וְאַתָּה תְּ צַוֶּה אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂ רָ אֵל וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ וגו' (כז, כ)
And you shall command the children of Yisroel that they shall take to you... (27:20)
Do Not Curse Yourself:
The Baal Haturim notes that Moshe’s name is not mentioned at all in Parshas Tetzaveh. This is the only Parshah from the time that Moshe was born where he is not mentioned. He writes that the reason for this is because Moshe said (Shemos 32:32), “Please erase me from Your book...” A curse from a chochom must be fulfilled, even if it is uttered conditionally, so it was fulfilled by not having Moshe’s name in this Parshah.
We can learn from this a lesson about the importance of every word. The Zohar Hakadosh writes (Parshas Pinchos, Chelek 3, 245) that there are three ways a man can cause harm to himself. One of them is cursing himself. The Zohar goes on to say that every person has an angel assigned to him. When a person curses himself, this angel, along with 70 others who assist it, answer “Amein”. They take the curse to Shomayim for the person to be judged, and they pursue him until the curse is fulfilled. It learns this from how Moshe cursed himself by saying that he should be erased from the Torah. Even though he said these words for a good reason – to save Klal Yisroel from eradication – and even though Hashem acted according to his will, he still was punished by having his name removed from Parshas Tetzaveh.
The Shach al Hatorah adds that this is why the Parshah begins with the words “v’atah tetzaveh” (and you shall command). This is a hint that Moshe was told that since his name was erased from this Parshah in fulfilment of his words, he should command Klal Yisroel to be very careful with their words and not to curse themselves.
Fix Yourself First, and Then Fix Others:
The renowned Magid, Rav Shabsi Yudelevitch zt”l, explains the pasuk of “V’atah Tetzaveh” by relating the following story:
One of the students of Rav Yisroel Salanter zt”l once came to him and said, “I want to travel to Germany to give mussar to the people there who have left the path and convince them to do teshuva.”
Rav Yisroel asked him, “Have you already finished saving all of the Jews in Russia?”
The student replied, “You are correct. First, I’ll go to Russia to get the Jews there to do teshuva.”
Rav Yisroel continued to ask, “Did you already help all of the Jews in Poland?”
The student responded, “That’s right. I’ll start in Poland.”
Rav Yisroel then said, “What about your hometown? Did you already save everyone there? What about your own family? Have they all done teshuva already? What about yourself? Have you perfected yourself already?”
The student agreed and said, “You are right. I have to start with myself.”
Accordingly, the pasuk is saying: “V’ata. And you.” The first thing a person has to do is to focus on fixing himself. Once one does that, he can move on to “Tetzaveh es bnei Yisroel” – telling others what they should do. As Chazal say (Bava Metziah 107B): “Beautify yourself first and then beautify others.”
