Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב Boker tov, may it be a בוקר טוב Boker tov for כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, בשורות טובות besorot tovot, בעזרת השם b'ezrat Hashem, it should be a good day. We should hear more hostages, all the hostages coming home, soldiers returning to their families, and a sweeping, sweeping victory. We are continuing, פרשת תרומה Parshas Trumah, page 444 in the ArtScroll Stone חומש Chumash. Just first, a few reminders. פרשה שיעור Parsha shiur is generously sponsored by Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman, לזכר נשמת l'zecher nishmas דוד בן מנחם מנש Dovid ben Menachem Manish. We continue to be incredibly grateful to the Grossmans for their generosity. This morning's shiur is also sponsored by Elie Fillakoff in thanks to BRS Rabbis for the שיעורים shiurim that we offer, and BRS, we're very grateful to him for his generosity and sponsorship as well. Which is the perfect segue to remind you that next week we are beginning our annual BRS Global campaign. Looking out, it's amazing to see so many people here to have the privilege to learn together. I see many of you are not BRS members, and that's okay. If you don't live here and you're not here regularly, that's okay. But if you learn here and you grow here, and you're sipping coffee here and eating a granola bar here, and you enjoy the שיעורים shiurim and the programs and the activities and the rallies and the lectures and the תהילים Tehillim gatherings and the lunch and learns, and everything we do, we ask you to do your part. So you can do it now by going to brsonline.org/global, brsonline.org/global. We're trying to in advance already make our way there even before we go public with it. So we always are grateful for your participation and your support and your enabling us to continue to share and teach and spread Torah widely. And towards that end, this מוצאי שבת Motzei Shabbos, we are privileged to host רב פסח קראהן Rav Pesach Krohn, 8:30 p.m., right here in the main sanctuary. All are invited. BRS members, BRS Global members, soon-to-be BRS Global members. But you're all invited. It is this מוצאי שבת Motzei Shabbos, 8:30 p.m. here at BRS. And we're very excited to welcome רב קראהן Rav Krohn back.Page 444, וידבר השם אל משה לאמר דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו תקחו את תרומתי Vaydaber Hashem el Moshe leimor daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu li trumah me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo tikchu es trumasi. Our פרשה parsha continues, תרומה תצווה Trumah Tetzaveh, we now transition to the second half of the book of שמות Shemos with the story of the building of the משכן Mishkan and the כלים keilim, all the utensils that are in it, and the purpose, why are we building this משכן Mishkan? What are we trying to achieve? Why are we extending this experience? How do we morph into this משכן Mishkan? So we'll begin with a רמב\"ן Ramban. The רמב\"ן Ramban writes on this פסוק pasuk, דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu li trumah, speak to כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael and please take from me a תרומה trumah, a donation, a gift. I say this almost every year in this פרשה parsha because it's a beautiful insight. Why do we go from יתרו, משפטים, תרומה Yisro, Mishpatim, Trumah? Because we came down from the mountain, the spiritual high. השם Hashem, you're amazing, we love you, we do anything for you. השם Hashem says, really? ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah. brsonline.org/global. Here's the link. השם Hashem says you'll do anything? You know, it's easy to blow the שופר shofar, shake the לולב lulav, sit in the סוכה sukkah, light the חנוכה Chanukah candles, even clean for פסח Pesach. But dip into our wallet, tap into our pocket, give our credit card number, that's a lot harder. So the real measure, השם Hashem says, you love me, נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma, that was the end of last week. נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma, the end of משפטים Mishpatim. נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma, השם Hashem says, really? נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma, you'll do and then you'll listen? You're ready to jump? You're ready to act? You're ready to do? נעשה naaseh, you put נעשה naaseh before נשמע nishma? Really? Let's see. ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. Let's see. Will you take out your wallet? ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says the following, סוד המשכן הוא שיהיה הכבוד אשר שכן על הר סיני שוכן עליו בנסתר sod haMishkan hu sheyiheyeh ha'kavod asher shachan al Har Sinai shochen alav b'nistar. Says the רמב\"ן Ramban very succinctly, you know what the purpose of the Mishkan was? To continue the הר סיני Har Sinai experience. Two פרשיות parshiyos ago and into last parsha, the last two פרשיות parshiyos were capturing the experience of what it meant to climb that mountain, to be with השם Hashem, to understand there's something so much bigger than ourselves, to have a moment of revelation, of contact with the divine, to hear Hashem speaking to us and inspiring us, letting us read His diary, giving us access to His manual for life and for living. That's what the last two פרשיות parshiyos. But what happens? Then we're going to move on. Then we're going to go back to our mundane lives. Then we're going to go back to the ordinary. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says, and this is the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel, רב שמואל בערנעם Rav Shmuel Bornsztain expanding on the רמב\"ן Ramban, שכיוון שבאו כלל ישראל למדרגה הכי גדולה של התקרבות להקדוש ברוך הוא she'keivan she'ba'u Klal Yisrael l'madreiga hachi gedolah shel hitkarvus l'Hakadosh Baruch Hu, after we accessed the divine, we experienced this revelation, we felt the presence of השם Hashem, כדי איתא במסכת תענית k'dei ita b'maseches Taanis דף כו עמוד ב daf kaf-vav amud beis tells us, ביום חתונתו וביום שמחת לבו b'yom chasunaso u'v'yom simchas libo, on the day of our wedding, on the day of our gladdening of our heart. ביום חתונתו b'yom chasunaso, what is the day of our wedding? What's the anniversary we have with השם Hashem? What is the day of our wedding? זה מתן תורה zeh Matan Torah. השם Hashem held that mountain over our head like a חופה chuppah. We derive many of the practices and customs and laws of a wedding from the experience of הר סיני Har Sinai. That's מתן תורה Matan Torah. וביום שמחת לבו זה בנין בית המקדש שיבנה במהרה בימינו u'v'yom simchas libo zeh binyan Beis Hamikdash sheyibaneh b'meheira v'yameinu. So ביום חתונתו b'yom chasunaso, the day of our wedding. A wedding is that connection of intimacy. A wedding is ייחוד yichud. A wedding is the ability to say I'm having an intimate private rendezvous, a connection that I share exclusively, uniquely, distinctly with this other. ייחוד Yichud. Why do we have ייחוד yichud? ספרדים Sefardim don't have a ייחוד yichud room as part of the process of the wedding. אשכנזים Ashkenazim we פוסקים poskim that ייחוד yichud, according to some opinions, it's a נישואין nisuin. We go right from the חופה chuppah and there should be a connection. It's not just some modern phenomenon the חתן chassan grabs the כלה's kallah's hand for the first, for the hopefully for the first time after the חופה chuppah on the way to the ייחוד yichud room. Among חסידים chasidim and others, there's a הלכה קיים halacha kiyum in order to create a connection between the חופה chuppah and the ייחוד yichud room, they display, they demonstrate now marriage through contact that was previously forbidden in order to create a connection between the חופה chuppah and the ייחוד yichud room, the חתן chassan grabs the כלה's kallah's hand. Even among the most righteous and the most religious who will not do that any other time, display that חיבה chibah in public, they do that night, because that's part of connecting the ייחוד yichud room to the חופה chuppah. And they're in ייחוד yichud for how long? Different rabbis, different מסדר קידושין mesader kiddushin. Not that the מסדר קידושין mesader kiddushin is in charge. Who's in charge how long the ייחוד yichud room lasts? The photographer, the caterer, the makeup artist. There's a whole team outside the ייחוד yichud room, and there's a whole negotiation. Who's going to bust into that room? The makeup artist. Now you have to hire somebody to puts up the hair afterwards again. Now you have, meanwhile the guest is 12:00 at night, the first dance hasn't started yet because the makeup, the hair, the caterer, the photographer, the whole team is there. Whatever. Why what's the debate how long the ייחוד yichud room should last? Because until an hour ago, until you stood under the חופה chuppah, ייחוד yichud was forbidden. It was prohibited to be alone, to be secluded, to be isolated with this person to whom you weren't married. How do you demonstrate marriage? דוקא ייחוד Dafka yichud. You demonstrate marriage now by by being alone. ייחוד Yichud. It's prohibited, it was forbidden until now. Now that there's marriage, now it's permissible. That's the demonstration of being married. And that is according to some, the fulfillment of the נישואין nisuin, the second half of the wedding. אשכנזים פוסקים Ashkenazim poskim that you need ייחוד yichud, what was previously forbidden. So when is יום חתונתו yom chasunaso? When is our ייחוד yichud with השם Hashem? That's מתן תורה Matan Torah. ישקני מנשיקות פיהו yishakeini mi'neshikos pihu. The beginning of שיר השירים Shir HaShirim, Shlomo HaMelech describes, ישקני מנשיקות פיהו yishakeini mi'neshikos pihu, a kiss, the intimate connection, something reserved only between