Terumah: Nedivas HaLev, Ratzon, and Uniting Every Heart to Build the Mishkan

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom Aleichem, bruchim haba'im. Parshas Terumah. Terumah, the donations to the Mishkan. The parsha deals with building of the Mishkan. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, Daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu li terumah. Take for me a terumah, donations for the Mishkan. Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo. From every person who is giving from his heart the donation, tikchu es terumasi. There's an interesting Chazal. Tana d'bei Eliyahu. When Klal Yisrael said, Naaseh v'nishma, miyad amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, v'yikchu li terumah. Miyad. Right away, the Ribono Shel Olam said, Take for me, take for me the terumah to build the Mishkan. Naaseh v'nishma, response to Naaseh v'nishma, the Ribono Shel Olam says, V'yikchu li terumah. What is the kesher, the connection between Naaseh v'nishma that Klal Yisrael says to what the Ribono Shel Olam asks, V'yikchu li terumah? Why was it miyad? Why is this the response to Naaseh v'nishma? I could hear that the whole building of the Mishkan was a response, was the presence, so to speak, that was given to Klal Yisrael when they said Naaseh v'nishma. So then the Chazal should have said— B'shaah she'amru, when they said, Naaseh v'nishma, miyad amar Hashem, v'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. Why is the terumah, the v'yikchu li terumah, directly connected to Klal Yisrael saying Naaseh v'nishma? Rabosai, let us understand terumah. What was this terumah that the Ribono Shel Olam is asking for? Ribono Shel Olam is collecting for the Mishkan. What was He collecting? Pasuk clearly stipulates that the terumah had to be me'es kol ish asher yidvenenu libo. Pashut, it's not a tenai, it's not a condition. It's saying the fact that the terumah should be taken from whoever gives it, me'es kol ish asher yidvenenu libo. The mefarshim, Rishonim, mefarshim after explain yidvenenu libo was actually a stipulation, it was a tenai, it was a condition. It had to be me'es kol ish asher yidvenenu libo in order it should be the terumah laShem. The Ribono Shel Olam wasn't just asking for terumah, for a donation. He was asking a terumah that would be me'es kol ish asher yidvenenu libo. What does yidvenenu libo mean? What is this condition of yidvenenu libo? Rashi, lashon nedavah. Yidvenenu is a lashon of nedavah, of donating, of giving. V'hu lashon ratzon tov. Will, good, goodwill. So you see already Rashi is working on translating and defining and explaining what is yedvenu libo. What is the yedvenu libo? Is it nedavah? Is it ratzon? Is it ratzon tov? Is it all one thing? Rabosai, when you dissect and we take apart the yedvenu libo, we can see three things, l'choira, that could be what's the yedvenu libo. Either the nedivas halev is the ahavah to the Ribono Shel Olam. You give because you love. You'll give because you want to have a mishkan with the Ribono Shel Olam. So that could be about ahavah. You give. Part of the nedivas halev is the giving with feeling. It could also be about ratzon, to give with will, the want to give. Or it could be the hatavah, the goodness in the giving. I've always tried to take apart what exactly is the core value in the nedivas halev that the Ribono Shel Olam is looking for. Is He looking about the feeling? Is He looking for the ratzon? Or is He looking for the—

The Maggid Midubna asks an interesting question. The Ribono Shel Olam wants a Mishkan. The Mishkan is the home for the Shechinah, v'asu li mikdash, dirah b'tachtonim. So then why is it materialistic? The Ribono Shel Olam, miskulo ruchni. The Beis HaMikdash, the Mishkan was kulo ruchni. So why did it have to have gashmiyusdike proponents? Why did it have to be made from gold and silver and all other chumriyim? Part of the question also is, why so much? Why the need of making with so much moiseres, such lavish gashmiyus, chayretz moiseres? If someone would think of a place which is kadosh, he would say it should be humble, it should be simple, it should have anavah, it should be a place that represents humility. Why is it such a bulstrious building, such a bulstrious, illustrious, lavish binyan? The Dubno Maggid also asks, li'akesef v'lihazahav. It's anyway the Ribono Shel Olam's. So if He needs the binyan, if He needs the house to be built with all this gold and silver, then why does it have to be that He gives it to us and we're giving it? To the Rabbeinu Shloilam, zei fregt the Dubna Maggid a kasha. The Dubna Maggid gives a teretz: Ein lecha chaviv. There's nothing more dear, close to a person than his money, a person and his money heart to part with. It's who he is. Ein lecha chaviv. There's nothing more close and dear to a person than his money. The Rabbeinu Shloilam is not looking for the money. He's looking what's dear to you. He's looking that you should give what's the most important to you. A very famous zog by the Baal HaMussar: money is called damim, blood is also damim. Damim tartei mashma. The Gemara says that