Terumas HaMishkan: Nedivas Halev, the Joy of Giving, and Hashraas HaShechinah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. קומה, בנין המשכן, בנין המשכן, ציווי, ... מצווה, בואי למשכן, דבר בני ישראל, ויקחו לי תרומה. מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו, תיקחו את תרומתי. לי, famous Rashi, לשמי. It's a din of lishmah in the lekichah, in the taking of the money, the terumah for the Mishkan. What is the hosafah of מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו? ... ויקחו לי. לי, לשמי. It has to be lishmah. What is added that it has to be מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו, the nedivas halev? Does it mean that we're not kofeh, that we don't force? We know this, אין כופין על הצדקה. We don't force people to give tzedakah, ... על הצדקה. So the emes is, we could give a whole halachah shiur about this. So, b'kfiyah, nish b'kfiyah. Mistama every sefer and every shiur on this sugya is this she'eilah. Yes, kvia, not kvia. Do we force? Don't we force? U'meileh, the chiddush da is, whatever it is, you definitely don't force, l'chatchilah, right? Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo tikchu es terumasi. The Beis Halevi is עומד on the she'eilah, and the Beis Halevi says asi. Zogt the Beis Halevi, as the pasuk is referring to two groups of people. The first group is v'yikchu li terumah. That's Klal Yisrael. Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo, but the das is the erev rav. Azoi lernt the Beis Halevi; he brings a zehar hakadosh. Mefaresh this, that it says, kol ish asher yidvenu libo, the Zohar says, erev rav. It's referring to the erev rav. So the pasuk should be read, Daber b'nei Yisrael — that's Bnei Yisrael proper — to them you say, v'yikchu li terumah. Me'eis kol ish, that's even the erev rav. Azoi zogt the Beis Halevi from a Zohar. It's a chiddush, huh? And he explains more or less the inyanim that you just were me'orer to me. Do you force tzedakah? Don't you force tzedakah? Does tzedakah have to be that a person gives it lishmah mamash, literally lishmi? Here there's a special halacha, li lishmi. So pashut the pshat is, li l'shmi, is because the Mishkan is more than just regular tzedakah, Mishkan mamash, the Eibishter's house. It needs, and it should be given on a gresserer hecherer oifen than just giving tzedakah. Li l'shmi, a new din lishmah, and asei lan lachreinim, there's a special din lishmah, which we'll explain in a few moments. But the v'neis kol ish asher yidvenu libo, is l'choirah means the same thing, that you have to do it without being forced. That's going on the Erev Rav, zogt the Beis Halevi a tremendous chiddush. Mi she'eino ma'amin baHashem, and l'maaseh he does something, right? So the pshat is, when he gives the tzedakah, even if he gives the tzedakah, so he gives it, why? Because mamash yechi b'ni, there's an ulterior motive. But l'maaseh it's considered a good tzedakah, a tzaddik. Why? Because the deed, even if it's not going to achieve the results that he gave the tzedakah for, he's maskim anyway for the tzedakah. But if someone is, someone who's not such a big ma'amin, in English they call it the atheist or the...

