5771 פרשת תרומה

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah tells us about the building of the Mishkan.

 After telling Moshe Rabbeinu what items Bnei Yisroel should donate for the building of the Mishkan, the Torah explains to us the purpose of building the Mishkan which was to have a place for God to dwell in this world. This is also the reason why God told Bnei Yisroel to build the Beis Hamikdash.

 The Siforno explains that this would be the place where God could dwell in the midst of Bnei Yisroel and accept their prayers and could communicate with Bnei Yisroel. This is unlike what had occurred before the sin of the golden calf where Bnei Yisroel was so holy and pure that God could rest his spirit among them and communicate with them on a daily basis as Chazal tell us that the maidservant at Krias yam suf had greater prophecy than the prophet Yechezkel.

 The Torah then details for us not only the building of the Mishkan but also of the different vessels that were used in the Mishkan such as the Menorah, Shulchan and of course the Aron Kodesh.

 When explaining the design of the Shulchan, the Torah tells us that there were 2 crowns placed on top of the Shulchan. The Siforno explains to us that the Shulchan symbolizes the kingship of God over Bnei Yisroel and the 2 crowns relate to two different aspects of God’s kingship. One crown symbolizes the fact that God takes care of our daily needs like our livelihoods much the way a king would have to run the economy of his country to ensure the well being of the people living in the country. The second one represents the fact that God protects Bnei Yisroel against their enemies and will fight their battles as would a king.

 If we look at these 2 Sifornos a little more closely, we can ask the following question. If the purpose of the Mishkan was to enable God to be close to Bnei Yisroel even when they aren’t perfectly pure and be able to be so close to them where Bnei Yisroel can come and pray to God in a place where they can feel his presence, why would you need to put a vessel in the Mishkan whose sole purpose is to symbolize to Bnei Yisroel that God is their king? Inherently, Bnei Yisroel would feel the presence of God in their lives when ever they went to pray or bring Korbanos to God.

 The answer can be that a person going about his daily life can easily fall into the mindset that everything that is happening in our lives is due to our actions and forget that it is God that is assisting us in every aspect of our lives. Even when a person will go pray in the Mishkan/Beis Hamikdah and bring Korbanos to God in the place where God’s presence could be felt the strongest, without the constant reminder that God is running our lives that a person receives when he sees the Shulchan, he can very easily forget that God is running the world.

In our times when we don’t have a Mishkan or a Beis Hamikdash we need to actively focus on seeing God’s hand in the world to remind us that He and only He is running the world and that our successes can only be attributed to God’s great kindness.

 My Rosh Hayeshiva, Rav Moshe Chait, zt”l used to tell us that a person can look at the world in one of two ways. He can either look at the world through a person’s eyes or a cow’s eyes. If a person just looks at the world and sees the events occurring and does not focus on them he is seeing the world the way a cow would. However, if a person looks and tries to understand what is going on around him and use that to see the hand of God; that is seeing the world through a person’s eyes. The events that have been occurring over the last several weeks with the unthinkable overthrowing of dictators in Tunisia the tremendous street protests in Egypt, the fear among middle eastern leaders in Jordan and Syria that they will be overthrown, not to mention the unnatural amounts of snow and winter storms in the US, the flooding in Australia must make us take another look and realize this can’t be happening by coincidence. This must be the hand of God.

 If we can recognize that God is truly running the world and our lives we will be able to get closer to Him and merit seeing the recognition of God by the entire world when Mashiach comes.

5770 פרשת תרומה

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the building of the Mishkan and the making of the vessels of the Mishkan. When describing the commandment to build the Mishkan and almost all of the vessels, the Torah says the “and you should make” in the singular while regarding the building of the Aron the Torah says “and they should make” in the plural.

 Many commentaries ask why it is that the Torah when referring to the building of the Aron uses the plural form instead of the singular form it used for everything else.

 The Ohr Hachayim answers that the Torah is teaching us that the whole Torah can’t be kept by each individual person but only by Bnei Yisroel as an entity. This is because Kohanim do not have the Mitzvah of giving the special portion of the Korbanos to the Kohein, only Kohanim can do the service in the Mishkan. There are some Mitzvos that can only be done by women and others that can only be done by men. This is learned out by the fact that the commandment to build the Aron, the place where the Torah was kept, was said in the plural and not the singular like everything else.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim more closely we can ask the following question. This idea that the Torah can’t be completely kept by one person is pretty obvious just from learning the Mitzvos. Why does the Torah need to reiterate this point? Secondly, why is it that the Torah reiterates this point specifically regarding the building of the Mishkan?