a loving husband and wife is a kiss. רש\"י Rashi says, ישקני מנשיקות פיהו yishakeini mi'neshikos pihu, what is the metaphor of a kiss, of the intimate connection of a kiss? Says רש\"י Rashi, זו מתן תורה zu Matan Torah. That was הר סיני Har Sinai. A connection, an affection, intimacy. That was הר סיני Har Sinai. That was יום חתונתו yom chasunaso. What's יום שמחת לבו yom simchas libo? The building of the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. What does the building of the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash have to do with יום מתן תורה Yom Matan Torah? Why is that the definition of these two descriptions? יום חתונתו yom chasunaso, יום שמחת לבו yom simchas libo, יום חתונתו זה מתן תורה, יום שמחת לבו זו בנין בית המקדש yom chasunaso zeh Matan Torah, yom simchas libo zu binyan Beis Hamikdash. And the answer is, כדי להחזיק ולהמשיך בהתקרבות הגדולה ההיא של יום חתונתו שהקדוש ברוך הוא בא לקראתנו כחתן לקראת כלה ציווה אותנו הקדוש ברוך הוא לבנות המשכן במדרגה של התקרבות הקדוש ברוך הוא kedei l'hachzik u'l'hamshich b'hitkarvus hagedolah hahi shel yom chasunaso she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu ba likraseinu k'chassan likras kallah, tziva osanu Hakadosh Baruch Hu livnos haMishkan b'madreiga shel hitkarvus Hakadosh Baruch Hu. How do you continue the love, the affection, the intimacy, the connection, the the the admiration, the all the feelings at a wedding? How do you continue it? How do you continue that? So that's the משכן Mishkan. The משכן Mishkan was the continuation of הר סיני Har Sinai. It wasn't just that we stood at הר סיני Har Sinai with השם Hashem and then we parted ways. Now we got to go to work and the gym and the supermarket and life and you go back to what you're doing and we'll remember nostalgically that once upon a time we stood under a mountain. No, we need to find a place that every time we return there, we're back experiencing that intimacy, that affection, that connection. And that's what the משכן Mishkan was. הוא משל לזה חתן וכלה hu mashal l'zeh, chassan v'kallah. Says רב שמואל בערנעם Rav Shmuel Bornsztain building off of this רמב\"ן Ramban, the metaphor of a חתן וכלה chassan v'kallah, שבשעת חתונתם לוקחים צילומים sheb'shaas chasunasam lokchim tzilumim. At a wedding, at a wedding, some people spend exorbitantly on this. There's a whole team, there's 15 photographers and 17 video people and 400. Some people spend and some people have one person with a camera. But I've never been to a wedding that didn't have a photographer. Ever. I've never been to a wedding where nobody was taking pictures. And if you think about it for a minute, why not? The whole point of getting married is, anyone know? The whole point of getting married is to be married. I when I meet with a חתן chassan and כלה kallah when I'm doing their wedding, I always tell them this. I say, I just in case you're confused or nobody told you, I want to remind you that the purpose of the wedding is to be married. It's not to compete about the the flowers or the photography or the symphony or the singers or the dress or the gowns or the map. All of that's lovely and nice and enhances and we're not getting into it, but that's not what it's about. And why do I make that point? Because so much friction can happen with these two families who are first meeting each other around the negotiation. Which is so unfortunate. They're about to build a family and be connected, please God, לדור דורות l'dor doros, for generations to come, they will be connected and it begins. When we made our our first wedding, someone, I won't quote who it was, said, Rabbi, מזל טוב mazel tov on the engagement, good luck with the wedding. It's like making a בר מצוה bar mitzvah with an opposing team. That was their description. I'm very blessed. Of course not. We have three sets of incredible מחותנים mechutanim, dear friends, ממש mamash, family. That was not our experience. Why do you take, why do you take pictures for? What do you need pictures? The whole point is, you're married and now you're married. Why do you need pictures? כדי לזכור תמיד שמחת יום חתונתם Kedei lizkor tamid simchas yom chasunasam. And the answer is, you want to look back and you want to remember. You remember how exciting it was? You remember the first time we saw each other after a week we didn't see each other? Do you remember the joy and the excitement and the love and the energy that was in the air? כה אמר הנביא קה אמר השם זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולותיך k'dei amar ha'navi koh amar Hashem, zacharti lach chesed neurayich, ahavas kelulosayich. The הנביא ירמיהו navi Yirmiyahu reminds us, השם Hashem nostalgically employing a very important tool called selective memory says, זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך zacharti lach chesed neurayich, I remember the חסד chesed of your youth, אהבת כלולותיך ahavas kelulosayich. When השם Hashem wants to nostalgically remember what it was like when we were first forging and forming our relationship, how does He describe it? אהבת כלולותיך ahavas kelulosayich, like a כלה kallah. השם Hashem says, remember our wedding? Remember the buildup? Remember how silly it was? You got family members to hold up numbers that counted down the days, 10 days but nine days, eight days, seven days, how ridiculous it was, but how exciting it was, how amazing it was, how much we look forward. Do you remember? Do you remember? Remember, then the first time, and then we had to turn around at the same time and we saw each other, and then we walked down and standing under that חופה chuppah and we couldn't even pay attention to the rabbi because we were just looking in each other's eyes and you remember how amazing it was? אהבת כלולותיך ahavas kelulosayich, you remember? לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה lechtech acharai ba'midbar b'eretz lo zru'ah, you followed me, we had no idea how we were going to pay the bills or earn a living or what we were going to do. We knew exactly how we were going to do it, the same people standing next to us under the חופה chuppah. But but remember, you remember לכתך אחרי lechtech acharai, שכביכול הקדוש ברוך הוא זוכר את אהבת כלולותיך shek'vyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu zocher es ahavas kelulosayich. So says the רמב\"ן Ramban, that's the משכן Mishkan. That's how we got here. יתרו, משפטים, נעשה ונשמע, ויקחו לי תרומה, משכן Yisro, Mishpatim, naaseh v'nishma, v'yikchu li trumah, Mishkan. What do I need a משכן Mishkan for? Because we're not leaving that moment behind. It needs to manifest, it needs to be housed, it needs to be captured. We have to be able to revisit it, re-experience it, re-engage it. It wasn't a one-time only thing. Every time we walk into the משכן Mishkan, the מקדש Mikdash, the מקדש מעט Mikdash Me'at called the shul, we're back at הר סיני Har Sinai. Wow, השם Hashem, I feel your revelation, I feel your conversation, I feel you're communicating with me. I'm talking to you through תפילה tefillah, you're talking to me through the learning, the listening to the קריאת התורה krias haTorah that I do there. I'm back at הר סיני Har Sinai. I'm back at that wedding. I'm back under that חופה chuppah. I'm back with that excitement. You know, if you ever watch a wedding video, you watch, look through the pictures, the albums, people don't as often as they should, it re-energizes. And that's the משכן Mishkan was the place of doing that. ועל דרך זו יש לפרש בביאור דבר הרמב\"ן v'al derech zu yeish l'fareish b'veur dvar haRamban. שכיוון שבאו כלל ישראל למדרגה גדולה של נעשה ונשמע she'keivan she'ba'u Klal Yisrael l'madreiga gedolah shel naaseh v'nishma, הרי הם מלאכי השרת משתמשים בו harei hem k'malachei hashares mishtamshim bo. After we said נעשה ונשמע naaseh v'nishma, we'll do and then we'll listen, which is something that the angels themselves commented, ממילא עלו עכשיו למדרגה מאוד memaila alu achshav l'madreiga me'od, ופן יפלו ממדרגתם בנפילה גדולה מאוד חס ושלום u'pen yiplu mimadreigasam b'nefilah gedolah me'od chas v'shalom. ובפרט עכשיו אחרי מתן תורה שזכו להתקרבות כל כך גדולה לקדוש ברוך הוא בגדר יום חתונתו ישקני מנשיקות פיהו היו צריכים לעשות תחבולה שיעמדו וישארו במדרגתם ולא יפלו חלילה u'vifrat achshav acharei Matan Torah she'zachu l'hitkarvus kol kach gedolah l'Hakadosh Baruch Hu b'geder yom chasunaso yishakeini mi'neshikos pihu, hayu tzrichim la'asos tachbula she'yaamdu v'yisha'aru b'madreigasam v'lo yiplu chalilah. רב שמואל בערנעם Rav Shmuel Bornsztain continues, he says, now we can understand a little bit the חטא העגל chet ha'eigel. We're going to read in a couple of weeks, the חטא העגל chet ha'eigel, כי תשא Ki Sisa. How could it be? They went from the חופה chuppah and the honeymoon to summoning having an affair, infidelity. How could it be? How could it be? And נפילה גדולה כל כך nefilah gedolah kol kach, such a dramatic and enormous and catastrophic fall? How could it be? You know the גמרא Gemara says in גיטין Gittin דף ל\"ו daf lamed vav, אלוּבָה כלה שזנתה בקרב חופתה Aluva kallah shezinsa b'kerev chuppasa. Says a כלה kallah can be מזנה mezanah, there can be an infidelity after this moment of connection of of a חופה chuppah. So he says, you see from here something, I won't read it inside because there's a lot more I want to get to. He says, you know, the higher one climbs, if you fall off that balcony or roof, the higher you are, the greater the fall. So if you take a step three inches off the ground and you fall off the step, so you get up, you'll walk away, you'll be okay. But the higher you are and one falls, the greater, the more catastrophic, the more devastating the fall. So because we were on such a high יום חתונתו זו מתן תורה yom chasunaso zu Matan Torah, we were in this incredible high, it meant that the fall is so much greater too. The fall is so much greater.Which tells us that the higher one goes in every area of life, the higher one is in any relationship of life, the more the border, the more the fence, the more the precautions that they need, because it's wonderful to be on a high. It's wonderful to be on a high. A legitimate, authentic, not a a bad kind of high. It's wonderful to be on a high. But the higher one goes, the greater potentially that fall, and therefore the more careful that one needs to be. ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. So now we know the רמב\"ן Ramban set the stage. How did we get from משפטים Mishpatim to תרומה Trumah? Why do we pivot the whole second half of the book of שמות Shemos? The רמב\"ן Ramban set the stage that after הר סיני Har Sinai, יום חתונתו yom chasunaso, now we move over to trying to capture. In other words, the משכן Mishkan was our wedding album. It was the place that we went to in order to reconnect. I got married at Marina Del Rey. Thank you, Mommy and Abba, Mom and Dad. I got married at Marina Del Rey. Not that often, but when Yocheved and I are back, we walk to the gazebo, and we remember, we were standing under here, how windy, how cold, how we weren't sure, should we do the חופה chuppah outside, should we do it inside? you're back. You're back to, oh, you remember how exciting and the buildup and the anticipation and what it, you remember? You remember? And every time you walk into the משכן Mishkan, every time you walk into the מקדש מעט Mikdash Me'at, the shul, you remember הר סיני Har Sinai, you remember נעילה Neilah, you remember that קומזיץ kumzitz, you remember that connection, you remember that revelation, you remember that אמונה emunah, that בטחון bitachon, you remember that trip to ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael recently, you remember that feeling. So the רמב\"ן Ramban sets the stage, that's what it's really, that's what it's really all about. רש\"י Rashi writes ויקחו לי v'yikchu li, sagt רש\"י Rashi, לי לשמי li lishmi. השם Hashem says, take for me a תרומה trumah, a gift, a donation, a contribution. ויקחו לי yikchu li, for me. Which word seems extra there? לי li. What's the word לי li doing in there? Take for me. So רש\"י Rashi says לי לשמי li lishmi. לשמי lishmi means for my name, for the right intent. It has to be for a pure motivation, for a pure, for a pure purpose. ויקחו לי v'yikchu li, לי לשמי li lishmi, for my name. Last year we spoke about the שבט מוסר Shevet Mussar, I thought every מצוה mitzvah needs to be לשמה lishma. Every מצוה mitzvah should be sincere, every מצוה mitzvah should be for the right reason, not driven by ulterior motives. So what's different about this? So רב דרוק Rav Druck in his בספרו נועם שיח על פרשת השבוע b'sifro Noam Siach al Parshas HaShavua writes a beautiful insight. ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah, הלא מדובר כאן בנתינת תרומה על ידי בני ישראל עבור המשכן halo medubar kan b'nesinas trumah al yedei Bnei Yisrael avur haMishkan. אם כן היה צריך לומר ויתנו לי תרומה im kein hayah tzarich lomar v'yitnu li trumah.The famous question, you can't read פרשת תרומה Parshas Trumah without raising this question. What should it say? Not ויקחו v'yikchu, take from me a donation. It should say, give to me a donation. נאמר בזה בפירושם רבים Ne'emar b'zeh b'peirushem rabim, and there are many, many answers, and we've shared many, many answers through the years. אך נראה לבאר בביאור קצר בדרך שכבר כתבנו על פרשת משפטים ach nir'eh l'vaer b'veur katzar b'derech shekvar kasavnu al parshas Mishpatim. Says רב דרוק Rav Druck, let's offer another insight based on something he said last week on משפטים Mishpatim. It said last week in פרשת משפטים Parshas Mishpatim, פרק כ\"ב פסוק כ\"ד perek kaf-beis pasuk kaf-daled, if you go backwards to page 430, אם כסף תלוה את עמי את העני עמך im kesef talveh es ami es ha'ani imach, when you lend money to my people, to the poor person who's with you, לא תהיה לו כנושה lo sihiyeh lo k'nosheh, do not be to him like a creditor, לא תשימון עליו נשך lo sesimun alav neshech, do not lay interest upon him. אם כסף תלוה את עמי im kesef talveh es ami, when you lend money to my people, עמך imach. So said רב דרוק Rav Druck last week, מה פירוש עמך mah peirush imach? אם כסף תלוה את עמי את העני עמך im kesef talveh es ami es ha'ani imach, who's with you? What do you mean he's with you? Where else is he? התורה אומרת לאדם כי בעצם כל כסף שהוא מחזיק אין הוא שלו haTorah omeres l'adam ki b'etzem kol kesef shehu machzik ein hu shelo.The money that you're holding onto does not belong to you. You were a steward over that money, but it's not yours. אלא הוא כספו של העני ela hu kaspo shel ha'ani. Really, when you have money that's in your portfolio, that's sitting in your bank account, it's not entirely all yours. You're holding on to money already that belongs to an impoverished and indigent person. רק שהקדוש ברוך הוא הפקיד ביד העשיר את ממונו של העני בשביל שיקיים בו מצוות צדקה rak sheHakadosh Baruch Hu hifkid b'yad ha'ashir es mamono shel ha'ani bishvil she'yikayem bo mitzvas tzedakah. How do you have it? How'd you get it? Why is it in your bank account? The answer is השם Hashem deposited it with you as a steward in charge of making sure it gets allocated and gets sent to the right place. זהו כוונת אם כסף תלוה את עמי איזה כסף תיתן לו zehu kavanas im kesef talveh es ami, eizeh kesef titein lo, if you need to give money to a poor person, and which money should you give? את העני עמך es ha'ani imach, את הכסף שלו שנמצא אצלך es ha'kesef shelo she'nimtza etzlicha, the money of the poor person that you have right now, that's what it's there for, says השם Hashem. I give you a משל mashal. Many people do this today, and I highly recommend it. Set up a bank account, whether you technically have a charitable fund, charitable foundation, charitable account, whether you technically enlisted in that way for the tax benefits of it, or even if not, you just set up a separate checking account that is your חסד chesed, your צדקה tzedakah account. And whenever you get your income, whenever you make your paycheck, you take 10% and you put it in that other account. And now that charitable account, you look at, and you don't feel it's yours. You know all along, I'm just a steward. I I'm I'm in charge of that foundation. What a great job. I'm watching over money that's not mine, was never mine, and is not hard to part with because it was never mine. So when someone asks you for money, ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael needs money, continue to give. Our shul, to continue to stand for, to teach. Yes, it's that time of year. I'm going to keep doing this. But unless everyone just wants to right now take out their phone and give, I don't have to bring it up again. But to the causes that are worthy and that deserve and from which we benefit, it's hard. It's hard to reach into our own pocket. It's hard to take from our own hard-earned money. But if we already set that aside and put it in an account, and we are simply guarding it, we're the stewards over it, we're in charge of it, but it was never ours, then not only is it easy to give away, it's exciting. It's an opportunity. We get to decide what's worthy, where, how much, and so on. So says רב דרוק Rav Druck, that's the פשט pshat in last week's פרשה parsha, את העני עמך es ha'ani imach. עמך imach means the poor person's money that's already with you. You already have it. In your charity account, you're already holding on to it. Now you just have the opportunity of a destination where to give it. על דרך זו יש לפרש גם כאן גבי תרומה al derech zu yeish l'fareish gam kan gabei trumah. So now we can understand our פרשה parsha as well, says רב דרוק Rav Druck. שהכסף הנמצא ביד האדם באמת כלל אינו שלו אלא בעצם כולו של הקדוש ברוך הוא she'hakesef ha'nimtza b'yad ha'adam b'emes klal eino shelo, ela b'etzem kulo shel Hakadosh Baruch Hu. All the money that we're holding onto is never really ours. Who said we deserve it? We're the junior partner. Others are as smart, others worked as hard, and others don't have what we have. So if we have what we have, it's only because the graciousness, the goodness of השם Hashem, our senior partner. רק שהוא הפקיד אותו בידו בשביל שיעשה בו מצוות ומעשים טובים rak shehu hifkid oso b'yado bishvil she'yaaseh bo mitzvos u'maasim tovim. He gave it to us and He said, 90% of it, even though you're the junior partner, even though you're not necessarily deserving or entitled to it, even though you're the junior partner, 90% enjoy. Spend, go out for dinner, go on vacation, put an extension on your house, go shopping at the mall, 90% enjoy. But 10%, even though I deserve 100%, says השם Hashem, 10% is what you should put in another account, because it's not really yours. None of it's really yours, but I'm giving you 90%. Enjoy, enjoy. But 10%, now allocate where it goes. לכן מה שמבקשים מהאדם הוא רק ויקחו לי תרומה כלומר את אותו הכסף המופקד אצלו בפיקדון שיקח אותו עבור בנין המשכן lachen mah she'mevakshim meiha'adam hu rak v'yikchu li trumah, klomar es oso ha'kesef ha'mufkad etzlo b'pikadon she'yikach oso avur binyan ha'Mishkan.So are you really giving anything? If I turn to you and I say, you have a charitable account, I looked it up online. You have a foundation, and your foundation has rule. I didn't, don't worry, relax. We should. If anybody can help me with that, I'd greatly appreciate it. We haven't yet, we should. But let's say you have a charitable foundation. So it's visible, it's public knowledge, it's public access. So we know the rules of your foundation. And your foundation says you have to give 5% away a year. And here are the five things to which you give and allocate. So when