So if all of a sudden he gives, matanas, so he's not really giving it with a real lishma. Doesn't really mean it for the Eibishter, and therefore if he doesn't get his desired, so he's not happy. Mimeila, therefore, the tzedakah is a shvache tzedakah. So he says like this: so therefore, even this person, when he's a ma'amin and he gives it, amanasi yechi b'ni, it's tzedakah. Like the lashon of the Gemara, tzadik gamur. It's perfect. Aval b'eino ma'amin, someone who is not a ma'amin, so when he gives it, for whatever the cheshbonos are, it's all really for himself. He wants that it should be to get the result. And therefore, that's not called for the Eibishter. So therefore the pasuk is teaching us this yesod: Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu li, just take it. The kavanah is not really that important, why he gives it, even though l'choira shteit li l'shmi, all right, bal korchon. You don't have to search into why. Yidvenu libo, why he's giving it. If he's giving it for the right reasons, that you don't have to look into. That's only by the Eirev Rav, because by the Eirev Rav, to them you need a tenai that it has to be l'shem Shamayim. Then it's tikchu es terumasi, because if not, then the person is doing it for himself. So here, the Beis Halevi is discussing taking kavanah. Here, no, pashut. Te'gid, when he gives it, v'yikchu li, terumah. Don't look into the background of the person that's giving, why he's giving. You know, davish klal, az eifel shailas. Take it. Aber der eidev rav, me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo, tikchu es terumasi. You got to search and see what's behind it. Why is he giving it? Is he giving it for his own good will? Okay, then take it. And if not, it's a shvach tzedakah. Azoi lernt the Beis Halevi, based on the Zohar HaKadosh. Many other Acharonim say different terutzim, and I'd like to go through a little bit: what does it mean, me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo? What does it mean? What is the condition, the tenai, the nedivas halev? What does it mean? All Acharonim, like I told you, explain that there was something special in the Mishkan, that the dinim that we find over here by the Mishkan, that it has to be li lishmi, more than regular, and the nedivas halev, which is an emphasis more than regular, is because it's the Mishkan. You know, when a person comes and he wants a bit of tzedakah, he walks over to you, Can you give me tzedakah? It doesn't make a difference what the guy's thinking. The guy's thinking he has a job and he's on the phone and the guy's bothering him, and even if you want, just get rid of him. Eich gut, alts gut. Give tzedakah, whatever it is. La'olam tikach. Just tzedakah is good no matter. The less you think, maybe the better off it might be. Just give the tzedakah, and that's all. But the Mishkan required more than just the giving. There had to be, and if I would may say it, kavanah and lev. It needed something more, the li lishmi, it needed kavanah. Then it needed the heart. It needed more. We want to understand: what are these halachos of li lishmi in the Mishkan? What does it mean, meis kalish ashi yitvenu libo? Tzedakah is tzedakah. As long as the mechuvan, as long as the objective was reached, it should be good, right? Dal ani ha-tovah se'asin Shabbos, beautiful, best thing. No, here it has to be searched, meis kalish ashi yitvenu libo, then it's tikkunes tumasi. So the pshat, beis halevi, because there's two parts to Klal Yisrael good. Ad kan Menzagin that the Mishkan required that it should be li with kavanah, li lishmi. Nedivas halev, the heart. Why? So years past I've told you the pshat.

The Mishkan is really a building. Reb Chaim Volozhiner, Acharonim tell us, we live without the Mishkan, the Beis Hamikdash, for years, meleptaza, there's nothing. I'm not saying we all long for the Beis Hamikdash. It's in every one of our tefillos. But Klal Yisrael survives. Klal Yisrael is able to grow and to have to become Bnei Yisrael, close to the Eibishter, even without a Mishkan. It's doable. Avad, it's much harder, but it's doable. And what is this based on? V'shachanti b'socham, b'socho lo ne'emar, b'socham ne'emar. The Mishkan, it's a building, but it's actually bedomeh. You look at the lashonos of Reb Chaim Volozhin, which means it's really a replica of the person himself. You have a go to Holy Land, they have the replica of the Mishkan, of the Beis Hamikdash, right? The truth is, it's you. It's an MRI of you. That's really what it is. I know, Bilvavi. You know I say this every year. You know why I say this every year? Because it's what Yiddishkeit is really all about. Certain yesodei ha-das need to be repeated again and again and again till it sinks in, and to realize that when you go to Holy Land and you see the structure of the Beis Hamikdash, you look at it, it's me. It's my kishkes. It's me. This is me. Like we always say, uvavi mishkanevna. This is not my raid. What did I add to you? Just to give it down to be mizapt. In today's modern terms, it's an MRI of you. It's a CAT scan of the person, or al kol panim what it should be. How do you make that asmosis, so to speak, that from the Mishkan, where the Ribono Shel Olam's mashreh Shechinah is really b'socham the person? How do you do that? And the answer is that when the person gives the money, b'nedivus halev, the money carries with it the lev, the hergeshim, the feelings, the emotions. So the money takes it, builds the Mishkan, and now the hashraas haShechinah is really b'socham, because the Mishkan is you, because how you gave the money was with you. You put your heart, your soul. Sichaingelegt de gantze zich. You put yourself into the giving of the money. Mimeila, it's a zich; it's you. They say by money, it's his blood and sweat. It's you. Damim parti mashma, right? Money is called damim. It's you. It's your blood. It's you. And when you give it, and the kavanos, and the retzonos, and the hergesh that you put into it, that's you. That's the me'oredike koach of money. Parshas Shekalim was— We should have maybe spoke about it in Parshas Shekalim we have in the years past. But the point for today is well understood, that the binyan haMishkan, which is really bilvavi mishkan evneh, needs nediv lev and the money, in order that it should be that the hashraas haShechinah is in you, your lev, you, your mind, your person. This year, I would like to give another understanding, another angle of the havanah, and it was a tremendous chiddush to me. Not that the vort was a chiddush to me, but the mareh makom that I finally found to back up this yesod was very, very strong to me. You'll soon see what I want with this. The Alshich speaks a lot of the V'rishachanti b'socham, that the hashraas haShechinah is actually in the klal, in the Am Yisrael, b'chol echad v'echad, in the person. There's a lot of Alshich. I saw a nusach of the Reishis Chochmah, perek zayin of Shaar Ahavah. It's important, he says.