damim has two definitions. V'hainu hach, says Baal HaMussar, it's the money and it's the blood, because it's the essence of a person and his retzonos, his wants and needs in this world. Zogt the Rabbeinu Shloilam, dos vil ich. Take what's important to you. Take what's so close, chaviv, and dear to you. I ask you for that, not the money. The money hob ich genug gelt. And mimeila, even though the Mishkan, in theory, should have been a bias full of ruchniyus, should have been made with ruchniyusdik components, aber the Rabbeinu Shloilam wants something more or different. Then that ruchniyus, He wants you, and the way to get you is by you giving what's dear to you. I think with this we can explain the diyuk lashon of the pasuk in Parshas Tetzaveh. In Parshas Tetzaveh, in Parshas Vayakhel, Torah repeats the donations to the Mishkan. Perek lamed hei, pasuk daled: Vayomer Moshe el kol adas Bnei Yisrael leimor, zeh hadavar asher tzivah Hashem leimor, kchu me'itchem terumah laShem, kol nediv libo. The me'itchem is an extra word; it's an extra lashon. Kchu terumah laShem. What's the me'itchem? This we understand with the words of the Dubno Maggid. We can explain me'itchem because the Ribono Shel Olam wanted we should take from ourselves. It should be a piece of us, from us, chelek fun zich. So we need to give to the Ribono Shel Olam to build the Mishkan. I think with this we can also continue to explain the continuation of—

The pasuk, Trumah itchem, trumah laShem, kol nediv libo yevieha, es trumas Hashem. Yevieha, nediv libo, and then it says yevieha. Baal HaTurim asks, it should have said yavi, havelei loimar yavi. The one who gives and brings the trumah, yavi, he should bring it. What does the pasuk mean, kol nediv lev yevieha? Lashon nekeivah, says the Baal HaTurim. A lot of the things that they brought to the Mishkan were items, jewelry, which belonged to the woman, belonged to the wife. So how could the husband take it and donate it? And the Teretz is, it had to be with the willingness of the wife, of the isha. So yevieha, she has to also bring it, says the Baal HaTurim. It needs to come as a donation from her too. I saw, meirdig a vort from Reb Shimon Sofer, the einikel of the Chasam Sofer, Rav in Pressburg, and he says the translation of yevieha is not going back on the bringer, but it's going back on the lev. Kol nediv itchem, take from you, take from within you, something from a part of you. What should you take? Kol nediv libo, the heart. Yevieha, bring that heart. The Ribbono Shel Olam wants not the money, but the heart. So you're not bringing the dollars, you're bringing the heart that goes into the giving of the dollars. Chasam Sofer in Toras Moshe explains. The Rabbeinu Shalom doesn't need your money. The money is His anyway. The Rabbeinu Shalom doesn't need your money. So then what does He want? Just the ratzon, the willing to give, because that's the only thing you can give in the money. The money is anyway His. So what are you supplying? Just the ratzon to give, and ondas for the Rabbeinu Shalom. You know, it's interesting. There was three trumos that were brought. One of them was a machatzis shekel. The Rabbeinu Shalom said, What is a machatzis shekel? It's nothing. It's a half a shekel. And that's probably niskasheh Moshe. Moshe, Chazal say, had difficulty understanding machatzis shekel. Pashut, because what is a half a shekel? It's nothing. Imagine asking a person, Do me a favor, give me a nickel. Now we have to understand this is all with the riches that they had in the Midbar. Klal Yisrael came away from Kriyas Yam Suf. They came away with gold and silver. Bizas hayam was great. And yet we turn around and we ask for a machatzis shekel. They had everything, frekt Alter from Kelm, so where's the nedivus halev? Where is the big... vos me git? Vos, vos hot mishen gegeben? Me machfen dem azoi groyse... Now someone's going to say, Well, maybe that's not going on the machatzis shekel. It's going on the other parts of the truma, the zahav, the kesef, the nechoshes. There's an interesting Malbim, rabosai. The Malbim says, Me'eis kol ish. Asher yitvenu libo. Me'es kol ish, individual, kol ish. So why does it have to say me'es kol? It should say, me'es asher yitvenu libo. Why does it say kol ish? Chazal already talk about the extra words, kol ish. Zogt the Malbim, kol ish, even if he had nothing, even if he was the poorest person who couldn't bring anything. I don't know how that was in the midbar, but as I learned the Malbim, me'es kol ish, any person, even if he had nothing, let him bring chut echad, one thread. Why? Because I don't care about the matanah. I don't care about the terumah, the donation, and how much it is is not important to me. It's me'es kol ish asher yitvenu libo. It has to do with the nedivus halev, is the wanting to give. So therefore it could be even nothing. It can even be a machatzis shekel, because if the want is in the machatzis shekel, if the nedivus halev to give is in the machatzis shekel, I want that. It's not the sum of the donation. It's the heart that goes into the donation. I was thinking maybe a machatzis shekel.

