from the Rebbe on Parshat Berachah. The last Rashi in Parshat Berachah, which means the last Rashi in the whole Chumash, and where the Torah talks about Moshe Rabbeinu's הסתלקות, when he passed away, and the Torah praises Moshe Rabbeinu, says all kinds of great things about him. So the last thing that Rashi writes on the פסוק לעיני כל ישראל, is the greatest maalah of Moshe is שנשא לבו, his heart picked up, so to speak, he decided, לשבור הלוחות לעיניהם, to break the luchot in front of them. And Rashi continues that the Eibershter agreed with Moshe, like it says, אשר שברת, יישר כחך ששברת. And the Rebbe asks an obvious question: Why would this be a praise on Moshe, and why would this be the greatest praise? Ein hachi nami, Moshe had to break the luchot for the reason he had, but definitely that's not the praise of Moshe that he broke the luchot. It just happened to be that he had to break the luchot. But obviously there must be something special in it. And especially that Rashi uses the לשון שנשא לבו. It's an interesting לשון, that his heart like picked up. This was a big maalah that he had. He had to have a special koach in his heart to do this, to break the luchot, and this is the greatest maalah. And the

Rebbe, in Simchat Torah תשמ״ז, spoke about this Rashi, and he cried a lot when he spoke about it, and this is what the peshat that the Rebbe said: Rashi says in a different place on the פסוק פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים, in Parshat Ki Tisa, Rashi says that why did Moshe Rabbeinu break the luchot? This was in order to save the Yidden. Rashi gives a mashal of a woman, a princess, a wife of the king that didn't really do a terrible aveirah, someone else did it, and anyway, there was a friend that, in order to protect her, he tore the ketubah, so mimela it doesn't, there is no document that shows that she was married, etc., etc. But the bottom line is that Moshe Rabbeinu, by breaking the luchot, saved the Yidden from destruction, from the Oibershter destroying them. Now we could imagine how Moshe Rabbeinu felt when he broke the luchot. Moshe Rabbeinu's whole metziut is Torah. It's a פסוק, זכרו תורת משה עבדי, he's Torah. Imagine Moshe Rabbeinu having to break the luchot, which is the foundation of Torah. Just let's imagine, the Rebbe didn't say this mashal, if somebody would have to tear, chas veshalom, rachmana litzlan, a Sefer Torah, for whatever reason, you could imagine how terrible you feel. Imagine Moshe Rabbeinu how he felt when he broke the luchot. His whole life was Torah. Nevertheless, in order to save the Yidden, Moshe Rabbeinu broke the luchot. And that

shows the connection of Moshe Rabbeinu to Yidden even stronger than his connection to Torah, that if he had to choose between Torah, which is the luchot in this case, and the Yidden, he chose the Yidden. And that shows the great maalah of Moshe Rabbeinu. And that's why Rashi uses the לשון נשא לבו, his heart went up. In other words, he had to have a special feeling in his heart and to reach such a high madreigah that he should be able to break the luchot in order to save the Yidden. And when the Rebbe spoke about it, you felt that the Rebbe was expressing his feeling, showing what a real נשיא בישראל is, that he cares about the Yidden more than about Torah. And it's all based on a midrash in Tana d'Vei Eliyahu, where it says there are different things which are before the creation of the world, which means they are beyond the creation, they are closer to Hashem, and amongst them, the top two is Yidden and Torah. And there it says, and between the two, which one is closer to Hashem? הוי אומר ישראל, that the Yidden are closer to Hashem even than Torah. And mimela, this was the expression of Moshe Rabbeinu when he broke the luchos. He expressed his ahavat Yisrael and love for Yidden and caring about the Yidden even more than he cared about the Torah, because that's what the Oibershter cares about, that the closest to the Oibershter are Yidden, even closer than the Torah. And

that's why this is the end of the Torah, this is a praise of Moshe Rabbeinu, and this is the last part of the Torah. Even though normally you want to finish with something good, this is something good, to show the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu, and that is the greatness of a nasi hador, that he cares about the Yidden, and will do anything to help and protect the Yidden.