That the nefesh and the lev is zakah, it's pure, in order to have the hashra'as haShechinah in the Mishkan, which ultimately is in the lev and the nefesh of a person. The person has to be fit for it. He has to be ... mashreh Shechinah in a place where there's tumah, right? So if the lev is not pure, then there's something wrong with the architectural of the Mishkan, because the Mishkan actually is supposed to be what? V'shachanti b'socham, through the Mishkan in the lev. But if the lev is not zakah, if the lev is not pure, so there could be a churban haMishkan and a churban haMikdash without even burning down the Beis HaMikdash. You don't need that, right? For a building to collapse, it could collapse for many different things. The building could stand, but the internal pipes aren't working, right? Okay, I see all the people that do building are smiling. I didn't prepare that joke, rabosai. I'm sorry. Maybe I should have, but I didn't, okay? Today's shiur is straight from the heart. This is, as we talk, this is the hargashah that I have at this moment about the Mishkan. Internal pipes could break. We all know what gets frozen, pipes break, right? ... And there's karirus, the pipes break, okay? The internal pipes of the person spiritually also break when there's too much cold on the outside. I'll leave it at that. Al kol panim, rabosai, zogt der reishis chochmah, derech yesod, that there's something called zakah has to be pure zach. In order for this architectural Mishkan, lev, it should all come together. And the meileh, I believe that there's a meridike yesod in the li lishmi and kol asher yidvenu libo. Why is it so important in a nedivas halev? And that is, the lev, for it to be tahor, the lev for it to be zakah, to be what it's supposed to be in its purest form, has to be the lev tov. It has to be with the nedivah. A functioning heart, physically, there are many different signs when the heart isn't functioning properly. Spiritually, when the heart isn't functioning, lacks nedivas halev. There's something wrong with that heart. To give, to want to, that's called lev, and that's what's needed, a healthy heart, spiritually, in order for the Mishkan to have hashra'as haShechinah v'shachanti b'socham. So the nedivas halev is not so much a tenai, but me'eiz kol ish asher yidvenu libo. If I could use those words, the shprach that they use in the leshonos of the yeshiva, the... it's heicha timtza. How does it come about? How does it happen? And it can only happen me'eiz kol ish asher yidvenu libo. Because it needs the toyar hamidos. The lev needs to have the zakah, the tahirah, that it's a lev that gives, that the lev is menadev. Lashon Rashi, me'echolish, lashon Rashi, v'hu lashon ratzon tov. It's not even ratzon. It's not about wanting to give. A nediv lev is not want and not want. It's not kfiyah, as opposed to wanting to give, which most acharonim do learn that way. The question is, are you forcing or not forcing? I'm nashich b'nidah? Do you have to write? Why are you giving it? I'm saying it's actually one step more than that. It's not about ratzon, but it's about ratzon tov. When you give, are you giving with your heart want? You want to be close to the Rabbeinu Shleilam. You want Mishkan for Klal Yisrael, kaparah for Klal Yisrael, whatever the nedivos—and I could sit here for half an hour and tell you different angles of nedivos that could be processed in giving to a Mishkan.

