A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshat Ki Tisa. Parshat Ki Tisa we learn about the חטא העגל. And the Oybershter wanted to destroy the Yidden, and Moshe Rabbeinu davens for them, and one of the things Moshe Rabbeinu said is, You should forgive them, ואם אין, if You don't want to forgive them, מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת, erase me from the Sefer You wrote, erase me from the Torah. And the Rebbe asked the question: What is the connection between the two? What does it got to do that the Oybershter won't forgive the Yidden, therefore they should erase Moshe's name from the Torah? What's the connection?

And the Rebbe explains it like this: Moshe Rabbeinu had, so to speak, two positions. On one hand, he was connected to the Torah. The Torah is his מציאות, his מהות. In a pasuk in Malachi, the Torah is called Torat Moshe, even though it's the Torah of Hashem, it's still called Torat Moshe because the Chazal tell us, because Moshe went on mesirut nefesh for Torah. So his whole life is Torah, so he's basically connected to the Torah. On the other hand, Moshe Rabbeinu is the shepherd of Yidden. Moshe Rabbeinu is connected to the Yidden. As Rashi says in חוקת, משה הוא ישראל וישראל הוא משה, משה is the Yidden, and the Yidden are Moshe, it's all one. Here came a conflict between these two. On one hand, מצד the Torah, the Yidden deserve to be punished. They went against the Torah in such a terrible thing, against the Torah. So they have to be punished. And from Moshe Rabbeinu's perspective, since he and Torah are one, so he cares about the Torah, they should be punished. On the other hand, Moshe Rabbeinu's responsibility as a shepherd of the Yidden, for every one of the Yidden, mitzad that he should care about the Yidden more. So he had a conflict: What should he care about? Should he care about the Torah, and therefore he should leave them get their punishment, o should he care about the Yidden, and try to do what he can to save the Yidden?

And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu said: Forgive the Yidden. Ve'im ein, if You don't want to forgive them, that means because they went against the Torah, You don't want to forgive them, so he says, then that's not worth for me. My connection, my responsibility to the Yidden overrides my responsibility for Torah. So forget, kivayachol, I don't mean these words, but forget about the Torah! Look at the Yidden. The fact that I care about the Yidden is higher than my care about the Torah. Because a Yid, no matter how he behaves, whether he keeps the Torah or not, is still a Yid. As the Gemara says, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא, a Yid even if he sins, he's still a Yid. So mitzad that, it doesn't matter that it's against the Torah. And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu meant: If the reason You want to destroy the Yidden is because of the Torah, because of the sefer which is the Torah, I'm telling You, erase me from the Torah, and mitzad my connection to the Yidden, allow me to daven for the Yidden, and You should save the Yidden, regardless of the fact that they went against the Torah. And that's the taitch: ve'im ein, if You don't forgive them because they did something against the Torah, then erase me from the Torah, and my feeling towards the Yidden, and my responsibility towards the Yidden overrides that, and m'meila You should forgive the Yidden. And that's what Moshe Rabbeinu meant when he said: ואם אין מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת. And that's takeh what happened. The Oibershter agreed, and the Oibershter forgave the Yidden, with all the conditions He made, but the Oibershter forgave the Yidden till the Oibershter said at the end: סלחתי כדברך, that He forgave them completely בלב שלם as Rashi says.