I come to you, I don't say ויתנו v'yitnu, will you give? I say ויקחו v'yikchu, can you take from the money that's already allocated, that you have to give away, that's not yours anymore because you've already taken the deduction because it's already in the charitable account, and this meets the criteria and the rules? And the whole paradigm has shifted. From an attitude of ויתנו v'yitnu, can you go into your hard-earned money and deprive yourself of something and sacrifice and compromise to give what's really yours and you want to hold on to? That's the pathetic, groveling, נבך nebach, please, I'm begging, ויתנו v'yitnu, could you give? ויקחו v'yikchu is, we both know it's already not yours. We both know it was never yours, it's already been set aside. This meets the criteria, it's a worthy cause, we both believe in it. You're not doing me a favor, I'm doing you the favor. So therefore, ויקחו v'yikchu, go and take from it and contribute to this cause. Says רב דרוק Rav Druck, that's why ויקחו v'yikchu rather than ויתנו v'yitnu, it's a reflection of our entire attitude towards that which we have. Do we believe it's ours or do we understand that we are, we are the stewards over it? And therefore this is the worthy destination that השם Hashem is saying, ויקחו v'yikchu, take some of it and put it here. 90% good, enjoy. But the 10% that we both know is not yours, that's already set aside, ויקחו v'yikchu, take, because this is a worthy place for it to go. And now we understand the continuation of the פסוק pasuk, says רב דרוק Rav Druck, מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו תקחו את תרומתי me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo tikchu es trumasi. The Torah calls it תרומתי trumasi, my תרומה trumah. השם Hashem says, go take from those with a generous heart, take תרומתי trumasi, my dedication, my donation, my contribution. what should it have been called? תקחו את תרומתם tikchu es trumasam, go instruct them, ויתנו v'yitnu, they should give תרומתם trumasam, their donation. That's not what the Torah says. It says ויקחו v'yikchu, not give, but take. תרומתי trumasi, it's mine. השם Hashem says to Moshe, go remind them they should take, not give. תרומתי trumasi, not their donation, but my donation, because all along, this was all along, already mine.So with this, רב דרוק Rav Druck is giving us an entirely different attitude and approach towards having the merit, the זכות zchus. What an incredible זכות zchus it is. You know, if if I think Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, whoever, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, if whoever tapped you and said, would you do me a favor? I'm worth, I don't even know the numbers, $50 billion, what was the number? $50 billion. I have a $10 billion foundation. It's not mine, it's already set aside, I got the tax benefits of it. I need someone to be in charge of it, to meet with the people and to evaluate and to decide where it should be allocated. Would you do that job? By the way, it pays pretty nicely too. Would you do that job? Who wouldn't be super, super excited to to give someone else's money away? To hear the pitch and evaluate and decide, what problem do we want to solve, what difference do we want to make? How do we want to repair and redeem the world? Wow, it's unbelievable with incredible resources. That's unbelievable. Who wouldn't want that? It's the best job in the world. חבר'ה Chevreh, every one of us have that job. השם Hashem said, 10% of our income, you are in charge, you're the CEO of that foundation. It's not yours, it was never yours, it's already set aside, and now you get to decide. What's worthy, where should it be spent, where should it be allocated? Because it's not תרומתם trumasam, it's not your gift, it's תרומתי trumasi. השם Hashem says it's mine. It was always mine. I just let you have it in your account because you're in charge, but it was never, it was never yours. And that's what the הנביא navi says, חגי Chagai. We had a הנביא navi named חגי Chagai, for those who don't know. In in פרק ב פסוק ח perek beis pasuk ches of חגי Chagai, לי הכסף ולי הזהב נאום השם צבקות li ha'kesef v'li ha'zahav neum Hashem Tzvakos. לי הכסף ולי הזהב li ha'kesef v'li ha'zahav. השם Hashem says, it may appear like it's in your account, but it's mine all along. You're just a steward, you're just holding on. ויקחו v'yikchu, so ויקחו v'yikchu not ויתנו v'yitnu, take. ויקחו v'yikchu, take, not give. תרומתי trumasi, what's mine all along, not תרומתם trumasam. That's number one.Number two, he continues in the next piece and he has another question. Why is it ויקחו v'yikchu, the same question again? So he says, יש לפרש שהעולם הזה אינו עולם נצחי כי הוא עולם חולף yeish l'fareish sheha'olam hazeh eino olam nitzchi ki hu olam cholef. This world we live in is not a world of eternity. It is a very fragile, very temporary, very temporal world. כל הממון שאדם צובר לאורך חייו לא נשאר לו אחר מותו kol ha'mamon she'adam tzover l'orech chayav lo nishar lo achar moso. We can't take any of it with us. None of it is coming with us. כי כשאדם יפטר מן העולם ויש סוג ממון אחד שאותו כן לוקח אדם לעולם הבא ki k'she'adam yipater min ha'olam v'yesh sug mamon echad she'oso kein lokeach adam l'olam haba. There is one form of money that one can take with them. I think we shared this in another context just a few weeks ago.What's the only money we can take with us? Very paradoxically, the money that we hold on to, we leave behind. And the money that we give away, we take with us. What we give away, no one can ever take from us. What we hold on to, the market could collapse, the banks could implode, the whole sector could go under, it could all disappear. What you grip, what you tightly hold on to, could all disappear. But what we gave away and made a difference with, nobody can take from us, nobody. That's why it's ויקחו v'yikchu. You're not ויתנו v'yitnu, you're not giving, you're ויקחו v'yikchu. When we go upstairs after 120, none of these things, none of the possessions, none of the portfolio, none of the holdings, none of it comes with us. What does come with us? מצוות ומעשים טובים Mitzvos u'maasim tovim. So you know what comes with us? When they say they helped sponsor a שיעור shiur, they helped promote a ישיבה yeshiva, they helped coordinate barbecues on army bases, they sent supplies to families whose husbands were off fighting a war, they took care, they made it, the money that we're giving to all these causes to make this difference, that comes with us. Nobody can take that away. So we have a choice to make. We could either go upstairs empty-handed. We've got nothing because we left it all behind and everything we thought we could take with us, we have nothing with us, and we never gave it away because we really wanted to hold on to it and we couldn't part with it, we couldn't imagine parting with it, then we go up empty-handed. And we're going to look around and everybody's got name in lights, everybody's holding on to lots of things, all that they gave away, and we're standing there empty-handed. Or we can take again, השם Hashem says 90% enjoy. Enjoy. 10%, with the 10% of our income, we can do our part, be a partner with השם Hashem, and when we give it, then we're really taking because that's the only thing that we could take with us, and we explained, he doesn't quote it here, but that's the מלב\"ם Malbim פשט pshat. כי לא במותו יקח הכל ki lo b'moso yikach hakol. In death you can't take, what's the word הכל hakol mean? Everything. It shouldn't say you can't take everything, it should say you can't take anything. Why did דוד המלך Dovid HaMelech say כי לא במותו יקח הכל ki lo b'moso yikach hakol, you can't take everything? It should say you can't take anything. The answer is, there are some things you can take. Very paradoxically, the only things that we can take are what we gave away. And what we held on to, do, we can't take any of it with us. It will all be, it will all be left behind. The עמרת טהרות Amras Teharos of רחמ\"ש שפירא Rachmash Shapira also weighs in here on ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. And he quotes, he starts from the דגל Degel, the דגל מחנה אפרים Degel Machaneh Ephraim. And he says the following. הנה אמרו בגמרא האי עלמא כבי הילולא דמיא Heinai amru b'Gemara hai alma k'bei hilula damya. כי בשמחת חתונה משתתפים הרבי סוגי אנשים Ki v'simchas chasunah mishtatfim harbei sugei anashim. יש אנשים הבאים לאכול ולשתות Yesh anashim habaim le'echol v'lishtos. We're back to the wedding metaphor. At a wedding, there are all kinds of people who come. Some come for the good food. They never make it to the dance floor. They just came for the good food. יש שבאים כדי לראות את המשחק Yesh she'baim kedei lir'os es hamis'chak, אצל החתן eitzel ha'chasan. Some come for the action, the חק chak. They want to see which singer, how many singers, who got invited, where were they, who were they seated with. ויש שבאים לרקוד ולשמוח V'yesh she'baim lirkod v'lismoach, and some come to leave it all on the dance floor. They come to be משמח את החתן והכלה mesameach es ha'chasan v'hakallah. אמנם עיקר כל החתונה Omnam ikar kol ha'chasunah, היא נתינת טבעת הקידושין ויחוד החתן והכלה hi nesinas taba'as ha'kidushin v'yichud ha'chasan v'hakallah. Flowers and photography and wedding gowns and there's so much that goes into it. But all of that is meaningless if there's no wedding ring, and the חתן chasan doesn't put it on the כלה's kallah's finger and doesn't say הרי את מקודשת Harei at mekudeshes לי li. If he says הרי את מקודשת Harei at mekudeshes, you are hereby married, are they married? No, nondescriptive. He has to say הרי את מקודשת Harei at mekudeshes לי li. There's something between us. There's something unique and distinct