One can read through this week's parsha many times, but the name of Moshe will not be seen. Why? Why is this week's parsha the first parsha since Moshe's birth in which his name is not mentioned?

Many answers are offered to this puzzling question. The Gaon of Vilna notes that Moshe's yahrtzeit (and birthdate) is the seventh of Adar. Usually this Hebrew date falls out close to Parshat Tetzaveh. Hashem knew in advance that Moshe would die on zayin Adar, so he purposely did not mention his name in this week's parsha.

Another famous answer is based on the incident when Moshe was begging Hashem to forgive Bnei Yisrael and if they weren't forgiven, Moshe said, "Wipe me out of your book" (שמות ל"ב: ל"ב ). Rav Shimon Sofer says that the fact Moshe is not mentioned is a type of reward to him. Hashem allowed Moshe to be a "legislator", to decide what will be. There is a mashal of a king who has a beloved and devoted servant to whom he hands the servant the royal specter for a given time, during which the servant has full rights to pass laws as if he himself were king. Hashem fufills the requests of tzadikim, including the plea that Moshe asked Hashem.

Citing the famous idea of " שבעים פנים לתורה " that there are 70 ways to view or understand ideas in the torah, Rabbi Twerski teaches an idea that seems to be opposite. Although Hashem did forgive Bnei Yisrael, the punishment that Moshe invoked upon himself, ""Wipe me out of your book" was partially fulfilled by the fact that his name is left out of this parsha. From this we learn that even a conditional curse (how much more so any curse) may come true, wיether the condition of the curse happens or not.

Rabbi Twerski continues by teaching how words have such a strong effect. In Bereshiet in regards to the creation of man,

)בראשית ב: ז( , it says, "Man became a living soul." Unkelos explains this to mean, "Man became a speaking spirit." One's indivdualiism and identity derive from his ability to express himself. Corruption of one's speech is equivilaent to corruption of one's identity as a human being. Speech is extremly powerful and it can cause tremendous injury. We must realize that just as words can be extremly harmful when directed at others ,they can also be self-destructive when said about ourselves. In ברכות י"ט. , one is cautioned not to speak evil of oneself, because if a person denigrates himself, others may denigrate him as well. The famous expression "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me" is quite the opposite view of the Torah. We all know that careless speech can hurt way more than physical weapons.

The fact that Moshe's name doesn't appear in this week's parsha teaches us a great lesson. If a conditional curse, which was said as a plea of forgiveness for Bnei Yisrael can have negative consequences, how much more so the effect of words said out of anger and hostility. May it be Hashem's will that we have only positive things to say to one another and that only brachot come about about from our words. Have a Shabbat Shalom!