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Vayakhel
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This week we read the Torah section of VaYakhel which relates in detail how the Jews donated materials for the Tabernacle and how it was built. But it is also called 'Sh'kalim' because of the special 'HafTorah' read this week telling us how every Jew gave an equal Half-Shekel donation to the Tabernacle. Now, the Baal Shem Tov taught that every idea and even every detail in the Torah has importance in our daily, personal lives … and here we seemingly have a paradox. The Half-Shekel donation stresses that everyone is equal: Never think you are essentially better (or worse) than your fellow man because even one who seems to be 'rich' or 'poor' by human standards can contribute equally. As the portion says (Exodus 30:15) "The rich shall give no more, the poor no less than a Half-Shekel" But VaYakhel, seems to stress the exact opposite! Everyone donated differently; the rich gave gold, the poor gave copper or even less. In other words, everyone is NOT equal! To understand how these fit together here is a story. The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, had many enemies. But it was nothing compared to the opposition against one of his successors, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Rebbe of Chabad who wrote the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch HaRav). The Besh't spread his refreshing teachings about G-d, Torah and the Jewish people on a small scale, but the Chabad Rebbe really went public. He printed and distributed his ideas in his 'revolutionary' book the TANYA, held open debates in the stronghold cities of his enemies (Mitnagdim), and suddenly transformed thousands of his most bitter detractors into his pupils and admirers. In desperation, thinking that Judaism was in danger, the Mitnagdim forged documents to the effect that Rabbi Shneur Zalman was planning to overthrow the Czar and presented them to high Government officials. The Rebbe suddenly became not only a hated but a hunted man as well; wanted for high treason. The story has it that when the first group of soldiers arrived at the Rebbe's house to put him under arrest he escaped from a rear window and fled into a nearby cemetery to hide. But by Divine providence one of the Rebbe's most unique Chassidim, Rabbi Shmuel Munkis, also happened to be in that cemetery (exactly what he was doing there is not clear). Rabbi Munkis was paradoxical; on the one hand he was among the holiest and most learned of the Rebbe's pupils, but on the other he had a wild sense of humor. "Rebbe" he asked "What are you doing here?" "They've come to arrest me for a crime I did not commit. According to the Torah I have an obligation to save my own life!" was the answer. "Ahh!" replied Rab Shmuel "Your own life!" He fell into deep thought for several seconds then suddenly looked up at the Rebbe and said, "If so ….. Shame on you!! Shame on you!!! In any case you should let them take you! "If you are a Rebbe," Rab Shmuel continued, "then nothing will happen to you. But if you aren't a Rebbe, then you deserve to be punished: Why did you ruin this world for so many people!!?" (The Rebbe taught that one should never be satisfied in his service of G-d; thus ruining any possibility of real self-satisfaction.) The certainty with which Rabbi Munkis spoke had a deep effect on the Rebbe and the next time the soldiers arrived he allowed himself to be imprisoned. (Fifty three days later he was miraculously released thus firmly verifying the success of the Chabad movement). After he was freed, The Rebbe thanked Rab Shmuel and asked him how he could have been so sure of himself. ""Well" replied Rav Shmuel, "When I heard what you said that day in the cemetary, I remembered something that happened to me years ago "A while ago I had a to make a very long and important journey but when I went to the wagon driver that I ordinarily use he refused to take me. He said that his wife is complaining that I take him for a long time and don't pay him enough money, so I'll have to find someone else. "I told him that I have no intention of taking another driver and he can satisfy his wife by selling one of the two horses hitched to his wagon and we can begin our journey with one horse instead of two. "'But Rabbi', he insisted, 'It won't work. The wagon won't travel as fast and not only that, it will be dangerous coming down hills with only one horse to hold us back. No, no! Better find another driver'. "With no other choice, I gave him a blessing and promised him that if he had faith everything would be alright. He just looked at me as though he regretted that he ever had doubts in the first place, nodded his head in agreement and proceeded to unhitch one of the horses to sell him. "The next day we began the journey and everything was fine. The solitary horse pulled the wagon wonderfully and everyone was happy. Until, on the third day of our journey we had to descend this long, steep hill. The driver got out and helped the horse slow the cart down and at first things seemed to be under control. But little by little the wagon sped up; the lone horse couldn't stop it. The driver tried digging his feet into the ground and when that didn't help he jumped back in to the wagon and began pulling on the reigns with all his might screaming Whoa!! 