But either way, before we have to go into every detail, the general rule is nediv lev. It's not about a nedavah as opposed to kfiyah, as opposed to being forced. And I'll soon prove it to you. Could you explain to me, and we'll get to the words from the Alter from Kelm, and that's why I'm saying the shmooze, because like I said, I found them a kar, the heilige words of the Alter from Kelm. What was the big deal in what they gave? They were so rich. Do you have any idea how rich the people were? It was an agroise Yiddishakus, hagroise veda, was such a big deal what they gave to the Mishkan. For what? Machatzis hashekel. You know, imagine a guy comes and says, Here, could you spare half a penny or half a nickel? One second, let me think if I want to do that lishmah or not, you know. No, no, I'm having issues with it. What are we talking about already? Do you understand the—there's more than the money. There had to be a certain nedivus halev, a certain ratzon toiv for the heart to give, that the hashra'as haShechinah should take place. Let me quote you an interesting Or HaChaim. Chaim Shmulevitz, zichrono livrachah, speaks arichus about the nedavah of the nesiim. If you notice in the pasuk it says, What did they bring? אבני שוהם ואבני מלואים לאפוד ולחושן. Right? Pasuk says clearly, right? Chaf hei zayin. Here. First it says, תכלת וארגמן ותולעת שני, ועורות אילים, שמן למאור, אבני שוהם. Which was the most expensive of all? It was the avnei shoham. The rest of it were pennies. Avnei shoham was a matanah. Could you imagine if you had a blackboard of all the nedavim in the shul? This guy gave a nickel, that guy gave a nickel, a nickel, a nickel, a nickel, and on the bottom you have the guy that gave five hundred thousand dollars to the shul. Tell me, how would it sit with the... the first, the whole top row, this guy gave a quarter, this guy gave a dime, this guy gave... and on the bottom, on the bottom, the last thing, right, and so-and-so gave a million dollars to the shul. The Chaim HaKadosh fregt a kashya. He says the Nesiim, what they brought should have been much more celebrated, that it should be the mamish, the beginning, the top of the top. First thing, avnei shoham, and then afterwards we go lower, lower, right? Ever see the, they go for the shuls, right? It goes down in the list. First you got the high ones, and then you got at the end, the people donate a chair, right? Okay. Zogt the Ohr HaChaim tzvei pshatim, and Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, zichrono tzaddik livrachah, is busy with these two Ohr HaChaim pshatim, that to be mazbir each one separately. One of them says, one pshat says the Ohr HaChaim, they came last, they did it last. They did a list, huh? They didn't run to do it. I see, even chavan to what we want here, huh? They gave a lot, but they didn't run to do it. They came later. The Nesiim, Chazal tell us it's missing a yud, chaser. Why? Rashi brings it, אמר רבי נתן, because the Nesiim said, you know what, let everybody give and then we'll give. Why aren't you jumping? You should be jumping to give. You should be held back with a straitjacket to give. You ever see when the people fight on line for something? Can't hold them down. They should have been almost fighting to the front of the line. No, no, I was first, I was first. The second pshat, the Chaim says that they came b'loi toirach, Chazal tell us, that the Nesiim, who brought them these avnei shoham v'avnei miluim? It came with the ananim, the clouds brought it. Chazal tell us clearly that who brought them the margoliyos tovos? The ananim, Gemara in Yuma daf ayin hei amud aleph. So since it came b'li, I guess, chukah, cheshek, zeal, or b'li toirach, so it is not so chashuv. So the amount was not the main.

It was the retivas halev. That was the most important part. So this is the yesod, rabosai. Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo is not so much ratzon as opposed to kefiyah. It has to do, according to Reb Chaim Shmulevitz's learning, he brings this Reb Chaim in this pasuk, me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo. It has to do with the hisnadvus, why, how much ratzon, ahavah, love, and cheshek and feelings. It's not just, did you give it because you want or you gave it because you were forced. It's more than that, right? Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo. Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, he knew all the kinyanim, and he knew all the sugyas of li and lishmah. Trust me. Reb Chaim had good fashtanen what it means kodshim and then Mishkan and li and terumah and the famous Netziv that there was different types of terumos, and one was a little bit of kefiyah and one was not b'kefiyah. Trust me, I also do. Not interested in saying it over now, because that's not the point. You could see there's plenty of Rishonim and Acharonim on this sugya. The point is, mit alt, Reb Chaim fashtand, there's something deeper in me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo. It's the tohar hamiddos, it's the ahavah, it's the love, it's the wanting to give, it's the hisnadvus, the outpour of lev, what's linked in their inyan for nesinah. Where did I finally come across this yesod? The furish, in the words of the Alter from Kelm. I'll tell you, rabosai, a little secret. I've heard this Alter from Kelm said over many times, because I've hung around the daylei Yisrael and mashgichim and shmuzen. I'm a listener. I listen. And I was always taught the Alter from Kelm in a gevisse oifen. And when I finally came across it this year, I realized