The topic tonight is the breaking of the לוחות, and the reason I chose this topic for today is obvious, because it is in the פרשה of the week. Now usually we don't connect the שיעור to the פרשה, but it just turned out that it's a good topic to discuss. The reason משה רבינו broke the לוחות was because the Jews made the golden calf. But we're not going to discuss the golden calf, what that meant and why they did it. That, if you remember, we had a different שיעור, and we discussed all the aspects of the חטא העגל. What we're going to discuss tonight is purely the breaking of the לוחות as a subject in itself. Now we know that the breaking of the לוחות is definitely something negative that happened in Jewish history. It's obvious. Imagine, they broke the לוחות, משה רבינו broke the לוחות. We see it also from the fact that we actually have a fast day in connection to the breaking of the לוחות. We know that שבעה עשר בתמוז, that we fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז, the 17th day of תמוז, one of the reasons is because that was the day that משה רבינו broke the לוחות. There are other reasons also, that the wall of ירושלים was broken, other reasons, but the first reason why we fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז is because משה רבינו broke the לוחות. Imagine, we made a fast day for all generations because of what משה רבינו did. That just shows how terrible it is. And if we just think about it for a moment, we could understand how bad it was. The לוחות, what were the לוחות? The לוחות were the tablets made by השם Himself. It says in חומש it's called מעשה אלוקים, it was made by השם. And the כתב, what was written on the לוחות, what was engraved in the לוחות, were מכתב אלוקים, it was written by השם Himself, השם's own hand. Which is even more than the second לוחות. Afterwards when השם replaced the לוחות by a second pair of לוחות, the second one was not מעשה אלוקים, it was not cut out by by השם, but by משה רבינו. It was מכתב אלוקים, it was written by השם, and even that in a different level than the first. But the first לוחות had all the top top qualities. It was 100% Godly. And משה רבינו took the לוחות and threw them down and broke them. So you could imagine how terrible that was, what kind of terrible event that was, that the לוחות were broken. Concerning why he broke the לוחות, what made him break the לוחות, we know it's in connection to the חטא העגל, to the sin that they did with the golden calf, but what was the reason he broke the לוחות? So we find mainly two reasons brought down in the חז״ל, in the מדרשים, in רש״י. One reason is when משה רבינו came down from the mountain and he saw them worshipping the עגל, he thought to himself, he had learned from השם, as we learn in חומש, that a מומר cannot bring the קרבן פסח. A מומר is somebody who converts to another religion or a person who worships idols, cannot bring the קרבן פסח, the special sacrifice that every איד is supposed to bring on ערב פסח. So the פסוק says that a מומר cannot bring the קרבן פסח. So משה רבינו said to himself, if one person who is a מומר cannot do the מצוה of קרבן פסח, here I have not one מצוה, I have the whole תורה, because the לוחות contained the whole תורה, even though there were only Ten Commandments written on the לוחות, but these Ten Commandments contained the whole תורה. There are even ספרים who explain how each מצוה is hinted in one of the Ten Commandments, each one of the 613 מצות. So משה רבינו said to himself, here I have the לוחות which contain the whole תורה, and here we have the אידן who are all מומרים, they're all worshipping idols. So what should I do, give them the לוחות? If they can't bring one, do one מצוה, the קרבן פסח, certainly I can't give them the whole תורה. So משה רבינו decided to throw it down and break it. That's one reason given. Another reason given is based on a משל, a parable. חז״ל gave a משל of a king who left, and he left some servants, some maids, and also he had a wife, actually there it says an ארוסה, a כלה of his, and the שפחות, the maids, didn't behave properly, they behaved immoral, and the name came out that not only they did it, but his wife did it too. So there was a friend of the חתן who decided to save the wife of the king. So what did he do? He took the כתובה and tore it up. So now that she had no כתובה, when the king came back and they started looking into it, they couldn't judge her as a married woman who deserved the punishment that she deserved, because he said, \"Where is the כתובה?\" And the same thing here, it says השם is the חתן, the ערב רב, these people, these non-Jewish people who came along with the Jews when they went out of מצרים, they are compared to the שפחות, to the maid, and they're the one that really sinned. The friend of the king is משה רבינו. The wife of the king, of השם, that is the אידן. So משה רבינו, in order to save the אידן from the punishment, he tore the כתובה, he broke the לוחות, the לוחות are compared to the כתובה. So now there is no proof that she is married, that the Jews have this commitment to השם, so he broke the לוחות. And by doing that, he saved the Jewish people, because otherwise they would have been punished like a woman who is married, who behaves immoral. So by doing this to save the Jewish people. So there are these two reasons given why משה רבינו broke the לוחות. There are also מדרשים we have, what exactly took place when משה רבינו broke the לוחות. In one place, it says that משה רבינו saw the words from the לוחות fly out. אותיות פורחות, they were flying. So he realized שאין בהם ממש, now that the לוחות don't have the words, then what's the use of the לוחות? So he broke it. Another place, it says that it wasn't that the words flew out, it says that he saw that the רוח הקודש, the holy spirit that's there in the words of the לוחות flew out. משה רבינו could see it, so he decided, אין בהם ממש, why do I need, why that I should give them the לוחות, he threw it down. Another place it says that he felt it very heavy. When