There's nothing in the matzah shekel. How much could you do with a matzah shekel? Yeah, but there's ratzon. So that ratzon makes the matzah shekel. In the matzah shekel, there's nothing more than just the ratzon to give it. What do you have from a matzah shekel? Just the person wanted to give. Okay, that's what the Eibishter is looking for. And the fact that the Eibishter is asking only for machsis is because He's giving this message: I don't care about the total. It doesn't have to be a big donation. It could be a machsis, as long as it's from the heart. And tenai, we can even add: if it's a matzah shekel, then you know for sure it's with the whole heart. Who knows if it's a big donation, if it's with the full heart? Zogt der Ribono Shel Olam, then I don't want that. I'd rather have small but real, small but from the heart, than a lot which is not full from the heart. I'd rather have a hundred percent of fifty than fifty percent of a hundred. I'd rather have a hundred percent from a fifty-dollar donation, so to speak, than to have fifty percent of a hundred-dollar donation. It's all about the heart. Rachmana liba ba'i. The Mishkan was a manifestation. It was the collection of the lev that the Ribono Shel Olam is looking for. It had to be lev shalem. It had to be with ratzon. I always say, one dollar with a hundred percent will to the Ribono Shel Olam is more important than a hundred dollars with one percent will, or the alike. I saw an interesting pshat from the Rozhiner Rebbe, zchus yagen aleinu, teferes Yisroel. Chazal tell us that Moshe Rabbeinu was niskasheh; he had a hard time understanding the machatzis shekel. Chazal tell us, Ribono Shel Olam, matbea shel eish. And the Ribono Shel Olam said, Kazeh, kazeh yitnu, like this, this, kazeh. Says the Tiferes Yisroel, the Ruzhiner Rebbe, kazeh is gematria lev, it's gematria. The Ribono Shel Olam is saying, kazeh yitnu. It's not the machatzis shekel, it's the heart that's in the machatzis shekel. He's learning the Chazal the way we asked, the pshat. Machatzis shekel, Moshe was niskasheh. What is a—what is—it's nothing. Kazeh yitnu. It's not about the money, it's about the lev, kazeh gematria lev. And I saw the Shem Mishmuel explains, and that's why it had to be a machatzis, because lev nishbar v'nitka, Elokim lo sivzeh. The broken heart is the complete, the complete nedavah for the Mishkan is the lev, the lev shavur, the broken heart, the machatzis. And that, to the Rabbeinu Shalom, there was a complete, was a shalem, was a full donation. Sipurna, vataiches, the halacha of kol nediv lev. Zogt the Sipurna, what was the condition of kol nediv lev? Zogt the Sipurna that it had to be with full, with full willingness. We know there's a cloud, there's a rule, that when Yidden have to do a mitzvah, they could be somewhat forced, somewhat pushed. Why? Because kofin oso ad sheyomar rotzeh ani, deep down the Yid wants, and mimeila, if you push him, he'll do it from wanting even though he's being pushed. Zogt the Sipurna that here, for the Mishkan, the nedavah, it had to be kol nediv liboi, that it couldn't have been with kofin oso ad sheyomar rotzeh ani. There's an interesting, my real diskin. My real diskin says, he speaks about the stirah. V'yikchu li trumah seems to connotate that you should take it, will. Tikchu es trumasi seems to connotate that you force it, tikchu, take it by force, take it from them.

