לעלוי נשמת הגאון הר"ר אהרן בן הר"ר משה הלוי סאלאווייציק זצ"ל

פרשת תרומה

"..ויקחו לי תרומה מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו..  ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם"

In this week’s parsha, Am Yisrael are instructed to build the Mishkan.  How do we go about constructing a Sanctuary for the Shechinah?  Why is the giving of donations to the Mishkan  expressed as  ויקחו לי תרומה, to take a donation, rather than to give a donation?

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Hashem bestows upon us multitudes of gifts, resources, talents, capabilities.  We have done nothing to deserve all the blessings that make up our situation.  Hashem gives it all to us, and we are given the opportunity to utilize and process it all. 

The fact that we have an abundance of wealth, for example, in itself, is essentially meaningless.  The Bais Halevi likens wealth to a closed container of sugar, in which a flea is trapped.  Do we call the flea a well-to-do flea, a great flea, because he is flying around in all that sugar??  How much sugar can his miniscule stomach ingest??  He also is powerless to stash it away for himself, for he is, after all, stuck and trapped in the container. 

So it is with all our material blessings and possessions.  Only what we give away to tzedakah is what is transformed into acquisitions of eternity.  ויקחו לי תרומה – by giving of Terumah, we are taking, acquiring for ourselves the only thing that truly remains with us..

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The Parshios that deal with the building of the Mishkan come out in the months of Adar-Nissan.  It is interesting that this is the time of year that we become occupied with preparing our homes for Pesach. 

Adar, says the Ma’or Vashemesh, stands for Aleph (Hashem) Dar (dwells).  Our homes are a mirror of our inner homes, in which resides our neshamos.  There are the more well-traveled parts of our abodes that we frequent a few times a day.  There are parts which we avoid and keep closed and out of sight.  There are the functions that come naturally, that we tackle enthusiastically, effortlessly and regularly.  Then, there are those places which we pack away into the pack shelf of the storage room, the hazy recesses of our consciousness, for “when we get around to it.”

The cycle of the year spins, and we reach Aleph-Dar, time for renewal.  Time to re-instate the Shechinah in our homes, outwardly and inwardly. ושכנתי בתוכם.

As we tackle the nooks and crannies of our homes, we are encouraged to approach all of those dusty, neglected areas of our characters, home of our souls.  Adar is actually parallel to Ellul.  Time for teshuvah b’simchah, hands-on.  It is the simchah, the joy that empowers us to overcome our hesitations, take the plunge and tackle the floor behind the washing-machine.  (For the people that we comes in contact with, however, these corners might present themselves as our grand living-room.) Likewise, we have those areas, those areas of our functioning, our inter-personal relationships that are marred by our insecurities, jealousies, tensions and weak points.  Our gut-reaction is to avoid and ignore.  Comes Adar, and the message is broadcast loudly, 

ויקחו לי תרומה !!

Find those neglected points in your person!   Even the places where the dust and dirt settled in and even began to grow moldy.  It takes courage, it takes initiative on our part.  Just because we have conditioned ourselves up till now in certain behavior-patterns and mindsets, who said that we can’t change?  Adar is the time to re-assess our steps, our habits we activate toward the goal of total house-cleaning, as we go through our homes prepare for sanctuary of the Shechina. 

אפריון עשה לו המלך שלמה מעצי הלבנון.  עמודיו עשה כסף רפידתו זהב מרכבו ארגמן. תוכו רצוף אהבה מבנות ירושלים.

Shlomo HaMelech made for himself a palace out of the trees of Levanon.

The pillars he made from silver, its couch of gold, its curtain of purple,

its interior inlaid with Ahavas Hashem from Bnos Yerushalayim.

The Mikdash is built from many elaborate materials. 

The floor of the Bais HaMikadash, however, is composed of devotion and love to Hashem and His Torah, fulfilled with courage and determination.

A gutten erev Shabbos

From Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh