בשעה שעלה משה למרום, when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to heaven to receive the תורה, אמרו מלאכי השרת לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, the malachim said to השם, רבונו של עולם, מה לילוד אשה בינינו? What is a human being doing amongst us? אמר להם, so Hashem said to the malachim, לקבל תורה בא. He came to receive the Torah. אמרו לפניו, the malachim said to Him, חמודה גנוזה, such a desirable thing which is hidden, שגנוזה, which is hidden so many generations, אתה מבקש ליתנה לבשר ודם? You want to give it to a human being? מה אנוש כי תזכרנו? What is a human being? And therefore they claimed, תנה הודך על השמים. Give your honor, give the Torah unto the heavens, which means give it to us. אמר ליה הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה, החזיר להם תשובה. So Hashem said to Moshe, answer them. And finally, אמר לפניו, he said, רבונו של עולם, תורה שאתה נותן לי, מה כתיב בה? The Torah you give to me, what does it say in it? אנכי השם אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. I am Hashem your God that took you out of Mitzrayim. אמר להם למצרים ירדתם? So he said to the malachim, how could you receive the Torah? Did you go down to Mitzrayim? לפרעה השתעבדתם? You were slaves to Pharaoh? תורה למה תהא לכם? What will you do with the Torah? שוב מה כתיב בה? What else does it say there? לא יהיה לך אלוקים אחרים. You should not have other gods. בין עמים אתם שרויים שעובדים עבודה זרה? Do you live amongst nations who worship avodah zarah that we have to warn you not to worship avodah zarah? And he went on further, he says, כלום אתם עושים מלאכה? Do you do melachah? When there is a din on Shabbos you're not allowed to work, do you work? משא ומתן יש ביניכם? Do you do any business? אב ואם יש לכם? Do you have a father and a mother? The Torah says, כבד את אביך ואת אמך, honor your father and mother. Do you have parents? קנאה יש ביניכם? Do you have jealousy amongst you? יצר הרע יש ביניכם? Do you have a yetzer hara? So after Moshe Rabbeinu told them all this, מיד הודו לו להקדוש ברוך הוא, they admitted to Hashem, etc. So we see here the malachim had a complaint, they want the Torah, and the answer was they don't receive the Torah, the Torah doesn't belong to it.

So it says in many, many sefarim, in a sefer called Shtei Yadot, in a sefer called She'erit Yaakov, in the Penei David of the Chida, and many, many other sefarim, and some of them even bring in the name of a maggid or in the name of rishonim, that the reason for the ta'anah of the malachim was based on a halachah, and this is the halachah of דינא דבר מצרא. The din is that somebody who sells a field to somebody else, so the neighbor of that field has a right to take that field away from the buyer if he wants to buy it. Which means that the neighbor gets first choice to buy the field. And so much so that even if it was sold already to somebody else, the neighbor, the בר מצרא has a right to go to the buyer and take it away from him. Because the pasuk says, ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני השם, you should do what's straight and good in the eyes of Hashem, and since that person, who is the neighbor, will have both fields next to each other, so it is better for him to have it than for somebody else, so that's why the din is you have to sell it to him first. And this is what the malachim said: since the Torah is genuzah, it's hidden, which means the Torah is found in shamayim, in heaven, and the malachim are in heaven, so they are, so to speak, the בר מצרא, the neighbors to the Torah, so therefore תנה הודך על השמים. So they complained you have to give the Torah to them, they have the first choice to buy it, to receive it, because they are neighbors. What is the answer to their complaint? So we find in meforshim many, many answers. For instance, one answer is that this din of בר מצרא, that you have to sell it to the neighbor rather than to a stranger, is only by קרקע, by fields, by real estate, and not by מטלטלין, not by movable objects. You sell an object to somebody, a neighbor can't say, \"Well, sell it to me first.\" And the Torah is not considered קרקע, so therefore this din of בר מצרא does not apply to Torah. Another answer is this din that you have to sell it to your neighbor only applies by mechirah, by a sale, but not by a present. There's no such thing as a neighbor could say, \"Give me the present instead of somebody else.