A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parashat Eikev. In Parashat Eikev, Moshe Rabbeinu repeats what happened when they made the egel, when the Yidden did the sin of the golden calf, and as a result, Moshe Rabbeinu broke the luchot. He came down from Har Sinai with the luchot in his hands, and when he saw the egel, he threw it down and broke it. And the expression that Torah uses is Moshe Rabbeinu said, \"ואתפש בשני הלוחות\", I grabbed on to the two luchot, \"ואשליכם מעל שתי ידי\", and I threw them down from my both hands, \"ואשברם לעיניכם\", and I broke them in front of your eyes. And the mefarshim ask, what does it mean that he grabbed on to the luchot? He came down from Har Sinai holding the luchot, so he had them in his hands already. What does it mean, I grabbed on to the two luchot and I threw them down? What does that mean, he grabbed? So the Rebbe says the peshat is like this: The luchot were given to Moshe Rabbeinu, so it was Moshe Rabbeinu's personal property, it says the Aibershter gave it to him. Nevertheless, Moshe Rabbeinu had on mind to give it away to the Yidden, like he did everything else. The lashon in Gemara is \"נהג בה טוב עין\", he was generous and he gave it. He was planning to give the luchot to the Yidden. So as much as it was his personally, he already planned to give it. Now planning to give it to the Yidden already to a certain degree made that the Yidden have a certain ownership over the luchot. So when Moshe decided to break the luchot after he saw the egel, he had a question in his mind: Is he allowed to do it? Since it partially belongs to the Yidden, so is he allowed to break it? Is he allowed to steal it from the other people who it belongs to to a certain degree? Can he damage it? It's not 100% his to do it. So Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to do something to make the idea he had to give it to the Yidden make it void, to nullify that idea. So that's what Moshe said, \"ואתפש בשני הלוחות\", I grabbed on to it, I made sure to hold it and make it back mine, to take away, to be mevatel the idea I had to give it to them, so it has no ownership of the Yidden, and therefore it's completely mine, and if it's mine, I have a right to do with it what I want. And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu said, I grabbed on to it to make it completely mine, so I had a right to break it, and there's no shailah of stealing or of damaging someone else's thing.

But then the Rebbe says there's a deeper inyan here. By Moshe Rabbeinu grabbing on to it and making it completely his, what he was doing is he wanted to make that he is the only one to blame for breaking the לוחות. It's his thing, it's his לוחות, and he is the one that broke his thing, and there's nobody else to blame. Which fits to what the Chazal say, Rashi brings in Parshas Yisro, that when Hashem said by the עשרת הדברות, \"אנכי ה' אלקיך\", I am Hashem your G-d in a singular term, he spoke to all the Yidden, there were so many people, he should have said, \"אנכי ה' אלקיכם\". Why did he say \"אלקיך\", your G-d? So Rashi says, so the Aibershter did it so Moshe Rabbeinu should have a פתחון פה, which means later on when the Yidden would worship an idol, the עגל, Moshe Rabbeinu could tell the Aibershter, don't be so upset, when you said, \"I am your G-d,\" you said it to me, you said it singular, you were talking to me, not to them, so don't blame them. So the Aibershter lechatchilah made it that Moshe Rabbeinu should be able to take away the blame from the sin of the Yidden. So the same thing here also. Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Yidden so much, so he didn't want that breaking the לוחות should be in such a way that it's for the negative, to be negative thing concerning the Yidden. So he grabbed on to the לוחות, made sure that it's completely his, so he is the only one that's responsible and to blame for breaking the לוחות, which shows the great mesirat nefesh of Moshe Rabbeinu for the Yidden. Moshe Rabbeinu had no connection to the חטא העגל. You couldn't even blame him for not protesting it, because he wasn't even there, he was on the mountain. Nevertheless, not only did he beg Hashem to forgive them, and he went on mesirat nefesh for it, he said to the Aibershter, if you don't forgive them, erase me from the Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu was ready that his name should go out of the Torah to save the Yidden, to be mochel the Yidden. And not only did he break the luchos, and that protected the Yidden like Rashi says how breaking the luchos made it that the Yidden should not be hurt, he did more than that. He grabbed on to the luchos, made sure that it's completely his, so the Yidden have nothing to do with the breaking of the luchos, it's completely his blame, all to take away the blame from the Yidden. And this shows the great mesirat nefesh of Moshe Rabbeinu to the Yidden. He loved the Yidden so much that he was even ready to do everything possible that the Yidden should not be blamed for anything negative, including this ענין of שבירת הלוחות. And that's why when he goes