Transcript
Okay, good morning everyone. manage and mute everybody. Thank you for joining me on this new way of learning together. It's unfortunate that this horrific virus is keeping us apart. I wish we were sitting together as we do every week in the Rand Sanctuary, learning the פרשה parsha, being inspired together, feeling the connection of a פרשה ויקהל parsha Vayakel, to gather together, where קדושה kedusha really emanates from our drawing energy from one another, from gathering. But ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, we're so grateful that השם Hashem has enabled us with technology, which is clearly created just for this purpose, to be able to virtually be together, a community of learners, a community of Torah studiers, a community of people who are trying to grow together and so grateful that you're here together with me. You will hopefully forgive me as I figure this out as we go. Okay, I want to thank our generous sponsors for this year, the series, Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of Becky's father, David Grossman, לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנוש le'ilui nishmas David ben Menachem Manush, whose נשמה neshama should have an עליה aliyah. We have a lot of virtual abilities to learn together over this challenging time, שיעורים Shiurim over Zoom, and that you can call into and that will continue to post in the usual places. We also have a few WhatsApp groups that we're going to send messages out daily. We have an אמונה emunah WhatsApp group, a סידור Siddur Snippets WhatsApp group, and a turn Friday into ערב שבת Erev Shabbos WhatsApp group, which hopefully you can find and join and be part of us as well. Okay, our parsha begins, usually I announce what page in the חומש Chumash, I don't know what חומש Chumash everyone has at home. But we have the privilege this week of learning and of reading two פרשיות parshios together, ויקהל Vayakel and פקודי Pekudei. The פרשה parsha begins by telling us ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael vayomer aleihem. אלה הדברים אשר צוה השם לעשות אתם Eileh hadevarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. Moshe gathers everybody together, ויקהל Vayakel. He brings everyone into the same place, into the same space, he brings us together. And what is the message he says? ויקהל Vayakel, coming off of the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel, here we are repeating these two פרשיות parshios. Here we are repeating the details and the architecture of both the משכן Mishkan and the כלים keilim, the utensils that go within. Why are we repeating it? Every year I love to tell רב Rav Palm's insight, that the difference between תרומה Trumah, תצווה Tetzaveh, which is prospective, it talks about what we're destined to do. ויקהל Vayakel, פקודי Pekudei says what we did, we built it, we finished, we followed through. There are a lot of projects, there's a lot of ambition and aspiration, a lot of ideas people have, but they don't necessarily see it all the way through. ויקהל Vayakel and פקודי Pekudei, writes רב Rav Palm, was worth repeating just as an example of someone who followed it through, who made it to the end, who made it all the way. And that's our mission, is to not only have great ideas, not only to start and to begin, but to be able to follow them through all of the way. Here we have just like we did in the last פרשה כי תשא parsha Ki Sisa, the juxtaposition of the משכן Mishkan with שבת Shabbos. We have the juxtaposition yet again, this time in the opposite order. אלה הדברים אשר צוה השם לעשות אתם Eileh hadevarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. What was it that Moshe told the people? These are the things that God has commanded לעשות אתם la'asos osam, to do them. What does it mean לעשות אתם la'asos osam, to do them? Those words seem entirely extraneous. What are those words adding, what are those words contributing? So the ויז'ניצר רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, those who learn with me regularly know I love to quote the ויז'ניצר רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. The אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim says the following. He says לעשות אתם la'asos osam, ודאי המפרשים מה הוא לעשות אתם Vedai kamforshim ma hu la'asos osam. What does it mean לעשות la'asos? הלא מצוות שבת הוא שב ואל תעשה Halo mitzvas Shabbos hu shev v'al ta'aseh. Here we have the opening of our פרשה parsha, a reminder of the injunction of the commandment to observe the שבת Shabbos. שבת Shabbos is passive. Friday, the sun goes down whether you're ready or not, whether you embrace it or not, whether you light candles, make קידוש kiddush or not, we're all equally obligated to observe שבת Shabbos, 39 categories of creative prohibitive labor. שב ואל תעשה Shev v'al ta'aseh, כמו שכתוב בסמוך וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון k'mo shekasuv b'samuch, vayom hashvi'i yihiyeh lachem kodesh shabbos shabbason. The seventh day comes, it is by definition sacred and holy. It is a שבת שבתון shabbos shabbason. So therefore, it's שב ואל תעשה shev v'al ta'aseh. So what's the פסוק pasuk talking about? God commanded us לעשות אתם la'asos osam, to perform them, to do them in the active sense. And says the ויז'ניצר רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, you know what it means? ודאי ישנו לשבת גם קום ועשה Vadai yeshno l'Shabbos gam kum v'aseh. Just like in פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa, לעשות את השבת la'asos es haShabbos. והוא על ידי שמתאספים יחד באחוה ויחווה לשיר שירות ותשבחות לבורא יתברך שמו V'hu al yedei she'misasfim yachad b'achvah v'yachva l'shir shiros v'tishpachos l'borei Yisborach shemo. שבת Shabbos has the passive component, when the sun goes down, שבת Shabbos falls whether we're ready or not. But שבת Shabbos has an extremely active component as well. שבת Shabbos has the notion that we have to create a sense of שבת Shabbos, that we have to gather with others in the ideal sense, we gather in שול shul, we gather for דאווענען davening, we gather for learning, we gather with guests, and even in these unusual circumstances, these very difficult circumstances, nevertheless, we create, we manufacture our own שבת Shabbos by the attitude that we bring. שבת Shabbos is not just visited upon us, but we create. והוא עשיית השבת קודש V'hu asiyas haShabbos kodesh. אומן מעשה כזו לענג ולקדשו בהלל וזמרה בשבתי חברים ואחדות להודות להשם יתברך omein ma'asecha k'zu l'oneig u'l'kadsho b'halel v'zimra b'shivtei chaveirim v'achdus l'hodos l'Hashem Yisborach. בחיוס דקדושה לכבוד שבת קודש לשם השם B'chiyus d'kedusha l'chvod Shabbos kodesh l'shem Hashem. אי אפשר לצוותו בלי בטרם טעם טעמה ee efshar l'tzavoso b'li be'terem ta'am ta'ama. ולזה כאן כשבא משה רבינו לצוותו על מאמר זה הוכרח מקודם להקהיל כאילו בשבת קודש U'l'zeh kan keshe'ba Moshe Rabbeinu l'tzavoso al ma'amar zeh, huchrach mikodem l'hakhel k'ilu b'Shabbos kodesh. Says the ויז'ניצר Vizhnitzer, how do people know what that's like and how to experience and how to design and how to create a שבת Shabbos? That's why our פרשה parsha, unusually, uniquely, is introduced with the word ויקהל Vayakel. Moshe gathered everybody, and he gave them the experience of what does it mean to have a שבת Shabbos? And with that they were able to follow the example. כדי להראות להם דוגמה לעבודת קודש זו k'dei l'har'os lahem dugma l'avodas kodesh zu. וזהו ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם כמורה באצבע אלה הדברים אשר צוה השם לעשות אתם V'zehu Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael vayomer aleihem k'moreh b'etzba, eileh hadevarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. So רש\"י Rashi tells us that the ויקהל Vayakel, he gathered everybody together and he said, you see, the power of community, the power of togetherness, the energy we draw from one another, what you're experiencing right now, what you had at הר סיני Har Sinai, what you're experiencing when I'm coming off the mountain from receiving the Torah the second time, מוצאי יום כיפור motzei Yom Kippur, what you have from a ויקהל Vayakel, we can have each and every שבת Shabbos when we come together. So my dear friends, that's what we longingly miss, the experience of being together on שבת Shabbos, of filling a room with the sounds of תפילה tefillah, of filling a lobby and a campus with the experience of a קידוש kiddush, of being together, of being united. That's what we so desperately miss. That's what we so desperately miss. And therefore the לעשות la'asos is upon us even more than usual, that we have an obligation to create and to experience and to manufacture, even while we are divided, to feel together, and even when we are separated, to continue to draw energy from one another. And I hope and I pray, and I'm going to direct all most of our דברי תורה divrei Torah today on our פרשיות ויקהל ופקודי parshios Vayakel and Pekudei around how we're feeling right now. But I hope that we pray that when this passes, and please God passes quickly, when this dissipates, we will remember the loneliness and the longing. We will cherish the opportunity to be together, that we will not ever take it for granted, that we'll never neglect it, that we'll never try to create breakaways from it, but rather we'll recognize the gift and the beauty of when a שול shul can operate, when we have that ability to all be together is something that we should never ever, ever take for granted. And that that is something that we will be able to preserve even after this is over, that הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu has כאילו k'ilu separated us just to remind us of the special quality of ויקהל Vayakel, of what it means to be together. And in the absence of the ויקהל Vayakel, in the absence of the energy we draw from one another physically, we have to go above and beyond to call and to check in and to FaceTime, particularly with the most vulnerable and the most isolated, to see how they're doing. Because you know, as dangerous and as nefarious as this virus is, is the danger of loneliness. It too lowers the immune system, and it too renders people fragile and vulnerable and susceptible. And therefore ויקהל Vayakel, it's no coincidence that it's in this