\" The Torah, we know, is given to the Jews as a present. So therefore this din of בר מצרא doesn't apply. Another answer: Jews are considered קרובים to Hashem, like relatives to Hashem. As the pasuk says in פרשת ואתחנן, קפיטל ד׳ פסוק ז׳, מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלוקים קרובים אליו? Who is such a big nation that has God as a relative, close to him? So we see we refer to the Yidden as קרובים, and even more than that, the Yidden are considered בנים למקום, they are considered like children to Hashem, as it says in Pirkei Avot. And the din is that by relatives, and certainly by children, there is no din of בר מצרא. And therefore the malachim had no complaint of בר מצרא. Another answer given is that Moshe Rabbeinu was the one that received the Torah, and it says concerning Moshe Rabbeinu he was איש האלוקים, a godly man, and it says in the Midrash, Devarim Rabbah פרשה י״א, ד׳, and also Midrash Tehillim קפיטל צ׳ and other places, that what's the פשט איש האלוקים? מחציו ולמטה איש, מחציו ולמעלה אלוקים. That from the half down down, he was like a human being, and from the half up, he was like Godly. So it comes out that Moshe Rabbeinu was also a neighbor so to speak to the Torah, even though the Torah was in shamayim, but Moshe Rabbeinu was also partially in shamayim, because he was חציו אלקים as it says in the Midrash. And therefore, the malachim had no complaint. Another answer given, it says on the pasuk in פרשת יתרו, קפיטל י״ח פסוק י״ג, where it says, ויעמד העם על משה מן הבקר עד הערב, so the Chazal say in מסכת שבת דף י׳ עמוד א׳, that any dayan, any judge that is דן דין אמת לאמיתו, who judges a truthful דין, כאילו נעשה שותף להקדוש ברוך הוא במעשה בראשית. It's as if he becomes a partner to Hashem in the creation of the world. And the din is concerning בר מצרא, that if the buyer is a partner of the seller, then there is no din of בר מצרא. The neighbor cannot come and say, \"Sell it to me before you sell it to that other person,\" because if the other person is a partner of the seller, then he's allowed to sell it to the other person rather than to the neighbor. And the same thing here. Since Moshe Rabbeinu was דן דין אמת לאמיתו, Moshe Rabbeinu was the judge, and he judged the way you're supposed to, and therefore he became a shutaf to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, became like a partner to Hashem. So therefore, the malachim have no complaint of דינא דבר מצרא. But concerning the last two reasons, the one that Moshe Rabbeinu himself was a neighbor to the Torah because he was half Elokim, so to speak, and also the other teirutz that he was also a shutaf to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because he was דן דין אמת לאמיתו, so he became like a partner to Hashem, that is not understood, because Moshe Rabbeinu did not take the Torah for himself. Moshe Rabbeinu took the Torah for all the Yidden. So what kind of answer is it that because Moshe Rabbeinu was a partner with Hashem, so to speak, or because Moshe Rabbeinu was a neighbor to the Torah, therefore it came to him? So some answer that be'emes, it's not only Moshe Rabbeinu who was, so to speak, the neighbor of the Torah because Moshe Rabbeinu was partially in heaven, but all the Yidden are. Because we know what it says in the Zohar חלק ג׳, third part, דף כ״ט עמוד ב׳, that the neshamos of the Bnei Yisrael were גזירין מתחת כסא הכבוד, are carved out, cut out, from under the כסא הכבוד. So really, every Yid, since he has a neshamah, so he is from Shamayim, so he is also a partner to the Torah. And also, by Matan Torah, not only was Moshe Rabbeinu a partner to Hashem, but all the Yidden are considered shutafim, partners to Hashem. Because the Gemara says in שבת דף קי״ט עמוד ב׳, that כל המתפלל בערב שבת ואומר ויכלו, anybody who davens on Friday and he says ויכלו, כאילו נעשה שותף להקדוש ברוך הוא במעשה בראשית. It's as if he becomes a partner to Hashem in the creation of the world. And since they already received the mitzvah of Shabbos, so all the Yidden became like partners to Hashem. And therefore, since the din is that by a partner, there is no דינא דבר מצרא, the neighbor cannot complain that he gets it first, so therefore, since all the Yidden were like partners, so therefore, all the Yidden received the Torah, and the malachim have no complaint.

