When Bnei Yisrael rebelled against the Torah’s most basic principle and worshipped the Golden Calf, G‑d threatened to wipe them out and to start a new nation from Moshe alone. But Moshe pleaded with G‑d to spare them, ultimately demanding, “If You will not forgive them, erase me now from Your Torah.” The reason behind Moshe’s demand, Rashi explains, was “so that they will not say about me that I was unworthy of asking for mercy on their behalf.”
Why was Moshe so concerned about the way future generations would view him? This is what worried him as he considered the possibility that G‑d might not forgive Bnei Yisrael!
Clearly, Moshe was not simply worried about his own legacy. His concern was that if he did not insist on his name being erased from the Torah if the Jewish people weren’t forgiven, future generations might reach mistaken conclusions about the extent to which a person must go in his love for his fellow Jew.
Moshe’s love for Bnei Yisrael exceeded the Torah’s command to “love your fellow as yourself.” Although the defining feature of Moshe’s “self ” was the Torah that he brought to this world—“Moshe’s Torah”—his love for Bnei Yisrael was such that he was ready to sacrifice his association with the Torah—his “self ”—if G‑d would not forgive Bnei Yisrael and spare them from devastation.
Moshe therefore asked that G‑d erase his name from the Torah if He would not forgive Bnei Yisrael. He wanted to ensure that no one would ever mistakenly think that the reason he was unsuccessful in saving Bnei Yisrael was because his love for his fellow Jew did not exceed his love for “himself ”—in his case, his connection to the Torah. He therefore insisted that his name be erased from the Torah if G‑d would not forgive Bnei Yisrael, to serve as an example for all future generations that you must be willing to sacrifice even “yourself ” out of love for your fellow Jew.
And how do you express that limitless love to your fellow Jew? Says the Mishnah: by drawing them near to the Torah.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 21, pp. 175–180
