At the end of Parshas Berachah, which is actually the end of the whole Torah, the Torah speaks about the great ma'alos of Moshe Rabbeinu. And the Torah says, ולא קם נביא עוד בישראל כמשה, there was no prophet like Moshe Rabbeinu. And the pasuk continues what he did, לכל האותות והמופתים אשר שלחו ה׳ לעשות בארץ מצרים, all the miracles Hashem sent him to do in the land of מצרים, לפרעה ולכל עבדיו ולכל ארצו, to Paro and his slaves and his whole land. And the last pasuk says, ולכל היד החזקה, and in all the strong hand, ולכל המורא הגדול, and in all the great fear, אשר עשה משה לעיני כל ישראל, that Moshe did in the front of the eyes of all the Bnei Yisrael. And Rashi explains the last pasuk as follows: that when the pasuk says, ולכל היד החזקה, and to his strong hand, that means שקיבל את התורה בלוחות בידו, that he received the Torah with the luchos in his hands. That's a ma'alah of Moshe Rabbeinu, that he received the luchos. ולכל המורא הגדול, and to the great fear, that refers to the ניסים וגבורות שבמדבר הגדול והנורא, the miracles and the strength that he showed in the great and fearful desert. And the last word where it says, לעיני כל ישראל, in the eyes of all the Yidden, so Rashi says this means שנשאו לבו לשבור הלוחות לעיניהם, that his heart inspired him to break the luchos in their eyes, שנאמר, as the pasuk says, ואשברם לעיניכם. Moshe said, \"I broke them in front of your eyes.\" והסכימה דעת הקדוש ברוך הוא לדעתו, and the opinion of Hashem agreed with his opinion, שנאמר, as it says, אשר שברת. When Hashem told him to make the second luchos, he says, \"Make second luchos like the first luchos that you broke.\" So Rashi drashens the words אשר שברת, meaning יישר כחך אשר שברת, which is thank you for breaking it. So Rashi learns the last words of the תורה, לעיני כל ישראל, refer to Moshe Rabbeinu's breaking the luchot. But lichorah, we have to understand: the pasuk here is trying to tell us the great maalot of Moshe Rabbeinu, and therefore it mentions the maalot of Moshe Rabbeinu receiving the Torah, the maalot of Moshe Rabbeinu performing all the miracles in the desert. So how can we say that amongst the maalot we also mention the maalah that Moshe Rabbeinu broke the luchot? What kind of maalah, what kind of specialty, what kind of great thing and praise is it on Moshe Rabbeinu that he broke the luchot? And this is not just mentioned as one maalah, but this is the last maalah, which means that this is the greatest maalah that Moshe Rabbeinu had, that he broke the luchot. Lichorah, what kind of maalah is it that Moshe Rabbeinu broke the luchot?

Some mefarshim want to explain, like the Ra'am and the Siftei Chachamim, that therefore Rashi adds the words והסכימה דעת הקדוש ברוך הוא לדעתו, that Hashem agreed to his opinion. That this is the maalah. The maalah is that Hashem agreed to Moshe Rabbeinu. Which means like this: that be'emet the breaking of the luchot is not a maalah; the maalah is that Hashem agreed to him. But be'emet, this answer is not such a strong answer, because after all, the main point is the breaking of the לוחות, and that's not a ma'alah at all. And it's hard to say that because of the ma'alah that Hashem agreed to the opinion of Moshe Rabbeinu, the Torah overlooks the fact that breaking the לוחות is not a ma'alah, and just because of that small detail that Hashem was maskim to the opinion of Moshe, the Torah should bring that in amongst all the ma'alot, and this should be the last and greatest ma'alah. Especially that if the Torah wanted to mention that Moshe Rabbeinu's mind understood the same as Hashem's, the Torah could have mentioned it concerning other things. For instance, it says earlier in the Torah that according to one opinion, Moshe Rabbeinu added one day to the preparation to Matan Torah, and Hashem agreed with him. So here it is an agreement of Hashem in a good thing. So why is it that when the Torah wants to mention the ma'alah that Moshe Rabbeinu understood the same as Hashem, it should mention it concerning the breaking of the לוחות? And the question is even stronger: in the Torah, the words לעיני כל ישראל have no hint even whatsoever to the fact that Hashem was maskim to Moshe Rabbeinu. The only hint of these words is to the breaking the לוחות, because it says when he broke the לוחות, לעיניהם, and here it says לעיני כל ישראל. So this hints to the breaking of the לוחות. So obviously, the main point of the pasuk is not the fact that Hashem was maskim to the da'at of Moshe Rabbeinu, but the Torah wants to mention that Moshe Rabbeinu broke the לוחות. So likhora the question is, what is the special ma'alah in the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu broke the luchot? But we must say that this is a great ma'alah, and not stam a great ma'alah, but this is the greatest ma'alah of all, and therefore, this is the end of the Torah. This is the last ma'alah because this is the greatest ma'alah. But lichorah, how is breaking of the luchot such a great ma'alah?

But the answer to this will be understood based on what Rashi says earlier in פרשת כי תשא, קאפיטל ל״ד, פסוק א׳. There Rashi says that the breaking of the luchot is compared to a mashal. משל למלך שהלך למדינת הים, it's a משל to a king who went to a faraway country, והניח ארוסתו עם השפחות, and he left his כלה, his bride who was engaged to him, which means she was already his wife, he left her with her maids. מתוך קלקול השפחות יצא עליה שם רע, because the maids were corrupt, so an evil report, a bad name went out also on this ארוסה, on the כלה of the king. עמד שושבינה וקרע כתובתה, so her bridesman, her אונטערפירער, her שושבין, got up and tore up her כתובה, her marriage contract. אמר, he said, אם יאמר המלך להורגה, if the king is going to want to kill her, אומר לו, I will tell him, עדיין אינה אשתך, she is not your wife. So by tearing the כתובה, he would save her from death. And Rashi continues and says that המלך, זה הקדוש ברוך הוא, the king is Hashem. השפחות, אלו ערב רב, the maids who were corrupt, that's the Erev Rav. השושבין, זה משה, the bridesman, that's Moshe. ארוסתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, ישראל, and the כלה, the bride of Hashem, that is the Bnei Yisrael. And just like the שושבין saved the bride from death through tearing the ketubah, Moshe Rabbeinu also saved the Bnei Yisrael from death by breaking the luchot, which is similar to tearing the ketubah. So we see from that Rashi, that Moshe Rabbeinu's intention when he broke the luchot was to save the Bnei Yisrael from death. Even though earlier in פרשת כי תשא, in קאפיטל ל״ב, פסוק י״ט, Rashi gives a different reason why he broke the luchot. Rashi says, אמר משה, משה רבינו said to himself, מה פסח שהוא אחד מן המצוות, if the קרבן פסח, which is only one of the מצוות, אמרה תורה כל בן נכר לא יאכל בו, the תורה said that no גוי or no person who worships idols shall eat of it, התורה כולה כאן, here I have the whole תורה, וכל ישראל מומרים, and all the אידן are מומרים, they all worship idols, ואתננה להם, I should give it? Therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu broke it. So it comes out according to this second Rashi that we mentioned, which is really the first one in the חומש, Rashi gives the reason why he broke the luchot is because of the כבוד of the תורה. It's not in order to save the Yidden, it's because of the כבוד of the תורה, because he felt it wasn't right that the Torah should be given to people who worship idols. But the truth is, being that Rashi brings both of them, so both of them are true reasons, both of them were the intentions of Moshe Rabbeinu. He had an intention for the כבוד of the תורה, not to give the Torah to מומרים, but he also had an intention because of protecting, saving the Bnei Yisrael. And the truth is both reasons, each reason is for something else. The first reason, that he didn't give it because the Yidden were מומרים, that explains why he wouldn't give the luchot to the Bnei Yisrael, but that doesn't explain why he broke the luchot. The reason he broke the luchot, that's explained through the other Rashi, that just like in the משל, the שושבין tore the כתובה in order to save the life of the ארוסה, of the bride, so too Moshe Rabbeinu broke the לוחות in order to save the Yidden. So from here we understand that the breaking of the לוחות is a great maalah in Moshe Rabbeinu, because Moshe Rabbeinu did it in order to save the בני ישראל, and that is actually the reason why Hashem agreed to him and he said Yishar koach, he thanked him, because this saved the life of בני ישראל. And this explains why the breaking of the לוחות is such a special thing, greater even than the other maalot, even greater than receiving the Torah and doing all the miracles in the מדבר.