the words flew out, the life of the לוחות left, so it became very heavy. We know that if a human, person is alive, live weight is much lighter, dead weight is much heavier. So the לוחות became very heavy, and they were very heavy obviously, they were made of stone, rock, סנפיריון, so they were very heavy. But the life of the לוחות kept it, so it wasn't so heavy. But he saw it became very heavy, so he dropped it. And even says in מדרשים that משה רבינו had to fight with the זקנים. The זקנים, the elders of the Jews came and grabbed, they saw משה רבינו wanted to throw the לוחות down, they wouldn't let him. They came and they grabbed onto it. משה רבינו fought with them, wrestled with them, pulled it out, and then threw the לוחות down. And it's based on the פסוק where it says, ואתפוש, \"I grabbed onto the לוחות,\" the פסוק says, משה, when he repeated the story in חומש דברים, he says, \"I grabbed onto the לוחות.\" What did he grab onto? He was holding it. He had to grab it away from them. So there are different מדרשים, and all I'm bringing in is different things that we learn in חז״ל concerning the breaking of the לוחות. But as we know, this class is not a class of history, or a class of just bringing in מדרשים. I try to explain all the different subjects that we talk about according to the, the way חסידות looks of it, at it, from the angle of חסידות, and especially the way the רבי explains these ענינים, in the שיחות and in the מאמרים. So what we have to explain here is the way חסידות looks at what happened when the לוחות were broken.

And as usual, when חסידות looks at something, even if something is negative, חסידות always finds something positive in it. That we see all over. Any subject that we find in the תורה that seems to be very negative, learning חסידות, and we see that really there's a lot of positive in it. Starting from the most famous one, the מרגלים, the twelve spies, they came back, the ten spies, they spoke לשון הרע against ארץ ישראל, which was the cause of all the problems we have, because the Jews cried then and it was תשעה באב, and השם said, \"Because of that, I'll destroy the בית המקדש later,\" all kinds, started with the מרגלים. We learn in חסידות, it explains that really the מרגלים, there was something positive from what they did. Story of קרח, we learn there was something positive. Anything we learn, the מבול, we learn in חסידות that it was, lot of positive in it. So חסידות talks, looks at everything from the positive side. Because the truth is, if it's in תורה, or something from השם, even if it looks like it's negative, there has to be something positive in it, in it. And חסידות always tries to look deeper than superficial, and finds the positive part. When it comes to the לוחות, to the breaking of the לוחות, we don't have to come onto חסידות to see that there is something positive in it, but that we see from the גמרא itself, from the חז״ל. Because it says in חומש that השם said to משה רבינו afterwards, after he forgave them, he said to משה, פסל לך שני לוחות אבנים כראשונים אשר שברת, you shall carve out for yourself new לוחות, replace the לוחות, like the ones that you broke. And the פסוק uses the term אשר שברת, the ones that you broke. And the חז״ל say that the word אשר comes also from the word יישר כח. When you thank somebody, you say יישר כח, which really means it's a ברכה, your strength, you should get strength, you should It's a blessing. So השם said to משה רבינו, \"יישר כחך ששברת.\" When he said, \"Make new לוחות,\" אש אשר שבר- like the ones אשר שברת, like the ones you broke, is the ones that I'm thanking you for breaking it. So השם thanked משה רבינו for breaking it. And the גמרא actually says that there were a few things that משה רבינו did on his own. Most of the things we find משה did wasn't on his own; he was told by השם. There are very few things that we see in the תורה that משה did on his own, and השם was מסכים, השם agreed that he was right. For instance, it says, according to one opinion, that when השם said, \"I'll give the תורה,\" he said, \"I'll give the תורה in three days,\" which meanings means two days and the third day, \"I'll give you the תורה.\" משה רבינו added one day, and he said, \"We need another day for preparation,\" and השם agreed. There are few things השם agreed to what משה did. This was one of the things: he broke the לוחות, and he didn't ask השם, and השם told him later, \"יישר כח.\" He thanked him, he agreed. But רש\"י adds another word. Not only did he thank him and agreed, he was מסכים, רש\"י says שבחו, he praised him. Now, we say he praised him, obviously השם meant to say you did something good, not something right. Sometimes you do something that's negative, but you have never- נעבעך, no chance, no choice, you got to do it. If you give someone a punch because that's the only way you'll protect yourself, so you did something right, but no one will praise you for it. They'll say, \"Well, you did the right thing because that's the only way you would protect yourself.\" But it's not something to be praised. So here, too, it's not only השם agreed that you did the right thing. You came to a situation, you saw that this is what you had to do, so you had to break the לוחות. נעבעך, had to break the לוחות. But it's nothing to be praised about. השם praised him! So, obviously, the חז\"ל tell us that there was something positive in the breaking of the לוחות. And we see even more than that. We look at the end of חומש, the end of חומש, the last words, and we know that the last words are the most important words of the whole תורה. The first words are the most important and the end. We know that the beginning is always the most important because in the beginning you let you set the foundation, and everything is based on the beginning. And also the end is when everything comes to the it's in the climax, it comes to the end. הכל הולך אחר החיתום, everything goes according to the end. So the last words of the תורה are לעיני כל ישראל. The end of the תורה talks about the death of משה רבינו, and it speaks about how great משה רבינו was. The תורה praises משה רבינו, a little הספד on משה רבינו. And the תורה says the way רש\"י explains the different words in the פסוקים, what the תורה says is that who is משה רבינו, he is this, he was great, he he didn't lose his strength, and all kinds of things. And it says that משה רבינו was the one that gave the תורה. Imagine, the greatest praise you could imagine. משה רבינו did all kinds of miracles: יציאת מצרים, קריעת ים סוף, all great things. And then the last words are לעיני כל ישראל, in the eyes of all the יידן. Now, one would think that what the פסוק means to say that all the great things that משה did, he did in front of everybody, it wasn't something he did privately. So רש\"י says, \"No, that's not what the פסוק means.