time that we're reading these פרשיות parshios and we're being reminded of the importance and of the responsibility of achieving a sense of a ויקהל Vayakel, to be able to come together and to be able to draw together from that. So what are we warned? שבת Shabbos and משכן Mishkan are juxtaposed. They were in כי תשא Ki Sisa and here they are again in our פרשה ויקהל parsha Vayakel. Six days do work, previously you can listen to the previous פרשה שיעור parsha shiur online. Previously we spoke about and we focused on this notion of ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה sheishes yamim ta'aseh melacha. Six days you do work. Work in Judaism, work in תורה Torah is not a concession. Work is not we give in, we work because we have to. Work is something that we value. Work is the way that we shape and mold the universe. Work is the difference that we make and the influence that we wield. And therefore work is ששת ימים sheishes yamim. When do you deserve a שבת Shabbos? After six days that you put in your sense of work. And all the מאמרי חז\"ל ma'amarei chazal we shared previously, about the value of of work and what that does for us and how it occupies us constructively and it allows us to fulfill the mandate פרו ורבו ומלאו את הארץ pru u'rvu u'milu es ha'aretz, to fill the world, וכבשוה v'kivshuha, go conquer it, go study and conquer and make that difference. And then וביום השביעי vayom hashvi'i, then that seventh day is a קודש שבת שבתון kodesh shabbos shabbason. It is that day of שבת Shabbos. We don't on שבת Shabbos rejuvenate and rest and reenergize to be able to have the the כח koach, the strength for the week ahead. It's the opposite. שבת Shabbos is the תכלית tachlis of מעשה בראשית ma'aseh bereishis. Six days we work to get to שבת Shabbos. It's not that שבת Shabbos we rest to be able to rush and get back to the week. The week we energize, we work in order to be able to get to the תכלית tachlis, the goal of all that work, the payoff, the fruit of all of that labor, which is the experience of שבת Shabbos. So here we have this juxtaposition of שבת Shabbos and משכן Mishkan. And רש\"י Rashi tells us and reminds us that פסוק ב' הקדים להם את אזהרת שבת לצוות על מלאכת המשכן לומר שאינה דוחה את השבת pasuk beis, hikdim lahem es aharas Shabbos l'tzivos al melachos haMishkan, lomar she'einah doches es haShabbos. That we have the obligation, the commandment to be vigilant in our observance of שבת Shabbos before we're told about building the משכן Mishkan, why? In order to remind us that building the משכן Mishkan does not supersede שבת Shabbos. I might have thought making a home for God is so important, it's so central, it's so core, it supersedes everything, even the observance of שבת Shabbos. Now I especially might have thought that if I know, as we do sort of retroactively, that once the משכן Mishkan is constructed and is whole, that in fact the operation, the עבודה avodah of the משכן Mishkan does supersede שבת Shabbos. The כהנים kohanim in the משכן Mishkan violated שבת Shabbos on a regular basis, the act of שחיטה shechita, slaughtering of the animal and so on. So I might have thought that the building of the משכן Mishkan does too. And yet it doesn't. What do משכן Mishkan and שבת Shabbos have in common? What is the common theme that runs through both? Is clearly that word קודש kodesh, קדושה kedusha, holiness, sanctity. So many of our commentaries point out that שבת Shabbos and משכן Mishkan represent the same theme, just present in two different areas of of life, in two different realms or venues. משכן Mishkan is מקום makom. משכן Mishkan is holiness and sanctity in space. שבת Shabbos is holiness and sanctity in time. I might have thought that holiness and sanctity in space, building a home for the שכינה Shechina, we've shared previously Rabbi Sacks, Lord Sacks, שכינה Shechina from the language of שכן shachen, not the abstract God who's distant and far and inaccessible to me, but the שכן shachen, the שכינה Shechina, the הקדוש ברוך הוא Kadosh Baruch Hu who's right next door, who's my best friend and my confidant, who I go visit when I need support and strength and a pick me up. So I might have thought making a house for that שכינה Shechina, a מקום makom for שכינה Shechina, that משכן Mishkan of שכינה Shechina is דוחה docheh, it supersedes making a משכן Mishkan in time. And Torah concludes no, the opposite. It's the sanctity in time that supersedes the sanctity in space. And I want to suggest to you as we gather this morning and during this unusual time, that maybe what the Torah is telling us is that our ability to manufacture קדושה kedusha, our ability to create a מקדש mikdash doesn't depend on a משכן Mishkan. It's true when we had a בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, it's true when we had a משכן Mishkan we could visit and we could feel we were in the intense presence of השם Hashem, undeniably with miracles abound. But even without it and even absent it, our home becomes that משכן מעט Mishkan ma'at, that מקדש מעט Mikdash ma'at. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם V'asu li Mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. We can create קדושה kedusha, we can create a מקדש Mikdash. And when we can't go to a בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, when we can't go to a שול shul or a בית מדרש Beis Midrash, we still have שבת Shabbos. We not only have שבת Shabbos on the seventh day of the week, we have the בחינה bechina of שבת Shabbos the whole week long. We have the capacity to turn our homes into small, little, miniature בתי מדרש batei midrash and בתי כנסיות batei knessios. The דאווענען davening that we're doing, the learning we're doing, the pictures that we're seeing of people gathering with their families within their home. I spoke yesterday in another context about maybe that is the silver lining, that this is a crisis, and we hope and pray it passes quickly, but it's also an opportunity. It's an opportunity to recognize that the home is the holiest place within the community and not to relegate our sense of religious activity or ritual to a שול shul or a בית מדרש Beis Midrash, but to realize I can fill my home, the walls with the sounds of דאווענען davening and the sounds of learning. That ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם v'asu li Mikdash v'shachanti b'socham, that שבת Shabbos is דוחה משכן docheh Mishkan. I don't need that building. I have the sense of שבת Shabbos not only on that seventh day, but all week long I can achieve it even locally. We mentioned this in the context of another פסוק pasuk in our פרשה parsha, which reviews the כלים keilim of the מקדש Mikdash, the ארון Aron, that the ark which houses the לוחות luchos, the עדות eidos, that houses the tablets, which of course of testimony are the the driver, they're the battery that are inserted into the משכן Mishkan. The משכן Mishkan only has קדושה kedusha. They had to be there in the Temple Mount in order for the second בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash to have a sense of of sanctity. So that ארון Aron had poles that were inserted into the into the rings on its side, and when the poles were inserted, they were never removed. They were never removed. Unlike the poles of the other utensils that were inserted in order to transport it, these poles were never removed. Many reasons are offered, I shared them yesterday, but I'll skip right to, I'll skip right to רב הירש Rav Hirsch. רב הירש Rav Hirsch says, you know why the poles are never removed? Because the משכן Mishkan, the ארון Aron, תורה Torah is ready to travel. It informs and inspires us all the time, whenever and wherever we are. It's not just sitting in the קודש הקדשים Kodesh HaKodashim, but the ארון Aron, its symbolism, its timeless messages, they come with us wherever and whenever we are. We can open a ספר sefer and we can turn on a שיעור shiur and we can access תורה Torah, even when we can't access a campus, a שול shul or a בית מדרש Beis Midrash. That is the message of שבת Shabbos superseding משכן Mishkan, it's a message of the לוחות luchos of the ארון Aron traveling, that תורה Torah and its timeless message is not designated, relegated, limited by a specific place or a specific time or by specific religious personalities, that it's accessible to all of us. It transports us and inspires all of us everywhere and at all times and wherever we go. The פסוק pasuk says at the end of this section, the last פסוק pasuk, פסוק ג' pasuk gimmel, פרק ל\"ה Perek Lamed Hey, chapter 35, פסוק ג' pasuk gimmel says the תורה Torah, לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת Lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. You're not allowed to have a fire burning in all of your dwelling places on שבת Shabbos. Now, the simple understanding, this we've discussed also previously, we have 39 categories of creative labor on שבת Shabbos. The Torah doesn't spell them out. Where do we derive them from? The way we rest on שבת Shabbos is we're at peace with the natural order and the natural world. God created six days and rested. Six days we conquer the world, we study it, manipulate it, control it, learn about it, design it, build it, invent it, and the seventh day we too are at peace, we too are at rest. We're at rest through the איסור מלאכה isur melacha. Now, it's not מלאכה melacha, it's not labor which is prohibited, it's מלאכת מחשבת meleches machsheves. It's creative labor which is prohibited. That's why I can't turn on a light on שבת Shabbos, which takes no effort, but it's an act of creative labor. An animal can never discover electricity, could never design a light switch, but I am allowed to walk to שול shul on שבת Shabbos in Boca in August, which if you don't, like me, live next door to the שול shul, is incredibly laborious, is an incredible act of labor. Why? Because an animal could walk far distances. It takes no creativity in order to be able to walk, which is by the way why, according to the תוספות Tosfos, maybe the מלאכה הוצאה melacha hotzaah is a מלאכה גרועה melacha grua, because it doesn't really have a מחשבת machsheves component to it. Why is carrying from one domain to another, those learning the דף daf have encountered that right now, it's