 The answer can be that the Torah is teaching us a very important lesson which is that the Torah and Mitzvos is not a competitive sport. In order for each individual to be successful all of Bnei Yisroel has to be successful. It is not enough for us to say I will work on myself to become a great and righteous person and I don’t care about anyone else. We are all responsible for everyone else in Bnei Yisroel.

 This could also explain why this idea is discussed specifically when the Torah was discussing the building of the Mishkan. This is because the Mishkan and the service of the Korbanos is the epitome of the oneness of Bnei Yisroel. Part of what was required to build the Mishkan was the giving by everyone of Bnei Yisroel a half a shekel. Everybody was equal. The rich could not give more and the poor could not give less. Furthermore, the Korbanos that were brought every day were bought with the money of all of Bnei Yisroel so everyone would have a portion in them.

 In our lives where we constantly are competing with other people we must realize that when it comes to Avodas Hashem it must stop. Even though there is surely a requirement for each person to grow to his utmost in his service of God it can’t be at the expense of his fellow Jews service of God. We must help our fellow Jews grow in their service of God with kindness and love as we should realize that the Torah is for all of Bnei Yisroel and if they are successful in their service of God then so are we.

פרשת תרומה 5769

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah discusses the building of the Mishkan in the Midbar. The Torah describes to us the donations that were required to be given by Bnei Yisroel in order for the Mishkan to be built. When the Torah describes the donations it says:

 Bnei Yisroel should give the donation for me (for God).

 Many of the commentaries explain what the Torah means when it says that Bnei Yisroel should give their donations for God.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai gives the following explanation:

 Since God gave the Torah to Bnei Yisroel (which is the perfect gift) then Bnei Yisroel should bring a donation to God.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai then continues and compares this idea to a famous story brought down by the Midrash in which there were merchants taking their wares to sell by boat. On that same boat there was a Talmid Chacham who came with no merchandise. All the merchants asked him, “where is your merchandise?” He answered them that his merchandise was even greater than theirs. The other merchants searched the ship and when finding nothing began to laugh at the Talmid Chacham. Soon after, pirates attacked the ship and stole all the merchandise. When the boat finally docked, the Talmid Chacham went into the Beis Midrash and the people there respected him and took care of his needs. During that time the merchants had no wares to sell and had no way to feed themselves. They went to the Talmid Chacham and asked him to get the people of the city to help them so they should be able to survive. At that point, the Talmid Chacham turned to them and said, “see didn’t I tell you that my merchandise (Torah) is better than yours”.

 If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai more carefully, we can ask the following questions:

1. Just because God gave us the gift of the Torah, why does that necessitate a reciprocal action of giving?
2. Why did Rabbeinu Bechai bring this particular story as a proof to his answer? Even if we say that the Rabbeinu Bechai brought this story as a proof to the greatness of Torah, it is still problematic as there are many other places in Chazal which describe the greatness of Torah, so why specifically did Rabbeinu Bechai pick this case.

In order to answer this question, let us analyze the Midrash a little more closely in order to see if we can glean from there the point that the Rabbeinu Bechai is trying to derive.

The merchants on the ship who were making fun of the Talmid Chacham for his Torah did not begin to appreciate the specialness of Torah until they were left with nothing and realized that the Torah the Talmid Chacham had was much more valuable than their wares. A very important lesson that can be seen from the Midrash is that a person does not fully appreciate things until they are in a position to see a contrast or do some kind of action to bring it out.

 With this idea, we can now explain why the Rabbeinu Bechai brought this case and why it was important for Bnei Yisroel to give the donation to the Mishkan as a reciprocal action to receiving the Torah. In order to ensure that Bnei Yisroel appreciated the tremendous gift that the Torah was, God required Bnei Yisroel to do an action to show that they appreciated it. That action was the giving of the donation to build a house for God so that Bnei Yisroel could always be close to Him. This is the reason why the Rabbeinu Bechai brought down the Midrash which is to explain why God required the donation from Bnei Yisroel.