\" לעיני כל ישראל is a new praise, something in addition to all the great specialties and qualities of משה רבינו, the תורה adds something else. Something he did לעיני כל ישראל, something he did in the eyes of all the יידן. What else did he do? So when we look back to חומש, it says that משה רבינו broke the לוחות in front of the eyes of all the יידן. So when the פסוק says here that there was something that משה did in the eyes of all the יידן, and this is the last, last thing of the תורה, רש\"י says it means the greatest praise you could give on משה רבינו is that he broke the לוחות. לעיני כל ישראל, ואשברם לעיניכם, \"I broke the לוחות in front of you,\" he said. He broke it in front of the eyes of all the יידן, that's what the תורה means. Now, here we see that the תורה praises משה רבינו that he broke the לוחות, that's the greatest praise. Obviously, there is something special in breaking the לוחות. It's not that he prevented something, he broke the לוחות, something must be something positive, something very good here. And it's such a praise that comes after the other things. Imagine, after the fact that he gave us the תורה, after the fact that he did all the miracles, the greatest thing he did, he broke the לוחות. So we have to look into this: what is so special about breaking the לוחות? Now, at first glance, we could say that the specialty of breaking the לוחות is that by doing that, he brought out the כבוד התורה. When he saw how the יידן behave, and they don't deserve the לוחות, so he broke the לוחות. By that, he showed the great כבוד of תורה that you have to have. Not every person can just have the תורה. You behave you misbehave, you can't have the תורה. The תורה is so special, the תורה is so great, so people like that can't get it. So By breaking the לוחות, this expresses the great כבוד you're supposed to have for the תורה. But the truth is, it is not really enough, because to show the כבוד of the תורה that it cannot be given to such people, he didn't have to break it. Why'd he have to break the לוחות? He shouldn't give it to them, right. Just take the לוחות, wrap it up, put it away someplace, hide it, but break the לוחות? So you can't say that the specialty of breaking breaking the לוחות is the fact that this shows the great כבוד he has for תורה. But then there's another point we could make, that by breaking the לוחות, משה רבינו, as we said before, saved כלל ישראל. Otherwise they would be punished. השם wanted to destroy them. And as we gave the משל, by tearing the כתובה, he saved the wife of the king. So too, משה רבינו, by breaking the לוחות, saved the יידן. Well, imagine, that's special. And as we will explain later, that is very special, but we have to say that there must be something deeper than that, because it seems that breaking the לוחות is not special because of something that came out of breaking the לוחות, an outcome. The breaking the לוחות itself must be good, because if it's just because this saved כלל ישראל, so the breaking the לוחות itself is not good. It's just through doing something negative, it saved כלל ישראל, it saved the יידן. So it's something very special, but not the actual breaking of the לוחות. We must find something in the actual breaking of the לוחות, that the fact that the לוחות were broken, that itself is something very special that deserves to be praised. And we actually see it in something else: What did they do with the broken pieces of the לוחות? So it says, לוחות ושברי לוחות מונחים בארון. The לוחות, the second set, the whole ones, and the broken pieces were put into the ארון, into the holy ark they had. And as some ראשונים, the ריטב״א, the רמב״ן, explain, that this shows how beloved, that's the expression they use, how חביב, beloved it was to השם that they broke the לוחות. So the broken לוחות also belonged in the ארון. Obviously, there is something special in the breaking of the לוחות that they deserved to go into the ארון. So what is so good about the שבירת הלוחות, about the breaking of the לוחות? The negative part we don't have to discuss, we know that, it's obvious, but there must be something good, as we see from all this, something good in breaking of the לוחות.

And the answer is based on a מדרש. It says in מדרש that השם said to משה רבינו, \"I know you feel bad that you broke the לוחות. Don't feel bad.\" Why? \"If you wouldn't have broken the לוחות, then all the Jews would have would be only חמשה חומשי תורה, would only be תורה שבכתב, would only be the written תורה. You would not have most of the תורה שבעל פה, most of the oral תורה. The מדרשים and הלכות and אגדות, as the מדרש refers to it, you wouldn't have. Now that you broke the לוחות, I will give the Jews כפלים לתושיה. I will give them double than what they had before.