25 Adar 5759 / March 13, 1999 Parshat Vayakhel - Pekudei

Imagine turning up at a spotless hi-tech computer plant and offering your services to build computer chips.

They say to you: "Fine. What experience do you have?"

You say "None. But I know in my heart that I can build all the chips you need."

"Yeah, look there's a food factory down the block. Why don't you try over there? Maybe you'd be better off frying their chips than ours..."

When the Jewish People left Egypt, they had been slaves for so many years. The only skills that they had developed in those years of apprenticeship were how to stir mortar and shlep stones. Not exactly an ideal training ground for the extremely high degree of artistry necessary for the building of the Holy Tabernacle.

Where was their training as carpenters, embroiders, metal-smiths, sculptors, weavers?

And yet they came to Moses and said, "Whatever my lord commands, I will do it." And they did it.

Because the Tabernacle was a spiritual building, all it needed was the desire of its builders to serve G-d; then G-d, as it were, filled in the rest of their resumes.

When we want to serve G-d, to be good Jews and good people, we should remember that no previous experience is required, just a heart that's uplifted to serve.

The Tabernacle and later the Temple represented the "marriage" of the Jewish People and G-d. The keruvim (cherubim) that were carved from the top of the cover of the holy ark were like a barometer which showed the state of this marriage.

When there was shalom bayis - "marital harmony" - between the Creator and His people, the keruvim faced each other, but when the Jewish People strayed and were unfaithful, the faces of the keruvim turned in opposite directions.

In Ethics of Our Fathers the Sages tell us that on Yom Kippur when everyone stood in the courtyard of the Temple, it was jam-packed. You could hardly move an inch. But when time came to prostrate themselves before G-d, there was plenty of room for all.

The same can be said about marriage: If a person "stands," if he stands on his dignity, if he stands only for himself, if he stands proud with his head high, then matrimony can be very crowding. You can't move an inch.

But if a person lowers himself, prostrating his own interests beneath those of his spouse, then there is plenty of room for everyone.

Selections from classical Torah sources which express the special relationship between the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael Bnei Brak Mentioned as one of the cities in the portion of the Tribe of Dan (Joshua 19:45), Bnei Brak is known in the Talmud as the seat of Rabbi Akiva's court, and in the Passover Haggada as the site of the all-night Passover Seder of Rabbi Akiva and his distinguished colleagues. The city had an agricultural dimension as well, as appears from the account of the Sage Rami bar Yechezkel who declared that he understood the meaning of the Torah's description of the Land of Israel as a "land flowing with milk and honey" after witnessing a scene during a visit to Bnei Brak. He observed goats grazing beneath fig trees. The honey oozing from the very ripe figs merged with the milk dripping from the goats and formed a stream of milk and honey. The Bnei Brak of today was established in 1924 by Jews from Poland, and is famed for its many yeshivos and Chassidic communities.

If you don't exercise your ability to judge favorably, you may find yourself...

I got into a cab the other day. "Do you mind not smoking?" I asked the cab driver. "No, I don't mind," he said, but he made no motion to extinguish the cigarette which dangled between his lips.

"Well then," I said, "Is it possible to put out your cigarette?"

"It's possible," he said, again taking no action.

"Look," I said, "I can't ride with you if you're smoking."

"Fine," he said.

"Fine!" I shouted. "I'm taking another cab!" I opened the door and got out in a huff.

"Look," said the driver, holding up his un-started cigarette. "It wasn't even lit!"

Sheepishly, I got back into the cab.