a מלאכה גרועה melacha grua, it's an inferior form of a מלאכה melacha because carrying from one domain to another doesn't really have a מחשבת machsheves, a creative, innovative component component to it. So the 39 categories are not of labor, but they are of creative labor. The תורה Torah doesn't list them. How do I know what they are? I can't plow and plant and harvest and grind and and knead and cook and all the different categories. How do I know what they are? From our juxtaposition. Whatever was a creative labor to make a house for השם Hashem is the same creative labor I need to be passive from when it comes to observing and honoring שבת Shabbos. There's only one that we're given, and that is לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem, you can't have a fire burning in any of your dwelling places, when? On שבת Shabbos. Now, this was a big source of debate between the צדוקים ופרושים Tzdukim and Perushim, this too we've discussed previously, I'll just gloss over it quickly. Those who understand the תורה Torah quite literally understood and interpreted this to mean you cannot have a fire burning in your home on שבת Shabbos, even from before שבת Shabbos, even a pre-existing fire. So the they therefore sat in the cold all שבת Shabbos and ate only cold food all of שבת Shabbos. We therefore have a a Jewish custom, which is a borderline הלכה halacha, to consume hot food every שבת Shabbos. Why do we the origin of טשולנט cholent, of putting up a food on ערב שבת Erev Shabbos that would remain hot through שבת Shabbos day, the origin of טשולנט cholent, which believe it or not, there are scholarly articles about טשולנט cholent in different places that Jews lived across the world, the different recipes and the different names and so on, but this near universal practice of eating something hot on שבת Shabbos day was our affirmation, our testament that I am not a צדוקי Tzdoki, that I'm not a קראי Karaite. I don't take the תורה Torah literally. I accept the rabbinic interpretation that you can have a fire, you can have electricity, you can have a crock pot, you can have heat if it is existing from before שבת Shabbos. It's important, it's a הלכה halacha to be able to enjoy hot food on שבת Shabbos day, not only a nice idea for your בויך boch, for your stomach, but it's a nice idea for your soul, to be able to communicate that we accept and we believe, that we affirm our commitment to the oral תורה Torah and the oral tradition as well. But there's a homiletical interpretation to this פסוק pasuk, לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. So again, back to the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the ויז'ניצר רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe who says, לא רק ביום השבת תבערו בך אש הקודש אלא גם בימות החול תרגישו קדושת שבת קודש lo rak b'yom haShabbos teva'aru b'cha eish hakodesh, ella gam b'yemos hachol targishu kedushas Shabbos kodesh. Says the ויז'ניצר Vizhnitzer, read the פסוק pasuk, לא תבערו אש ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'yom haShabbos. Don't only be burning and lit up on fire on שבת Shabbos, be on fire the whole week long. There are too many Jews who all שבת Shabbos are just fighting to survive, get through the day, do work and pay the bills and collapse in bed, and they wait for and long for שבת Shabbos. Oh, שבת Shabbos I can דאווענען daven, שבת Shabbos I can learn, שבת Shabbos I can be a real איד Yid, a real Jew. Says the ויז'ניצר Vizhnitzer, no, read the פסוק pasuk, לא תבערו אש ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'yom haShabbos. Don't only be on fire on שבת Shabbos. A Jew has to live and be on fire the entire week long. The של\"ה הקדוש Shlah Hakadosh has another interpretation, homiletical of this פסוק pasuk. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem, and this too, I think is highly relevant for this unusual and extraordinary time in which we are living. Says the של\"ה הקדוש Shlah Hakadosh, when are we most בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem? When are you home the most? All week long you're at work and you're shopping and you're running and kids are at school and you're busy and you're occupied and you're out. When are we בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem? On שבת Shabbos. And what is the great risk? What is the great danger? When the family's all home, בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem, when we are in our home, quarantined and limited and confined, when we are socially distancing from others, when we're in a home, you know what happens? אש Eish. What happens is frustration, impatience, resentment, anger. What happens is somebody lashes out at somebody else. I told you to clean up already. I told you it's time for you to get on your technology and be doing your schoolwork already. How come I'm still cleaning up? How come you never cook? How come you didn't put that away? The longer that we are in this pressure cooker, the longer that we are quarantined or we're limited, or we're distanced socially from others, when we are בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem intensely, there is the potential for אש eish. Says the של\"ה הקדוש Shlah Hakadosh, that's what the תורה Torah is telling us. Ordinarily, this is the greatest danger on שבת Shabbos or ערב שבת Erev Shabbos. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. On that day that we are בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem the most, on the time that we are most intensely confined to our homes, even with the people that we're closest to and love the most, we're at the greatest risk of אש eish, of fire, of anger. לא תבערו אש lo seva'aru eish. We have to all be going out of our way to make sure that we're patient. We have to go out of our way to make sure that we don't allow anger to flare. Anger, the רמב\"ם Rambam and the רמב\"ן Ramban both agree, while it comes to all other qualities we walk the שביל הזהב shvil hazahav, when it comes to all other qualities we don't go in any extreme. They are מדות midos. They belong in some measure in our repertoire of life. But when it comes to anger, it doesn't belong in any degree. It doesn't belong at any measure. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. We should never get angry, not all week long, but particularly בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem, particularly within our dwelling places, within our homes, to our children, to our spouses, around our family, to the people we love the most. Next, פרק ל\"ה פסוק ה' Perek Lamed Hey, pasuk hey. Continuing right along. So Moshe tells עדת בני ישראל adas Bnei Yisrael this gathering, זה הדבר אשר צוה השם לאמר Zeh hadavar asher tziva Hashem leimor, this is what השם Hashem wants you to know. קחו מאתכם תרומה להשם כל נדיב לבו יביאה את תרומת השם זהב וכסף ונחשת Kichu mei'itchem trumah l'Hashem, kol nediv libo yevi'eha es trumas Hashem, zahav v'chesef v'nechoshes. Take from yourselves a תרומה trumah, take from yourselves this gift, this donation to השם Hashem. כל נדיב לבו Kol nediv libo, everyone who has a generous heart, bring it, gold and silver and so on. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar is bothered. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar of Luntshits, קחו מאתכם kichu mei'itchem. What word is extraneous? If you were unmuted and I can hear you, if we were live and in person, I would turn to you and say that our מפרשים meforshim when they comment on the פרשה parsha, they're all bothered by a question. Every comment of the מפרשים meforshim on חומש Chumash are stimulated and provoked by a question they had. Their style, their pedagogy was not to ask the question and give an answer, that we're used to. They offer a comment, but we need to know that comment was stimulated by a question. And our job is to read the פרשה parsha and read the פירושים perushim and ask what was the question that bothered them, not just רש\"י Rashi. So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar is bothered by a question and so should you be. What word is extraneous, what word is extra in this פסוק pasuk? קחו Kichu, it should say קחו תרומה kichu trumah. Take, it should say תנו t'nu, give. But we've spoken about at the beginning of פרשת תרומה Parshas Trumah, that קחו kichu, that when we give, we really receive. We're watching, we're watching, נעבעך nebach, רחמנא ליצלן rachmana litzlan, לא עלינו לא עליך lo aleinu, lo alecha, a stock market and an economy plummet. In the long-term effective this, hopefully people's health will be protected, but our finances we're watching plummet. בעזרת השם B'ezras Hashem that too will be protected and restored. But you know, what we had five weeks ago, four weeks ago, last week, the value that we had in different markets or real estate in our home, it's plummeting and it's gone. What's the only thing that we ever really have? Not what we held on to. The only thing that we really ever have is what we gave away. What we've given away, that צדקה tzedakah that we've given, the impact that we made with it, that's what we take with us. That's what we have. That's why the פסוק pasuk says קחו kichu, take, not give, because when you give, you've in fact taken. You have in your portfolio something that's untouchable, that can't go down. It's the investment which in perpetuity will forever give the best, the best return. And so, the more we give, the more we receive. That's why it is קחו kichu. But why is the word מאתכם mei'itchem here? So the כלי יקר Kli Yakar is bothered. So let me read to you the כלי יקר Kli Yakar if you have a מקראות גדולות Mikraos Gedolos at home, follow along. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, כבר פירשנו למעלה ש'מאתכם' בא להוציא את הגזל kvar peirashnu l'ma'ala she'mei'itchem ba l'hotzi es hagazel. Don't give from stolen money. If you earned your money by cutting corners, by lacking integrity, if you earn that money by not reporting your taxes honestly so you had a little extra and now you're going to give it, your name will be in lights, you'll be listed, you're grace a קנאקער kanacker, you'll be honored at the dinner because you're one among a generous people who give, that which you're giving has to be says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, מאתכם mei'itchem. You have to have earned it, honestly and with integrity. It has to be truly and genuinely yours. That's answer number one. Answer number two. ועוד יכול לומר 'מאתכם' שכל אחד יזדרז למצוה מעצמו V'od yechol lomar mei'itchem, she'kol echad yizdarez l'mitzva mei'atzmo. כי יש לך אדם שאינו נותן כלום עד שרואה אחרים נותנים ומתקנא בהם על כן הוא נותן להשוות את עצמו להם Ki yesh l'cha adam she'eino nosein klum ad she'ro'eh acheirim nosnim u'miskanneh b'hem. Al kein hu nosein l'hashvos es atzmo lahem. וזה אינו 'מאתכם' כי עצמו אינו סיבה אל הנתינה אלא אחרים סיבה לו V'zeh eino mei'itchem, ki atzmo eino sibah el hanesina, ella acheirim sibah lo. Answer number two, says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, you have people who are self-motivated, you have people who are self-inspired. They see a problem, they want to solve it. They see a lack, they want to fill it. They see an issue, they want to solve it. And then you have people who you know, you know when they give? When other people are giving. And that person's not going to outshine me. If I see their name, my name better be on it because otherwise what will people think of me. So the word מאתכם mei'itchem, says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, tells us what is the motivation behind your giving? Are you giving because are you giving because you're internally and inherently inspired to give? Are you giving only to keep up with the Joneses? Are you giving to keep up with others who are giving? הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants מאתכם mei'itchem. He wants us. How do you know the difference between the two? Are you ever willing to give anonymously? Now fascinatingly, there's הלכתי halachic literature about is it preferable to give anonymously or is it okay to put your name on a building, on a program, to be listed in a journal? And the הלכתי halachic literature all concludes not only is it okay and appropriate, sometimes it's preferable to list your name because the reality is that when people list their names, it inspires other people to give. However, we should ask ourselves why we're giving. Are we are we giving only because we were inspired by others or are we giving internally? Is our gift מאתכם mei'itchem? Does it genuinely does it originate from within ourselves? Then the כלי יקר Kli Yakar continues. ויש לומר 'מאתכם' ממש כי הנותן מנדבת לבו דומה כאילו הקריב את גופו V'yeish lomar mei'itchem mamash, ki hanosein min nedivas libo domeh k'ilu hikriv es gufo. ועוד שאני הנותן כאילו מחסר בשרו ונותן על דרך שאמרו בזוהר על פסוק אל תתעלם V'od she'ani anosein k'ilu m'chasar b'sarav v'nosein al derech she'amru b'Zohar al pasuk al tisalem. שאל תתעלם מבשרך אפילו מבשרך וליתן She'al tisalem m'bischarcha, afilu m'besarcha v'litein. Lastly, the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, the third suggestion is, you know what מאתכם mei'itchem means? It means ממש mamash from yourself. You know, four weeks ago if I asked you to give to our journal dinner honoring our incredible rabbi and rebbetzin Maskowitz, if four weeks ago I asked you to help our scholarship fund, our תומכי שבת Tomchei Shabbos, or give to whatever project, whatever whatever righteous whatever righteous campaign, so, okay, the stock market at all-time high, real estate thriving, doing well. It would have still been impressive, but big deal to give. But you know what? We're hurting and we're going to be hurting more. And when a person gives now, it's truly מאתכם mei'itchem. When we're in a time of uncertainty and many don't know where their income is coming from, and many don't know what will happen with their savings, and I don't mean to depress all of you, half of you look like you just fell off your couch. Please God, it's going to all be okay. We're under השם's Hashem's watch. השם's Hashem's in charge of everything. It's easy go, but it's easy come back again. B'ezras Hashem we're going to be fine. But right now there's a real sense that to give is coming מאתכם mei'itchem. In a period in a time of uncertainty to not know, we're giving a piece of ourselves. חז\"ל Chazal, the גמרא Gemara want to talk about money, the term it uses is דמים damim because money reflects and represents our blood, sweat, and tears, our effort, our hard work. Money represents our safety and security and when we share that and give it away, it is truly מאתכם mei'itchem. We've given away from ourselves. Says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, when we give, three פשטים pshatim. Number one, honesty, integrity, it can't be stolen. You can't be generous with someone else's money because you cut corners, because you were ruthlessly competitive in business, because you didn't report honestly in your tax returns, because you cut corners. Number one, it has to be honest. מאתכם Mei'itchem number two, it should be stimulated and provoked, motivated from within you, not just to keep up with others. And lastly, number three, giving even when it hurts, that is truly a sense of giving מאתכם mei'itchem. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik in a wonderful, רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik חומש Chumash of the OU also has a comment on the term מאתכם mei'itchem here and he writes the following. The גמרא Gemara derives the principle that charity is part of תשובה teshuvah from the פסוק צדקה תציל ממות pasuk tzedakah tatzil mi'maves. When a person has made mistakes, when there's an error in our ways, when we need to repair and improve our character and our behavior, one of the things that we do is give צדקה tzedakah. Where do we learn that from? A פסוק pasuk in משלי Mishlei, the 11th perek. The פסוק pasuk says, צדקה תציל ממות tzedakah tatzil mi'maves. Giving צדקה tzedakah saves you from death. We know, תשובה ותפילה וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזירה teshuvah, tefillah, u'tzedakah ma'avirin es roa ha'gzeirah. When it comes to a time of a רוע הגזירה roa ha'gzeirah, we're living through a period of רוע הגזירה roa ha'gzeirah. We're living through a time of a גזירה gzeirah which has a, it's the רוע roa of the גזירה gzeirah. It's very interesting, by the way. It doesn't say מעבירין את גזירה רעה ma'avirin es gzeirah ra'ah, it takes away a bad גזירה gzeirah. It says it takes away the bitterness and the pain and the difficulty of the גזירה gzeirah. Because the truth is, please God, the majority, the overwhelming, all of us will still stay safe from this virus. And the majority who could contract it would not even know its symptoms and will do well. So it's not this גזירה gzeira right now which is killing us, it's the רוח הגזירה ro'ach hagzeira. It's the uncertainty and it's the doubt, and it is how we've had to alter and change our lives. So one of the ways that we overcome that, we ask and beseech God to eliminate it, is תשובה, תפילה וצדקה tshuva, tfila, u'tzdaka. תשובה Tshuva and תפילה tfila I understand. Sincere repentance, transforming who I am, I got. Davening to השם Hashem, it's what changes me. I'm a new person after I speak to him humbly and modestly. How in the world does צדקה tzdaka work? I come before the judge and I'm going to bribe him. Look, God, I'm guilty as accused. I did it. But I'll tell you what, I'm gonna shmir you. Here's a check. How many zeros? I'll wire you the money. What's it gonna take? What's it going to take to be let off the hook? So how does that work? צדקה תציל ממות Tzdaka tatzil mimaves. So the רב rov points out that we learn that from here too. Not only do you have to wait for משלי Mishlei, צדקה תציל ממות tzdaka tatzil mimaves, but this earlier source to substantiate this assertion can be derived from the narrative here. Immediately after the episode of the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel, God commanded the Jews to donate to the building for the משכן Mishkan. השם Hashem taught Jews that giving צדקה tzdaka was part of the process of תשובה tshuva for having worshipped the golden calf. They could not give צדקה tzdaka to poor people because there were no beggars and paupers. It was a classless society. So they were told how do you give צדקה tzdaka then? By donating to the משכן Mishkan. How does it work? Why is צדקה tzdaka always part of the process of תשובה tshuva? How in the world does that work? Why should that work? So the answer is we're giving מאתכם me'itchem of ourselves. We go back to the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. When we take our דמים damim, our hard earned money, when we don't know what will be, when it's a period of uncertainty and we're yet willing to share of ourselves, that is a testament, that is an affirmation that we are of our priorities right, and that we understand that the resources that we have are given not just for us, they're given to help others and to make the world a better place. פרק ל\"ה פסוק י' Perek Lamed Hey, Pasuk Yud, we continue. פרק ל\"ה Perek Lamed Hey, פסוק י' pasuk yud. We've barely gotten through the beginning of ויקהל Vayakhel. If you don't learn with us every week, now you know why we don't cover that much. But most people are home, so I don't know, we have all day. And I don't have to end, you could just hang up when you're done. So we'll see how far we go. Don't worry, I'm just joking. We're going to go our usual hour, אם ירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem. פרק ל\"ה, פסוק Perek Lamed Hey, Pasuk פסוק י' Pasuk Yud. The Torah says the following, it lists off the contributions for the משכן Mishkan and now we begin the construction. כל חכם לב בכם יבואו ויעשו את כל אשר צוה ה' Kol chacham lev bachem yavo'u v'ya'asu es kol asher tziva Hashem. Anyone who is a חכם לב chacham lev among you should give, should do according to everything the way that השם Hashem commanded. I want you to notice, we're going to come back to it at the very end of פרשת ויקהל Parshas Vayakhel, but you're going to notice there's a phrase that keeps repeating itself here in ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel-Pekudei that did not appear in תרומה תצוה Trumah-Tetzaveh, and that is the expression כל אשר צוה ה' kol asher tziva Hashem. ויעשו Vaya'asu, they did following