\" But the word כפלים, even though literally translated as double, it doesn't mean double, it's an expression of much more. You will have much more of the תורה than you had till now. In other words, it's the breaking of the לוחות that gave us much more תורה than we had before. And the גמרא טאקע says, this is an example to the concept that sometimes ביטולה זהו יסודה. Sometimes ביטול תורה, ביטול תורה means wasting things of תורה, wasting time of תורה, can be the foundation of the תורה. Here משה רבינו destroyed the תורה, but that destruction really was the building of the תורה. It's only through the breaking of the לוחות that we really have the whole תורה the way we have it, with all the parts of תורה שבעל פה, of the oral תורה, which we would not have had if משה wouldn't have broken the לוחות. Now, in that case, I'll explain soon why, but what do we see from here? That there was something special, this accomplished a lot, the breaking of the לוחות accomplished that we have much more of תורה, mainly most of תורה שבעל פה. But the question is, why did that have to happen only when they broke the לוחות? Why couldn't השם give the Jews תורה שבעל פה without breaking the לוחות? The fact we see, we see from the מדרש that this is the only way it could happen. Because if it could happen otherwise, then משה רבינו should still feel bad. If it would have happened without the breaking of the לוחות, then משה would feel bad. השם said to משה, \"Don't feel bad that you broke the לוחות, because it's only now that you broke broke the לוחות, we're going to I'm going to give you all the rest of the תורה, כפלים לתושיה, double, much more, תורה שבעל פה. So obviously it's a fact, and that shows the greatness of the breaking of the לוחות. But why? Why couldn't השם give תורה שבעל פה, most of תורה שבעל פה without the breaking of the לוחות? And here is where חסידות comes in, and the רבי explains it at length, and I'll bring out the point that the רבי says. We know one thing. We say in דאווענען, in שמונה עשרה, every time we say שמונה עשרה, towards the end of שמונה עשרה, we say ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, פתח לבי בתורתך. That means, I will be like dust to everyone, everyone should step on me. Open my heart to your תורה. This is what we say in דאווענען, and this is taken from the גמרא. Now, what is the connection between these two parts? The first part means, telling השם, I have no ego, I am completely בטל. I nullify myself to everybody, I am nothing, which in simple words it means I'm an עניו, meaning I don't consider myself anything, which is very important. A person should not be a בעל גאוה, a person should not have an ego, and this is what we say. Then we have another part we say, we ask השם, please open our heart to תורה. It's a very interesting, very important prayer. We ask השם, open our heart to תורה, we should be able to study תורה. But what's the connection between the two? We say it in one breath: ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, I'm like nothing to everybody, and open my heart to תורה. So חסידות says that the connection is very simple. In order a איד should have his heart open to תורה, you must have the proper ביטול. It's not like other subjects, להבדיל להבדיל, any subject that one learns, there's no need to have ביטול in order to understand a subject. You could learn, להבדיל, math, and you don't have to be an עניו, you don't have to be humble in order to learn math. You could learn math whichever way you want. What's ביטול? Self-nullification. So, on the contrary, a person who has more self-esteem will learn better, a person who thinks of himself more will concentrate, well, you don't need to be בטל in order to learn another subject. Why is it that for תורה we do need? And the answer, as we all Jews do, we answer a question with a question. As the famous joke, once a priest asked a Jew, \"How come you Jews always ask answer a question with a question?\" So he said, \"Why not?\" So, I'll answer with a question. תורה is something that we learn with our mind. Why do we say פתח לבי בתורתך, open my heart to תורה? Should have said פתח ראשי בתורתך, open my head with תורה. פתח מוחי, open my brain with תורה. Why my heart? תורה comes in the brain, not in the heart. The heart is a place of feeling. The answer is to learn תורה, to understand just the logic of the תורה, you don't need ביטול, you don't need self-nullification, like any other subject. But there is much more in תורה. There is the Godliness that's in the תורה. And to have the Godliness of תורה, for that you have to have ביטול. Why? The fact that השם, God is in the תורה, just like השם himself is בלי גבול, he's infinite, unlimited, the תורה has an aspect of בלי גבול in it, an aspect of infinity in it. And a person, as smart as he is, as a good head as he has, is limited. The best head is limited. So you never could take the true essence of what the תורה is. For that you have to have the heart. It's the רוחניות, the Godliness, the spirituality in the תורה that's not in the brain, that's in the heart. And we ask השם פתח לבי בתורתך, open my heart to תורה, which means I want to have that בלי גבול, that infinity that's there in the תורה. And for that, we give an introduction. We say to השם ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, I am completely בטל, and therefore, I working on ביטול, therefore I hope פתח לבי בתורתך, you will open my heart to תורה. Which means a איד, a person cannot really grasp the truth of תורה when he has his ישות, his selfishness, his selfness, or whatever word we'll use, I don't know if there's such a word, his ego, when that's involved, then that limits him to be able to take the true Godliness and בלי גבול that's in the תורה, infinity in the תורה. And the truth is, even to understand the תורה, let's go a step further, to understand the depth of the תורה, there is no end to understanding what the the תורה concept should go deeper and deeper and deeper. And since even the understanding of תורה is unlimited, we have have to have the proper ביטול to be able to go further and further and further. The fact that we understand a little bit, that's just the tip of the iceberg, whatever we understand. There is so much depth to it, and therefore we need to have this proper ביטול. Then we're able to take the בלי גבול, the infinity of תורה. When we talk about the infinity of תורה, which part of תורה expresses the infinity of תורה? Now