Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the weekly Parsha Review. This week's Parsha is Parsha's Terumah. Terumah is the seventh portion in the book of Exodus and the 19th portion since the beginning of the Torah. There are 96 verses, there are 1,145 words and 4,602 letters. There are three mitzvahs. In this week's parasha there are two performative mitzvahs and two prohibitions.

00:36
So, after commanding the laws of Mishpatim, hashem wants to have a residence among us. Hashem wants to reside with the Jewish people. Hashem gives Moshe detailed instructions on how to build the holy sanctuary, the tabernacle. Hashem also commanded the detailed instructions of the holy vessels and utensils. All the objects were to be built with rings attached so that poles could be put inside with which to carry the vessels.

01:07
The Jewish people were solicited to donate whatever their hearts desired of precious metals, of gemstones, fabrics, skins, oils and spices that were going to be needed for the services in the temple. In the tabernacle's outer courtyard there was an altar for the burnt offerings and a laver for washing. The holy sanctuary would be divided by a beautiful woven curtain into two chambers the outer chamber and the inner chamber. The outer chamber is accessible only to the Kohanim descendants of Aaron. In it was the table for showbread, the menorah, the candelabra of pure gold that was lit daily, the golden altar for incense, the ketoret, the sacrifices made of spices, and, in the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies. The entrance was permitted only for the Kohen Gadol, the high priest, on only the day of Yom Kippur. In it was the ark, a box made of gold and wood covered with gold, and two cherubs atop, figures of angel children. That's what the cherubs were, and when the Jewish people were at peace with one another and peace with the Almighty, they would face each other and if God forbid, we turned away from God or turned away from each other. The cherubs faced the opposite direction. The Ark held inside it five things the broken tablets, the pieces of the first tablets, the second tablets that Moshe brought down from Mount Sinai, the complete Torah scroll. And when Moses passed away, we know he wrote 13 scrolls of the Torah, one for each tribe and one that was placed inside the ark, a picture of manna. The four were placed inside the ark and the staff was placed right in front of the ark. The Mishkan itself had three walls made out of 48 wooden boards that aligned perfectly with one another and was covered with tapestries and curtains made of skins made of skins. The fourth wall was an entranceway covered by a woven curtain. Surrounding the whole Mishkan was a courtyard. This is where Hashem's presence will dwell and where the Jewish people will be able to perform services for Hashem. In all the design and dimensions of the structures and the courtyard and all the vessels, including the ark, the cover, the table, the menorah walls, partitions and the copper and gold altars, are described in great detail.

03:56
So a couple of important lessons. The first is that the Torah in this week's parasha begins with a very interesting terminology. It says and they will take me a turuma is that the Torah in this week's parasha begins with a very interesting terminology. It says and they will take me a turuma. Now we know that that's not the way it works. When you give something, you give me a turuma, an offering. You don't take me an offering. It's just grammatically incorrect. So why does that? We know that there's no mistake in the Torah.

04:23
The Torah is a godly document. How can God's document say something which seems to be incorrect? Our sages tell us, because Hashem is giving us the ingredients for success in life. We think that when we give something, we are departing from something. Hashem says no, when you give, you're going to receive. Therefore, you're not giving something and giving up of something. Just know that when you give, you're going to be the recipient of something.

05:04
People are always concerned. Oh, the Torah commands us to tithe. We're going to give away 10%. 10% is a lot. Guess what? It's just a test. Hashem says if you know how to be a good custodian for my money and give it and distribute it appropriately to the needs that I send your way, then I'll give you more. Because really, we think when we earn $100, that we earn $100. Hashem says no, you are really supposed to earn 90. I gave you an extra 10 so that you distribute it for me. Oh, you're a good distributor for me, I'll give you more to distribute for me. But if someone says you know what? I'm going to keep that 10%, then they lose it all.

05:53
And there are many stories that are told to us in the Talmud of people who were very careful with their tithe and their wealth continued to grow and then when their children inherited their crops, they inherited their land. The children said it doesn't make any sense. I'm giving away 10% and you know what the property produced 10% less, and then 10% less, and then 10% less, and, before you knew it, there was nothing left to their crops. Why? Because they thought it's my strength, it's my ability, it's what makes sense to me. God says it doesn't need to make sense to you. When you give, you're actually taking. You're going to become the recipient and the beneficiary of the giving.

06:38
Very important, fundamental principle in Jewish life. Number two it says and you shall make for me a sanctuary and I will reside in you and I will reside within them, within you. Shouldn't it say and I will reside within it. Make for me a sanctuary and I'll reside within it? Sages, tell us again. There's no mistake in the Torah. It's very specific. God is telling us that you, each one of us, we need to make ourselves a sanctuary so that God can reside within us.