he's saying something completely different. I always was taught that what does he mean, the Alter from Kelm? And we're going to read what he says, that there's a special din of lishmah. It's more. It's not just a regular lishmah. It needs more kavanah. It needs more. And everybody says this from the Alter from Kelm, okay, that it's such a din of lishmah for the Ribono Shel Olam mamash. And they quote the last piece of this Alter from Kelm. It's in Chochmah U'Mussar, page reish mem, chelek beis, page reish mem, os — the number is reish nun beis — that there had to be a tochei ratzon v'ahavah, that there had to be with a certain, for the Ribono Shel Olam, that you want. And they quote the last piece of this shtikel from the Alter from Kelm. And that's how I always accepted this vort from the Alter from Kelm. See, a bizunderer din of lishmah, special, special lishmah that's needed in the Mishkan. Why? Because you have to do it li'shmi mamash for the Ribono Shel Olam, mamash, nor far di Ribono Shel Olam. And the me'aseh kol ish asher yidvenu libo. Rebbeinu Shalom, I love you so much. That's good. Even this is already good enough. This is already good enough to say, Das is hashmuis fazich alein, that li lishmi means what? Li for the Ribono Shel Olam, but what for the Ribono Shel Olam? Because you've got a li bechod li. And they say, I saw the Alter from Kelm. It's not what he says. And I'll be honest with you, I held it a whole night last night. Went to sleep with it. I started to understand, what does it mean to be a Yid? I started to chap. It's so much deeper than we understand. Mishkan is Yadus. It's what we all are. It's not only the Mishkan, the building. It's we. It's us. It's hashraas haShechinah, what's in our souls, in our hearts. You know what the Alter from Kelm really does say? I can't tell you how much this talks to me. Every word, every ois. Exactly what I told you till now. In order for the Ribono Shel Olam to imashech Shechinah, the lev has to be just as tahor and as toiv as the Ribono Shel Olam Himself. I'm going to read you.

Every word, because every word is a din. Efekt a kasha, vechi ala leiv? You think someone would have a problem giving to the Mishkan after everything the Eibishter did for you? Imagine I gave you the million dollars that you have, and I come over to borrow from you a half a shekel, machatzis hashekel. You gotta be completely insane that you have any issue with that, right? Gotta be completely offen zin. Something gotta be seriously wrong with the person. So why does the pasuk have to talk about it? Tchamoyre di'gara. It's a pele. Do you understand what it is? Vechi ala ladaas, vechi ala leiv, ki achar kol hatovos hagedolos shekiblu me'ito yisbarach, vegam bizas Mitzrayim. And that's all I ask of you is a machatzis shekel, and that's that you have to give a whole stipulation, sheyedvena libo, you give it with your full heart. You gotta be kidding me. U'befrat, for what? You know the cause? Lishkam b'socham. Which Yid would say, Of course I'm on board. I'm fully there. What are you talking about? Omnam nisyashev li because of a choves halvavos. Chovos Halevavos says, hamidah haachas — it's in Shaar Avodas Elokim — he says, hamidah haachas, what is the one thing that it's ra'ui la'avoscha es nafshecha, lechafetzcha, limshoch hane'imos eileha, explains the Alter from Kelm, what does he want? What does he mean? Ka'asher ratzah HaKadosh Baruch Hu lishkon b'socham. In order for the Ribeinu Shalom to be among us, we have to be fit. We gotta be a kli. We gotta be able to accept the hashraas haShechinah. And therefore we need the greatest of ma'alos. Ka'asher nimtza bo yisbarach those same ma'alos that the Eibishter has. It needs to be a place that the Ribeinu Shalom could come, so we gotta prepare. Gotta make the room for the guest to be able to sleep there, right? Gotta prepare it. V'achas meihem, hi hatovah amitis. ... goodness for the sake of goodness. Unbelievable. It's unbelievable. That's the pshat. It's not li l'shmi that I need to say, Ribeinu Shalom, I'm doing it l'shem Shamayim. It's not what it means. It's not what it means. It means something completely different. Ka'asher rak lidamos eilav yisbarach. It means because I want to be like You, Ribeinu Shalom. I want to be one with You. Asmosis means that I and Him become one. How do we become one? If I'm able to become one with Him, then a divkus halev does that, says the Alter from Kelm. It's unbelievable. Ka'asher hu rotze, just like the Eibishter wants, lheitiv machmas nedavah v'chesed l'borai, l'borai, those to the ones He created, so Ribeinu Shalom also wants to do and to be meitiv. And he has no other kavana. V'hamishkan, sheHashem yisbarach shechein bo yisbarach liyos me'uter b'midosav v'hana'alos. Thank the Eibishter that I finally saw it inside. I always felt that that was pshat in this maimer. A Yid—what is a Yid? A Yid is a lev tov. B'shachanti b'socham, רבי משה finds a place in a world of corruption, in a world of rishus, in a world of ra. He finds a place where he's able to rest his Shechinah, and that's on the lev, which is tov, menadev, because that's the Ribono Shel Olam. And he speaks a lot about now the ahavah, tochei ratzon v'ahavah. What is ahavah? And he explains this nekudah: you want to give because you want to give. There's no other explanation to it. That's the mashal of ahavah. Tochei ratzon v'ahavah mibnei tziayon. What does that mean? It's to give because you want to give. To me, this is Yiddishkeit, rabosai. To me, this is the reason why we went to fires throughout the dayos.