we know תורה is made up of two parts: תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה. We have the written תורה and the oral תורה. The written תורה is not infinite. We take חומש and five חומשים, the words are exact, limited to what they are. You can't subtract any, you can't add any. It's ממש exactly מספר. We know that within those words we have an infinite wisdom, infinite amount of meanings, but the words themselves are limited. תורה שבעל פה, the oral תורה, is really infinite. Not only that there's infinite wisdom hidden in it, it's in itself infinite. There's no end to it. We have ספרים and ספרים, and we constantly have more and more, and even nowadays, every day there are חכמים who come up with new interpretations of the תורה. And if they're if they're worked out to fit with the rules of what השם gave us, then they are part of תורה, they are part of תורה שבעל פה. Actually, in the זהר it says every person should try to be מחדש, to add whatever he is able to add, a פשט'ל in תורה. So תורה שבעל פה is the בלי גבול of תורה. So therefore, when we talk about תורה, that in order to grasp, to get the תורה you have to have ביטול, because the תורה is בלי גבול and we have to have the ביטול which then we could get the בלי גבול, the infinity, it's more by תורה שבעל פה than by תורה שבכתב. תורה שבכתב, since it's not really unlimited, we don't really need that same amount of ביטול. When השם came down to הר סיני and gave us the תורה, what happened at that time? So we say, אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, he chose us, it was by מתן תורה when he chose us, and one of the things he did, ורוממתנו, you raised us. השם made us into special beings. Now, to be a special being is the opposite of ביטול. So when it came to מתן תורה, we didn't really have that ביטול. Even though we know that the Jews had a level of ביטול, and it says when they heard השם speak, it says they trembled and they were afraid, but basically, you know, that really wasn't something that came from within them. השם got them scared, and השם made them have ביטול. So it's not really ביטול means that you have yourself-nullification on your own. If something from the from the outside causes it, it's not really your ביטול. So by מתן תורה, when השם gave them the תורה and had this, what was connected to the לוחות, there wasn't a real ביטול, and therefore at that time they were not כלים, vessels, they were not able yet to receive the true infinite wisdom of השם which we see in the תורה שבעל פה. When משה רבינו came down with the לוחות, and he broke the לוחות, and he broke it in front of all the Jews, so the breaking of the לוחות, as we see from the חומש, broke their hearts. And the Jews felt so down, not depressed, but so bad that they looked down at themselves, and that was the real, real ביטול that the Jews reached. When the Jews reached the ביטול through the breaking of the לוחות, now השם said, \"Oh, now I'm able to give you תורה שבעל פה.\" And he said, \"Now משה, don't feel bad. I was wait basically, it's hard to say these words, basically השם, I was waiting for this. I'm waiting to give them the תורה שבעל פה, but I can't give them as long as they are a מציאות and they don't have the proper ביטול. Now that we came to the point that you broke the לוחות, and this is what brought them to a מצב of ביטול, now I'm able to give the תורה שבעל פה, I'm able to give them the infinite part of תורה.\" And this is the positive part, looking at it from one angle, of the breaking of the לוחות. And this is the reason why in the ארון you had לוחות ושברי לוחות, you had the לוחות and the broken לוחות, because in order for a ייד to study תורה, you have to have both. And now let me explain what I mean. The לוחות themselves, what was the לוחות? They had words of השם carved out on the לוחות, not like a ספר תורה where you have the words written, carved out. What's the difference between words written on parchment or on a piece of paper and words carved out? The difference is, when words are written on a piece of paper, they're very close. They basically become one. The words on the paper are one. But in truth and Not really one. They're as close as you could get. But you could scrape off the ink, and then you're left without the word. But when words are carved out in stone, the words are not a separate entity that are added to the stone. The words are made from the stone themselves. And that's why the לוחות, it says, were made in such a way, to tell a ייד that a ייד has to study תורה in a way that you become one with the תורה. And that's actually what happens. When you study תורה, you become one with the תורה. When a person understands any word of תורה in his mind, what happens? The words of תורה and the Jew become one. It says in תניא that there is no greater יחוד, no greater union, in the world possible than when a person studies תורה. Then the words of the תורה and the person's mind, brain, become one. Because when you understand something in your mind, your mind at that moment is the idea that you understand. So if you understand תורה, your mind, your own brain, is now the תורה, so you become one with the תורה. So when we learn תורה, we have to use our brain, obviously. So that's what the לוחות represent. The לוחות represent that we have to study תורה. At the same time, we shouldn't forget that we have to have the proper ביטול in order to have the proper understanding of the תורה. The לוחות represent the fact that we study, and we use our brain, and we become one with the תורה. And when we use our brain, that is the opposite, on one hand, from ביטול. That means we have to use our brain and think about it and try to understand, and that's the way we're supposed to study תורה. When we study תורה, we have to use what we have. It's not enough to say, well, I have אמונה in השם and I have אמונה in the תורה, and I trust the תורה. I'll learn a piece of גמרא and the גמרא has a קשיא. I don't understand it, I don't know what the גמרא says. But why should