Light Lines - Terumah
Parshat Terumah
6 Adar I 5760 / 12 February 2000
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"Let [the children of Israel] take for Me a portion." (Exodus 25:1)
Giving can sometimes be taking. Take the following case, for example. When a man marries a woman, he must give her something of value. We usually use a ring for this purpose. If, instead, she were to give him something, the marriage would not be valid. An exception to this rule is the case where the groom is someone of particular preeminence, who normally would not receive gifts. If his bride-to-be gave him a ring, and he accepted it from her, then the marriage would be valid. Why? In that case, his receipt of her gift is itself a gift, he gives her the pleasure of his accepting her gift. It's like he was really giving and she taking.
"Let [the children of Israel] take for Me a portion." Really, it seems that the Torah should have written here "Let them give Me a portion." However, the fact that G-d accepts our offerings gives us more pleasure than the value of what we give to G-d, and so it is we who are really doing the taking.
GIVE AND TAKE 2
"And they shall make for Me a sanctuary... like all that I show you, the form of the Tabernacle and all its vessels..." (Exodus 25:8-9)
The Torah is a precise document. So much is this the case, that even if one letter would be incorrect within the hundreds of thousands of letters in a Torah scroll, the scroll would be invalid.
Sometimes, the Torah mentions the construction of the Mishkan before its vessels and implements, sometimes the reverse. In the beginning of the Parsha the Tabernacle is introduced first, but the actual descriptions that follow begin with the vessels. Why should there be such a seeming imprecision?
An entity and its parts have a symbiotic relationship. They both must give and take from each other. Take the body of man, for example. Without limbs there can be no body. The limbs comprise the body. However, when the limbs are all connected and the current of life flows within them, the body itself now takes on an existence which is greater than the sum of its parts, and then it gives back to the limbs the power of life.
It's the same way with Torah and mitzvos. The Torah is a body which is comprised of limbs - the mitzvos. Without the Torah, the mitzvos have no value, for we would have no idea how to do any of them without the Torah to teach us. On the other hand, without mitzvos, the Torah itself loses its value, for without action, the grandeur of Torah study loses its greatness.
The alternation in order of the Tabernacle and the vessels, representative of the Torah and the mitzvos, teaches us that Torah and mitzvos are an indivisible team. The flow of influence is in both directions. One cannot function without the other. A Tabernacle devoid of its vessels is useless, and the vessels without a Tabernacle cannot survive. So too, a person who knows Torah, but does no mitzvos, has an empty Torah; and the mitzvos themselves, without Torah to explain and elucidate them, would be meaningless.
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  Selections from classical Torah sources which express the special relationship between the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael Telz Stone - Kiryat Yearim Three names and eras are combined in the name of this residential community on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Kiryat Yearim is where the Holy Ark was brought after its return from Philistine captivity, and where it remained for 20 years until it was finally brought to Jerusalem by King David. Near this biblical site is the community which was established by the heads of the Telz Yeshiva, which was transplanted from Lithuania to Cleveland, through the generosity of the great philanthropist Irving Stone. (Mr. Stone, the head of Cleveland based American Greetings, passed away this month, may his memory be blessed.) Thus was the name Telz Stone added to the community, in honor of the benefactor who helped to make possible the existence of the European school in America. Telz Stone today is a religious community with many residents from the USA and South Africa and a number of religious educational institutions, plus a renowned convalescent home for recovering mothers in their first few days after giving birth. |
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Silence is golden. Unless...
I was studying Talmud with my study partner in his house one night when the phone rang. He picked it up and proceeded to have a conversation with the person on the other end, despite it being our appointed time to study.
Although the right thing would surely have been be to tell the caller that he was in the middle of studying and to return the call afterwards, I knew he must have had a good reason for not doing so. "He must be talking to his mother, and it's not nice to interrupt your mother," I thought to myself.
Finally he finished speaking, said goodbye and hung up. "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting," he told me, "but I was talking to my mother."
"I thought so," I said.
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Hard Heart
David T. Subar wrote:
A few weeks ago, the Torah describes G-d hardening Pharaoh's heart, and therefore he did not let our people free. This hardening caused further plagues, including the slaying of the first born. Therefore, G-d's actions (the hardening of Pharaoh's heart) led to unnecessary suffering, since Pharaoh was of the mind to free the Jews. How is this explained by the Sages?
Dear David,
Great question! Here are two answers:
The extra plagues weren't a punishment for Pharaoh's stubbornness; rather, they were punishment for previous actions, such as oppressing an innocent people, throwing Jewish babies in the river and attempted genocide. All these actions were done with free will.
The hardening of Pharaoh's heart was merely a pretext, so to speak, for the timing of Egypt's punishment. It was timed so as to impress deeply and indelibly upon the collective consciousness of the Jewish People that G-d controls everything in the world. Pharaoh and company got only what they deserved, based on their previous bad deeds.
Here's another answer: Really, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart wasn't taking away his free will. Just the opposite, it restored his free will! The plagues had taken away Pharaoh's free will (in the opposite direction) by scaring Pharaoh until he had no reasonable choice but to submit and cry 'uncle.' By hardening his heart, G-d was merely restoring Pharaoh's free will to the point it had been prior to the plagues, when he was able to make whatever decision he wanted.
Therefore, G-d didn't force Pharaoh not to let the Jewish People go. He simply gave Pharaoh the opportunity to do so. Nothing but his own stubbornness stopped Pharaoh from repenting.
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