07:26
The temple yes, there was a physical edifice that was created for God to reside there among the Jewish people, but each one of us have our own sanctuary that we can create within ourselves. We can create a holy temple within ourselves, make room, remove our ego, remove our selfishness, remove our own limitations, so to speak, that we lock ourselves down with with our own arrogance. Remove that and you'll allow God in. Become selflessly dedicated to others, become kind, become giving and then we're allowing a place for God in to our lives, into our own physical bodies. Our own physical bodies becomes the walls of the temple, our own physical bodies becomes the altar and becomes all of the other parts of the temple, becomes all of the other parts of the temple. We are the temple.

08:34
Our sages tell us that the Mishkan, the tabernacle, is the microcosm of the entire world, the entire world, the entire operation. Whatever happened inside of the structure of the Mishkan is really a microcosm of how the entire world operates. Now we're not going to get into the details of how each thing correlates for different parts of the world, but our Kabbalistic sages talk about this in great depth, of how each one of the functions in the temple correlates to a different function in the heavenly realms and how our physical world corresponds to it. So what we're doing is God is not a physical entity. God doesn't have a right hand and a left hand, so to speak. But in order for us to understand that, we always give an example of Hashem's right hand is the hand of mercy, hashem's left hand, but Hashem doesn't have hands. Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand. Really, hashem doesn't have a hand. So what is it referring to? It's for us to be able to understand what that means For us limited human beings, to understand it, to have a glimpse into the world of how the Almighty operates.

10:01
Hashem gives us an opportunity to look into His world. Do we understand what the altar was and how it functioned? An opportunity to look into his world. Do we understand what the altar was and how it functioned? Not really. Do we understand how the menorah, what it represented exactly? We have a little bit of an idea, but not really.

10:23
And a menorah that was made out of 100% pure gold. One piece of gold, not different pieces that were, you know, melded together, but rather it had to be one piece. Moses tried We'll see a couple of portions. Moses tried multiple times, didn't work. Hashem says you know, just take the whole piece of gold, throw it into the fire and I will create it. To understand that there's a whole other dimension to this world. There's a whole other dimension which is so beyond what our eyes and our hands can feel and grasp and understand.

11:04
What was going on in the temple was just such an awesome, powerful experience. We once had in one of our classes a young student from UT, university of Texas, who talked about how the physics of how the ark was constructed was that it was because you had the gold, the wood and the gold. It would be an electrical current that if you came in contact with it you would die. And we know that that's exactly what happened that if anybody walked in unannounced into the Holy of Holies, they wouldn't survive. Only the high priest on Yom Kippur, with the string tied around his leg, would enter the Holy of Holies and if he didn't survive, they'd be able to pull him out, because he can't go in to get him out. They'd be able to pull him out with that little rope. It's a very, an incredible privilege for a Kohen, for a high priest, to merit to go into the Holy of Holies. You needed special approval, so to speak. You'd get zapped. It's unbelievable, the world of the temple.

12:30
There's a magnificent publication put out by ArtScroll. We have a copy here in our magnificent torch library of the tabernacle with illustrations. You can see the gold and how it was made. It was just it's breathtaking. I recommend that everyone. Take a look at it. You can buy it on artscrollcom. No, this is not a paid advertisement. The tabernacle, the Mishkan, okay.

13:01
So that room where the Ark was placed in measured 20 cubits, which is about 30 feet by 30 feet, so 20 cubits square. The Holy Ark measured 2, 1 and a half cubits in length by one and a half cubits breadth and one and a half cubits height, approximately 52 inches by 31 by 31. So it's not a very big ark. But here's the amazing thing those two and a half feet width. If you went from wall to wall inside the Holy of Holies it would equal 20 cubits. But if you measured from the arc to the wall of the Holy of Holies, it should measure a little bit less than 10 cubits. But that wasn't the case. It actually equaled on both sides, a miraculous full 10 cubits on each side. Why, our sages tell us? Because the arc didn't take any space. It defied the laws of nature. The ark was there, but then when you measured the room, it measured the full length of the room, which doesn't make any sense. It should be the full length of the room minus the size of the ark.

14:27
Sages tell us that the ark represents the human being who is humble. A humble person takes no room. A humble person takes no space. An arrogant person takes all the space in the room. Nobody else exists. Nobody else means anything when an arrogant person is there. Sages tell us we're supposed to be like the ark Be humble, give everybody else an opportunity to shine, and when you do that, you become holy, like the holy of holies. So it's a complete reflection of our inner character that we learn from the Holy of Holies.

15:17
Now, in this week's Parsha and in next week's Parsha, we have the instructions of the blueprint for the structure and vessels, and next week we'll see the priestly garments. So in this week's Parsha, terumah, next week's Parsha, tetzaveh, we have these instructions of how to construct them, but then we skip Kisisa. We skip Kisisa because that's the golden calf. And then we have Vayakhel and Pekude, the last two portions of the book of Exodus, where we're going to have the actual construction of these vestments and the structures and the vessels. Now, a very interesting thing that we mentioned when we did the brief partial review, that there were 48 pillars that held together the entire structure of the tabernacle.