I understand? If the גמרא says it's a קשיא, I tell you it's a קשיא. I really trust the גמרא. What, a ייד doesn't trust the גמרא? I trust the גמרא. I have אמונה, I have ביטול, who am I? What's the difference what I, I understand, I don't understand? I study, it's a קשיא, the גמרא gives a תירוץ, I don't know what the תירוץ is, who cares if you know or not? No, that's not how it works. You have to understand when it's a קשיא. You have to realize that it's something that you don't understand, I don't understand. And then when you get the answer, oh now I understand. So on one hand, there is this I that's involved, that's the only way you could learn. And at a second, at the same, at the same time, we have to look at, or know that, as I am learning, and as I am learning, the I in, of me is involved, we have to have the knowledge, the feeling of ביטול that's in the heart. We have to have that, and then we really will grasp on the תורה. So we have to have both: we have to have the לוחות, which represent the idea that we study תורה and we are one with the תורה, our brain becomes one with the תורה because we use our brain, and at the same time we have to have the שברי לוחות, the broken לוחות, which represent the ביטול. And together, we are able to study תורה. So here we see why the breaking of the לוחות was positive, cuz this was what brought about the possibility of us having תורה שבעל פה.

But then we have to go to another part of the ענין of breaking the לוחות. Till now what we explained was how the breaking of the לוחות was positive for the תורה, that we had more תורה, now we have the תורה שבעל פה. We have to also see why the לוחות was something positive from משה רבינו's side. As we said before that משה רבינו, the תורה when it praises משה רבינו, the greatest praise it gave משה is the fact that משה רבינו broke the לוחות. So obviously, beside the לוחות, the breaking of the לוחות being something positive from the תורה aspect that now the יידן have the תורה, but it has to, that we have to find something in the breaking of the לוחות that shows a greatness in משה רבינו. And what kind of greatness? A greatness in משה רבינו that's greater than everything else that משה רבינו did. Imagine, this is the last thing of the תורה, the greatest praise that the תורה could give of משה רבינו. And what we said before, the explanation of having the לוחות bring more parts of תורה, that's not a praise of משה רבינו. משה רבינו was the one that did it, he broke the לוחות, so he brought about the ביטול. But there must be something in משה רבינו that משה רבינו did. As רש״י says that the last words of the תורה is to teach us שנשאו לבו, that his heart picked up, that's the literal translation, to break the לוחות in front of all the יידן. So what is there that it shows in the greatness of משה רבינו? Well, and that question has to be answered with a question: Why does רש״י use the term שנשאו לבו? His heart brought him, picked him up to break the לוחות. Why doesn't רש״י say that he decided in his mind to break the לוחות? Why the heart again? Here again we find נשאו לבו. An interesting expression. נשאו לבו means his heart picked up. Picked up where? What kind of picking up? Obviously, the תורה, רש״י is trying to teach us what happened here when משה רבינו broke the לוחות. So the explanation is, we said before that what made משה break the לוחות, that he saw what the יידן did and he wanted to save כלל ישראל, as the משל of the king and his wife. So by breaking the לוחות, משה רבינו saved כלל ישראל. Now when we start analyzing what took place here, we'll see what it what happened by משה רבינו, what משה רבינו had to go through in order to break the לוחות. So let's analyze it. משה רבינו, you can imagine how close משה רבינו was to the תורה, how dear the תורה was to משה רבינו. It's probably the dearest thing משה רבינו had at all. The תורה is called זכרו תורת משה עבדי. It's called the תורה of משה רבינו. Why? Because משה רבינו gave his life for the תורה. משה רבינו, it says משה קיבל תורה מסיני, משה received the תורה from סיני. The תורה and משה are really one. Here we had the תורה in the לוחות, which contained the whole תורה, and in which way, as we said before, the תורה that was written by השם, made by השם, carved out by השם, written by השם, given to משה רבינו with השם's hands. Now you can imagine how dear the לוחות were to משה רבינו. Imagine how dear it would be to us if we, simple Jews, would be able to get the לוחות, such לוחות from השם himself. How dear it would be to us. Imagine how dear it was to משה רבינו. Nevertheless, when משה רבינו saw that the Jews are in danger, he was ready to break the לוחות in order to save the יידן. Can you imagine what kind of אהבת ישראל that must be? How much אהבת ישראל משה רבינו felt in order to do such a thing? The מסירת נפש that משה רבינו had to break the לוחות that were given to him by השם in order to save the יידן, could imagine what kind of אהבת ישראל that is. משה רבינו was ready to give up everything that he stood for for כלל ישראל. And we see that also in something else, but here it's more than that. We see when they did the עגל and השם wanted to destroy כלל ישראל, משה רבינו said, \"Please don't, ואם אין מחני נא מספרך אשר כתבת. If you're not going to forgive them, erase my name from the תורה.\" And here we have the same thing. משה רבינו and the תורה are one. He's ready to give up that great level of having his name in the תורה. He said, \"Erase my name, because if you don't forgive כלל ישראל, I don't want my name there.