to break the Tablets? Rashi says that Moshe Rabbeinu said: “If regarding Pesach, which is only one of the mitzvos, the Torah says, ‘No alienated person may eat of it.’” Regarding the Pesach offering, it says, “No alienated person may eat of it”—someone alienated from the Torah may not eat from the Pesach offering. And that is just one mitzvah. Here we are dealing with the entire Torah, and all Israel have, G-d forbid, turned away from it. How can I, how can I, how can I give them the Torah? So he broke the Tablets. That is Rashi’s explanation. Then, several verses later, in our weekly parsha, the Torah says: “Carve for yourself two stone Tablets like the first ones, which you broke.” Rashi pauses over the words “which you broke,” and here Rashi explains: Why were the Tablets broken?

26:47 Rashi gives a parable: There was a king who had a bride, a woman betrothed to him, and she stayed at home with the maidservants. The emperor set out on a journey, traveled far away, and left his betrothed with the maidservants. The marriage contract had not yet been delivered. He had not yet given it to his betrothed; this was before the wedding. The contract was held by a trustee, an appointed man who was the matchmaker. Meanwhile, the emperor traveled overseas. The bride remained there with the maidservants, and they behaved improperly. The maidservants acquired a bad reputation, and because of that, the betrothed woman—the bride—also acquired a bad reputation. The emperor returned, heard about it, and wanted, G-d forbid, to put his betrothed to death: she had rebelled against the king. The trustee came—the matchmaker, the man appointed to bring the king and his betrothed together—and tore up the marriage contract. When he tore it up and the king wanted to bring a case against her, the matchmaker said: “There is no marriage contract. They have not married yet; you cannot do anything to her.” Meanwhile, we can also explain the details of

28:27 the story more fully: By then the king was already angry, but when he looked more closely, he saw that [unclear] the maidservants, and that his betrothed had not actually sinned. And so the possibility of teshuvah arose. That is what Rashi says. Rashi explains: The king is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The betrothed woman is the Jewish people. The maidservants are the mixed multitude, who drew the Jewish people into the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe Rabbeinu is the matchmaker of the Jewish people. The marriage contract is the Tablets. Moshe broke the Tablets to save the Jewish people: They are not yet married, so You cannot do anything to them. Breaking the Tablets was how Moshe Rabbeinu helped the Jewish people and saved them. The question is: Why does Rashi give two explanations? First he says it was an argument from the lesser to the greater. These are two different explanations for Moshe’s desire to save the Jewish people. The answer is that there are two issues here. The first Rashi explains why Moshe did not give the Tablets to the Jewish people. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave him the Tablets and told him, “Take the Tablets and give them to the Jewish people.” How could he fail to deliver them? Hakadosh Boruch Hu appointed him as His emissary. So the first Rashi explains why he did not give them, why Moshe Rabbeinu did not—

29:47 He had a mission to give the Torah to the Jewish people, yet he did not give it to them out of respect for the Torah. As Rashi says in his argument from the lesser to the greater: “If regarding Pesach, which is only one of the mitzvos, the Torah says, ‘No alienated person may eat of it,’ here is the entire Torah, and all Israel have turned away from it. Shall I give it to them?” Out of respect for the Torah, he could not give it to the Jewish people. But that explains only his respect for the Torah; it does not explain why he had to break the Tablets. After all, that is a disgrace to the Torah. He could have brought them down, kept them with him for the time being, put them at the foot of the mountain in some pit, and said that they would remain there for now. But why break them? Indeed, the early commentators ask this question. Rabbeinu Bachya also asks: What is the meaning of this breaking? Is breaking something a mark of respect? That is why Rashi gives the second, later explanation: “‘Which you broke’—well done for breaking them.” There was an act of breaking here, and about that breaking it says, “Well done.” But what does “well done for breaking them” mean? It is a disgrace to the Torah. How can one say “well done,” and call it praise of the Jewish people? That is why Rashi brings the parable: It was not merely a matter of respect for the Torah—of not giving the Torah to the Jewish people while they were in a state of idol worship, G-d forbid. On the contrary, it was about respect for the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people, devoted himself to their honor and to their very survival. He saw that the Jewish people were now in danger of “I will consume them,” G-d forbid; Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to destroy them. Moshe Rabbeinu stepped forward, and what was the first thing he did? He tore up the marriage contract. And for that we say, “‘Which you broke’—well done for breaking them,” for the sake of the Jewish people. That itself is Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatest praise.

