Terumah 5774 and Tefillah Request:            Inside Outside

                                    By Rabbi Joshua (perspectively known as the Hoffer) Hoffman

Please daven for a refuah shelaimah for R. Hoffman, Yehoshua ben Yonina, among the other ill of Israel.

As part of the construction of the Mishkan, the Torah commands, "And you should make the beams of the Mishkan of shittim – acacia wood, standing erect" (Shemos 26:15).  Rashi, noting the definite article "the" before the word for the beams, cites the midrash which says that the Torah is referring to specific beams, which have been designated for use in the Mishkan. Yaakov, says the midrash, foresaw that when the nation left Egypt, they would be commanded by G-d to build a Mishkan in the wilderness, and would need acacia wood for its construction. Therefore, he brought shittim trees with him to Egypt, planted them there, and, before he died, told his children to have the trees ready when they left Egypt.

Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch, in his P'ninei Da'as, points out something very significant that emerges from this midrash. What worried Yaakov about the descent of his family to Egypt was their spiritual future, and that is what he made provisions for. We do not find, however, that he made any special effort to provide for their material needs, to sustain themselves and find shelter. Apparently, in this regard, he trusted that G-d, through Yosef, would provide, and did not pursue the matter further. The tendency of human nature, however, is to reverse these priorities, and worry mainly for one's physical needs, and only peripherally for their spiritual dimension. In building a Jewish home, however, our personal Mishkan, we would be well served by taking Yaakov as an example.

This comment of Rabbi Bloch dovetails with an explanation by Rav Dovid Feinstein. The menorah, which symbolizes the light of the Torah, was situated in the south of the Mishkan, while the shulchan, which symbolizes material wealth, was situated in the north. Someone standing in the kodesh hakodoshim, the holy of holies, which was in the west, and facing the east, would see the menorah to his right and the shulchan to his left. Someone coming from the outside into the Mishkan, however, would see the shulchan to his right and the menorah to his left. We find in Scripture, and in many aspects of Halacha, that what is on the right has more importance that what is on the left. Rav Dovid explained that the that the tendency of human nature is for a person to place more importance on his physical needs than on his spiritual needs, and the Torah recognizes this in the way in which it orders the visual presentation of the Mishkan's vessels as one enters the structure. However, one's goal should be to see things as presented to someone situated in the kodesh hakodoshim.

How does one achieve this perspective? As Rav Bloch says, we need to take the example of Yaakov in ordering our priorities. The Ramban says that the book of Shemos is the book of exile and redemption, and the redemption was completed when the Divine presence came to dwell in the Mishkan, just as it had in the tents of the patriarchs and matriarchs. Building a home with values and priorities of our forebears in mind, we can transfer the experience of the Divine presence that we experienced at Sinai into our own homes, mirroring the function of the Mishkan in general, as explained by the Ramban in his introduction to Parshas Terumah.