and singular that has now made you forbidden to everyone else, that we share only with each other. כמו כן בעולם הזה ישנם בני אדם הסוברים שכל תכלית עולם הזה הוא לאכול ולשתות Kmochein ba'olam hazeh yeshnam bnei adam ha'sovrim shekol tachlis olam hazeh hu le'echol v'lishtos, ולשמוח בהנאות גשמיות ul'smoach b'hana'os gashmiyos. This whole world is like a wedding. Some people came just to eat and drink. They heard the food's pretty good in this world. Some people came for the חק chak. They want to just know what's the latest controversy, what's the latest good לשון הרע loshon hora, who's got the latest juicy gossip. Some people come and they never make it on the dance floor. Some people come to dance in this world and to have fun and to enjoy. But you know, אלו העושים בעולם הזה עיקר לאכול ולשתות טועים. עיקר עניינו אלא ליחד את הקדוש ברוך הוא Eilu ha'osim ba'olam hazeh ikar le'echol v'lishtos to'im. Ikar inyoneinu elah l'yached es ha'Kadosh Baruch Hu. But the whole point of being in this world is to stand under that חופה chuppah and to Hashem say, הרי את מקודשת לי Harei at mekudeshes li. I want to enter a relationship. I want to have an intimate connection. I want to have affection and love. I want to hear what your needs are, I want you to know my needs, I want to give to one another. I want to invest in the relationship with all relationships need, which is time, communication, our heart, רחמנא ליבא בעי rachmana liba ba'i. That's the פשט pshat in the פסוק pasuk, says the רחמ\"ש שפירא Rachmash Shapira, ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. תרומה הוא לשון הפרשה Trumah hu loshon hafrasha. What does תרומה trumah mean? תרומות ומעשרות Trumos u'maasros. If you're in Israel, you have to separate תרומות ומעשרות trumos u'maasros. On my last trip, we went to a farm. We pick things on the farm and what you eat out on the farm, what you pick out on the farm, you could eat without separating תרומות ומעשרות trumos u'maasros. The הלכה halacha is in the field you could eat directly. Once you bring it into the house, now you're obligated, you got to separate תרומות ומעשרות trumos u'maasros. The word תרומה trumah is לפרוש lifrosh, to separate. יפרוש האדם מכל תענוגי עולם הזה וישום דעתו ומחשבותיו רק על עיקר סיבת ביאתו לעולם הזה שהוא לי לשמי. ליחד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה Yifrosh ha'adam mikol ta'anugei olam hazeh v'yasim da'ato u'machshevosav rak al ikar sibas bi'aso l'olam hazeh shehu li lishmi. L'yached Kudsha Brich Hu u'Shchintei. He says that's the פשט pshat. ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah is like רש\"י Rashi, לי לשמי li lishmi. You know what the whole purpose of this world is? Not to hit the buffet and the bar, not to tune into the latest חק chak and controversy and conspiracy and all the good gossip. You know what the purpose of this world is? לי לשמי Li lishmi. ויקחו לי V'yikchu li, and הרי את מקודשת לי Harei at mekudeshes li, to continue that conversation that began under הר סיני Har Sinai with השם Hashem, to be in this relationship, to make that time, to give him our heart, to make that connection, to feel that love. ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, תרומה trumah means to separate out the relationship, יקחו לי לשמי yikchu li lishmi, to give השם Hashem a sense of לי li. רחמנא ליבא בעי Rachmana liba ba'i, all He wants is our heart. How do we do that? Says the זרע קודש Zera Kodesh, says the, says the ר' פנחס מקאריץ R' Pinchas M'Koritz, ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, חז\"ל Chazal say, תרומה נוטריקון תורה מ' trumah notrikon Torah Mem. The word תרומה trumah is the word תורה Torah with the letter מ' mem. רומז לתורה שניתנה למ' יום Romez la'Torah shenitna l'mem yom. The Torah was given in how many days? 40 days, which happens to be the letter מ' mem. וכן דרשו במדרש ויקחו לי תרומה, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזובו V'chein darshu b'midrash v'yikchu li trumah, ki lekach tov nasati lachem torasi al ta'azovu. So ויקחו v'yikchu, take from me, יקחו yikchu, what's the לקח lekach? What's something that we take? ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזובו ki lekach tov nasati lachem Torasi al ta'azovu. It is Torah. So you see a תורה ניתנה למ' יום Torah nitna l'mem yom, אות מ' סתום מכל צדדיו os mem sasum mikol tzdadav. The letter מ', מ\"ם סופית mem sofit, is closed on all sides. להורות כי הרוצה לעבוד את השם יתברך צריך לעשות לעצמו סייגים וגדרים ולסגור מכל צדדיו L'horos ki ha'rotzeh la'avod es Hashem yisbarach tzarich la'asos l'atzmo siyagim u'gedarim v'lisgor mikol tzdadav. Because like the Torah was given in 40 days, the letter מ' mem, and a letter מ' mem is closed on all sides, a person who wants to serve השם Hashem has to make the proper boundaries. ורק על ידי שיעשה האדם גדרים וסייגים כדוגמת אות מ' יוכל להבין דברי תורה V'rak al yedei she'yaaseh ha'adam gedarim u'siyagim k'dugmas os mem yuchal l'havin divrei Torah. And only when we make the proper boundaries, safeguards, to not fall, the higher you go, the harder the fall. So we want to go as high as we can, we need greater boundaries, fences, we have to make sure we have guardrails like the מ' mem to make sure we won't fall. So how do we do that? תורה Torah. ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, ויקחו הוא לשון לימוד. שאם רוצים בני ישראל לזכות להבין דברי תורה שניתנה במ' יום V'yikchu hu loshon limud. She'im rotzim bnei Yisrael lizkos l'havin divrei Torah shenitna b'mem yom, then we have to, ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah. תרומה תורה מ' Trumah Torah mem. Torah was given in 40 days, a Torah of how to set boundaries in our life. ויקחו V'yikchu, השם Hashem says, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם ki lekach tov nasati lachem. That's what I want you to give me. I want you to give me a Torah way of life. And the Torah way of life has boundaries and borders. We're living in a world that is exactly the opposite. There are no borders, there are no boundaries. There's nothing off limits. Do, dress, experience, act, identify, behave, think, go, whatever, wherever, whatever will make you happy. No boundaries, no borders, no limitations. That's the world we live in. And, not coincidentally, the world is more unhappy, miserable, anxious, unhealthy than ever before. Relationships are dissolving and falling apart. Unhappiness is off the charts, because it turns out that the more you remove the boundaries and the borders and the limitations and the safeguards and the railings, you don't find happiness by having that freedom. You in fact, don't find any, anything, no meaning, no purpose, no happiness. And the more that we have it, and they guide us and they guard us and they take us to where, then the more happiness that we're able to find. ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, תרומה תורה trumah Torah of מ' mem. Give me the Torah of the letter מ' mem that is closed on all sides. I once saw, that's the פשט pshat going back on the פסוק pasuk, לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ lechtech acharai bamidbar b'eretz לא זרועה lo zru'ah. השם Hashem says, I remember, it was amazing, after הר סיני Har Sinai, you followed me into the wilderness, into the desert, you followed me to a land, בארץ לא זרועה b'eretz lo zru'ah. So I once saw, I forgot who said it, you followed me to a land, לא זרועה lo zru'ah doesn't mean that it wasn't blossoming, it wasn't planting, it wasn't planted, it wasn't. בארץ לא B'eretz lo, זרועה zru'ah. It was planted with the word לא lo. You followed me to a place and to a Torah that would tell you no. No, there's limits. I'm sorry. You can't go, you can't watch, you can't say, you can't listen, you can't. No. Our Torah has a lot of מצות עשה mitzvos asei, a lot of positive commandments. It is a formula for how to come close to connect with השם Hashem through the positive. But we also have our fair share of לא lo. I'm sorry, sometimes the answer is no. Relationships mean no. If you want to feel connected to me, stop looking at her. Stop talking to him. Stop going to that place. Stop having that emotional connection, stop. No. בארץ לא זרועה B'eretz lo zru'ah. If you want a connection, then it means לא lo, you have to be willing to say no elsewhere, to be willing to say no elsewhere. בארץ B'eretz to a place of לא זרועה lo zru'ah that was planted with the idea of לא lo, of לא lo, in a world that didn't want that. השם Hashem offered His Torah to the other nations and they said, nah, I'm not good with limits and boundaries and borders and no. I want to be able to do and experience anything I want, whatever my heart desires. השם Hashem says, okay, but you're going to be pretty unhappy. And the Jewish people said, נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma, we're in. Yes, no, do, don't do, go here, stop there, we're in. Whatever you tell us. This is your your world, you created us, you designed us, we're in. So ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah, take from me a תרומה trumah. תרומה Trumah is תורה Torah with a מ' mem. Take from me a life and a lifestyle, a תורה Torah that has the boundaries, that has the מ' mem on all four sides, that will safeguard us. You know, you have this in sports. Every sport is only fun and competitive because there's out of bounds. Just picture football, basketball, hockey, what would it look like if you could just run anywhere with the ball? What makes the entire sport meaningful and competitive and fun is the fact that there are boundaries to it. You can't go out of bounds. Was he out of bounds, the replay, who touched it last? Did he have both feet in? Did he catch it across the goal line? Every, every sport, להבדיל l'havdil, but it's the boundaries, this is a very important