This explains. This is real. This is not this world. This is something very special, what a Yid is, and what the Mishkan means to a Yid. Over the years, I've been asked by chashuve people who are very close talmidim, You know, Rebbe, always you talk about things which are so lofty and so way beyond us. And these people who are asking are asking good. I sometimes wonder to myself, what am I asking? I'm asking that a person should be a menadev halev, asehvdir Rabbeinu Shleimah, ... I'm speaking mamish way above everyone's head. I hear these complaints always, but don't worry. Over the years, I don't listen to complaints, Baruch Hashem. We learned this a long time ago. Complaints—there's such a thing called a complaint box. And what do you do with the complaint box? Put a lock on it and you leave it alone, and that's all. You never look at it. That's the way I've come to understand life and shiurim and things. But this one I took serious. Am I asking, in my talk I talk about hearts and the heart and feelings and emotions? Maybe it's for malachim and not bnei adam, right? People are smiling because those are the people, some of the people are sitting here, asked me this question, and I love them so much, so I addressed the question. You know who addresses this question? The Alter from Kelm at the end of the shtikel. He realized that, wait a second, what am I telling you? There should be a nedivas halev like the Rabbeinu Shleimah? Are you kidding me? And I quote, says the Alter from Kelm, these are mailos elyonim, mailos el hadveikus hamizdameh lo, that when you do this, you're mamash like the Ribbono Shel Olam. Ki b'tzelem Elokim asah es ha'adam. And this is the matarah, and like I told you, this is Yiddishkeit. This is the matarah asher ha'adam tzarich la'asos, matosai, u'matmasai. What are we here for? This is the whole ikar. It's like I explained to you, this is the ikar of ikarim. V'al yomar ha'adam, ani rachok mizeh! Exclamation point. So at the end of the schmooze from the Alter from Kelm, someone must have asked him this with an exclamation point: This is what you want from me? What are you talking about? Himlared. It's rachok mizeh. Says the Alter from Kelm in response, kvar bi'arnu b'ma'amar shimusha shel Torah shehameilah loi, that the Torah helps you. V'hamaskil yavin misham sheha'ikar hanidrash meha'adam, that is the truth. That's what we have to do. Lehishtadel laalos l'maalos elyonos. Yes, we are supposed to talk about these things and ask ourselves to reach those madreges, af shetivei ha'daas rachok mizeh. Even though as human beings, it's pretty far for us. It's pretty lofty goals. Hameivin yavin ma shenirmazu mizeh, amaru Chazal, maaseh hagiyumasei l'maaseh Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov, mechuyav hu l'hachin tamid. This is not just a thing that we have to work, but we're mechuyav to work towards. L'hachin tamid hahishtadlus l'shanos l'at l'at, to change by a little tivui hara. Ki Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov. Yes, this is our responsibility, to talk about lofty goals and little by little change ourselves to reach that. Ki chayiv nemar sham bamaimar. The lashon of the Chazal is chayiv. It doesn't say that a person, it's a good idea, it's something very special to think this way. It's chayiv adam loimar, maaseh yagia maaseh, v'yesh lanu b'zeh devarim niflaim. I would like to end with a gevaldige pshat, Birchas Hamazon, according to everything we just said, with a beautiful story, and I want you to think about the story. In Birchas Hamazon we say, Rachem na Hashem Elokeinu al Yisrael amecha, al Yerushalayim irecha, v'al Tzion mishkan kevodecha, v'al habayis hagadol v'hakadosh. Interesting. Gadol. The pesukim call it gadol. Like it says, Habayis asher ani boneh gadol. It's a pasuk in Divrei Hayamim. There's a pasuk in Melachim, V'chol beis gadol saraf ba'esh. So the truth is the Gemara asks this kasha: why is it called gadol? Tell me, was the Beis Hamikdash the biggest building around? It was the biggest building.

