A Modeling Career For You
In connection to the Mishkan, the Torah commands: ‘Six days you should work, and the seventh you should rest’. Rashi explains that Mishkan building stopped on Shabbos.
Here is a simile; Someone walks behind another, copying his every move. He has done nothing specifically unusual – each action itself is meaningless – yet the combination of actions means mimicry.
Working during the week is not unusual, neither is resting on Shabbos. But the combination of the two equals imitating Hashem’s workstyle. He too created during the week and rested on Shabbos.
The Mishkan was a micro-universe. Building the Mishkan paralleled creation of the world. As the world was created on Seven days, with six days of activity and one of rest, so was the Mishkan.
Merit this pattern each week; model Hashem!
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Do You Qualify?
Who was chosen to build the Mishkan? What were the credentials needed? The pasuk answers “all those whose heart lifted them to volunteer or the work…” Indeed, it was not necessarily the greater craftsman who was honored to build the Aron, but rather the man who stepped forward, even if he was a lesser artisan than the man reticent in the shadows. Not ability, but rather, willingness, dictated who received the job.
This is significant.
A. It means that the man who built the Mishkan was he whose mother complimented him more, who had more empowering teachers, and who had a rebbe who believed in him. For that’s what makes people step forward!
B. So in life: many achievements, rewards and honors go to the person who steps forward, not to the most able.
C. Part of our education curriculum ought to be learning how to step up to the plate, for that greatly impacts success in life!
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Presentation
In Vayakhel it says Betzalel put in the Aron’s Badim. In Pkudei it says that Moshe did. Who dunnit?
A new car comes preloaded with gas, a toy comes with batteries, an iPod with songs. And the Mishkan was presented to Moshe with Badim already in the Aron. Inserting Badim was Moshe’s job, indeed, he reinserted them later on.
Similarly, as above, the Shulchan came with Lechem HaPanim even though they were not used.
Presentation is important. The Mishkan was significant and respecting it means that it be presented in a functional form, not as a heap of odds and ends.
We need to pay attention to the form with which we present ideas, ourselves, gifts and products. For Presentation dictates value.
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Celestial Fame
At each portion of the Mishkan’s construction it states: ‘the Jews made it as Hashem commanded Moshe’. Again and again. Why?
The Baal Haturim’s explains that Moshe offered to be erased from the Torah in the previous sedra for the sake of saving the Jews. Hashem repaid him by all these extra mentions of his name.
Anyone willing to lose fame and honor for Hashem’s sake are repaid with even greater fame and greater honor!
Another suggestion: Torah gives credit in specifics. Instead of a general thank-you, the Torah thanked and acknowledged each and every accomplishment separately. Indeed, each was a separate achievement.
This is how to thank: give detailed due, each achievement taken by itself.
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Defining Wisdom
Hashem gave wisdom into the hearts of all those who are wise at heart. A Roman matron asked Rabbi Yossi bar Chalafta ‘Wouldn’t it be better to give wisdom to those who have it not, to fools, rather than to those who have it already?’
He ‘Do you lend money to the poor, who need it more, or to the rich, who need it less?’
She ‘To the rich!’
‘Why would that be?’ he wondered.
She ‘When I lend the poor I have no assurance for the money. If I lend to the rich my money is secure!’
Said the Rabbi ‘Indeed, Hashem is in the same situation. If He would give wisdom to fools, what would they do with it? Just pursue foolishness with greater ingenuity!
Instead, Hashem finds someone who profits from wisdom, and grants it to him.’
What wisdom do we learn from this exchange?
1. Wisdom is not ingenuity. Many a slow-witted man is wiser than the world’s greatest genius. Wisdom means good sense, living with reality. Not a high IQ number.
2. To merit wisdom one must be positioned to use it; one must be enrolled in a program of learning or a framework of growth, where his wisdom will be put to use. One needs to qualify.
If you implement your knowledge, you will be granted lots of it!
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Family Connections
Betzalel came from high lineage; he was a grandson of Miriam and a grandson of Chur, a leader of Klal Yisrael. Oholiav, his partner in the Mishkan, was from a very simple stock, from the low class tribe of Dan. This shows that Hashem gives no recognition to aristocracy. The simple and the great are all the same to Him. – Rashi
If so, why did only the most distinguished families to serve in the Beis Hamikdash?
Hashem does not value aristocracy in itself. Sometimes, however, aristocracy enhances the job at hand. The Beis Hamikdash service is more impressive (to us) when done by great people. So we choose noblemen, because the service is enhanced by their standing. We choose them because they can contribute more, not because they are important. Sometimes we give others the stage, when they are more capable. Our consideration needs to be: “Where does Hashem profit more?”
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Responsibility
The Torah singles out ‘See that Hashem has called by name; Betzalel son of Uri, son of Chur, of Yehuda…’ Why did he need to be called by name?
When a woman was killed in middle of a thickly populated area of New York, psychologists puzzled why none of the 39 people who heard her screaming – for over an hour – did nothing to save her. One intriguing plausibility is that each knew that others were around to help, so no one did. Everyone’s responsibility means… no one’s.
The first law of responsibility dynamics is that two people can never be held responsible for one thing. If two people are responsible, then no one is. Because responsibility means Me, by definition. Betzalel was singled out by name,__ and given the responsibility, for accountability is a one-man thing.
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A Try And A Prayer
When the Jews brought the finished Mishkan to Moshe, he admired how perfectly they had made it – exactly as Hashem specified – and blessed them. Rashi records the blessing ‘May Hashem rest on your handiwork!’
The doctor said ‘The operation was an unquestioned success. Unfortunately, however, the patient did not make it’.
The scientist scratched his head, perplexed. All the parts were right. Yet the new car did not run.
Two brothers open ice-cream parlors next to one another. One becomes a millionaire, the other goes bust.
What’s the secret sauce? What determines success or failure? Shchina, Providence.
Moshe was giving them the ultimate brachah: may the Mishkan do it ultimate purpose. May Shchina rest here. Let it be effective, and work.
We don’t have Moshe’s bracha. We do our hishtadlus – our business acts, and may or may not be successful. So what we need is Tfilla. Do your very best and hand it over to Him: pray for success.
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Ich Dien!
The Meil had bells and pomegranates on its bottom. In our parshah, the Torah comments about these, and refers to them as: ‘for service’. (In tetzave the pasuk also uses those words, 28:35, but is unclear if it refers to the trimmings or the wearing of the Meil itself. Here it clearly refers to the ornaments). This is in fact the only things worn “for service”, specified as so in the entire Torah!
What about it is so significant??
The clothes of the Kohen Gadol were gorgeous and impressive. Were they to dignify him, for he was a high and mighty person, or to dignify his service, performed directly before Hashem? It’s unclear what their purpose was.
Only one thing gave it away; the bells he wore. These served only to dignify the service, so that he not walk in unannounced. They served him in no way at all. The bells reflected and determined the nature of his entire wardrobe: it was work clothing, luxurious because his work was so significant. But they were not to dignify his own person. That’s why the bells were specified; ‘To Serve!’, for they served as a label to his entire wardrobe.
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Response-able
The Torah tells how the men came along with the women, to donate materials for creating the Mishhkan. It seems that the ladies came first, and then the men, if not strictly chronologically, then, at least in importance. Why were ladies first?
The Ramban explains simply that the ladies 1. had the gold and silver, for they had jewelry, and 2. they were the ones who knew how to weave, to produce the materials needed for the covers. So they came first, because they were much more capable of building the mishkan than the men were. (I’d add that the men had already given away their jewelry, to build the egel!)
What’s the lesson here? If you are more capable, you show up first. Because being able is being more responsible.