A vort of the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת כי תשא. פרשת כי תשא talks about the חטא העגל, the Yidden made the eigel. And Moshe Rabbeinu davent to the Eibershter he should forgive the Yidden for this aveirah. And one of the things Moshe Rabbeinu said was, \"ועתה אם תשא חטאתם, ואם אין מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת,\" which means, now, if you forgive their aveirah, and if not, please erase me from the sefer that you wrote, from the Torah. Now, the pasuk is strange. It says, now if you forgive their aveirah, and it doesn't say what will happen then. It just says, now if you forgive their aveirah, and if not, erase me from the Torah. But he didn't say on the first half what it means if you forgive their aveirah. So Rashi explains what he meant to say was, \"ועתה אם תשא חטאתם, הרי טוב,\" if you forgive their aveirah, is fine, then I don't ask you to erase me. But ve'im ein, if you don't forgive them, then מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת, he's asking the Eibershter to erase him from the Torah. And this is like sometimes a person would say to somebody else, don't do this, because if you do it, you don't even finish off, it's self-understood. So here also, when he said, \"ועתה אם תשא חטאתם,\" if you forgive their aveirah, so he didn't have to fir oys and say then it's okay. It's self-understood. But the Rebbe said over one of the farbrengens a vort from his father, from R'' Levi Yitzchak. And he taytsh that what Moshe Rabbeinu was saying, \"ועתה אם תשא חטאתם ואם אין מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת,\" whether you will forgive their aveirah or you will not forgive their aveirah, I'm asking you, please erase me from the Torah. It means that Moshe Rabbeinu takeh meant that I'm asking you to erase me no matter what. And that's why he doesn't say אם תשא חטאתם, if you forgive them, what will happen, because you read it together: \"ועתה אם תשא חטאתם ואם אין,\" if you forgive them or not, please erase me. What would be the reason that Moshe Rabbeinu would ask to be erased even if the Eibershter forgives their aveirah?

So the Rebbe's father explains it like this. When the Eibershter told Moshe Rabbeinu that he's going to destroy, kill all the Yidden, he said to him like this: \"ועתה הניחה לי,\" leave me, \"ויחר אפי בהם,\" my anger will get to them, \"ואכלם,\" I will destroy them, \"ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול,\" and I will make you into a big nation. Which meant the Eibershter meant to say to destroy it in a way that there will never be, any nation of Yidden can't be. So he said, but you're not shayach to the חטא העגל, so I'll make from you come a big nation. So Moshe Rabbeinu thought to himself and said, so it comes out here that the only reason why there was a possibility chas veshalom for the Eibershter to destroy the Yidden is because of me. If I wouldn't be here, there would be no option. The Eibershter would have no choice, he wasn't able to destroy the Yidden, because the Yidden have to exist. Only because I'm here and he could make me into the Yiddishe nation, that gave the ability, possibility that the Eibershter should destroy the Yidden. And that Moshe was upset with. Moshe felt so bad that his existence, his being could be a reason chas veshalom that the Yidden should be destroyed. And that's why Moshe Rabbeinu said, whether you forgive them or not, even if you don't forgive them, I feel so bad, I want to be erased from the Torah, because it seems to me that I am the cause why there was even a hava amina, a sevara by the Eibershter to destroy the Yidden. And Moshe felt so bad. And that's why Moshe said, whether תשא חטאתם, אם אין, מחני נא, erase me from the Torah.

Now according to this, the Rebbe says we could explain something else also. L'foal mamash it says that Moshe's words were fulfilled. He was erased from one parshah. In Parshas Tetzaveh we don't find Moshe Rabbeinu's name, and the meforshim say it's because of what Moshe said. The simple pshat is that even though Moshe said erase me from the Torah on condition if you don't forgive, but if you do forgive don't do it, but the klal is that קללת חכם אפילו על תנאי הוא בא. If a tzadik curses, even if it's on condition, it will happen. So even though Moshe Rabbeinu gave a condition, erase me if you don't forgive the Yidden for the aveirah, nevertheless it took, it happened, it got fulfilled in one parshah. But the way the Rebbe's father learns, he actually asked to be erased even if Hashem forgives for the aveirah. And that's why takeh lifoal what happened is that in Parshas Tetzaveh we don't find Moshe Rabbeinu's name, because Moshe asked for it to happen no matter what, and that's exactly what happened. But in the meantime we see what Moshe Rabbeinu was, and from there we learn out what the Moshe Rabbeinu of every generation is, that the possibility even, even if it didn't happen, but even if there's a possibility that he should have anything to do with chas veshalom something negative for the Yidden, is something he can't take. Because the whole metzius of Moshe Rabbeinu is to take care of the Yidden. And from there we learn out the same thing is benogea the Moshe Rabbeinu of every generation, the Rebbe, that his whole metzius is the Yidden, like Rashi says in פרשת חקת, משה הוא ישראל, ישראל הם משה, משה is the Yidden, the Yidden are Moshe. That teaches us שנשיא הדור, ראש הדור איז ככל הדור, that the leader of the generation, he is the whole generation, his whole metzius is Yidden.