exactly the instruction, the commandment as השם Hashem offered. They gave exactly the way השם Hashem told them to give. We didn't have that in תרומה תצוה Trumah-Tetzaveh, it's here in ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel-Pekudei, we'll come back momentarily to why that was. So what does this mean וכל חכם לב v'chol chacham lev? Anyone who is a חכם לב chacham lev, anyone who is wise of heart, which in itself seems to be a contradiction. Where is wisdom? Wisdom is in the brain. Where is, what's in your heart? Emotion. Intelligence, intellectual, cognitive capacity is here, and the emotion, the feeling is here. So what is this expression when we put them together, a חכם לב chacham lev, someone who's wise of heart? So how do you define someone who's wise of heart? יבואו ויעשו את כל אשר צוה ה' Yavo'u v'ya'asu es kol asher tziva Hashem. Says רב שמחה בונים מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, that's what the פסוק pasuk is telling us. You know what makes you smart? You know what makes you wise of heart? Not your IQ and not your SAT score and not how much money you've earned and not how many initials follow your name, how many degrees that you have. You know what makes you a חכם לב chacham lev, an intelligence and a wisdom that filters down to the heart? Whether in fact, יבואו ויעשו את כל אשר צוה ה' yavo'u v'ya'asu es kol asher tziva Hashem. If you come and you perform and you do everything השם Hashem tells you. We have people who think they're so smart, they're trying to outsmart השם Hashem. They have a legal loophole and an explanation and why it's better and proof against השם Hashem and proof of this. Fools, ignorant fools, that's not wisdom, that's not intelligence, that's not genius. A חכם לב chacham lev. You know they say the farthest distance between any two things on earth is the distance between our head and our heart. You're not allowed to talk between the תפילין tfillin of the arm and the תפילין tfillin of the head. One of the people that we send home from war, that we can't rely upon, we can't depend on, who cannot lead us, who cannot protect us, is הסח בין תפילה לתפילה hasach bein tfila l'tfila. A person who speaks between putting the תפילין tfillin on the arm and the תפילין tfillin on the head. Is that such an egregious sin? We don't send home somebody who eats נבילה neveila or טריפה treifa. We don't send home somebody who's מחלל שבת mechalel Shabbos on. Who do we send home? Somebody who couldn't help it. The guy next to them in שול shul, the guy next to him on Zoom, between putting on the תפילין tfillin on the arm, the תפילין tfillin on the head, he couldn't help but say שלום עליכם shalom aleichem. You're out, go home. Why? My voice thought perhaps the פשט pshat is because the person who creates a barrier between the head and the heart, the person who speaks in between that what we know upstairs doesn't filter down to our heart and to our actions, is not someone we can rely on at war. There has to be a sense of synergy. We have to take what's upstairs, it has to filter down to our heart, into our hands and feet and into the world of action. So how do you define a חכם לב chacham lev? You want to know who's really smart? You want to know a person who's able to find that synergy, who's able to create that connection between the head and the heart? Not only what we know intellectually, but it translates into how we feel emotionally, which then filters into what we perform and how we act behaviorally. It is those three together which are critically important. And says רב שמחה בונים מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, that's what the פסוק pasuk is telling us. You know who is a חכם לב chacham lev? The חכם לב chacham lev is the one who יבואו ויעשו את כל אשר צוה ה' yavo'u v'ya'asu es kol asher tziva Hashem. The person who submits to השם Hashem, the person who performs what השם Hashem tells us, the omnipotent, infinite God who gave us the details of how to live here on earth in the most meaningful way, the person who appreciates and understands that, they are the חכם לב chacham lev. Torah continues by listing off the different utensils. We spoke about the ארון aron but בְּבַדָּיו badav, the poles that are in the ארון aron, reverse, it travels, it informs and inspires us everywhere and at every time. We have the מנורה menorah that illuminates the world. And these כלים keilim are represented in our home. הרב Rav Hirsch writes the שלחן shulchan, the מזבח mizbeach and the ארון aron represent תורה, עבודה, גמילות חסדים Torah, avodah, gmilus chasadim. And they too are in our home, while we've had to dissolve our communal gatherings in a בית כנסת beis knesses and a בית מדרש beis medrash, our homes are that ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם v'asu li mikdash v'shochanti b'socham, and in our homes, we have to recreate the מנורה menorah, the light of Torah. We have to create the שלחן shulchan, that place of חסד chesed, even if we can't host people literally, we can check in on them, we can shop for them, and the מזבח mizbeach, the place of עבודה avodah, our home is now our שול shul, that's where we've davened. We have to designate a place. I was going to share later in another context, but I'll mention it quickly now. The גמרא ברכות Gemara Brachos talks about having a מקום קבוע makom kavua for davening. ברכות דף ו' Brachos daf vov. Have a מקום קבוע makom kavua for davening, which most understand the ראשונים rishonim in the end means in שול shul to have a designated place, but רבנו יונה Rabbeinu Yonah there in the גמרא ברכות Gemara Brachos says no, שול shul itself is a מקום קבוע makom kavua for davening. The whole שול shul is a designated place for davening. You don't have to have a specific chair, a specific place. What is the גמרא Gemara talking about, that you have to be קובע מקום קבוע kovea makom kavua, that you have to establish a set place? It means in your home. And therefore it's very important. Many people will daven haphazardly in the kitchen, in the living room, in the backyard, while walking between the two and cleaning up as you go. That's not a proper way to daven. In this time when we've had to transform our homes into our places of davening, Rabbeinu Yonah's פשט pshat is very, very much on our minds. The מקום קבוע makom kavua, a designated space and place within the home itself to be that, to be that מקום קבוע makom kavua. פרק ל\"ה פסוק כ\"ז Perek Lamed Hey, Pasuk Chaf Zayin. Now I told about the נשיאים nesi'im. After everyone else brought what they brought, come along the נשיאים nesi'im. והנשאים הביאו את אבני השהם ואת אבני המלאים לאפוד ולחשן V'hanesi'im heivi'u es avnei hashoham v'es avnei hamilu'im l'ephod v'lachoshen. Now the leaders, the leaders of the tribes brought the shoam stones and the stones for the settings of the ephod and of the and of the breastplate. Says רש\"י Rashi, אמר רב נתן מה ראו נשיאים לנדבת המשכן תחילה, ובמלאכת המשכן לא נדבו בתחילה amar Rav Nasan, mah ra'u nesi'im l'nidvas haMishkan techila, u'v'meleches haMishkan lo nidvu b'techila. When it came to the inauguration of the מזבח mizbeach, they were first. Now when it comes to the giving towards the משכן Mishkan, they're last. אלא כך אמרו נשיאים, יתנדבו צבור מה שמתנדבין Ela kach amru nesi'im, yitnad'vu tzibur mah shemitnadvin, let everyone else donate and I'll play, I'll bat clean up. Whatever is missing, we'll give then. So they were lazy, they procrastinated, they delayed. They said, let everyone else give and then we'll give at the end. We'll give as a matching fund. In the world of fundraising, those who have responsibility to support the communal institutions, we all encounter people like that. Let others give and I'll help you out with what you're missing. That was the mistake of the נשיאים nesi'im. In a certain way that's generous. The person who says I will help you complete the project with whatever's missing, of course we're grateful, it's generous, but that's not leadership. That's not taking initiative. That's not paving the path for others to follow. The נשיאים nesi'im shouldn't have been the last, the נשיאים nesi'im should have been the first. And therefore they're missing the letter י yud in their name. Why are they missing the letter י yud? If you look here, פרק ל\"ה פסוק כ\"ז Perek Lamed Hey, Pasuk Chaf Zayin, the word נשיאים nesi'im, the leaders, the princes is spelled without the letter י yud. Where's the letter י yud? So the חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim, the גערער רבי Gerer Rebbe, ר' יצחק מאיר Reb Yitzchak Meir of Ger writes the following. He says, because they procrastinated, because they delayed, because they were lazy, they're missing the letter י yud. Because the letter י yud stands for a איד Yid. A איד Yid always acts with זריזות zrizus. A Jew acts with alacrity and enthusiasm and energy. A Jew doesn't sit back and say, let me know when you'll need me. Call me if you need anything. Let me know what you're running short and I'll fill it in. That's not a י yud, that's not a איד Yid. A איד Yid, a Jew takes initiative and acts with זריזות zrizus. A איד Yid is proactive. A איד Yid is enthusiastic. A איד Yid doesn't ever want to sit back, doesn't ever wait. A איד Yid runs to give. Their lack of זריזות zrizus, their lack of alacrity, enthusiasm, zeal, passion, pursuing being the first, being that example, therefore the letter י yud, says the חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim, is missing from their from their name. פרק ל\"ח פסוק ח' Perek Lamed Ches, Pasuk Ches. Torah continues, the making of, and this is so redundant if you're looking in our ארטסקרול חומש Artscroll Chumash, you see רש\"י Rashi had nothing to say, most of the מפרשים meforshim have said what they have to say back in תרומה תצוה Trumah-Tetzaveh. But ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel-Pekudei is very sparse in the commentary that we have. But פרק ל\"ח Perek Lamed Ches, we're skipping way ahead. You have למד זין Lamed Zayin, we have בצלאל Betzalel, he makes the ארון aron, and he makes the שלחן shulchan, he makes the מנורה menorah, and we reference these in the כלים keilim we need in our, in our homes, in our מקדש מעט Mikdash me'at as well. פרק ל\"ח פסוק ח' Perek