metaphor when you talk to kids, who say, I just want to be able to go and do, and why can't I? They say, great, we're going to play basketball at recess, there's no, you just run wherever you want. That's ridiculous. We can't play that way. Everyone has the ball and can just dribble and run and go and there's no, yeah, that's life. What gives it the arena, what makes the arena a place of purpose, which is what makes it competitive with ourselves and others and elevates it, is the fact that there are boundaries to it. ויקחו לי תרומה V'yikchu li trumah, the תרומה trumah of the letter, of the letter מ' mem. Okay. A lot more to say, just on this opening פסוק pasuk, but apparently the פרשה parsha goes on beyond the first פסוק pasuk. Apparently. Apparently. Okay, so we're going to go on beyond the first פסוק pasuk, too. Okay, one more thing on this פסוק pasuk. Back to the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel. Sorry, one more thing. Because this one I never noticed before. How many times have we learned and taught this פרשה parsha and shared this insight, ויקחו v'yikchu, ויתנו v'yitnu, all these things. But this one I never saw. לי לשמי, יש כאן פלא גדול, הלא בדרך העולם כשעושים מגבית תחילה מכריזים את המטרה ואחר כך עושים את אסיפת כספים כדי למלות המטרה Li lishmi, yesh kan pele gadol, halo b'derech ha'olam k'she'osim magbis techila machrizim es ha'matara v'achar kach osim es asifas ksafim kedei l'malos ha'matara. Every other campaign you do, you may have noticed coming in, we're doing a capital campaign, we're expanding. A person is raising money for Israel, whatever the purpose, for the כולל kollel, for the, for the תומכי שבת tomchei Shabbos, whatever the purpose, first you mention the cause and then you do the fundraiser. Torah here has it backwards. Did I ever notice this? Did I ever bother you? First we do the fundraiser and only then does השם Hashem mention, oh, by the way, here's the cause. What happened? Shouldn't we mention the cause and then the דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה Daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu li trumah. Speak to the Jewish people and say, fork it over. Oh, and by the way, the reason for it is because we're going to use that money to build a משכן Mishkan and all the כלים keilim and everything that's going to go inside. We have it backwards. Backwards. If a man wants to build במקום תורה b'makom Torah, if you're building a building, מתחילה מפרסמים את המטרה mitchila mefarsim es ha'matara. First you talk about the capital campaign, שבמקום זה יעשו בנין חדש she'b'makom zeh ya'asu binyan chadash, a big building, and here's the reason, this is what it'll contain, and this is what we'll be able to accomplish and be able to achieve together. I feel awesome, he says תמונה tmunah, then you do your renderings and your drawings and you get some excitement, and then you start the meetings, and then אוספים אסיפת כספים osfim asifas ksafim. וכן אם יש אנשים שרוצים לפתח כולל V'chein im yesh anashim she'rotzim liftach kollel. Similarly, if you want to open a new kollel, a new court, first you open a new school, here's the reason, here's what we're going to build, here's what it's going to look like, here's the excitement of it, now everybody fork it over. I think is the technical term. והלא כאן התורה ציוותה תחילה על נדבת זהב וכסף נחושת V'halo kan ha'Torah tzivsa techila al nidvas zahav v'kesef nechoshes. First, it tells you all the different substances to give, בלא לגלות כלל מטרתם b'lo legalos klal matarasam, without mentioning what the reason, ורק לבסוף v'rak l'vasof, and only at the end השם Hashem says, oh, by the way, the whole reason, the whole purpose for this is for the משכן Mishkan. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that the reason that we're doing this campaign is because we're going to build the מקדש Mikdash, a משכן Mishkan. We have it backwards. says רב שמואל בארנבוים Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, כדי שנזכה שהקדוש ברוך הוא ישכון שכינתו בינינו, שיהיה לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים, צריך מקודם להראות נדיבות לב של תרומה רק לי לשמי. ורק אז שייך שנזכה להשראת השכינה K'dei shenizkeh she'haKadosh Baruch Hu yashkon shchinaso beineinu, she'yihiyeh lo yisborach dira b'tachtonim, tzarich mikodem l'haros nedivus lev shel trumah rak li lishmi. V'rak az shayach shenizkeh l'hashra'as ha'Shchinah. Now we understand רש\"י Rashi. Why did רש\"י Rashi say give לי לשמי li lishmi? Give for the right reason. Give because I asked you. What's the evidence one gives because God asked? Because you don't even know why you're giving. You're giving because you have such trust and such love in the other, such a desire to make them happy, to help them meet their goal, that you don't even need to know why. This is a continuation essentially of נעשה ונשמע na'aseh v'nishma. השם Hashem says, look, I'm going to need you to take out your checkbook. You say no problem, how many zeros? And then later he says, oh, by the way, the reason was we were building a משכן Mishkan. By the way, that was the reason why. But the relationship is revealed, the depth and quality of the relationship is revealed when השם Hashem says, take out your checkbook, you say, no problem, how many zeros, not, what's it for? What do you need it for? Who else is giving? What's the budget? Why? Can't they just go do? No, you say, no problem. ויקחו V'yikchu. And that's what רש\"י Rashi meant, לי לשמי li lishmi. ממילא אם תחילה היה מתגלה הטעם Mimeila im techila hayah misgaleh ha'taam. And therefore, this wasn't coincidental. Had the reason been revealed at first, you wouldn't know that people are giving because they trust, they believe, they're investing in that connection, that relationship with השם Hashem. Maybe the reason they're giving is they think, you know, it's a good idea. We're a lot of people, we're dispersed all over. We need a clubhouse. So, ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם v'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham, להבדיל l'havdil, would be a great clubhouse. Count me in. I'll give to that. Makes sense. Then you wouldn't know it was לי לשמי li lishmi. How do you know it's לי לשמי li lishmi? By the fact that the fundraiser happened before even mentioning the reason, the reason why. And then he continues, he says, בשלשה דברים אדם ניכר, בכיסו, בכוסו, ובכעסו Bishlosha devarim adam nikar, b'kiso, b'koso, uv'ka'aso. חז\"ל Chazal tell us that there are three ways that a person is recognized. You want to know everything about somebody? Check out their wallet, check out their cup, and check out their temperament. If you want to know how they spend their money, you know everything about them. So that's why instead of שידוך shidduch resumes, there should be credit card statements. I don't need some resume. I don't need to know where your siblings are in ישיבה yeshiva. Show me your latest credit card statement. I want to know what you spend money on. How much where do you spend your money? I'll learn everything about you. How many times did you go to Starbucks? How many manicures? Did you go to the Heat game? Did you give צדקה tzedakah? What'd you order when you went out to eat? You want to know everything about somebody? בכיסו B'kiso. Check out their credit card statement and then you'll know about them. בכוסו B'koso, after a לחיים l'chaim. See a little after they drink a little bit. You know, מי שנכנס יין יצא סוד mi'shenichnas yayin yatza sod. מרבים בשמחה Marbim b'simcha. According to some, the מרבין בשמחה marbin b'simcha, אין שמחה אלא בבשר ויין ein simcha elah b'basar v'yayin. So ordinarily, you'll only eat a little meat and you now have just have wine on שבת Shabbos. חודש אדר Chodesh Adar, this year we have two, a little bit more. So have a לחיים l'chaim with someone and see how they behave, if they can hold their liquor. What really comes out, נכנס יין יצא סוד nichnas yayin yatza sod. You know, the truth of somebody comes out. And בכעסו b'ka'aso, their temperament. See what happens when someone cuts them off on the highway. See what happens when someone pulls into the parking spot they were about to get. See what happens when they come into שול shul and somebody's sitting in their their seat. בכעסו B'ka'aso, their temperament. יש אנשים Yesh anashim, he says, שקשה להם להיפרד מממונם she'kasheh lahem l'hipared m'mamonam. There are some people, בכיסו b'kiso, who can't part with their money. They'll take my kidney, take my liver, take my left arm. But my wallet, my credit card number, you can't have that. וקשים וקשה V'kosam v'ka'asam, and they don't want to give. הם נותנים רק מבושה של חברים שנותנים Hem nosnim rak m'busha shel chaverim she'nosnim. The only reason they'll ever give is they're embarrassed. Everybody knows in fundraising, that's why we're going to start to live, list who are the global members. Next week when you come, maybe they'll be on your seat, who in this room contributed and who didn't yet. Because that's a great motivator. We all know in fundraising, sadly. It shouldn't be that way. It should be we don't list any names. It's all private, it's all personal, it's all part of a relationship with השם Hashem. It's all a commitment to say thank you for the benefit that we get. הלוואי Halevai, הלוואי halevai, that were the world we live in. But it's not. Unfortunately, it drives a lot of people. But we should. The first question, I never got this question. Of all the שידוך shidduch questions I've received, nobody's ever said, do you know if they give 10% of their income? When you do, when you do a fundraiser, are they the first to give? Do they give? Do you know if they give away 10% of their income? Nobody's ever asked me that. I've never got that question. I get a lot of questions. I never got, you want to know everything about somebody? בכיסו B'kiso. Are they generous? Are they magnanimous? Are they gracious? Do they love to help, to host, to give, to do, to bring joy to others? So that's why first, ויקחו לי תרומה v'yikchu li trumah, first the fundraiser, and then the מטרה matara and then the reason. And then he goes on, he says, וכן נוגע עניין זה גם כן לעניין שלום בית v'chein nogea inyan zeh gam kein l'inyan shalom bayis. You see the same thing when it comes to שלום בית shalom bayis. איש ואשה שכינה שרויה ביניהם Ish v'isha Shchinah shruyah beineihem. We know that a Jewish home is a מקדש מעט mikdash me'at. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik has this. I'm not going to get to it, we're not going to get to anything else. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik has, our home is modeled after the משכן Mishkan and the כלים keilim of the משכן Mishkan are the כלים keilim of our home. And just like the משכן Mishkan has a שולחן shulchan and a מזבח mizbeach and a מנורה menorah and a כיור kiyor, these are the vessels in our house. We shouldn't worry about, you know, what's the measurement of that flat thing on the wall that entertains. That's not the vessel in our house. What's our שולחן shulchan? What's our מזבח mizbeach where the sacrifice, where the sacrifices within our home? Where's the שולחן shulchan? Where's the place of הכנסת אורחים hachnasas orchim and of hosting others? Where's the כיור kiyor where we purifying ourselves? Where, all the vessels of the משכן Mishkan are the formula for the vessels in our home. Because if a husband and wife marry, שכינה שרויה ביניהם Shchinah shruyah beineihem. Just like the מקדש Mikdash was a place of השראת השכינה hashra'as ha'Shchinah of divine dwelling, so to the Jewish home should be that מקדש מעט mikdash me'at. So just like the מקדש Mikdash was a place that first when we were asked to give, we said yes, only then did we say for what? Similarly in a marriage, when a spouse asks the other, can you do? The answer should be automatically, sure, yes, I'm in. And then, what? Why? Where? When? נעשה ונשמע Na'aseh v'nishma. נדיבות לב Nedivus lev. נדיבות לב Nedivus lev. השם Hashem doesn't want us to do things because everyone else is doing it, because we have to keep up with others. He wants נדיבות לב nedivus lev. רחמנא ליבא בעי Rachmana liba ba'i. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants our heart, what's in our heart, he wants us to do it because we're driven for the right reasons. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. פרק כ\"ה פסוק ח' Perek kaf-hei pasuk ches. Ultimately, the reason what we're building is a מקדש mikdash, ושכנתי בתוכם v'shachanti b'socham. We all know the shift from בתוכו לתוכם b'socho l'socham. First it's the singular ועשו לי מקדש v'asu li mikdash, and then it switches to בתוכם b'socham, in them. We shift from one to the, to the other. The תפארת שלמה Tiferes Shlomo of רדומסק Radomsk. כי כל דבר שישראל נתנדבו לבניין המשכן היו רואים שהיה זה דבר שהשראת השכינה, היו אומרים בפיהם שיהא זה לנדבת המשכן Ki kol davar she'Yisrael nisnadvu l'vinyan ha'Mishkan, hayu ro'im she'hayah zeh davar shel hashra'as ha'Shchinah, hayu omrim b'fihem she'yehei zeh l'nidvas ha'Mishkan. We know that whenever you do something, we had a הכנסת ספר תורה hachnasas sefer Torah recently. So if you put your hand in the סופר's sofer's hand and helped write a letter in the Torah, what do you say beforehand? לשם קדושת ספר תורה L'shem kedushas sefer Torah. כתיבת ספר תורה Ksivas sefer Torah. If you participated in our campaign to tie 2,000 pairs of ציצית tzitzis, what did you say before you tied the ציצית tzitzis? לשם מצות ציצית L'shem mitzvas tzitzis. If you're going to go soon to a מצה matzah factory and you're going to bake מצה matzah, what are you going to say? לשם מצות מצה L'shem mitzvas matzah. Why are we saying all these things for? It's not obvious? Tying ציצית tzitzis, obviously you're tying it to tie ציצית tzitzis. You're sitting at a הכנסת ספר תורה hachnasas sefer Torah, the סופר sofer, the Torah is open in front of you, it's obvious, you're writing a Torah. What do we have to say these things for? The answer is something that needs לשמה lishma, we say it out loud. We, our intent creates the כשרות kashrus. What would happen if the סופר sofer didn't write it לשמה lishma? What if the סופר sofer is watching the Super Bowl out of one eye and writing the Torah with the other? He's not paying attention to what he's doing. And afterwards, it's the most magnificent Torah. Beautiful קלף klaf, incredible ink, magnificent כתב ksav, magnificent Torah. But it turns out, he was busy in the overtime following the game, not paying attention. It wasn't לשמה lishma, לשם קדושת ספר תורה l'shem kedushas sefer Torah. You know what it was for? His פרנסה parnassah. His honor that he writes the most beautiful Torah, it wasn't for the right reason. Is the Torah כשר kosher? Is the מצה matzah כשר kosher? Are the ציצית tzitzis כשר kosher? No. So what gives it the intent? When we say something. וברומא U'vrom, is that עוצם גודל כוח הדיבור שיש לבני ישראל otzem godel koach ha'dibur sheyesh l'bnei Yisrael. You see the power of עם ישראל Am Yisrael, when we say something, we create things. You see this with קרבנות korbanos. If a person takes an animal and brings it into the עזרה סתם azarah stam, it's חולין בעזרה chullin b'azarah. So you go and you grab an animal and you schlep it into the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, but you never designated it, you never elevated it, you never said this is a קרבן karban. הרי זו קרבן Harei zu karban. Now you violated the prohibition of bringing חולין chullin into the עזרה azarah. You brought something mundane into the holy place. But if you take this animal and you first say, הרי זו קרבן harei zu karban. This animal is a קרבן karban. קרבן מלשון קרוב Karban m'lashon karov. I want to grow closer to השם Hashem. How will I get closer to השם Hashem? I'm designating this animal, the animal in me, and I'm going to slaughter this animal because I want to slaughter the animal in me. And הרי זה קרבן harei zeh karban, this is not just my barbecue for tonight, this is not just dinner, this is a קרבן karban, הרי זו קרבן harei zu karban. Now you didn't violate חולין בעזרה chullin b'azarah. Now through דיבור dibur, through designating it, you've elevated it, and now, now you brought a holy קרבן karban into the holy משכן Mishkan, the holy בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. So says the תפארת שלמה of רדומסק Tiferes Shlomo of Radomsk, that's what it means, ועשו לי מקדש v'asu li mikdash. בני ישראל צריכים לבנות משכן Bnei Yisrael tzrichim livnos Mishkan, how? להמשיך המשכן זה השראת השכינה l'hamshich ha'Mishkan zeh hashra'as ha'Shchinah. ושכנתי בתוכם V'shachanti b'socham, in each and every one of us. When we designate, when we have the right intent, when we have the right attitude, that's how He dwells here. You could have a perfect Torah, but if it didn't have לשמה lishma, it's not כשר kosher. You can have a perfect ציצית tzitzis, perfect מצה matzah, but the person who crafted it, created it, didn't designate it with the right intent, it's not כשר kosher. So ועשו לי מקדש v'asu li mikdash, make the מקדש mikdash, but what makes it holy? ושכנתי בתוכם V'shachanti b'socham. It's the person who makes it that makes it holy. חלילה Chalilah, if a heretic, one of these missionaries drops off a Bible at your doorstep, you know what you do with it? Let's say they got smart and they use the ArtScroll translation of the Bible and they drop off their volume, their version of the ArtScroll translation of the Bible at your doorstep. You know where you put it? Garbaggio. In the garbage. Garbage, it's it's Torah. It's a translation of the תורה הקדושה Torah ha'kdosha. How could you put in the garbage? What's the answer? If it's produced by a מין min, by a heretic, it's not Torah. Goes in the garbage. I, it looks like Torah, reads like Torah, sounds like Torah, goes in the garbage. Why? ושכנתי בתוכם V'shachanti b'socham. It's the person who gives the לשמה lishma. So השם Hashem says, don't get confused in this world of the physical, thinking it's all about the physical. It's the intent of the one who created the physical that creates the entire world. So there's the physical world that's down here, and then there's the metaphysical world up here. So השם Hashem says, you know where I live? ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. In anything that you create, that you say לשמה lishma, לשם קדושה l'shem kedusha, that you have the right intent, that is where I live. That's everything that goes wrong next week, two weeks from now. The whole problem with the חטא העגל chet ha'egel is we missed השם Hashem, we longed for השם Hashem, we wanted a tangible connection to feel the presence of השם Hashem, and when we miscalculated and it felt like He didn't come down, what do we do? We built an עגל egel. So השם Hashem says, you don't get it. It has to be not just the physical, it has to be the לשמה lishma, it has to be the כוונה kavanah, it has to be the intent. It's בתוכם b'socham of who makes it. And therefore destroy that עגל egel. You got it all wrong. You crave something physical, tangible, no problem. I'm going to give you a משכן Mishkan, I'll give you a מקדש mikdash, I'll give you a ספר תורה Sefer Torah. But חלילה chalilah, we can't turn the ספר תורה Sefer Torah into a חטא העגל chet ha'egel. We can't turn the Torah into an עגל egel. It has קדושה kedushah, we kiss it, we elevate it, we celebrate it, we dance with it. But it's as good as, the גמרא Gemara says, the fools who kiss a ספר תורה Sefer Torah, who stand for the Torah when it walks by, but they sit when the living Torah, when the תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, when the righteous person walks by, because ושכנתי בתוכם v'shachanti b'socham, it's all in us. It's the power of words. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik said that's why, what's the first thing we do the holiest day of the year? The night of כל נדרי Kol Nidrei, we walk into shul on יום כיפור Yom Kippur and we have the least inspiring, motivating liturgy to open the holiest day of the year. כל נדרי Kol Nidrei. Maybe the tune is haunting, is moving. But you ever think about the words? All vows and oaths and promises, they should hereby be annulled and. Some technical disclaimer about vows and oaths and annulling, it is the most uninspiring, uninspiring opening to what is supposed to be the most inspiring day of the year. Instead of רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik, you know why we begin with that? Because words matter. Words create reality. You made a vow, you made a promise, you said הרי זה קרבן harei zeh karban. You said this is לשם קדושה l'shem kedusha. You declare, you create a reality. A נדר neder is a reality. If you designate this chair as הקדש hekdesh, I've now changed the status of the chair. And if I prohibit the chair, I say this chair is prohibited to me. I say I can't benefit from it. It's forbidden to me. The chair has the same status as a piece of חזיר chazir. It has the same status as בשר בחלב basar b'chalav. I, it's just a chair, it's just wood and a cushion. What's forbidden about it? Me, my words, my designation changed and creates a reality. So says the תפארת שלמה Tiferes Shlomo, that's the פשט pshat. ועשו לי מקדש V'asu li mikdash. השם Hashem says I want to have a דירה בתחתונים dira b'tachtonim. I want to dwell, I want to live, I want to be present, I want to be accessible here in this world. But how does that happen? Not just through cowhide and ink. It happens בתוכם b'socham, in you. When you designate, when you use your words with your intent, with your לשמה lishma, that's why לי לשמי li lishmi, when you לשמה lishma, when you bring an approach and an attitude of לשמה lishma, that's what changes and creates the reality of this world. פרק כ\"ה פסוק י' Perek kaf-hei pasuk yud, the first vessel is the ארון aron. The ארון aron houses the לוחות luchos. פרק כ\"ה פסוק י' Perek kaf-hei pasuk yud. ועשו ארון עצי שיטים, אמתיים וחצי ארכו ואמה וחצי רחבו ואמה וחצי קומתו V'asu aron atzei shittim, amatayim va'chetzi orko v'amah va'chetzi rochbo v'amah va'chetzi komaso. Make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits in length and a cubit and a half in width and a cubit and a half of height. We've been doing פרשה parsha share for many years. Go listen to the previous ones. Magnificent כלי יקר Kli Yakar throughout our פרשה parsha, how each of the measurements are a metaphor for a message contained in that vessel. There's so much to to share and to unpack further in this. But ועשו ארון עצי שיטים v'asu aron atzei shittim, something new this year, the זרע קודש of ר' פנחס מקאריץ Zera Kodesh, the R' Pinchas M'Koritz, says, עצי שיטים atzei shittim, חז\"ל Chazal tell us, גמרא בסוטה דף ג' Gemara b'Sotah daf gimmel, אין אדם עבר עבירה אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות Ein adam over aveirah elah im kein nichnas bo ruach shtus. The only time we make a mistake is because נכנס בו רוח שטות nichnas bo ruach shtus. If a person has a moment of insanity, a lapse of sanity, how could it be? How could it be? How could it be some of the brightest and most accomplished and most charismatic political leaders, athletes, celebrity people in the world threw it all away because they did incredibly foolish, stupid, moronic things? Because there was a רוח שטות ruach shtus. There was a moment of insanity that they thought that that was a good idea. They thought that was a good idea. A moment of insanity. But that's true for all of us. There's a moment of insanity. How could you when you just got your last lab report that told you that's your cholesterol level, your blood pressure, your sugars, and you put that thing in your mouth, you ate that? It was a moment of insanity because it looked good, it tasted delicious, you wanted more, you didn't believe what the lab report said. We looked at, we said, how could you fly off the handle? You just yelled at your spouse, you yelled at your children, your grandchildren, you damaged that relationship, you put distance between you all because what? You tripped on their Lego? They didn't clean up after their kids? All because they disappointed you from what you wanted? You threw away the relationship, you damaged it, you gave them this negative impression, because נכנס בו רוח שטות nichnas bo ruach shtus. Every mistake we make, every poor judgment we show, is because there's a moment that we have a lapse of sanity. ורמז לזה שיטים שהוא לשון שטות V'remez l'zeh shittim she'hu lashon shtus. שיטים שטות גימטריא שטן Shittim shtus gematria satan. להורות שההולך אחר השטן היצר הרע עושה דבר של שטות L'horos she'ha'holech achar ha'satan ha'yetzer hara oseh davar shel shtus. If you give into the שטן satan, if you indulge the שטן satan in us, then we do שטות shtus, then we're going to have a lapse of sanity. What's the עצה לנצל מהיצר הרע eitzah l'hinatzel mei'ha'yetzer hara? What is the advice? How can we save ourselves from that יצר הרע של שטות yetzer hara shel shtus? is only in one way. How? על ידי לימוד תורה Al yedei limud Torah, by learning Torah. And that's why, ועשו ארון עצי שיטים v'asu aron atzei shittim, make an ארון aron of עצי שיטים atzei shittim. Make an ארון aron, what was in the ארון aron? The לוחות luchos, the שברי לוחות shivrei luchos, the original ספר תורה Sefer Torah. The ארון aron, which is the כלי kli, the vessel in the משכן Mishkan that radiates the light of Torah, the ארון aron, עצי שיטים atzei shittim. עצי Atzei is לשון lashon עצה eitza. אצי Atzei עצה eitza, what's an עצה eitza? Advice. ארון Aron is the source of עצה eitza, of the עצה eitza for שטים shittim not to do שטות shtus. ארון עצי שטים Aron atzei shittim. The ארון aron is the עצה eitza not to indulge the שטות shtus, the שטים shittim. That's the ארון aron. And listen to what he writes, the זרע קודש Zera Kodesh. עיקר החסידות הוא לימוד התורה הקדושה בהתמדה Ikar ha'chasidus hu limud haTorah ha'kedosha b'hasmada. The עיקר ikar of חסידות chassidus, a פארברענגען farbrengen is nice, a טיש tish is nice, a שיירים shirayim is nice. But the עיקר ikar of חסידות chassidus is לימוד התורה הקדושה בהתמדה limud haTorah ha'kedosha b'hasmada. The עיקר ikar of Jewish life and living is learning Torah. And when we learn Torah, when we learn Torah, live Torah, employ Torah, interpret the world through the prism of Torah, when Torah animates and informs and inspires our life, עיקר חסידות לימוד התורה ikar chassidus limud haTorah, when we learn Torah, ארון aron, עצי atzei, we are tapping into the greatest עצה eitza, the greatest advice that there is, שטים shittim to overcome the שטות shtus. Today it's very a personal coach, a business coach, a dating coach, a marriage coach, a career coach, a life coach. Everyone's a coach, a coach, a coach, a coach. So many coaches. Most of the coach, they're all wonderful people and they're amazing. Many of the coaches don't have a degree, didn't go to school, I'm not sure, the coach, so many coach, a makeup coach, a שייטל sheitel coach, a baseball coach, everything coach. Everyone's got a coach. And there's nothing wrong with it. Many of them, they're wonderful and they help and they inspire and they keep us on track and they hold us accountable. I'm being serious, nothing wrong with it. It's beautiful, tap into it. Do it, don't do it while neglecting Torah. You want the greatest coach there is in the world? ארון Aron, the greatest עצה eitza. What's the coach there to give you advice? ארון עצי שטים Aron atzei shittim. You want to overcome, what does the coach do? You just said I blew it again. Coach, help me. I lost my cool. Coach, help me. I made a mistake at work. I made a bad decision, bad strategic thinking. Coach, help me, I eat the wrong foods. I need you to be the my my nutritionist coach. Workout coach, coach, help me. Every coach is there to help us overcome the שטות shtus, the רוח שטות ruach shtus, the the the lapse of sanity in us. So you want the greatest coach there is in the whole world? It's called Torah. And we, and we are the lucky winners. We have it. The whole world's out there, the next app, the next book, the next guru, the next conference, the next convention, the next, we have Torah. We have Torah. It's unbelievable. ארון עצי שטים Aron atzei shittim. נתת על הארון Nasata al ha'aron. We put it inside the ארון aron. We have time for one more? We don't have time for any more. The כרובים kruvim, why כרוב kruv, why the picture of a child on top of the ארון aron? Why is the the מנורה menorah was so hard for משה Moshe to make, that he had to throw it into a fire and it had to be made on its own? So if it was so hard for him to make, and השם Hashem is the one who miraculously made it, why does the Torah tell us how it's made? Why do we need the dimensions? Why do we need the details? If in the end השם Hashem made it because it's so hard to make and he couldn't ever make it on its own, so what do I need the dimensions? What do I need the details? You'll have to come back for that and more, אם ירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem next year. Please stay for all of ספר תהילים Sefer Tehillim, we'll read and conclude. The more we stay, the more times we can finish all of ספר תהילים Sefer Tehillim in five minutes. On behalf of our brothers and sisters, we should need בשורות טובות besoros tovos.
