Chelek 16, Trumah 1

In this week's parasha, parasha's truma, we learned the mitsava to make for Hashem a mishkan, make for Hashem a tabernacle, which ultimately became the base of Miktas, the holy temple in Eratisuril. The next number of parasha's truma, Tatsava, parts of Kisisa, Vyakil Pikude, really the next five parasha's, are all dealing with this great mitsava in all of its detail of how that first mishkan, that tabernacle was built for Hashem in the desert as they left Egypt on the way to Eratisuril. This mitsava is not only a specific mitsava building in Mishkan, but as we were taught, it's something much larger than that and really tells us about our general, our vodar general service to Hashem in this world. As it's been famously said so many times that the pahsuk that tells us the mitsava says "Ve asule miktash make for me a sanctuary, Veshachanti besocham, and I will rest, or I'll dwell amongst them." Whereas grammatically it seems as shud have said, "Veshachanti besochho, make for me a tabernacle, and I will rest within it." But it says, "Make for me a tabernacle, and I will rest within them." So here we're taught that it's referring to besoch kal'achod ve'achod, that ultimately Hashem wants to dwell with each and every one of us individually. And therefore the mitsava of making a mishkan, making a dwelling place for Hashem, and a larger sense is a mitsava for each and every one of us to make of our own selves, our own homes, our own surroundings, a dwelling place for Hashem, a mishkan for Hashem. And it's for that reason that we learn so many general messages and lessons in our own life and of how to make our ourselves and our homes and our surroundings a holy place from the various details and mitsavas of the mishkan. So let's focus today on one of those messages. In order to make that mishkan, the Hashem said, "A mitsava that everyone should give donations for the mishkan." And the mitsava reads right in the beginning of the parasha, "ve'ikhu li truma, that they should take for me truma's donations for the mishkan." And Rashi comments on the word li, "Take for me donations." Why did Hashem say, "Take for me?" I mean, obviously, he says, "Take donations and build a mishkan." What's that additional word? "Take it for me." So, as Rashi, "Lishme," that it has to be given for my sake. It's not just enough that the person gives the donation, you know, "Take it." But rather, it has to be given, "Lashame shamayim for the sake of heaven." And from here we learn a general important message in our avodah, in our serving Hashem. And that is, many times we have the attitude, "Listen, as long as I did it, I have a mitsava I got to do, so I did it, whether I have to davan, I have to learn Torah, I have to give siddhaka, whatever it is, as long as I got it done, is it important, my intentions? Was it for the sake of heaven? Was it in order to connect Hashem? Was it to fulfill a mitsava? Or was it for some other ulterior motive? That's the difference, what I was thinking, as long as I got the act done. And though there's truth to that sentiment, because ultimately it is, first and foremost, about getting the act done and doing the right thing, but yet we're being taught over here, that in order to truly make a place of holiness within ourselves, in order to create holiness, it's not only enough the action side of the story, it's about intention, it's about doing it for the right reason, for a holy reason, for a divine reason, and only that way is the mission completed as far as making truly a dwelling place for Hashem. Yes, our intention is important, our intention is necessary, and becomes part of the mitsava and part of the creation of the vessel drawing down Hashem in this world. So that's one very simple message right from the beginning of the story of the Mishka. But the truth is, it's a lot deeper than that, and there's a fascinating twist to this. And I'll say this from the following angle, really the words of the Pusik is, "vehikuli truma, they should take for me or for my sake the donations." Note it says, "they should take the donations for my sake." It doesn't say they should give the donations. Right? Seemingly this is a mitsava that the Jewish people should give donations. And yet the words of the Pusik are, "vehikuli they should take for me donations." Why does it say take and not give? And there's a very beautiful answer, and that is that really when a donation was given, there was two parties. There's the one giving it, and there's one collecting it. The one collecting it was the ones who were in charge from the Mishka, from the Tabernacle to God, and collect the money for the Mishka. So there's the giver, and there's the collector. And interestingly, the Torah says, "the collector should collect it for my sake." Seemingly telling us that the one who's giving it, it might not be for my sake. And indeed, that is the halalah that sometimes even a person didn't want to give a donation for the Mishka or the Beysa Miktas or the Kharbonus. So the Bezden, the court of law, demanded of him to give. Someone had to participate in the giving for the Mishka. So interestingly, the giver, perhaps, wasn't doing it for the sake of Hashem. The giver might have been doing it because he was required to. And yet the Mitzvah is, but at least the taker, the one taking it for the Mishka, it should be for the sake of Hashem. So what's the deeper message of that? That the one who's giving it is not giving it necessarily for the proper motive and proper intention, but the taker has to take it for the sake of the Mishka and for the sake of Hashem. What's the message here? Says the rebe. The giver represents taking that mundane, that money and giving it away from himself. That's part one. The taker is the one who's actually bringing it and making it the monies of the Mishka. He's taking it for the Mishka and going to use it to build the Mishka and the Tabernacle for Hashem. So the giver took the mundane and released it and the collector made that mundane into something holy. The intention, the lishmi having the proper intention, the proper thoughts in Kavanaugh and doing the Mitzvah, is necessary when it's being turned into holiness. In order to become a vehicle for holiness, it has to be Lashem Shemaim for the sake of heaven. The giver wasn't involved yet in turning it into holiness. The giver was just sort of releasing it, letting it go. There, it's not as important that intention. What does that mean in a practical way for us and what's the practical lesson? And the truth is it's a very practical and very beautiful lesson. In our own serving of Hashem, in our own doing the right thing and trying to make ourselves better people, holy people, a vessel for a dwelling place of Hashem, there's also two parts. There's the part where we don't do sins. We don't do bad things. We don't connect to that which is unholy, that which is negative, sinful, wicked. And then there is the Mitzvahs that we do, the positive things, the holy acts that we do. We're is Kavanaugh most important. We're is our intention most important. And here we have the message straight out of this week's parasha. Not to do a sin, not to do something bad. Kavanaugh is not that important. Because at that point we're not creating holiness, we're not making ourselves holy people. We're just not connecting to the unholy. We're not bringing negativity into ourselves, into our lives and into our homes. Not to do something bad. The intention is not that important. Just don't do it. Just don't go there. By not doing it, by not going there. So we're already disconnecting from the negative for whatever Kavanaugh or whatever intention we may have had. But then when we want to turn around and bring Kedusha into our life, bring holiness into our life, bring holiness into ourselves and into our homes and into our families, which is through positive acts, which is through Mitzvahs, which is through doing the deeds that Asham says, they bring Kedusha and holiness into yourselves, then Kavanaugh, the right intention and doing it La Shamsha, mine for the sake of heaven and for the sake of connecting to Asham is a very, very important part of bringing Kedusha and holiness into ourselves. And that's the double message right here from the donations for the Mishkan. The part one, the disconnect from the mundane, that Kavanaugh is not so important. They're the intention is not so important. Just make sure to get it done. Make sure not to connect to that, which is negative. But to bring the Kedusha and bring the holiness in, which is of course what we're all about ultimately for that, it's not only about getting the act done, it's also about training ourselves to have the proper Kavanaugh, the proper intentions for selfless intentions, for divine intentions. And that way to bring true holiness into ourselves, our families and the world around us. Have a wonderful Shambhas.