So is it v'yikchu li trumah, or is it tikchu trumasi? Rather, there's an interesting goyen, beautiful pshat. The goyen says, v'yikchu li trumah, me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo, take from the one who wants to give. How do you know the one that wants to give? When he says, tikchu es trumasi. If the person comes and he comes ahead and he jumps the front and he says, Take mine. Take mine is the siman. It's the code, the code that he wants to give. So from him you should take. That's how much ratzon, that's how much will, that's how much the divas halev was required. That it's not just he's asked and he gives; he comes running to give. He jumps ahead to give. A real diskin learns a little bit different. The pshat, he says that there's two collectors. Moshe and Aaron themselves went collecting, but they couldn't get every house, so they had others going collecting. They hired a team of collectors, so to speak. So those collectors were v'yikchu li trumah. They couldn't force. Why? Because they could never know if the person really is giving b'lev shalem after they push him. So that had to be with full contention that he's maskim. Mashenkein Moshe, Moshe and Aaron were able to see deeper into the person, so they were able to take tikchu trumasi. They were able to force. So you see from the real diskin that the judgment was over. Not what the guy gave, but how much is he really willing to give? And there was, so to speak, a diyun. It was up for evaluation. Sometimes you evaluate: is it כדאי to go to this person? Will he give you a good enough matanah? Will he give you a good enough donation? You have a list, you have a list, and you say, well, this person, he's not going to give that much. Ah, we'll skip his house, right? For the Mishkan, that's not how you skip houses. Oh, he's giving a chut, he's giving one string, but he's giving it with full heart. Okay, we're going to him, and we're going to drop the millionaire who's giving. Look, could you imagine such a money collection? I'd like to see which mosad will try such a thing. You know, let's go through the list. This person, oh, he's giving a lot. Yeah, but something is lacking in his... This person is giving nothing. Yeah, but let's go to him because it's b'nedivas halev, and the Mishkan had to be b'nedivas halev. The pasuk speaks always that they brought zahav, kesef, nechoshes, and after that it says that they brought avnei shoham, v'avnei miluim, la'ephod v'lachoshen. Choireh, the avnei miluim were expensive diamonds. It was a very honorable, very chashuve, very beautiful, big donation. Why is it that it's mentioned last in the pasuk? It should say, as the pasuk here and in Vayakhel, V'zois haterumah shetikchu me'itam, zahav, kesef, nechoshes, and then later on, avnei shoham, avnei miluim. Why is that listed last? The Chida says b'pshat, who brought avnei miluim and avnei shoham? The Nesiim, they brought it. How did they bring it? They made a call and they said as follows: You collect all the money from all of Klal Yisrael. Whatever is left over that's needed to be donated, we'll fill in. And what was needed at the end was avnei shoham and avnei miluim. Chazal say, who brought avnei shoham, avnei miluim? The Nesiim? No, no. They said they would bring whatever's left over, and it was their donation, yet, but they weren't the one who brought it. The Nesiim, the clouds. Rabbeinu Shleim sent it from Shamayim, special delivery, airmail from Shamayim, avnei shoham and avnei miluim. Zogt the Chida, that's why it speaks about zahav, kesef, and nechoshes, because vayikchu, li, what you took, the tikchu, what you took from them was only zahav, kesef, avnei shoham, and avnei miluim.