31:14 Moshe Rabbeinu, as the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people, stands up to defend their honor. He is prepared to give up even his own spiritual life. As we discussed earlier, self-sacrifice is a quality of the shepherds of Israel: he gives up everything of his own, even the Torah. The Torah is the greatest thing in Moshe Rabbeinu’s life. It was his entire vitality. “Remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant”—it is called by his name. Moshe’s name is bound up with the Torah. In other words, his whole life, his entire vitality, was the Torah. Yet Moshe Rabbeinu sets aside all his Torah, his very being, to save the Jewish people. Which Jews? Jews who were innocent of wrongdoing in the sin of the golden calf. This is the self-sacrifice of the faithful shepherd, the faithful shepherd of Israel. During a farbrengen, the Rebbe burst into tears—terrible sobs that continued for some time—in the middle of speaking words of Torah. On Simchas Torah, one is filled with joy, and for the Rebbe himself, Simchas Torah was the greatest joy. But when the Rebbe gave this explanation of the sicha, there was terrible weeping that went on for some time. I can, because of how, how—

32:51 Because of how emotional it was, it was simply hard to make out the point. And I remember that the Rebbe once gave a wonderful explanation that clarifies the matter here: What does this mean? Why must a Jew sacrifice even his spiritual life, his Torah? Moshe Rabbeinu went to break the Tablets, to break the marriage contract, in order to save Jews. What does that mean? What is the deeper meaning? The Rebbe once gave this explanation. There is a Rashi, and there is a Midrash in Tanna Devei Eliyahu. The Midrash says: “Two things preceded the world: Torah and Israel.” Two things existed before the creation of the world, before the worlds: Torah and Israel. As for the Torah, “the Torah preceded the world by two thousand years.” The Torah existed before the creation of the world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world through the Torah. And Israel, too, preceded the world. Rashi says, “For the sake of the Torah, for the sake of Israel.” The Torah and Israel existed before the creation of the world, the Midrash says. “But I do not know which preceded which.” Between the Torah and Israel themselves, which is higher? Which came first? Of course, this does not mean earlier in time. Before the creation of the world, there was no time. The Maggid says that before the creation of the world, even time did not exist; not only was there no space, there was no time either. The entire reality of time was created with the creation of the world. So what does “which preceded which” mean? Of course, it means precedence in stature. Which is higher? Which is deeper? Which reaches a higher level? Says—

34:21 The Midrash Tanna Devei Eliyahu says that because the Torah says, “Speak to the children of Israel,” “Command the children of Israel,” the Torah itself tells us that Israel preceded the Torah. For the entire Torah is for the sake of the Jewish people: “Command the children of Israel,” “Speak to the children of Israel.” So Israel preceded the Torah. This quality is expressed in Moshe Rabbeinu: Moshe Rabbeinu stands there with the Tablets, with the Torah. He comes down from the mountain holding the Tablets in his hands, and is now about to give the Torah to the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu’s vitality is Torah—“Moshe commanded us the Torah.” But Moshe Rabbeinu has a deeper feeling. Just as we say of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that Israel preceded the Torah, that Jews stand on a higher level than the Torah, so it is with Moshe Rabbeinu. There is Moshe Rabbeinu as Torah, and there is Moshe Rabbeinu as the head of the Jewish people, bound to the Jews. Moshe Rabbeinu is the faithful shepherd of Israel. When Moshe Rabbeinu is about to give the Torah to the Jews, he sees that because of the Torah, a judgment might be issued over the sin of the golden calf, and this could, G-d forbid, threaten the very existence of the Jewish people... Moshe Rabbeinu says: Israel came first. Jews are higher than the Torah. He stands up for the Jews, takes it upon himself to break the Tablets, and sacrifices everything so that the Jews will remain whole. And this awakened in the Jews