Lamed Ches, Pasuk Ches. ויעש את הכיור נחשת ואת כנו נחשת במראת הצבאת אשר צבאו פתח אהל מועד Vaya'as es hakiyor nechoshes v'es kano nechoshes b'maros hatzovos asher tzav'u pesach ohel moed. We make the כיור kiyor. The כיור kiyor is also I think very relevant to the time in which we're living. Had there been שול shul last שבת Shabbos, rabbis everywhere, or שול shul this שבת Shabbos, rabbis everywhere would have been talking about the Torah describing to us that the כהנים kohanim when they enter have to wash carefully, and if not, they'll die. In order to protect their lives, they have to wash their hands and feet carefully. We didn't get to give that דרשה drasha. What could we do? We say it now. So the כיור kiyor, they build the כיור kiyor, ויעש את הכיור vaya'as es hakiyor, it was made out of copper, a base from copper. It was made from what? במראת הצבאת אשר צבאו פתח אהל מועד B'maros hatzovos asher tzav'u pesach ohel moed. It was made out of the mirrors outside the אהל ohel, outside the אהל מועד ohel moed. These these mirrors. רש\"י Rashi here tells us that משה Moshe was not very enthusiastic about this instruction. This instruction was unusual. The כיור kiyor has no שיעור shiur. Every other כלי kli, every other utensil in the משכן Mishkan has a שיעור shiur, has a measure. How wide, how high, how deep, material. The כיור kiyor is just told ויעש את הכיור vaya'as es hakiyor. There are no dimensions given to the כיור kiyor itself. משה Moshe was upset not about the lack of dimensions. משה Moshe was upset about the where they originated from. Says רש\"י Rashi, בנות ישראל היו בידן מראות שהיו רואות בהן כשהן מתקשטות Bnos Yisrael hayu b'yadan mar'os shehayu ro'os bahen k'shehen miskashtos. The Jewish women had these mirrors and they would gaze into them when they would beautify themselves. ואף אותן לא עכבו מלהביא לנדבת המשכן V'af osan lo ikvu m'lehavi l'nidvas haMishkan. And nevertheless, though they cherished these mirrors, these mirrors were the conduit, the source through which they would beautify themselves, maintain their beauty, they didn't hesitate to donate them. והיה משה מואס בהן מפני שעשויין ליצר הרע V'haya Moshe mo'eis bahen mipnei she'asuyin l'yeitzer hara. And משה Moshe looked at these mirrors and he said to the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam, I don't want to accept these mirrors. These mirrors, these instruments of vanity, these instruments that drive a יצר הרע yeitzer hara, have no place in a holy משכן Mishkan. What are they doing in a sacred space, these instruments, these vehicles of vanity, these vehicles of of lasciviousness, of lewdness. משה Moshe was מואס mo'eis, he was repulsed by them. He hesitated to accept them. They represented an attempt to draw attention to themselves when women beautified themselves, an emphasis on the on the physical that could lead to promiscuity. And as this instrument of the superficial, in his opinion, they had no place in the holy spot, it was מואס mo'eis. אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא Amar lo Hakadosh Baruch Hu, השם Hashem says to משה Moshe, קבל kabel, accept them, כי אלו חביבין עלי מן הכל ki eilu chavivin alai min hakol. Says השם Hashem, they're more beloved to me than everything else. שעל ידן העמידו הנשים צבאות רבות במצרים She'al yadan he'emidu hanashim tzva'os rabos b'Mitzrayim. כשהיו בעליהם יגעים בעבודת פרך היו הולכות ומוליכות להם מאכל ומשתה ומאכילות אותם ונוטלות המראות וכל אחת רואה עצמה עם בעלה במראה ומשדלתו בדברים לומר אני נוה ממך ומתוך כך מביאות בעליהם לידי תאוה ונזקקות להם ומתעברות ויולדות שם K'shehayu ba'aleihem yegi'im b'avodas parech, hayu holchos u'molichos lahem ma'achal u'mishteh u'ma'achilos osam, v'notlos hamar'os, v'chol achas ro'ah atzma im ba'ala bamar'ah, u'meshadalto b'dvarim lomar ani no'eh mimcha, u'mitoch kach mevi'os ba'aleihem lidei ta'avah v'nizkakos lahem u'misabros v'yoldos sham. When the men were ready to give up, when the men were doing backbreaking labor in Egypt and they said, what is a world with a Coronavirus and COVID-19? What is a world with anti-Semitism? What is a world with threats that we face? Who would bring children into such a world? One responsible person, and the men withdrew. They overcame their תאוה ta'avah, their desire, and they lived abstinent because they were withdrawing. They wanted to make sure not to bring anyone else into this world to suffer. And what did the women do? They used these mirrors to beautify themselves to attract the attention of their husbands, to draw the love of their husbands romantically, and they therefore brought greater children. They were able to create a continuity because they never lost their hope and their optimism, a message so critically important for right now. Our hope and our optimism, and that though we're going through a difficult period and a difficult time, again, whose difficulty is most its uncertainty, that there will be a brighter time yet again. The message of the women who by the way were rewarded for their optimism both in מצרים Mitzrayim with the mirrors and their failure to give to the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel because they were רואה את הנולד ro'eh es hanolad. Women have an eye towards the future, they can see what's not yet here. They're not struggling anxiously in the present, but they're able to anticipate with hope the future. What were they given as a reward? The holiday of ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh. The holiday of ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh. The שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch records, the practice based on the גמרא Gemara, that women don't do מלאכה melacha on ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh. It doesn't mean the 39 acts of creative labor, now we're talking about real labor. The מנהג minhag the שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch records is that women don't do the laundry and don't cook dinner. Men, every ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh you should be either you make dinner or buy take out dinner on ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh. ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh was given a women. Why? Because what is ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh? When do we celebrate ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh? On ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh, if you look up in the sky, the moon is not full. On ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh, the moon is not in all of its glory, the moon is a sliver. The moon is next to nothing. When is the moon full in its all full glory? On the 15th of the month. You see on ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh, we're celebrating the moon not as it will be in its fullness. We're celebrating in anticipation with optimism, hope and confidence that the moon will grow full once again. We say דוד מלך ישראל חי וקים Dovid Melech Yisrael chai v'kayam in קידוש לבנה Kiddush Levana. In קידוש לבנה Kiddush Levana I look up and there's a little sliver of a tiny, barely discernible moon, but I say דוד מלך ישראל חי וקים Dovid Melech Yisrael chai v'kayam. I know we'll grow full like the full moon. I know we will reflect light on the world once again. Women were given the holiday of ראש חודש Rosh Chodesh because it's entirely consistent with the hope and optimism that they had both in מצרים Mitzrayim with the mirrors and by being by refusing to give to the עגל Eigel and yet being the first to contribute, understanding the contrast to the משכן Mishkan itself. So רש\"י Rashi tells us that משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu says I'm not accepting these mirrors, these instruments of vanity, of superficial, and yet הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu overruled him. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty said no, you have to accept them. These are the most beautiful for me. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra writes here on this section, the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra writes they were given with מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh. You know why they are the most cherished by השם Hashem? Because whatever is given with the most מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh. This goes back on our כלי יקר Kli Yakar from earlier. כלי יקר Kli Yakar said מאתכם me'itchem, to give what you don't want anyway, to give what's extra and you won't miss anyway, big deal. But to give what you cherish the most, to give what is from yourself, מאתכם me'itchem. We say at שמע Shema, בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך b'chol levavcha u'v'chol nafshecha u'v'chol me'odecha. You have to serve השם Hashem with all your heart, all your soul and בכל מאדך b'chol me'odecha. In some מאדך me'odecha means ממנך mamoncha, means with all of your money, but it also means בכל מאדך b'chol me'odecha whatever מאוד מאוד me'od me'od, whatever you want more and more, whatever you cherish and love, whatever you amass and accumulate, to be willing to give that, that's מאתכם me'itchem. So says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, the women gave with מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh what they loved and cherished the most, and that's why to הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu it was the most special he cherished. The בן איש חי Ben Ish Chai says something else. The בן איש חי Ben Ish Chai says an image on a mirror, the image you see in the mirror appears real. We have a backsplash in our dining room that is a mirror. And often when we had guests for the first time they say, oh wow, I didn't realize that was a mirror. I thought that was another room, or the room is expanded, or they didn't, you couldn't tell. If you look into a mirror, you don't realize that it's only a reflection, that it's not real, that there's nothing there. And that's what הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling משה Moshe, that temptations and יצר הרע yeitzer hara, they seem real, but they're an illusion. They're not worth pursuing. Some glitter and some sparkle, but they're counterfeit. They're not