What do you mean to take from them? That was for me. Rabbeinu says, I sent it. It's yadua, Reb Chaim Shmulevitz used to speak about it. Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, zicher tzaddik livrachah, Mir Yeshiva. He would say that to the Ribono Shel Olam, the nechashes even was more important than the avnei shoham because the nechashes was brought with ratzon. The nechashes was brought because the Ribono Shel Olam asked, and they said yes, and they jumped to give it. So to the Ribono Shel Olam, those were diamonds. You look at the avnei shoham, they look like diamonds, not to the Eibishter. In the eyes of the Ribono Shel Olam, the avnei shoham and avnei meluim didn't sparkle because they didn't have heart, they didn't have ratzon. I'm מרגיש את ההערה, rabosai. Reb Chaim Shmulevitz explains the mashal we're adding, but Reb Chaim Shmulevitz explains the avnei shoham to the Ribono Shel Olam was not that chashuv. Monetary things, its beauty is not its monetary value. It's the eish, it's the ratzon, it's something deeper. It's the heart that you put into it that makes it beautiful. It's interesting that who brought the avnei shoham, avnei meluim? It was sent from Shamayim, I think, and we could say that the Ribono Shel Olam was sending a message: avnei shoham and avnei meluim, I own the world. It's all my money anyway. I asked you to bring, so all I wanted to have from your bring, like the Sfas Emes says, is the wanting to bring. You were a little slow in that. And don't forget, we could always translate what they did as something good. They said, We'll match. Today, that's the right way how to collect money, right? You promise. That's usually how it works. Hopefully they come through, which is all right. And if you promise so-and-so, we'll match so-and-so. Sounds like a great way of giving, right? Sometimes it's a laziness. Sometimes it's a slow on the pickup to want to jump and give. Ribono Shel Olam is boichein libos, yodea hanhaga, the lack of ratzon, the lack of to jump in to give. Sagt der Ribono Shel Olam, you know what the end will be? You won't give it. I'll give it. I'll give the money. I'll give the avnei sheyam. You bring what I'll send, because what I needed from you in the avnei sheyam was not the avnei sheyam. What I needed from you in the avnei sheyam was the ratzon to give. You lacked in that ratzon, so I'm going to give it. I'm going to send the avnei sheyam. Maltafun Kelim was maspid Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. In the hesped, he spoke about how does one find within his heart, within his neshama, the ratzon to only do the Ribono Shel Olam, to learn Torah and do mitzvahs. How do we uncover that ratzon? So the Alter said in the hesped, a very famous hesped, Alter said that if you mevatel all the other retzonos that the heart has, you'll be left with the ratzon to be close to the Eibishter, to learn Torah and do mitzvahs. The Medrash speaks a lot on the pasuk in Shir HaShirim, Toichoi. What is the essence, the inner core of the Mishkan? Pasuk in Shir HaShirim tells us, Toichoi, ratzuf ahavah mibnos Yerushalayim. It's about love, tremendous ahavah. There's a tremendous love in the core, in the essence, in the heart of the Mishkan. How do you get to that ratzon? Because that ratzon is really in the lev of the Yid. It's there. And the way to get to that ratzon is to break all other retzonos. It's almost like peeling off all other retzonos to get to the inner, true, deep ratzon. And that ratzon is, Ribono Shel Olam, v'shachanti b'socham, that the Eibishter should...

Should live among us. And I believe that that's the lev nishbar v'nitka Elokim lo sivzeh that the Shem Mishmuel is talking about. Lev nishbar v'nitka, broken, atzvus. That's what the Rabbeinu Shalom wants. He wants a broken person. He doesn't mean broken, broken, depressed, broken melancholy. That's not what it means, broken. Broken means broken from all the other yetzainis. It's broken into shape. Havdelelav, havdalos. You have a pair of shoes when it's new, it's very hard to walk with it. But when it's pounded and broken into place, then it becomes, fits the foot. The lev of a person has ritzainos, different taivos of Olam Hazeh, but it's not real. It's not what the lev is really all about. When it's broken, then the true ratzon comes out. And that lev is not nishbar v'nitka. That lev is very happy. That lev has meudik simcha. That lev is very close to the Rabbeinu Shleilam. The machatzis was a machatzis in the shekel. The shekel is money, but when you break the money and you search into