Because let's understand what Moshe Rabbeinu had to go through in order to break the לוחות. It's self-understood even b'pashtut, without looking deeper into sefarim, just b'pashtut we can understand the greatness and the importance of the לוחות, especially in the eyes of Moshe Rabbeinu. Because after all, the לוחות were מעשה אלקים המה, they were work of מכתב אלקים written by Hashem, Moshe Rabbeinu had the zechut to receive them from the hand of Hashem bichvodo u'veatzmo, Hashem Himself. So we could understand how precious the לוחות were to Moshe Rabbeinu. In addition to the fact that bichlal words of Torah were precious to Moshe Rabbeinu, certainly the לוחות. Nevertheless, when Moshe Rabbeinu saw that by holding the לוחות there is a חשש, there is a suspicion that this is going to cause the בני ישראל to get hurt, so Moshe Rabbeinu, being the רועה נאמן, being the trustworthy shepherd of the בני ישראל, the אוהב ישראל, the great lover of the Jews, didn't hesitate for a moment. He didn't even ask Hashem, and right away he broke the לוחות in order to save the בני ישראל from the punishment. And we can go a step further, that be'emet, when Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to save the בני ישראל, it wasn't the majority of the בני ישראל, it was only a minority of the Bnei Yisrael. Because when we look into the parashah of the egel, we see that only a minority of the Bnei Yisrael were punished. So obviously only a minority of the Bnei Yisrael were guilty. And nevertheless, in order to save even the minority of Yidden, Moshe Rabbeinu didn't hesitate for breaking the Luchot. And this is the great maalah of Moshe Rabbeinu who was the מנהיג ישראל, who was the רועה נאמן של בני ישראל, he was the real shepherd of Bnei Yisrael, that not only did he give himself up for the sake of the Bnei Yisrael, as he said to Hashem, and if Hashem will not forgive them, ואם אין מחני נא מספרך, if You don't forgive them, erase me from Your Torah. And as Rashi says, מכל התורה כולה, from the whole Torah. So this itself is a mesirut nefesh, a self-sacrifice on the part of Moshe Rabbeinu. But more than that, he broke the Luchot that he received from Hashem Himself in order to save those people who were guilty in worshiping the idol. And therefore, after the Torah mentions all the great מעלות, גדולות ונפלאות, the great specialties of Moshe Rabbeinu, the Torah finishes off with the greatest מעלה, לעיני כל ישראל, that means שנשאו לבו לשבור הלוחות, that he decided to break the Luchot. This is even a greater maalah than receiving the Torah, receiving the Luchot. Because when he broke the Luchot, that expressed the great mesirut nefesh of Moshe Rabbeinu for all the Bnei Yisrael in order to save the Bnei Yisrael from dying, even though it wasn't all the Bnei Yisrael, but even saving some of the Bnei Yisrael, for that Moshe Rabbeinu went on mesirut nefesh and broke the Luchot. And this is the reason why Rashi, when he says that Moshe Rabbeinu decided to break the Luchot, he uses the לשון שנשאו לבו לשבור הלוחות: his heart picked up to break the לוחות. The normal expression should have been that משה רבינו עלה בדעתו, it came into his mind to break the לוחות, or a similar expression. Why does he say נשאו לבו? Because נשאו לבו means his heart picked up. There was an expression of feeling. In order to break the לוחות, Moshe Rabbeinu had to have an expression of feeling of Ahavat Yisrael for the Bnei Yisrael very much. And not just regular Ahavat Yisrael, but a very high level of Ahavat Yisrael. That's why Rashi says נשאו לבו. נשאו means picked up. His heart, his feeling in his heart of Ahavat Yisrael