16:23
A lot of what we learn about the tabernacle are the prohibitions of the laws of Shabbos, because wherever we see the discussion of the tabernacle, we also see the discussion of Shabbos. It's an amazing juxtaposition that's constantly there. Wherever we talk about Shabbos, we have about the tabernacle. Wherever we talk about the tabernacle, we have the. You know, just watch, keep my Shabbos. We have about the tabernacle. Whenever we talk about the tabernacle, we have the. You just watch, keep my Shabbos. Don't light a fire on Shabbos, build the tabernacle. It's like there's some parallel.

16:58
Our sages teach us that whatever was permitted in the tabernacle on Shabbos was permitted on Shabbos, and whatever was prohibited in the tabernacle on Shabbos was prohibited on Shabbos. So the assembly of the tabernacle was prohibited on Shabbos. Then that's what you're not allowed to do on Shabbos. So let me give you a very beautiful example. So what you did is you had two pillars that would go into a single casing together, but the same two pillars needed to be side by side always. So what they would do is they would write a letter on each one of the pillars. They would write Aleph and Aleph, and then on the next side of the pillar it would say Bez, and the next pillar would say Bez as well, and they would line up the Aleph and the Aleph, the Be, it would say Bez, and the next pillar would say Bez as well, and they would line up the Aleph and the Aleph, the Bez and the Bez, the Gimel and the Gimel, and each one was exactly in the same place every single time.

18:01
So how many letters were needed to be written in order for the construction to be done properly? You needed two letters, the Aleph and the Aleph, on each pillar, and then they would be put into the casing together and therefore by the Torah we're prohibited to write two letters on Shabbos. Writing one letter is not a prohibition on Shabbos by the Torah. Now the rabbis added to it and said don't even write one letter is not a prohibition on Shabbos by the Torah. Now the rabbis added to it and said don't even write one letter because you come to write a second letter. So that's offense that the rabbis added to what the Torah already tells us do not write two letters on Shabbos.

18:43
But if you look at the halacha, the halacha talks about writing two letters. That's the biblical prohibition. We don't write two letters. That's the biblical prohibition. We don't write two letters why? Because in the tabernacle they needed to write two letters specifically.

18:57
Now we have 39 different laws of what is prohibited on Shabbos. All of those are the principles of what was needed for the construction of the tabernacle and those were prohibited on Shabbos and therefore we don't do those laws on Shabbos. And they're all extracted to other things, because you know what we talked about the curtains. The curtains had beautiful designs, the curtains were made of hides, the curtains were dyed beautifully with different colors. So guess what we're not allowed to paint on Shabbos? We're not allowed to slaughter an animal on Shabbos because they needed to hide from a slaughtered animal. All of these things are what we learn every single Shabbos about what we're not allowed to do based on what was prohibited to be done in the tabernacle on Shabbos.

19:52
So the laws of Shabbos are not just made up laws and Shabbos is not just a day of rest, and for me, this is my definition of a day of rest. I learned something when I went into rabbinic school the first day I was there. I learned something which spun my head like a top, which was we always use the terminology you're not allowed to work on Shabbos. That's not true. We have many guests in our home on Shabbos. That's a lot of work. So what are you talking about? You're not allowed to work on Shabbos. You know what it is to host 30 people around your Shabbos table. That's a lot of work. That's not what's prohibited. What's prohibited is that you're not allowed to do creative labor on Shabbos. Oh, now we can define what is creative labor. Creative labor that's a whole new discussion that we'll get to, god willing, we'll get to.

20:46
But for the purpose of this partial review, it's important for us to remember that Shabbos and the tabernacle are very, very, very closely linked. Because what is the tabernacle? It's a place where Hashem resides in, and what is Shabbos? The place in which Hashem resides within our lives, within our homes, within our families. That's the purpose of Shabbos. They're exactly linked.

21:16
And now, just for conclusion, the temple sanctuary was the original synagogue. So why do we have synagogues today? And in fact, some movements call their synagogues temples, because it's a replacement of the temple. So what is the purpose of a synagogue? It's to bring God into our lives, to communicate with God. The tabernacle was there as an opportunity for the people to be able to connect with God. This is the opportunity for us to connect with God by bringing offerings, by bringing atonement for our sins. That was the purpose. It was a place of connection.

22:05
A synagogue is not meant to be a red carpet event. A synagogue is meant to be a place where we pour out our hearts, where we communicate and connect with the Almighty. That's the purpose of synagogue. It's a place to talk to God, to elevate our lives and to elevate our connection with Hashem. Hashem should bless us all with a beautiful Shabbos and, god willing, I look forward next week and the following weeks, expanding our discussion on the vestments of the Kohen Gadol, the actual construction of the tabernacle and also how they connect with other laws of Shabbos. Have a great Shabbos, my dear friends.