\" So that's a מסירת נפש. But that's a מסירת נפש just in something to take out his name, but there's nothing that he did. This is even stronger. He did a מעשה, he did an act which meant for him to break the לוחות in order to save כלל ישראל. And this is the greatest praise that the תורה could give for משה רבינו, the fact that he had such great אהבת ישראל. And that's why רש״י uses the term נשאו לבו, it's connected to his heart. Because אהבת ישראל is an emotion that you have in your heart. His heart had such great emotion of אהבת ישראל that he was able to break the לוחות. And רש״י uses the term נשאו לבו means his heart was picked up. Basically what it means, that he had to pick up his heart over something else. There was something in his heart that meant a lot to him, and that's the תורה. The לוחות, which is the essence of the תורה, you could imagine what that meant for him in his heart. But then he went even beyond that. נשאו לבו, he picked up his heart on top of that, because the יידן meant to him more than the תורה. Because that's what משה רבינו is. משה רבינו's greatest מעלה is, the greatest quality is his אהבת ישראל, his being one with כלל ישראל. And כלל ישראל means to him more than anybody else, anything else. And he did this in front of all the יידן. One of the reasons is to teach us a lesson, to show us, you see what אהבת ישראל means, that it's more important even than the לוחות, and you could break the לוחות for אהבת ישראל, which is so hard for him, his greatest מסירת נפש. And the truth is, after משה רבינו did this, This is really what we find by all other leaders of generations, which are all called משה רבינו, that they would give up their own עולם הבא, their own greatness, things that they would lose, things which are dear to them to help another ייד. There are so many stories, just one story of the בעל שם טוב. בעל שם טוב once couple came to the בעל שם טוב asking a ברכה for children, so the בעל שם טוב gave them a ברכה. But then the בעל שם טוב heard a voice from heaven come out and say, \"These people, this couple is destined never to have children. It's against their nature, and it's against their מזל, and it's against everything that was written in שמים. But since the בעל שם טוב gave them a ברכה, השם says I have to listen. And I will do it because the בעל שם טוב said, but because he forced השם to go against the nature, the בעל שם טוב will lose his עולם הבא.\" When the בעל שם טוב heard this, he started smiling, he said, \"Oh, now I could serve השם not for עולם הבא! I can serve השם לשמה!\" Then a voice came out from heaven and said, \"You just got it back.\" But what it was that he, to help another ייד, and he probably suspected this could happen, and he knew what was going on, but to help another ייד he doesn't care about his עולם הבא. We find throughout history different cases. For instance, the מפרשים say by יונה, the famous story of יונה and the מפטיר יונה, everyone on יום כיפור runs for מפטיר יונה, what's the story of יונה? השם told יונה, \"Go to נינוה and tell נינוה that they should do תשובה, if not I will destroy the city.\" So it says he ran away, he didn't want to listen to השם. What does that mean? He's a נביא! Imagine, יונה was a נביא. What's a נביא? A נביא is a person, besides the prophecy he gets, but you have to be ready to be a נביא, that means you reach a level that you're so close to השם that you're able to be a נביא. A person that was so close to השם heard השם Himself tell him, \"Go do this,\" and he ran away? We are not נביאים. If we would hear from השם, what would we've run away? How could you run away? So the מפרשים say like this: why did he run away? He was afraid that the people from נינוה who were גוים would listen and they would do תשובה. He was afraid. What's what's wrong with that? Then there would be a קטרוג against כלל ישראל. You know what the שטן would say to השם? \"Look, these גוים are doing תשובה, and what about your Jews? They don't.\" So he didn't want that to happen. So he was ready to not listen to השם, he was ready not to give over the נבואה. And the דין is if a נביא does not give over the נבואה, he's חייב מיתה, he's supposed to he deserves to die. He was ready for that. But there should be no negative complaint against the Jews. And that's what a נביא is, to give up from himself in order to help Jews. And then just to finish with another story that I don't remember if it's concerned with the קאמארנער or with the זוועהילער, one of the great great greatest פוילישע רבי'ס, that once they brought a דיבוק to him. They brought a person that a דיבוק came into the person, and they brought to him that he should get the דיבוק out. So he started speaking to this דיבוק. What's a דיבוק? A נשמה that doesn't find peace and finally finds itself in someone's body and rests and doesn't want to go out. And the person who it's in has a lot of pain and suffering, etcetera, you could imagine. So this great צדיק started speaking to this דיבוק, and he asked him, \"Who are you?\" He said, \"I'll tell you. You learn in תנ״ך that זכריה הנביא, the great נביא זכריה prophesied that there will be a חורבן בית המקדש, and the יידן killed him. I was the first one. I, when he said his prophecy, I ran up to him and gave him the first פאטש. And then everyone else came and hit him and we killed him. And since then, my נשמה doesn't find any peace, and finally I found peace in this person's body.\" So the קאמארנער, I think it was the קאמארנער, tried to do things to get the דיבוק out. So he started playing around with his ציצית and, as the expression goes, he was מייחד ייחודים. He did all kinds of things, I don't know, if I'd know, I'd do it. All kinds of מייחד ייחודים things that should help. And as he's doing it, this נשמה started laughing. He says, \"Why are you laughing?\" He says, \"Now you're in this generation, such a big צדיק, you're able to do this. In my times, every,\" the expression goes, \"every shoemaker, every tailor, every simple Jew was able to do this.\" So he says, \"Yeah? If you guys were so great, why did you kill זכריה?