'Shma Yisroel!! In no time we were racing full speed, the poor animal running for all he was worth before the plummeting carriage and the driver screaming and waving his hands insanely. To tell you the truth all this really had no effect on me; I was sure everything would be alright and calmly continued reciting Talmud by heart like I always do. In fact even when the road turned and we continued straight, crashing through the high fence of this large mansion that was on the corner and then into its ornate front porch where we both were thrown from the carriage into the open door of the house, I still wasn't really moved. But when the driver started crying and pointing at me just because the house owner appeared holding a big club I have to admit that I was surprised. I managed to calm the owner down by showing him that miraculously the damage to both his house and our horse and carriage wasn't really substantial. In fact he ended up being so amused that he even gave us an old horse of his and after a few minutes we were back on our way with two horses pulling us. But after we traveled a while I turned to the driver and told him that I wasn't angry, but I never dreamed that he would inform on a fellow Jew. "The driver stopped the horses, looked at me and answered. "'Forgive me Rebbe, please forgive me. But I just reasoned that …. well, if you are really so holy, then you had nothing to worry about. And if not … well you deserved a good clubbing for pretending!' This answers our questions. True, every Jew is equal (All are called 'Son's of G-d' as is explained in the 32nd chapter of the Tanya). As Rabbi Munkis said to the Rebbe, '"You ruin our pleasure in the world: no matter what I do, I'm equal to the simplest Jew. But simultaneously each has a unique personality and talents. As Rabbi Munkis began, "If you are a Rebbe you are a different type of person and nothing will harm you." And this paradox was best revealed was in the Holy Temple (and its prototype the Tabernacle). There everyone felt both negated to the Creator and special and valuable at the same time: they felt both total SURRENDER and total JOY. And ultimately this will be revealed in the Raising of the Dead: The world will be completely nullified in G-dliness and simultaneously each person will be resurrected separately with all his unique character traits. That is why Moshiach (and his prototype the Rebbe) will bring these two things: building the Temple and Raising of the dead. He will teach and encourage every Jew to express these two opposites: both total surrender to G-d and at total development of every unique potential and talent. And it all depends on us to bring……. Moshiach NOW!! Rabbi Tuvia Bolton Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah This week (in addition to being "Parshat HaChodesh") we read a double section telling about the actual building of the Tabernacle. The reading opens with a commandment about keeping the Sabbath. "Six days your work will be done and the seventh day is holy, a Sabbath to G-d: anyone who does work will die." At first glance this is not so clear: Firstly; What is so important about the building of the Tabernacle? Why are there four chapters in the Torah devoted to it (these are the last two)? Secondly: Why does the Torah introduce the building of the Tabernacle with the commandment of Shabbat? Thirdly; Why in the commandment of Shabbat does it say you must work six days? Is it a commandment to work? Lastly; Why is there a punishment of death for transgressing the Sabbath? Isn't that a bit severe?
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Bredichiv had many followers. He was a great scholar and a holy "Tzadik", but most of all he was a very humble and down-to-earth Jew. The story is told that one morning he arrived in the "Shul" (synagogue) in a very uplifted mood, and announced that he wanted to lead the prayers. Of course, the news spread like wildfire, everyone wanted to hear the soulful joyous prayers of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, and the Shul filled up in no time. But you can imagine how surprised they were when the great Tzadik omitted a blessing! It is a custom for Jews to begin the morning prayers with fifteen blessings, praising and thanking G-d, and the Rabbi left out the one that says "Thank you G-d for not making me a gentile." Everyone noticed it, but they hesitated to complain. Was it possible that he could make such an obvious mistake? Finally one of the old Chassidim approached him and just pointed to the skipped blessing in the Rabbi's prayer book. But Rav Levi Yitzchak just nodded his head knowingly and gestured indicating not to worry and that everything was under control. After the prayers were over he called the old Chassid over and explained to him, and the crowd of people that had come, went over to listen as well. "When I woke this morning I thought to myself how wondrous it is that G-d created me to be a Jew. In fact the thought filled me with such joy that I couldn't wait till I went to the Shul. So I stood up and said the blessing out of order!!" What made Rav Levi Yitzchak so happy? What is so great about being a Jew? To answer this let us consider another strange thing. In the days of the Temple all the Jews in Israel went up to Jerusalem three times a year on each of the Holidays. One of the main things that they would come away with was JOY. Yes, the Holy Temple would make everyone Happy! Here is the same question; what made them happy? The main attraction in the Temple was the bloody business of slaughtering and sacrificing animals, hardly a joyous scene. What caused the happiness?
