Hashem commands Moshe to build a Mishkan - Sanctuary - and supplies him with detailed instructions. The Jewish People are asked to contribute precious metals and stones, fabrics, skins, oil and spices. In the Mishkan's outer courtyard will be an Altar for the burning of offerings and a Laver for washing. The Tent of Meeting - Ohel Moed - is divided by a curtain into two chambers. The outer chamber is accessible only to Kohanim, the descendants of Aharon; it contains the Table of showbreads (Shulchan), the Menorah, and the Golden Altar for incense. Entrance to the innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies, was permitted only for the Kohen Gadol, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur. It contained the Ark that held the Ten Commandments inscribed on the two tablets of stone which Hashem gave to the Jewish nation on Mount Sinai. All the utensils and vessels, as well as the instructions for the construction of the Mishkan, are described in much detail.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

What’s Inside theBox?

“...Take for Me a contribution; from every person whose heart inspires him...” (Shemos 25:2)

When somebody gives you a present, you're happy, but at the end of the day, it's really all about what the gift actually was.

Let's say you wanted the latest pair of super-duper Grindley Gibbons Mark V ultra-light wrap-around headphones with duplex panavistic drivers. But all you got was a pair of super-duper Grindley Gibbons Mark IV super-light wrap-around headphones, without the duplex panavistic drivers.

Very nice, but not exactly what you wanted.

When you give, on the other hand, it has really nothing to do with the thing itself. The thing itself is just the box. The container. What’s inside the box is you. You give yourself. The gift is the giving. Receiving is about what you get. Giving is about giving yourself.

In Parshat Terumah, the Torah says: “Take for Me a contribution …from every person whose heart motivates him….”

Why doesn’t it say “Give for Me?” Why “Take for me?”

G-d already has everything. We can’t give Him anything.

Except our hearts. All we can give is the giving itself.

The Torah repeats again and again that the people gave “as their heart moved them.” Because the Tabernacle, the Mishkan, was meant to be a dwelling place for the Divine Presence - the Shechinah - and the Shechinah does not dwell in objects. It dwells in our hearts. Where we give ourselves.