real, they're a mirage and illusion. There's nothing real. And then when the כהנים kohanim come in and they wash their hands and feet, and they prepare for the day and they look into that כיור kiyor, into those mirrors, they realize what is an illusion and what is real. That the exercise of washing against a mirror is the experience of differentiating in our minds between that which is real and worth pursuing and that which is counterfeit and is temporary and not lasting. But רבי שלמה ויצחק Rabbi Soloveitchik has another פשט pshat I want to share with you about the כיור kiyor. And the רב Rav says a magnificent alternative and an understanding of the conversation between משה Moshe and השם Hashem. And the רב Rav has this in his חומש Chumash page 330 if you have the חומש Chumash. Says the following, משה Moshe says, the רב Rav, did not understand how the mirrors the women employed while they ornamented themselves for their husbands gaining pleasure for their own beauty could be properly incorporated in the כיור kiyor. The כיור kiyor is next to the מזבח mizbeach, where a Jew brings the sacrifice of atonement, where a Jew confesses with a broken heart. Given that the מזבח mizbeach and כיור kiyor seem to represent two mutually exclusive motifs, the physical proximity of the two seems strange. How can the beauty of the mirror harmonize with the sensation of self-criticism with which the road to the altar is bound? The מזבח mizbeach you bring a קרבן korban. A קרבן korban is to become קרוב karov close to השם Hashem. You bring it to atone for your mistake. The mirror represents vanity and superficial, and the מזבח mizbeach represents atonement and repair. Says the רב Rav, משה Moshe was bothered, how could you have the two adjacent? How could you have the two one next to the other? משה Moshe objected to the gifts of the mirror because he thought the כיור kiyor represents the hubris of vanity and the מזבח mizbeach represents the humility of forgiveness. How could they be right next to each other? So השם Hashem turned to him and he said, משה Moshe, accept it. Because personal growth and repairing relationships and improving ourselves is predicated on self-awareness. Before you can step up to a מזבח mizbeach and repair yourself, you have to look into a כיור kiyor. You have to look into the mirror and be honest with yourself. You have to recognize your failure, your shortcoming, your mistake, the damage that we've done. In our declaration on יום כיפור Yom Kippur, the רב Rav points out we say, and you are justified for all that befalls us, for you have acted correctly and we've acted mistakenly. A person cannot grow with the courage and boldness to accusing and condemn himself. The greatness of man is the capacity for self-awareness, for self-improvement, for taking responsibility. So says the רב Rav, the כיור kiyor sits right next to the מזבח mizbeach. They're not opposites. They're not in conflict, but rather they're in consonance. Before you step up to that מזבח mizbeach, before you can repair a relationship, be it with God and be it with fellow man, you have to be willing to look in the mirror. You have to be true to yourself. You have to be honest with what we need to be able to improve. Carl Jung said, everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. The people around us are mirrors too. And what we see in others that irritate us is really simply a reflection, revealing. The German novelist, Hermann Hesse, who wrote, if you hate a person, you hate something in him that's part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. And so the people around us are our mirrors. What the philosopher said, we already have in our sacred Torah. The מגיד Maggid, ר' דב בער Rav Dov Ber of Mezritch, he says the כהנים kohanim are מקדש mekadesh themselves by looking in the mirror, and by realizing that what they don't like in others, they should fix in themselves, that everyone is our personal mirror. And that's why the כיור kiyor was made from the mirrors of these women. A few minutes left, let's turn to פרשת פקודי Parshas Pekudei. פרשת פקודי Parshas Pekudei. פרק ל\"ח Perek Lamed Ches, פסוק כ\"א Pasuk Chaf Aleph. פרשת פקודי Parshas Pekudei begins in a very unusual way. אלה פקודי המשכן Eleh pekudei haMishkan, משכן העדות Mishkan ha'eidus. If you're in the ארטסקרול סטון חומש Artscroll Stone Chumash, page 530. אלה פקודי המשכן Eleh pekudei haMishkan, משכן העדות Mishkan ha'eidus. We've spoken about in the past, we won't review now. פרשת פקודי Parshas Pekudei is this big spreadsheet, this big accounting. משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu was, can you imagine the brazenness, the gall, he was audited by כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. They accused him that there were missing funds, and משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu had to take an accounting, and first he was nervous, he couldn't account for a certain amount, and then he remembered they were spent on the ווים vavim, the hooks that bind the משכן Mishkan together, we should never forget. And that's such an important דבר תורה dvar Torah as we go through this right now too. This experience, I have to tell you, I'm so moved, I'm so נתפעל nispoyel, that were, I think 114 at the max people on the video part. I don't know how many people are calling in, who are part of learning together, that even when a virus separates us physically, nothing can separate us spiritually, emotionally, and our shared commitment to learning Torah and growing together. It's those ווים vavim, the וו vav, החיבור hachibur, the וו vav that connects us, the וו vav that united the משכן Mishkan and held it together. The וו vav of קין Kayin that he had to have tattooed on himself because he lacked that brotherhood, that camaraderie. Those ווים vavim. So משה Moshe, that which seems so negligible and inconsequential that משה Moshe had dismissed and not accounted for, משה Moshe remembered, so he was able to balance the books and show that חס ושלום chas v'shalom nothing had taken. I feel better if a משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu could be accused. Nobody's got a 100% approval rating. מרדכי Mordechai didn't, we just read at the end of the מגילה megillah, he was רצוי לרוב אחיו ratzui l'rov echav. Can you imagine מרדכי Mordechai saves the people of שושן Shushan and they take a poll and he doesn't have 100% approval rating. Who did not vote for מרדכי Mordechai in שושן Shushan? And who led this charge against משה Moshe who led them out of מצרים Mitzrayim and got them the מן man and got them the באר be'er and the שלו slav and, and who led this charge? But it makes all leaders feel better that nobody has that 100% approval rating. So the פרשה parsha begins so very peculiarly. אלה פקודי המשכן Eleh pekudei haMishkan, משכן העדות Mishkan ha'eidus. Why does the word משכן Mishkan appear twice? So the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says, אלה פקודי המשכן, משכן העדות Eleh pekudei haMishkan, Mishkan ha'eidus. Says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, הטעם פקודי הכלים כי מלת משכן כולל את הכל ופרש למה נקרא משכן בעבור הארון ששם לוחות העדות והנה האחת דרך קצרה וזהו אמת בעבור מכתב אלקים Hata'am pekudei hakeilim, ki milas Mishkan kolel es hakol, u'feiresh lama nikra Mishkan, ba'avur ha'aron shesham luchos ha'eidus, v'hinei ha'achas derech ktzara v'zehu emes ba'avur michtav Elokim. פקודי הכלים Pekudei hakeilim, כי מלת משכן כולל את הכל ki milas Mishkan kolel es hakol. So the word משכן Mishkan has a dual meaning. משכן Mishkan can mean the general whole משכן Mishkan, and משכן Mishkan can mean the components therein. So אלה פקודי המשכן Eleh pekudei haMishkan, this is the accounting of the general משכן Mishkan, and then also the specific משכן Mishkan that is therein. The רמב\"ן Ramban has an alternative interpretation. And the רמב\"ן Ramban here writes, אלה פקודי המשכן משכן Eleh pekudei haMishkan Mishkan twice, he says the יריעות שש משזר yerios sheish mashzar, this covering, this curtain, that is being called the משכן Mishkan. And the רמב\"ן Ramban argues and tries to prove that whenever we use the term משכן Mishkan throughout these פרשיות parshiyos, משכן Mishkan means this canopy, this curtain which is on top of it, and that's why there are the two משכן Mishkan, the general משכן Mishkan, and the specific משכן Mishkan, that's why it's twice. רש\"י Rashi has a third opinion. משכן, משכן Mishkan, Mishkan. Says רש\"י Rashi, שתי פעמים רמז למקדש שנתמשכן בשני חורבנין על עונותיהן של ישראל Shtei pe'amim, remez l'Mikdash shenismashkein bishnei churbonin al avonoseihem shel Yisrael. This is foretelling, it's portending a terrible thing that ultimately we wouldn't have this one משכן Mishkan, we'd have two בתי מקדש batei Mikdash and the two בתי מקדש batei Mikdash would be destroyed. So אלה פקודי Eleh pekudei, there is an accounting we are accountable for, משכן משכן Mishkan, Mishkan, the two בתי מקדש batei Mikdash that are destroyed. רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya has a fourth interpretation. רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya or רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya, however you pronounce it, if we had the time, that would read it to you inside. רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya says there are two משכן Mishkan's. There's the משכן Mishkan, the tabernacle we build as this house for השם Hashem, the שכינה Shechina, his שכן shachein, for him to be our neighbor, camaraderie, love, connection, and there is the משכן Mishkan that we create in this world. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu created earth, the משכן Mishkan is a recreation, a testament to ששת ימי בראשית sheishes yemei bereishis. And we too, when we create in this world, we are emulating him. And therefore רבינו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya tracks there are many comparisons between the creation of the world and the creation of the משכן Mishkan, and through our effort to create the משכן Mishkan, we are in fact becoming a שותף shutaf, a partner in emulating, in emulating the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam. Four interpretations of what, why the word משכן Mishkan is repeated. פרק ל\"ח פסוק כ\"ז Perek Lamed Ches, Pasuk Chaf Zayin. If you didn't listen to anything till now, listen to this. I love this פשט pshat, and again so, so relevant for this time in which we are unfortunately going through right now. פרק ל\"ח פסוק כ\"ז Perek Lamed Ches, Pasuk Chaf Zayin. The Torah tells us, פרק ל\"ח פסוק כ\"ז Perek Lamed Ches, Pasuk Chaf Zayin. Page 530 in the ארטסקרול סטון חומש Artscroll Stone Chumash. ויהי מאת ככר הכסף לצקת את אדני הקדש ואת אדני הפרכת מאת אדנים למאת הככר ככר לאדן Vayehi me'as kikar hakesef latzekes es adnei hakodesh v'es adnei haparoches, me'as adanim l'me'as hakikar, kikar la'aden. The hundred talents of silver were cast as sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the partition, a hundred sockets for a hundred talents, a talent per socket. What is the word repeated over and over in that פסוק pasuk? The אדנים adanim. אדנים Adanim are the sockets. You put the poles in the sockets and that's what held the whole thing together. How many sockets were there? There were a hundred sockets, and those sockets were the foundation, they were the base of the משכן Mishkan, and if one were missing, it would collapse. It couldn't be held up, it would fall apart. So there was 100 silver talents to pay for the hundred sockets, and you needed to have those hundred critical sockets, these אדנים adanim, in order to be able to hold up the משכן Mishkan. Listen to this חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim. The חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim says, the גערער רבי Gerer Rebbe getting a lot of play today, says the חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim, ר' יצחק מאיר מיגור Reb Yitzchak Meir MiGur, he says, you know what these hundred sockets are an allusion to? The allegation of a hundred ברכות brachos every day. The Torah tells us, מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך mah Hashem Elokecha sho'el me'imach? What does God want from you? משה Moshe says, He wants us to love, to fear him. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to be present, to be mindful, to have a consciousness of his presence in our lives. חז\"ל Chazal come along and say, don't read it מה mah, what does he want? Read it מאה meah. מאה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך Meah Hashem Elokecha sho'el me'imach. השם Hashem wants from us a hundred ברכות brachos a day. Says the חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim, these hundred sockets correspond with the hundred ברכות brachos we say a day. The foundation of the משכן Mishkan were the sockets, and the foundation of the sanctity and holiness in our lives is saying a hundred ברכות brachos a day. He says it's not a coincidence that a socket is called an אדן aden or אדן oden. It comes from the word אדון adon, a master. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the name of אדנות Adnus, י-ה-ו-ה Yud-Kei-Vov-Kei, the name of השם Hashem, he is our אדון הכל adon hakol, he is the master of all. What happens in our relationship with השם Hashem? It happens, unfortunately, tragically, sadly, in our relationships in lives, in our lives, when we're not quarantined. When we are apart from one another, we forget to check in, and we can lose an awareness of the other. הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu*, we don't see him or feel him or touch him or smell him, and it's very easy to be caught up in our lives and forget he's there. So השם *Hashem* says, a hundred check-ins a day. Marriage experts will tell you, check in throughout the day, a text message, a phone call. Check in during the day. It builds bridges, it creates bonds, and it's able to cultivate a sense of love. הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* says, מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך *mah Hashem Elokecha sho'el me'imach*. מאה השם שואל מעמך *Mei'ah Hashem sho'el me'imach*. He asks us, a hundred check-ins a day, because it's so easy to slip into a place where we forget he's there. So you're about to have a cup of coffee. Who doesn't cherish a cup of coffee? Slowly, a ברכה *bracha*, שהכל נהיה בדברו *shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro*, that everything comes from you. A hundred ברכות *brachos*. You come out of the bathroom, everything functioned properly, everything's working. How about every breath? Sidra Snippets we're going to continue, the fifth הַלְלוּקָה *Halleluka*, the last תהלים *Tehillim*. And we'll get up to that last פסוק *pasuk*, כל הנשמה תהלל קה *Kol haneshama tehallel Kah*, which חז\"ל *Chazal* say in the מדרש *Midrash*, כל הנשימה תהלל קה *Kol haneshima tehallel Kah*. We're living in a time that there is a virus which poses a respiratory threat. People are struggling to breathe. There's a shortage of ventilators to help people breathe. כל הנשימה תהלל קה *Kol haneshima tehallel Kah*. How do you not give הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* a ברכה *bracha* for every breath that you take? If you're not on a ventilator, if you don't have coronavirus, if you're not struggling to breathe, to produce a breath, if you don't have pneumonia, then כל הנשמה *kol haneshama* תהלל קה *tehallel Kah*. You gotta praise השם *Hashem* and thank השם *Hashem*. So a hundred ברכות *brachos* a day, these are the אדנים *adonim*, these are the sockets, this is the foundation, this is the base of our life. In הודה אני *Oden* is אדון *Adon*. הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu*, you are the master. We don't know why what's happening is happening, but we're not going to neglect or forget you're there. A hundred times a day, we're going to check in through these sockets. We're going to strengthen the foundation of our lives. מאה ברכות בכל יום *Meah brachos bechol yom*. We're studying in the Living with אמונה *Emunah* series that we're up to part 130 something. We did a whole series on the מאה ברכות בכל יום *Meah Brachos Bechol Yom* and at the end we had a ברכה *bracha* party, where we served we served breakfast at that אמונה שיעור *emunah shiur* with signs for the ברכה *bracha* for each of the foods and celebrating each of the ברכות *brachos* that we recite. You can combine the 100 ברכות *brachos* between the שמונה עשרה *Shemoneh Esrei* three times a day, and the אשר יצר *Asher Yatzar* out of the bathroom, and the ברכת הנהנין *Birkas HaNehenin* before and after we eat, and המפיל *Hamapil* at night and combine all these ברכות *brachos*. A hundred times a day we check in, but we can't do it mindlessly. When you say that ברכה *bracha*, you have to do it slowly and carefully and consciously and mindfully. And for a moment pause and say, you know what? השם *Hashem*, I'm feeling the stress and the angst, I'm feeling the worry and uncertainty. השם *Hashem*, I'm feeling what will be. No. A hundred times a day, I calm my nerves. A hundred times a day, I take that deep breath and restore my soul. A hundred times a day, I strengthen that foundation that says, I don't have to worry because you have my back. I'm practicing דביקות *dveikus*, the דבק *devek*, the glue. I'm sticking with you, השם *Hashem*, because I know there's a master plan. Let me tell you one more thing. We're over an hour, but I promise you we'd come back to the כאשר צוה השם *ka'asher tziva Hashem*. So the רב *Rav* writes on כאשר צוה השם *ka'asher tziva Hashem*, פרק ל\"ט פסוק א *perek lamed tes pasuk aleph*.פרק ל\"ט פסוק א *Perek lamed tes pasuk aleph*. פרק ל\"ט *Perek lamed tes*, sorry, פסוק *pasuk*, not א *aleph*. כאשר צוה השם *ka'asher tziva Hashem*, we have over and over again, and the רב *Rav* writes, you see the whole חטא העגל *cheit ha'eigel* was, we ignored what השם *Hashem* wanted for us, and we thought we could figure it out on our own. השם *Hashem* said wait here for משה *Moshe*. When he didn't return on our timeline, we decided we were going to create a sense of religion in our own way.The רב *Rav* got this from his great-grandfather, the בית הלוי *Beis Halevi*, who understood the whole חטא העגל *cheit ha'eigel* was man trying to create religious avenue that was not dictated from above. הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* tells us what is genuine and authentic. We're not allowed to have this religious creativity to come up with our own מצוות *mitzvos* or to invent new מצוות *mitzvos*. We have to be very, very careful. We have to be careful during this time. All the Zoom מנינים *minyanim*, I understand the idea that you can connect with others when you דאווען *daven* at the same time as them, but that's not halachically a מנין *minyan*. And we have to be very careful. We can't stream our דאווענען *davening* on שבת *Shabbos*, even though we'd love to and we wish we could. הלכה *Halacha* may limit us at times, but when there's a conflict between our religious creativity and the הלכה *halacha* that הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* has given us, we have to concede and forfeit to him. And therefore that was our mistake. We have תרומה תצוה *Trumah Tetzaveh*, but in between came the חטא העגל *cheit ha'eigel*, where we tried to invent and manufacture and figure it out on our own. So it's followed up with a ויקהל פקודי *Vayakhel Pekudei*, which is filled with כאשר צוה השם *ka'asher tziva Hashem*. We have to do it the way השם *Hashem* told us, not in any other way. I wanted to tell you one other idea, where משה רבינו *Moshe Rabbeinu* stopped taking donations for the משכן *Mishkan*. Whoever heard of such a fundraiser where you turn it off, the spigot, and say no more donations? This is something that we recreate, the notion of המלאכה היתה דים *hamlacha haysa dayam*. It was enough. Is based on השם *Hashem* creating the world and saying, it's enough. We shortly are going to sing דיינו *Dayeinu*, our capacity for it's enough. But please God, we'll share that in another context. So I want to thank everybody for joining me, for dialing in, this experiment, didn't know how it would go, but appreciate it, and we should all be זוכה *zocheh* to not have to learn at a distance learning, but to be able to learn together to draw energy from one another. Everyone should be healthy and safe and secure. אם ירצה השם *im yirtzeh Hashem*, have a fantastic day.