\" He says, \"I'll tell you why. We had a קבלה, we had a tradition that if a נביא does not give over the prophecy, it does not come true. Had זכריה not given over the prophecy of the חורבן בית המקדש, it would have not come true. Now, we knew the דין that he has to do it, there's a הלכה that a נביא must give over the prophecy, if not he deserves to die. But we felt he should\" not given over, been a כובש את נבואתו we call, which means he would have done an עבירה, but it would have saved כלל ישראל from the חורבן, and that's why we killed him. So when he heard that, he said, okay, you guys have some something behind in what you did, and he started דאווענען, anyway, he promised to say קדיש for the נשמה, and the נשמה left, the דיבוק left him. This is what really what a משה רבינו, a נשיא of a generation is, but it all started with משה רבינו here, that משה רבינו broke the לוחות to save כלל ישראל. And this is why the last and the biggest praise that תורה could give to משה רבינו is that he broke the לוחות. So here, as a סך הכל, as a summary of what I said, is that in the breaking of the לוחות, we find the negative part that's obvious, but the positive part is, there's a positive part from the תורה aspect, and there's a positive part from משה רבינו's aspect. In the תורה aspect, that it is only through the breaking of the לוחות that we were זוכה to have the whole תורה שבעל פה because that's brought the real ביטול into the יידן, and they were זוכה to have the בלי גבול, the infinity of the תורה, and also as far as משה רבינו is concerned, משה רבינו expressed the greatest possible level of אהבת ישראל towards the יידן through breaking the לוחות, and that's why this is the greatest praise. And from this we have to take a lesson that we also have to give up of ourselves for helping another ייד, for אהבת ישראל. And if we do that, we know this is one of the things that will bring משיח, because the חורבן בית המקדש came as a result of שנאת חנם, of hatred between one Jew and another, so אהבת ישראל will definitely bring משיח במהרה בימינו. אמן. Yes. שבעה עשר בתמוז. שבעה עשר בתמוז. תשעה? שבעה עשר בתמוז was when the לוחות were broken, the 17th of תמוז. תשעה באב was for the חורבן. We fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז, one of the things, because of the wall of ירושלים, but also because of the breaking. Five things happened on שבעה עשר בתמוז. I don't know if for breaking the לוחות itself we would fast, but together with others, we fast for that too. Okay, that's another aspect. Yes. Yes. That's the source of the of the בעל תשובה movement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Question is, if ה' didn't plan to give the תורה שבעל פה when He gave the first לוחות, then how would we be able to learn תורה שבכתב, oral the written תורה, without having the interpretation of תורה שבעל פה? Now, what it probably means, it doesn't say this clearly, what probably means is that enough to learn we would have, but all the extra interpretations and things which are not important for the actual doing of the מצות, that we wouldn't have. And that is probably the majority of the תורה. You have all the ספרים, hundreds, thousands and thousands of ספרים that we have, most of them don't discuss exactly how to do the מצות and how to פסקן the פסק. That probably we would have. We would be able to learn it, but not if it says מדרשים and הלכות and אגדות, all the different additional things. That's one thing. Another thing is, probably ה' when He gave us the תורה, did it, could be, knowing that later on the לוחות will be broken, and yeah, He knew. Just like it says concerning אדם הראשון. It says that if אדם הראשון would not sin with the חטא עץ הדעת, eating from the tree, then the world would be different. The world would be a holy place. The whole purpose of the creation of the world, ה' wanted a דירה בתחתונים. He wanted a dwelling place in a low world, a world where godliness is concealed, a world which is the truth is not seen, and in that world we should bring godliness, bring the truth. Had אדם הראשון not sinned, then it wouldn't be a תחתונים, it wouldn't be a world like that. So what did ה' have in mind when He created the world? What was the purpose? So one of the explanations is that He knew that אדם הראשון would sin. He didn't force him, He didn't take away his free choice, but He knew what his choice will be, and based on that He created the world. The same thing here. משה ה' knew that eventually the לוחות will be broken, and then He will give the תורה שבעל פה. That's another interpretation. Yes, you were going to ask something? Okay, we'll take from the woman's side, yeah. משה wasn't punished for breaking the לוחות. We don't, huh? Well, superficially it was negative, like a lot of things, but in truth, it turned out to be good, and it doesn't say משה, and actually in this one, it doesn't say there was a punishment. ה' thanked משה רבינו, He didn't punish him for it. Right, but therefore, but we felt uplifted. Yeah, we were lifted. Wasn't because of us, but we felt great. But as we say at the end, we have to feel great, but at the same time we have to have ביטול, we have to have both. Now one might ask, how could you have two opposite feelings at the same time? The לוחות and the שברי לוחות, the לוחות, the broken לוחות, the לוחות which represent the person's mind and brain and thinking and learning, and the same thing, the ביטול. Well, where were the לוחות and the שברי לוחות laying? In the ארון. The ארון represents the combination of two opposites. מקום ארון אינו מן המדה, the ארון took a place and didn't take place, take a place at the same time. And which, why was it that way? Because the ארון was the place where השם Himself dwelt, and השם is beyond opposites. השם is not limited to any limitations, so by השם everything can happen. השם is considered, says called, נושא הפכים, he could contain opposites. And because תורה is the תורה of השם, and we אידן learn the תורה of השם because we are אידן, we have a נשמה which is part of השם, we also have that power of having two opposites at the same time: to feel the מציאות of ourselves to be able to learn the תורה, and at the same time to feel the ביטול. And that's the רמז in the fact that it was laying in the ארון to tell us, yeah, we can have the two opposites, and that's what's expected of a איד. It's not easy, but we can do it. Thank you very much. Please enjoy the refreshments. Again, we'll look