36:05 true teshuvah, and he immediately saw that it had awakened teshuvah in them. Afterward came “I have forgiven, as you said.” This is the Divine will, the power of teshuvah, which preceded the world. Teshuvah is higher than the Torah. The point the Rebbe emphasizes is the greatness of the Jews. Even a Jew who has fallen into sin—“A Jew, even though he has sinned, is still a Jew.” Through the power of teshuvah, he can reach a point where all the undesirable things he has done are erased. Not only that, but through teshuvah, “willful sins become merits for him,” and everything changes. Moshe Rabbeinu brought out this quality by breaking the Tablets. This helps us understand the depth of our parsha. Ki Sisa is “When you raise up the heads of the children of Israel”; Parshas Ki Sisa tells us about “raising up the heads of the children of Israel,” about elevating Jews. How do we elevate Jews? Even a Jew who has fallen, G-d forbid, to the lowest depths—to the sin of the golden calf, to the gravest sins—Moshe Rabbeinu, the faithful shepherd of Israel, comes and stands up for him with true self-sacrifice. He believes in the Jewish soul and knows that a Jew can always return, that a Jew can always be awakened to teshuvah. And so, through the genuine Ahavas Yisroel that Moshe Rabbeinu feels for him and shows him, the Jew is awakened to teshuvah and sets everything right. And this led

37:28 to “Carve for yourself”—“which you broke,” “Well done for breaking them.” As it says there, and as the Ramban and the Ritva explain regarding the Gemara in Bava Basra, which cites “which you broke,” the broken pieces of the Tablets were placed in the Ark. Not just the Tablets, but the Tablets and the broken pieces of the Tablets. The broken pieces were placed in the Ark. How could the broken pieces of the Tablets be placed in the Ark? Breaking the Tablets was seemingly something undesirable—quite the opposite. Yet in the Ark, in the Holy of Holies, in the place where the Kohen Gadol entered on Yom Kippur to seek forgiveness for the Jews, there lay the broken pieces of the Tablets. This points to the greatness of Israel, to how deeply Jews are rooted in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As we said, through Moshe Rabbeinu’s self-sacrifice, he revealed the depth of the Jewish soul—that Israel preceded the Torah—and through this, a Jew also returns in teshuvah, and thus he can elevate the matter, and so on. This also explains why, when the Torah tells us of this event on Simchas Torah, it seeks to tell of Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness in the fullest way. What is Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatest praise? “And all the mighty hand that Moshe performed before the eyes of all Israel.” Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatest praise is that when he sees Israel, and sees Jews facing danger, G-d forbid, he does everything he can. He gives himself over completely, giving his all—both his physical and his spiritual life—to save a Jew [unclear].

38:54 A soul, which [unclear], G-d forbid, to become an accuser over this. And the same applies to the praise of Israel. The greatest praise of Israel lies in “before the eyes of all Israel,” in the breaking of the Tablets: a Jew is more precious than anything else. And this itself is the Torah’s conclusion. The Torah reaches its final verse, in its final parsha, in the final Rashi, and seeks to express the greatest depth and richness within the Torah. The Torah reveals the greatness of Israel. The Torah says, “Before the eyes of all Israel.” The Torah says that a Jew is more precious than the Torah. How do we know that Israel preceded the Torah? We know it from the Torah itself. The Torah says that Israel came first. And this is the teaching we learn from [unclear], from the self-sacrifice he had in order to do a favor for a Jew. When the opportunity comes our way—and these are small things—to help a Jew, to save a Jew, sometimes we need to put on tefillin with a Jew; sometimes we need to help a Jew [unclear]. To help a Jew materially, to help a Jew spiritually. And sometimes we have to set aside our own concerns. Sometimes we have to give up our time, our material concerns, and sometimes we even have to give up our spiritual pursuits—yes, sometimes to learn one page of Gemara less so that we can help another Jew and save another Jew. This is the lesson and the teaching that [unclear] teaches us: how he had self-sacrifice

40:11 in order to do a favor for a Jew. And then we will merit, immediately, the Geulah, just as Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther sacrificed themselves for the entire Jewish people. As we learn in the Megillah, then “the Jews had light and joy, gladness and honor,” and the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.