HASHEM spoke to Moshe saying: Make yourself two silver trumpets; you shall make them (MIKSHAH) [from a beaten form; they shall be used by you to summon the congregation and to announce the departure of the camps. (Bamidbar 10:1-2)

MIKSHAH means that it had to be hammered from one solid mass of metal. Literally MIKSHAH means hard/ difficult and it is in fact much more difficult to make these instruments from a single clump as opposed to forming component parts to be neatly fitted together. The golden KERUVIM on top of the Aron were to be fashioned this way as well as the golden Menorah. Why are these three vessels required to be made this way, MIKSHAH?

They represent three areas of life that are guaranteed not to be free from difficulty. The Menorah is the symbol of Torah. Torah requires effort. The Talmud says explicitly that enlightenment is not automatic. “If someone tells you they struggled and achieved (in Torah) believe them!” If someone tells you they didn’t exert effort and they achieved in Torah don’t believe them!” Those who accomplish in learning do so with great desire and much toil, not with intellect and a moderate interest.

The Cherubim have the appearance of young children. This may be already too obvious and apparent (all puns intended). Raising children is not easy. They don’t come into this world with a specific instruction manual, or a single formula for success and there are no guarantees. Years back I shared my childrearing woes with a great man, and he sighing aloud, “This is not even Tzar Gidol Banim – It’s just plain “Gidol Banim – raising children!”

The trumpets served the function of calling the Jewish Nation into action. This is the arena of Jewish Leadership. It’s never easy. Mordechai who saved the entire Jewish Nation from annihilation is described at the end of the Megilla as, “accepted by most of his brethren”

MOST but NOT ALL”. It seems he had a mere 51% approval rating, after having saved everyone. As George Bernard Shaw cynically stated, “No good deed will go unpunished.” Even Moshe faced open opposition.

So, what’s the point of knowing that these things are hard? The Mesilas Yesharim explains that one of the major impediments that holds a person from doing his business enthusiastically is the expectation that it should be easy. If someone expects something to be easy it becomes impossibly hard. Paradoxically, the Ramchal explains that once a person understands well and accepts that it’s hard, then it becomes easy! Perhaps, it’s not a paradox at all! How so?!

A friend of mine used to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day for almost two decades. One day, for some mystical reason, he decided to quit, and that was that. Since then, he never touched a cigarette. That’s dramatic! The Nefesh HaChaim explains that accompanying a sincere decision is a mini-power pack that gives the person the ability to withstand all the future consequences of that decision. When I began to understand the power of this single act of heroism, I started to appreciate why we make such a big deal about weddings.

I always wondered why everyone is so willing to cross the ocean or the George Washington Bridge, and so much money and man hours are spent on such a brief celebration. Now, two people are making a decision about their entire lives. At that moment a huge power pack is present that will enable them to remain together forever, in the face of millions of unforeseen variables. People intuitively come to bask in the light as if it’s a rocket ship launching.

Even the grandest of weddings is merely a faint echo of an original event from 3338 years ago when we committed to remain a nation until the very end of history. That endless spiritual reservoir is available whenever we decide.