was picked up to a very high madregah, till this brought him to break the לוחות. And by this Moshe Rabbeinu taught the Bnei Yisrael the importance of Ahavat Yisrael, that a person should do everything possible in order to protect another Yid, even if it means mesirut nefesh on his part. Like it was in this case that Moshe Rabbeinu broke the לוחות, which was a mesirut nefesh on Moshe Rabbeinu's part, nevertheless he did it in order to help other Yidden. And that could be the reason why when the Torah wants to hint the שבירת הלוחות by Moshe Rabbeinu, it hints it through the words לעיני כל ישראל, that he did it in the eyes of all the Yidden. Lichorah, the fact that he did it in front of all the Yidden, that's only a minute detail. The main thing is the breaking of the לוחות. Because one of the reasons Moshe Rabbeinu broke the לוחות was that all the Yidden should see it and take a lesson of how important Ahavat Yisrael is. That for Ahavat Yisrael you have to go on mesirut nefesh, even if it means, like in the case of Moshe Rabbeinu, to break the לוחות. That's why the Torah says לעיניהם, he broke it in their eyes, and here the Torah hints it through לעיני כל ישראל, because this is the most important part: he did it to teach the lesson of how important Ahavat Yisrael is.

This answers another question. We know that there is a rule that you always have to be מסיים בטוב, you have to finish off with good, like it comes out from the Gemara in Berachos דף ל״א עמוד א׳, and Rashi says it in the end of Eichah, and it's brought down in many different places, in Tosafos in the end of מסכת נדה, different places, that when you finish off you have to finish off batov, with good. How come here the Torah finishes off all חמשה חומשי תורה, all five books, five חומשים of the Torah, it finishes off with לעיני כל ישראל, which is the idea of breaking the לוחות. Lichora, the Torah couldn't find anything better with what to finish but concerning the breaking of the לוחות? And Rashi himself too, Rashi finishes off his commentary on the חומש with the words ששברת, that you broke. לכאורה, Rashi should also have tried to finish off his commentary with tov, with good words. Why does Rashi finish it off with the words ששברת that you broke? But based on what we said before, that's understood. The breaking of the לוחות is an expression of אהבת ישראל of Moshe Rabbeinu. And this is the greatest מעלה of Moshe Rabbeinu. So really the Torah does finish off batov, by finishing off with the ענין of שבירת הלוחות. And Rashi also specially finishes off with the words ששברת that you broke to teach us that this was a great אהבת ישראל, and this is tov, this is good. And this is the lesson that we are supposed to take from the end of the חומש. We know that the end is always very important. הכל הולך אחר החיתום, the Gemara says, everything follows the end. So the end brings out the essence of the whole thing. So the end of the חומש teaches us the great importance of אהבת ישראל, how much a Yid is supposed to go out of his way and do everything even things which he doesn't feel comfortable with, like Moshe Rabbeinu definitely didn't feel comfortable with breaking the לוחות, but still to do it in order to help another Yid. And this fits to what Rabbi Akiva said, that אהבת ישראל is a כלל גדול בתורה, this is a great rule in the Torah, and what Hillel said, that זהו כל התורה כולה, this is the whole Torah. And therefore, at the end of the Torah, where the Torah wants to give out in just a few words the essence of the whole Torah, it brings it out through the mesirut nefesh of Moshe Rabbeinu for the inyan of Ahavat Yisrael.