This dvar Torah was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: #87, Microphone on Shabbos. Good Shabbos!
“And You Shall Take for Me Teruma” — Doing for Oneself
When the Jewish people were commanded to bring a donation to Moshe Rabbeinu for the purpose of erecting a Mishkan (Tabernacle), the pasuk (verse) uses the expression, “v’yikchu Li (and take for Me) a donation…” (Shemos 25:2). The obvious question is that this is a peculiar choice of words. The more appropriate expression would have been “v’yitnu Li (and give to Me) a donation…”
On a simple level, since Hashem really owns everything (as it says “…to Hashem is the Earth and all that it contains…” (Tehillim 24:1)), it is impossible to give Him anything. Giving usually implies that I have ownership and I transfer that ownership to someone else. Therefore, when we talk about giving to Hashem, we don’t use the expression “giving.” Instead, we use the expression “taking.” In other words, Hashem already owns everything, we are merely ‘allowing’ Him to take that which is already His.
In Parshas Vayera, Rav Shlomo Breuer shares a beautiful thought on this concept of “v’yikchu Li.” Whenever we ‘give,’ whether by doing chessed (kindness) with our bodies or with our money, every giving is actually ‘taking.’ Whenever a person performs chessed, he is really doing more for himself than for the person to whom he is giving.
The Medrash in Parshas Vayikra says, “More than what a ba’al habayis does for a poor person, the poor person does for the ba’al habayis.” (Literally, a ba’al habayis is the master of the house, but in this context, it means a benefactor.) When someone gives a donation, the money is very temporary. Perhaps it pays for the next meal. Perhaps it pays for the rent. In actuality, it is very, very finite. On the other hand, a person who ‘gives,’ in addition to acquiring olam haba (the world to come), he accumulates something else as well… He acquires that which giving does to his personality, his soul, and his self-esteem. A person who helps another person is taking far more than he is giving.
Rav Breuer points this out the first time that the Torah describes an act of chessed: by Avraham Avinu and the malachim (angels). The invitation extended by our Patriarch Avraham to the malachim, offering them a place to eat and sleep, is the first overt mention of an act of chessed in the Torah.
In that parsha, the Torah repeatedly uses expressions such as “yukach nah me’at mayim” (let water be taken) (Bereishis 18:4) and “va-ekcha pas lechem” (I will take bread) (18:5)? What kind of expressions are these? Avraham should have said “I will give water. I will give bread.”
The answer is that Avraham Avinu is instructing and teaching his children, “My children, you should know for all future generations, that when you help someone else, you are not giving. You are taking!”
When a person helps someone, he does more for himself than he does for the other person. This is what the Torah is teaching us with the expression “V’yikchu Li teruma.” Whether a person gives to an individual or to an institution, he is really receiving more than he is giving.
Getting Our Priorities Straight: Kemach vs Torah
When the Torah explains how the kaylim (vessels) of the Mishkan were set out, the pasuk says: “You will then place the cover on the Ark of Testimony in the Holy of Holies. And place the Table outside the curtain and the Menorah should be placed opposite the Table, toward the southern wall; and the Table should be toward the northern wall.” (26:34-35)
Anyone who examines the pasuk carefully sees a redundancy. The Torah first says to put the Shulchan (Table) in front of the curtain and then immediately says to put the Menorah opposite it on the southern side. Any person with the power of deduction knows that as a result, the Shulchan is on the northern side. Why does the Torah need to repeat and reiterate the fact that the Shulchan is on the northern side?
I once heard a beautiful interpretation of this from Rav Kulefsky (previous Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel). The sefer “Sifsei Kohen” asks the following question: We know that the Shulchan symbolically represents parnasa (livelihood), the ability for the Jewish people to sustain themselves physically and materially. The Menorah symbolically represents Torah. The light of the Menorah symbolizes the light of Torah. Why then, asks the Sifsei Kohen, was the Shulchan placed first, before the Menorah? After all, the Menorah is more significant than the Shulchan.
Rav Kulefsky answers, “If there is no kemach (flour), there is no Torah” (Mishna Avos 3:17). If there is no livelihood, there can be no Torah. Therefore, first we put out the Shulchan, representing parnasa and then we put out the Menorah, representing Torah.