A few years ago I took my son to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for his Bar-Mitzvah. We spent most of the time in the Rebbe's Shul and headquarters, but one day we took a walk in Manhattan. We were in some museum when three well-dressed middle aged people, a woman and two men, approached us and began asking me questions like Are you a Rabbi? Do you read the prophets? Etc. until after a few minutes it became obvious that they were missionaries. I had no patience for them and wanted to get rid of them by just telling them that they will burn in Hell if they prey on Jews, (which is true, and always works to drive them away.) But suddenly I got... an IDEA! I asked them if they would be so kind as to answer a question. When they said yes I looked them straight in the eye and asked, "Do you believe that G-d is spiritual?" Of course they had no idea what I was talking about. They looked at one another in disbelief and then back at me and said, almost in unison, "Why, of course! Certainly G-d is spiritual." "Ahh! Tsk Tsk!" I answered, nodding my head in pity, "I'm surprised at you! Don't you even know the first sentence of the Bible?!" Now they were really confused and they were starting to get nervous. They were loosing their cool, and were glancing at one another as to say, "Hey we never learned about this". "Of course we do!" They answered, "The first sentence in the Bible is 'In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth". "Aha! So there you are!" I replied victoriously. "The "heavens" means all the spiritual worlds, and the "earth" is everything physical. So you see the Bible is telling us clearly that G-d is NOT spiritual. Rather He CREATES the spiritual! Then I got really serious, put this nasty look on my face and said, pointing my finger first at them, then into my chest and then at them again, "Or, in words that even YOU can understand.....OUR G-d creates YOUR god." They just turned around and left as quickly as possible. This is what makes us happy and this is the message of the Jews to the world; G-d is ONE. G-d is the source of all life, He alone creates the heavens and the earth constantly...But the happy part is that He favors the EARTH. This is why the Temple is so important, and why it made everyone happy; it made them feel that G-d is not just spiritual (and far away) but infinitely close, creating and enlivening each one of us every instant and caring for every detail and every deed in this PHYSICAL world. And G-d is the source of life, and life is joy. (That is why children are naturally happy and it makes us happy to see them). Rav Levi Yitzchak was such a holy person that he felt this infinite life-force and happiness even without the Holy Temple, and we, by being attached to such Tzadikim can feel it also (to some degree). But the Temple also holds another, even more important lesson. The Temple was a place of serious work. It teaches us that we too must WORK to reveal this truth. AND EVERYTHING WE DO CAN BE HOLY AND IMPORTANT. That is why Sabbath is the perfect introduction
to the Temple. Because
the Sabbath teaches us this exact same lesson constantly; that although
the world seems to be an autonomous natural system, it isn't. It is
all
a miraculous, constant creation of G-d. And the job that G-d has given That is what the Torah means by saying "Six days your work must be done"; we must reveal the holiness in the other, seemingly mundane days of the week even in our most mundane acts. And the Torah even tells us what attitude to have. It doesn't say "Six days do work" as though it all depends on us, but rather "Your work will be done". Implying that if our inner intention when earning money and doing other "normal" things is to make the world into a holy Temple, then G-d will help us in our personal lives and it will be as though our work is "done" on it's own. That is why the punishment for transgressing the Shabbat is so severe. Because the entire world was created only in order that the Jews do this job, and one who refuses has contradicted the reason for his very existence. This is also the message of Parshat HaChodesh
that we read this Sabbath Interestingly, these very things; The Sabbath, the Holy Temple and the moon, are connected intimately with Moshiach: The days of Moshiach are called "the day that is Entirely Sabbath" (last Mishna, Tamid). "He, and only he, will build the third Temple" (Rambam, Melachim 11:1) and "in his era the moon will shine like the sun" (Kiddush Levana in the siddur). But bringing Moshiach, just like the Sabbath, the Temple and sanctifying the Months, depends on our Joy and our hard work. May this Sabbath give us the inspiration and happiness to bring... Moshiach NOW!! Rabbi Tuvia Bolton Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah
This week’s section is very strange because
it is an almost total The only difference is that here the word ‘VaYaas’
is added to each detail, But, this could have been accomplished by simply adding one sentence after the earlier chapters, something like; “And all that G-d commanded in the construction
of the Taber-nacle was Why was it necessary to make two new entire chapters and repeat thousands of words in order to say what could have been said in one sentence? What is G-d trying to tell us here? To illustrate this, here is a story. The Baal Shem Tov had a pupil called Mordechai
that wanted to learn sorcery. In any case, this pupil wanted magic. He knew
that the Torah forbids such That Shabbat night he sang the songs, ate the
meal, and listened to the “Please, may I step outside for a moment?” he asked the Master “I need some fresh air.” “Just for a minute, no longer” answered the Besh’t “Just make sure that you return immediately, it’s dangerously cold out there.” It was already getting hard for him to breathe;
he opened the door and He woke up in a strange warm room, in freshly made bed. An old farmer and his wife were standing over him. “We thought you were dead when we saw you laying there in the snow” He said, “You’ve been sleeping for over a week. Are you all right? Do you want some warm soup? Where are you from?” Our young hero was in a daze. He didn’t remember anything, but he took up the offer on the soup. In a few days he was already learning how to work behind the plow. Gradually the farm began to change; new workers were hired, new fields were purchased and cultivated, and five years later the simple farm had become a massive estate. One day, the old happy farer returned from a trip into town and showed the young man an advertisement he had taken from the post office. “They are looking for new officers in the army” he said, “Just read this. I think you should apply; it’s your chance to be someone really important. Just look at the miracles you have done here. You are someone special, don’t waste your life here on this farm. You’ve been here long enough” The young man took to the army like a fish
to water. He passed all the Several chapters would be necessary to describe the many fierce battles and brave accomplishments of our hero, his innumerable brushes with death, his brazen spirit, split-second decisions, and impressive victories against impossible odds. Five years later, he had already been promoted to the rank of Major-General and was seated on his fine horse, reviewing the ten thousand mounted lancers at his command, when suddenly from nowhere he remembered… that night twelve years ago when he left the Baal Shem’s Shabbat table! He paused for several minutes, deep in thought remembering every rich vivid detail, and every emotion that passed through his mind back then. Suddenly he came to himself and announced, “Dismount! Return to your tents, and prepare yourselves for a journey. In one hour we are beginning a three day march!” It was late at night three days later, when
the huge army reached forest Suddenly it seemed as thought the entire forest
was afire with an eerie The General dismounted, approached the large old hut, drew his sword and began pounding with its hilt on the closed door. “Open in the name of the King! See what happens to a Chassid who leaves the Holy Master!” No one answered, but he heard someone speaking within the house and he got angry. He furiously stuck his sword in the ground and began pounding on the door with both fists and screaming “Open! Open for a General in the King’s army!” Slowly the door opened, the Baal Shem Tov stuck
his head out and said “Five minutes?!” the General screamed
“Look at all my troops and tell me The point of the story is this: What if our hero hadn’t woken up? What if he died thinking he was a General? Would that have been better? The same for us; What if it were possible to
live a ‘virtual’ life; to have This week’s section tells us, NO! An imaginary
life, a life that is not That is why we Jews are supposed to hide our Tzitzis (four cornered garment with strings attached to remind us of the 613 commandments), and not say words of Torah in a Jewish Graveyard; (the dead are aware of what goes on there). The souls of the dead are leading only virtual, spiritual lives, and they are pained by the reminder that there is a real world where one can ACTUALLY serve the Creator. This is the reality that the Bait HaMikdosh
represents and that Moshiach And finally.... the Moshiach will bring the ultimate physical reality: THE ENLIVENING OF THE DEAD; even the highest souls; Moshe, Avraham etc. will all return to bodies in this world of ACTION. Moshiach NOW!!! Rabbi Tuvia Bolton |
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