But the truth is that concerning all the reasons that we gave before, we have to understand. Because according to all the answers that we gave, the ikar chaser min hasefer, the main part of the answer is missing in the Gemara. Not one of these answers is mentioned in the answer that Moshe Rabbeinu gave. In the Gemara, it says that what was the answer of Moshe Rabbeinu to the malachim, why they should not receive the Torah? Because they weren't in Mitzrayim, and they have no yetzer hara, and they have no parents, and they have no business, and they have no jealousy, etc. All this does not hint even to any of the answers we gave before why the malachim's complaint of דינא דבר מצרא does not apply. On the contrary, in the last three answers, the opposite is stressed. The last three answers were, one is that the Yidden are called relatives to Hashem, children to Hashem; another answer, that the Yidden are also neighbors because they are from under the כסא הכבוד; and the other answer, that the Yidden are partners to Hashem. All this shows how close the Yidden are to Hashem. In Moshe Rabbeinu's answer, it showed just the opposite. It shows how much lower the Yidden are than the malachim, that the Yidden have a yetzer hara, the Yidden are in this physical world, are in Mitzrayim, the Yidden have business, the Yidden have parents, to show how physical the Yidden are. This is all just the opposite of what the answers bring out. The answers bring out that be'emet the Yidden are also close to the Torah in שמים and close to Hashem. But this is not what Moshe Rabbeinu said in the answer. So it comes out that we have a general question on all these answers given before, that they are all not mentioned in the answer that the Gemara says Moshe Rabbeinu gave. In addition to that, in some of these answers, there are individual questions that we have. On the first answer, that the din of בר מצרא only applies to קרקע, to land, and not to מטלטלין, and not to movable objects, and since the Torah is not considered land, therefore this din doesn't apply, the teretz is not understood. Because the reason given why this din only applies to קרקע and not to מטלטלין is because on מטלטלין we tell the neighbor, \"Go and buy it someplace else.\" By land, we can't say to the neighbor, go buy someplace else. The whole idea is that he wants to have it close to his other field. So here we say there's a din of בר מצרא. But by מטלטלין, we tell the neighbor, the בר מצרא, go and buy it someplace else. If this is the reason for the difference, then this is no answer for Torah. Because by Torah we can't tell the malachim, go get a Torah someplace else. And therefore, the same reason we have why by קרקע there is a din of בר מצרא, that reason should apply also to the Torah, and therefore there should be a din of בר מצרא by the Torah. Because the Torah is not like מטלטלין where you could say buy it someplace else; the malachim can't get the Torah anywhere. Concerning the second answer we gave, that the din of בר מצרא only applies to a sale, but not to a present, and the Torah is a matanah, is a present, the truth is we do find that the Torah is a present. But on the other hand, we find other expressions concerning the Torah. As we know that concerning the Torah we find three expressions. On one hand we find that the Torah is considered a yerushah, it's an inheritance, as it says in פרשה ברכה, קפיטל לג פסוק ד, תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב, the Torah that Moshe commanded us is an inheritance to the community of Yaakov, so we refer to the Torah as an inheritance. We find that the Torah is referred to as a sale, as the Chazal say in Shemos Rabbah, פרשה לג, א, that אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, השם said to the יידן, מכרתי לכם תורתי, I sold you my Torah. And also the Chazal quote a פסוק, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם, which means I gave you a good sale. And it says, why is it called a good sale? Because usually, when a person sells something, the seller is unhappy and the buyer is happy. In this case, the seller and the buyer were both happy, meaning that Hashem and the Bnei Yisrael were both happy. So here too we see that we compare the giving of the Torah to a sale. And we also find that the giving of the Torah is compared to a present, as the Chazal say in Berachos דף ה עמוד א, ג׳ מתנות טובות נתן הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, three presents, good presents Hashem gave to the Yidden, and one of them is the Torah. So we see that the Torah is referred to as a matanah. It says also in Bereishis Rabbah פרשה ו, ה, ג׳ דברים נתנו מתנה לעולם, three things Hashem gave as a present to the Yidden. In Shemos Rabbah פרשה כח, א it says מתנה נתנה לו, that he gave him as a present. We say this actually in davening constantly, that Shavuos is זמן מתן תורתנו, the day that he gave us the Torah as a present. And as it says in different sefarim, that these three expressions of the Torah being a yerushah, an inheritance, the Torah being a sale, and the Torah being a present, refers to three aspects in the Torah and three ways that Yidden are connected to the Torah. But we do see that the Torah is also referred to as a sale. Now since there is an aspect of sale in the Torah, there should be a din of bar metzra even concerning the Torah. So what kind of answer is it to say that the reason there is no din of bar metzra by the Torah is because it is a present? After all, the Torah is also a sale. And even according to the opinion of the Rashbam in בבא בתרא דף קנא עמוד א, that if a person gave somebody a field, and in the document he wrote both expressions, the expression of sale and the expression of a present, so it doesn't have a din of בר מצרא. So the same thing would be here, that since the Torah is a present, and the Torah is also a sale, since it's both together, so according to