The world, it says, not necessarily. Why is it called Habais Hagadol? What's gadol about it? So the Gemara says over there in Megillah, chavzayin, bayis shemegadlin bo Torah, u'bayis shemegadlin bo tefillah. It's a house that they megadlin bo. People grow in Torah and tefillah. I see everybody's putting on their jackets. I got the message. You know, Rabbei say, I want to tell you a ma'aseh dike vort and a ma'aseh, and then we'll say goodbye, okay? It's amazing how 35 minutes is allotted to talk about life, Yiddishkeit, and what it's all about. But you got to do that. That's what we got to do. Believe me, in the Baalei Mussar's school of thought, they spent hours and weeks and speaking about... But today, everything, we have to get it into a time frame. Okay, we got 35—I mean, actually, truth is, we got 20 minutes to do it, and I do it in 35, so. Al kol panim, you know what it says by the Rabbeinu Shleilam? It says, Moshe Rabbeinu says, Atah chilosa l'har'os es gadlecha, v'es yadcha hachazakah. Hashem's greatness. If you had to fill in what Hashem's greatness was, or is, it'd be endless, right? Okay, la-gadol, la-gibor, v'hanora... And we don't finish, and only because Moshe Rabbeinu told us, and he said that. So how do you fill in the blank, gadlecha? And the answer is mamash so many different things, right? If you look at Rashi, Rashi brings from Chazal, what is gadlecha? So, midas tovcha. And the פירוש Rashi, rabosai, Rav Shaima used to tell this to me all the time. Gadlus is midas tovcha. Habayis hagadol v'hakadosh, the Beis Hamikdash, is about gadlus. It's about something much—it's not structurally big, and it's true, it's not the biggest building around. Bayis shemegadlin bo. What is gadlus? What does it mean, gadol? So midah—there's so much hatovah, so much love, so much ahavah, so much giving, an outpour of ahavah from Klal Yisroel to Ribono Shel Olam and Ribono Shel Olam to Klal Yisroel, tochei ratzon v'ahavah. That's why it's called what? Bayis hagadol. And the story I would like to end with is as follows. Reb Chaim Ozer, zichrono tzaddik livrachah. A lot of what we know about Reb Chaim Ozer comes from Reb Chizkiah Yosef Mishkovsky. He was the nephew of Reb Chaim Ozer, and he was meshamesh Reb Chaim Ozer at the end of his life, when Reb Chaim Ozer already couldn't handle the burden and he was deteriorating in health. Reb Mishkovsky was his nephew, his gabbai, who took care of everything for him. That's why we know a lot of Reb Chaim Ozer, because Reb Chaim Ozer himself never spoke about himself. So how would you know all the thousands of mitzvahs and chasadim and the greatness that Reb Chaim Ozer did? Reb Mishkovsky gave us a little bit, and he said the following story, that at the end he was running most of the people that used to come. Reb Chaim Ozer had people coming to him all day. All day. So he would take care of the simple things because he wanted to unburden the load for Reb Chaim Ozer. Reb Chaim Ozer came over to him and told him, I want to give you a yasher koach. I thank you. I thank you. I know that you're trying to protect my health and my strength, but I want you to know something. There is nothing in this world that brings me more enjoyment than helping other people. This is what I live for. This is life to me. By you taking away some of the load, not much for me the reason to be alive anymore. I don't know. I thought Reb Chaim Ozer would be able to learn and to daven. I thought, oh, okay. The more he takes away the load, gives him more time to learn and to daven and to, right? I'm going to leave you with this, rabbosai. What is life? What is yadus? What does it mean, hashraas haShechinah? What really hashraas haShechinah balev kol echad v'echad means and what it requires, to be zocheh to hashraas haShechinah.

Neither we should see in the Binyan Habayis HaShlishi. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.