Rav Kulefsky asks further that the same Mishna says, “If there is no Torah, there is no kemach!” So what did the Sifsei Kohen accomplish by quoting the Mishna? The question remains, why give the Shulchan priority over the Menorah?
Rav Kulefsky quotes a very important comment from the Gaon of Vilna’s commentary on Mishlei. The Mishna also says “If there is no chochma (wisdom), there is no yirah (fear) of G-d.” Then the Mishna says, “If there is no fear of G-d, there is no wisdom.” The Gaon asks, what does this mean? Which way is it?
The Gaon answers that when we speak in terms of chronological priorities, wisdom needs to precede fear of Hashem, because “the ignoramus cannot be pious” (Avot 2:5). Simply, someone who does not know anything, cannot be observant. However, in terms of ‘tachlis’ – in terms of our goals and purpose in life, priority is given to fear of Hashem. In other words, if wisdom is not going to lead to observance, (for example, writing ‘chidushei Torah’ (novel insights into Torah) on Shabbos while smoking a cigarette), the wisdom is worthless. The person can learn a blatt Gemara, but if he is not an honest person, his learning is not worth much.
The same is true here as well. In terms of chronological priorities, unless a person establishes a viable means of supporting himself — one way or another — if there is no kemach, there is no Torah. If a person must go around begging, he is not going to be able to sit and learn.
But in terms of ultimate goals and purposes, in terms of tachlis, if it doesn’t lead to Torah, if someone is just accumulating money for the sake of making money, then the money is worthless. If a person does not use his kemach for the right reasons, it is of no value.
This is what the Torah is teaching: First we place the Shulchan, because “If there is no flour, there is no Torah.” Then we put the Menorah opposite the Shulchan because we need the Shulchan to be there for the Torah, represented by the Menorah, to exist.
Then the pasuk reiterates that the Shulchan should be on the northern side. Now that we have reached the point where we have established the Menorah / Torah, we must realize that the Shulchan’s only purpose is to be opposite the Menorah. At this point, we need to realize that the Shulchan’s reason for existing is only to support the Menorah. Merely having a Shulchan, in and of itself, serves no purpose. We need to have our priorities straight: Without Torah, the kemach serves no purpose!
Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]
Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]
This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Terumah is provided below:
- # 044 – Changing Nusach: Ashkenaz vs. Sephard
- # 135 – Living Above a Shul
- # 182 – Davening Towards Mizrach
- # 228 – Selling a Shul
- # 272 – Chazakah B’Mitzvos: Is This Maftir Yonah Mine?
- # 318 – Taking Out Two Sifrei Torah
- # 362 – The Mechitza – How High?
- # 406 Shul Elections
- # 450 Bais Hakeneses & Bais Hamikdash–Differences & Similarities
- # 494 Bima In The Center Of The Shul
- # 538 Preventing the Building of a Shul
- # 582 Silk in Halacha
- # 626 The Po’roches
- # 714 The Bais Hamedrash Is Not a Chat Room
- # 758 An Atara for a Talis?
- # 802 Birthday Cakes on Shabbos
- # 846 A Pasul Sefer Torah – Where Should It Be Kept?
- # 890 Shul Windows: An Open or Closed Case?
- # 934 Kohanim Face the Nation
- # 977 Remodeling A Shul: Is There A Problem?
- #1021 Should a Yahrzeit Make His Own Minyan in Shul to Get the Amud?
- #1065 The Breakaway Minyan – Permitted or Not?
- #1108 Being From The First Ten At Davening
- #1151 Shul Shortcuts – Does Saying A Pasuk Really Help?
- #1194 Your Father’s Nussach Or Your Grandfather’s Nussach
- #1238 Pushka and Tzedaka Shailos
- #1283 I Want To Take Back The Keser Torah I Donated: Should the Shul Agree?
- #1370 They Want To Build A New Shul? N.I.M.B.Y. (Not In My Backyard)
- #1414 Shul Issues: Shortcuts, Davening Towards Mizrach and More
- #1458 Can A Man Daven In the Ezras Nashim Rather Than In the Main Shul?
- #1502 Mizrach is One Direction; The Aron Kodesh Is in Another; Which Way Should You Face?
- #1545 How Kodesh Is the Aron Kodesh?
A complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for further information.