the Rashbam it should not have a din of בר מצרא. But that is not so, because over there the reason for that din is because במתנה ביקש ליתנה לו, really he wanted to give him as a present, that's what we assume, ולמה כתב לו בלשון מכר כדי ליפות כחו, why did he write the lashon, the expression of a sale, to make it stronger? But by the Torah we don't say that. We don't say that really he gave it as a present, and the reason it says לשון מכירה is to make it stronger. There are two aspects in Torah: there's an aspect of a present, there's an aspect of a sale. So since there's an aspect of a sale separately, then there should be a din of בר מצרא. But then there's another answer given in mefarshim. There are some mefarshim that learn that when the malachim asked for the Torah, they didn't ask for the חלק הפשט, to take the simple meaning of the Torah, because they knew that this has nothing to do with them. What they asked for was for the חלק הסוד, the hidden part. Since we know Torah has פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד, it has the simple meaning and the remez and the drush, and also has the hidden parts, the spiritual part of the Torah, what they asked for was for the spiritual part of the Torah. And therefore there is no din of בר מצרא, because the din is that if you sell all your property to one person, and amongst the property is also this field that has a neighbor, the neighbor has no complaint. If the neighbor wants to buy all the property, then he has a complaint, but if you're selling all the property to somebody else, and amongst that one of the things is a field that has a neighbor, so the neighbor can't come and say that that field belongs to me first. And since here the rest of the Torah, the pshat of the Torah definitely goes to the Yidden, so therefore the malachim can't come and say that we want one of the parts of the Torah to us because of בר מצרא, because since you are only taking one part, and the Yidden get everything, the din is, if the other person, not the neighbor, wants to take all the property, this field that has a neighbor plus other properties, he wants to take it all, then he has the right first over the neighbor who's ready to take only one field. And that's why the there is no din of בר מצרא concerning the malachim. But this answer is also not understood, because this is not what the Gemara says. The Gemara says the opposite. The Gemara says that Moshe Rabbeinu's answer was: Do you have a yetzer hara? Do you have parents? Do you do business, etc.? This is only an answer if they would be asking for the חלק הפשט, so you would say, \"How could you take the pshat? The pshat says that you went to Mitzrayim; you never went to Mitzrayim. The pshat says you have to honor your father and mother; you don't have a father and a mother.\" But they never meant the pshat. They meant lechatchilah the hidden part, and the hidden part of going to Mitzrayim and the hidden part of father and mother could fit to the malachim. So what kind of answer did Moshe Rabbeinu give?

Therefore, the answer that could be given to the question of the malachim, that they have a right over the Torah because of the din of bar metzra, is based on another din. The din is that if the bar metzra, if the neighbor wants to buy the field because he wants to plant things, but the other person, the stranger, he wants to buy the field because he wants to build a house there, so then the field goes to the buyer and doesn't go to the bar metzra. And the same thing is in the case of the Torah. We all know the famous Midrash in Tanchuma, פרשת נשא ט״ז and other places, that נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired to have a dwelling place, which means a house, in this low world. So bepashtut this refers to the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash. He wanted to have a place, so to speak, where He would live. But essentially, as it says in the mefarshim and all the sefarim, that this refers to the whole creation of the world. And the reason why Hashem created the world is because He wants a dwelling place in this world. Why He wanted this we don't know, it's beyond our understanding, but we do know what He wanted. He wanted davka betachtonim. In this low physical world, He should have a dirah, He should have a dwelling place. And how should He have the dwelling place? By us Yidden bringing Him down. By us learning Torah and doing mitzvot, doing what He wants, we bring kedushah and Godliness into the world till we bring down completely Hashem into this world. We make this world a house for Hashem. And Hashem wants to davka in this world, a place where we have a yetzer hara, a place where we have gashmiyut, a place where we are low and not high, we are very physical. And in this physical world, which is the lowest of the lowest, that's where Hashem wants to have His house, where He should be brought down through the avodah, the work of the Yidden in Torah and in mitzvot. And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu said to the malachim: Do you have a yetzer hara? Do you have parents? Do you do business? Do you have jealousy? All these different things he mentioned to show that we are physical people, and we are down here in this physical world. We're the only ones that are able to build this home, to make this dirah for Hashem betachtonim, in this low world. And as we said before, that if the buyer wants to build a house, and the neighbor just wants to have it for planting other things, then we give it to the buyer, not to the neighbor. And this is what Moshe said to the malachim, that since we are down here in this physical world with all these physical things, we are able to build a house for Hashem betachtonim, in this low world, as Hashem wants. And therefore, since we will build the house and you can't, it goes to us and not to you, even though you are the neighbors.