 This does not just apply to appreciating Torah but also to appreciating everything God gives us in our lives. For example, when God gives us money, we shouldn’t give Tzedakah only because the Torah says so but we should also have in mind that we are doing it because we appreciate the good God gave us. The same thing applies to all the good we have in our lives.

 If we can do this, we will come to appreciate the good God gives us and we will inherently use that good to accomplish our true purpose in the world.

פרשת תרומה 5768

In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the process of the building of the Mishkan.  The Torah first gives Bnei Yisroel the commandment to build the mishkan as an entity and then gives a specific commandment to make each individual aspect of the mishkan.

When describing the command of making the entire mishkan the Torah says as follows:

They should make for me a temple and I will live there.

 When describing the building of the holy ark the Torah says the following:

 They should make the ark out of cedar wood.

 The commentaries are bothered by the following question, why is it that when describing the building of the mishkan as an entity and the building of the ark the Torah uses the word ”to make” in plural and when describing the making of all the specific parts that will be used to make the mishkan does the Torah use the word ”and you should make” in the singular tense?

 The Avos of Rabbi Nosson explains why when discussing the building of the mishkan as a whole the Pasuk uses the word ”to make” in the plural the following way:

 Rabbi Tarfon said even God did not rest his presence on Bnei Yisroel until they did work.

 The midrash explains why by the building of the ark the Torah uses the word ”to make” in the plural the following way:

 Rav Yehuda the son of Shalom said, God said to Bnei Yisroel, everyone should come and involve themselves with the building of the ark in order that they should all merit being involved in Torah.

 When we look at these 2 ideas of Chazal, several questions arise.

1. Why is it so important for Bnei Yisroel to be actively involved in building the mishkan in order for God to rest his presence there, why is it not enough for Bnei Yisroel to want God to be amongst them?
2. Why would Bnei Yisroel need to be actively involved in building the ark in order to merit being involved in the learning of Torah? If a person wants to do the mitzvos and learn Torah he would do it even without being involved in building the Aron Kodesh and someone who doesn’t want to do the mitzvos will not do it even if he was involved in building the Aron Kodesh.

In order to answer these questions, we need to understand what are so special about the mishkan and learning Torah that requires special involvement in getting them ready in order for them to assist us.

 Chazal tell us that the purpose of the mishkan is to be a conduit for us to connect with God. In the mishkan this is accomplished through two different aspects. The first, being the daily service in the mishkan and the miracles that occurred during the service. For example the fact that the fire on the mizbayach never went out  The second being the sacrifices individuals brought to God that are meant to bring us closer to God.

We also know from Chazal that one of the benefits of learning Torah is that it helps us fight our evil inclination which inherently brings us closer to God. We see this idea from the famous Gemara that says the following: 

I created the evil inclination and I created Torah as its antidote.

The common denominator between the two is that through the actions that are done in/with them we can get closer to God.

When a person needs to get close to God it entails totally giving of yourself to God. If a person wants to daven properly, he should be so involved in his prayers that he should be able to block out what is going on around him. If a person really wants to be involved with Torah to the extent that it brings him close to God and prevents him from sinning he must be totally involved in its learning.

It is very difficult for a person to reach this level of giving yourself totally over to God. A person can only achieve that level when they feel that it is something so important and special that they want to give themselves completely over to it. One way for a person to feel that something is special is by being involved in the preparation for its arrival. This is what God was telling us. Learning Torah and davening are so important to our service of God that it is imperative for each member of Bnei Yisroel to be actively involved in the preparation for its arrival through the building of the mishkan and the Aron kodesh. However, regarding the rest of the detail of the mishkan not everyone needed to be involved as long as everyone was involved in some part of the building of the mishkan.

The questions is, we don’t have the opportunity to be building the mishkan or Aron Kodesh in our time, so how do we get that feeling of being able to give ourselves over totally to our davening and learning?

The answer is through simple preparations. When we go to shul to daven, we shouldn’t just run in to shul quickly throw on our Talis and tefilin and daven, we should think for even two minutes about what we are about to do and how we are about to stand in front of God and communicate directly to him. This will go a long way in helping us maximize our involvement in davening.

The same thing is true about learning Torah. Most times we go sit down in the Beis Medrash to learn, we don’t even think about what we are doing. We do it by rote, because we know we are supposed to. Before we start learning we should think for two minutes about the fact that we are sitting down to learn and how special the Mitzvah of learning Torah is and how much it can help us grow closer to God.

If we can take the time to prepare ourselves before doing these 2 special mitzvos, we should merit doing the mitzvos with our entire beings and merit the coming of mashiach in our days.

5767 פרשת תרומה

 In this week’s Parsha there is a very interesting midrash that needs to be understood. The Pasuk says:

 And you should make for me a mikdash and I will dwell in it.

 The Midrash says the following:

 God said to Bnei Yisroel that you are my sheep and I am your shepherd. Make me a shepherd’s house and I will take care of my flock, therefore the Pasuk says “And you should make forme a mikdash”. You are a vineyard and I am a guard, build me a watchman’s shack and I will guard you. You are my children and I am your father, it is an honor for the children to be next to their father and an honor to the father to be next to his children. Build a house for your father so he will come and dwell next to his sons.

Let us look at this Midrash a little more closely. The Midrash is explaining why God told Bnei Yisroel to build the Mishkan. It seems to give three reasons through 3 different relationships that God has with Bnei Yisroel.

The third reason is something that we can understand. It is a great honor for Bnei Yisroel to have a place where the Shechina is dwelling. That is why God told Bnei Yisroel to build the mishkan so that through the daily miracles that occur there, the presence of God amongst Bnei Yisroel will be seen by all the nations.

 However, the first 2 reasons are harder to understand. The midrash compares the relationship between God and Bnei Yisroel either to a shepherd or to a vineyard watchman. This seems to imply that God told Bnei Yisroel to build the mishkan so he can watch or shepherd Bnei Yisroel.

The question that arises is that one of the foundations of our belief in God is that God is all powerful and all knowing and everywhere. We also know that God watched over and took care of the Avos and Bnei Yisroel both before the mishkan was built and after the Beis Hamikdash  was destroyed. If this is the case, then the comparison to a shepherd and a vineyard watchman as the reason to build the mishkan seems strange.

 In order to answer this question, we should try to examine the comparison. When shepherds watch the sheep by living in a shack near the sheep, it gives the owner of the sheep a sense of peace of mind. This is true even in a case where he can do the same guarding even not living amongst the sheep. The same would apply also to the watchman of the vineyard.

 This is the same idea that the midrash is telling us about why Bnei Yisroel should build the mishkan. We know that when Bnei Yisroel came out of Egypt and crossed the Yam Suf that even the maidservant saw greater prophecy than the prophet Yechezkeal. However, after the sin of the golden calf the Torah tells us that God removed himself somewhat from dwelling amongst Bnei Yisroel and dwelled in the Ohel Moed outside of the camp of Bnei Yisroel.

What is the difference between whether God dwells in the camp of Bnei Yisroel or in the Ohel Moed since God  is everywhere and helps us and answers our prayers and deals with us with Hashgacha Peratis either way?

The answer is in how we relate to God. We tend to live our lives without seeing the hand of God in what we do. This actually makes it more difficult for us to have trust in God.  However, when there was a mishkan and Beis Hamikdash, Bnei Yisroel saw miracles on a day to day basis which helped them remember that there was a God in the world that takes care of us on a day to day basis.

This is what the midrash is telling us. One of the reasons that God wanted Bnei Yisroel to build the mishkan is that Bnei Yisroel should be able to feel the presence of God taking care of them. This is exactly the comparison to the shepherd and the vineyard watchman, where they made the owner feel better since the owner feels their presence guarding the sheep/vineyard.

The question is what can we do in our lives to help us see the presence in God in our lives when we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash?

One of the ways, we can see the hand of God’ in our lives is to take a few minutes at the end of the day to appreciate the great miracles that happened to us that day. We got up, our limbs work, we saw, we ate, we thought. Now let us look around at our circle of acquaintances and see are there any people whose bodies don’t work properly or are sick. At that point, we should realize the great miracles that God did for us that day. If we accustom ourselves to look for the hand of God in our lives, we will soon be seeing it in everything. Whether it is business or health or our children, we will be able to see how God is dealing with us with his incredible hashgacha peratis and how much he truly cares about us.

If we can take this small step, may we merit seeing the hand of God’ constantly with the coming of mashiach and the building of the Beis Hamikdash.