the lev, what are you going to find in that? You're going to find in that lev, the lev nishbar v'nitka. You'll find the ratzon of toichi ratzon v'hava, that you want to be v'shachanti b'socham, close to the Rabbeinu Shleilam. That's the machatzis of the shekel. It's small. In money, worldly, it's not. But eish, it is. In ruchniyus, it's toicho ratzuf ahavah, and it's nothing more wholesome, nothing more expensive, nothing worth more than that lev nishbar v'nitkeh. I saw the Aruchos Tzadikim in Shaar HaRatzon talks about what is ratzon, and he speaks about how important ratzon, the concept of ratzon, the midah of ratzon. And the Chassidim explains that it is rooted in nedivus halev, which is everything we spoke about, the shmooze, kol nediv libo, ratzon tov. The Medrash speaks that Moshe Rabbeinu confronted the Ribono Shel Olam: You asked that we should make a Mishkan. Is it possible to make a Mishkan for You, Ribono Shel Olam? It's melo kol ha'olam kulo; You're the whole world, You're all-encompassing. How could we make a Mishkan? There's not enough manpower in the world to build such a home. Zeh et Moshe Rabbeinu gefragt the Ribono Shel Olam. The Ribono Shel Olam responds, Me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu, even one person, me'eis kol ish, even one person. Could build me a Mishkan. I don't need teams and teams of people. Pshat, rabosai, it's all about the lev. The lev of even one Yid has enough. It's an olam malei. There's so much ratzon and so much love for the Eibishter that the Ribono Shel Olam could dwell even in the lev, through the lev of one Yid. That's me'eis kol ish asher yidvenu libo. I'm not living in the Mishkan. I'm not living within the four walls of the Mishkan. I'm living b'shochanti b'soicham, b'soich halev. And in that heart, there is worlds of room for Shechinah, worlds of room for kesher with the Eibishter. Chazal always speak, kol mekayem nefesh achas miYisrael, ki'ilu kiyam olam malei. Rav Chaim, Rav Chaim Volozhin speaks how the nefesh of the Yid has in it, contains in it, olamos, worlds and worlds. It's interesting, Yidden have a custom, Chassidishe Yidden, Tzfardishe Yidden, that when they say Vayechi David...

By Shacharis, you give a few pennies for tzedakah. I've asked many, where is the mekor of this minhag? What's the reason for this minhag? So they say, V'oisher v'hakavod milfonecha. So you give a few pennies. They'll tell you the shem Hashem, yud, kei, vav. It has to do with one yud stretching out the vav to another yud, to him and yud together, v'chuli v'chuli. Interesting, nice tidbits of why we have such a minhag from the Arizal. Rabosai, I don't think it's such a big question why we have such a minhag. If you see where by Vayevarech David was said. Vayevarech David is in Divrei Hayamim, perek aleph, pasuk chaf. Perek aleph Divrei Hayamim, aleph, perek chaf tes, pasuk yud. Vayevarech David, Hashem le'einei kol hakahal. In what context was it said? David HaMelech asks Klal Yisrael to donate for the Mishkan, for the Mikdash. And Klal Yisrael brings more than David even could have imagined. Pasuk says, Vayismechu am al hisnadvam. They were so happy about the donation, the collection. Says the pasuk, Ki b'lev shalem hisnadvu laShem. V'gam David HaMelech samach simcha gedolah. And then, Vayevarech David es Hashem le'einei kol hakahal. This was a shevach. It's one of the tehillos of David that was said about the donation to the Beis HaMikdash. So therefore we give. We give, and because it was a siman of the lev of Klal Yisrael in their wanting to give, Dovid HaMelech was impressed. The groise harts fun a Yid, vifel er git far the Ribono Shel Olam, how much he gives. At the end of Vayavar Dovid it says, V'atah Elokeinu, modim anachnu lach, u'mehalelim shem tifartecha, v'chimah ani u'mi ami, ki לעצור koach l'hisnadev kazos, ki mimcha hakol u'miyadcha nasanu lach. The money we gave was Yours anyway. So then what am I praising the Ribono Shel Olam? Hashem Elokeinu, kol hamon hazeh shehachinu livnos Beis l'shem kodshecha, miyadcha hu, v'lakh hakol. But v'yadati Elokai, ki atah bochen levav. Ribono Shel Olam, You test the heart, u'meisharim tirtzeh. You want what's right, what's straight. Ani b'yosher levavi hisnadavti kol eileh. V'atah imcha nimtza poirisi b'simcha l'hisnadev lach. I saw the love, the outpour, the emotion that they gave the money with. It's not the money; it's how you give the money. It's the heart that you put into the money. And with this, I think we can understand the continuation of what Dovid is mispallel, b'hitdamus to the Ribono Shel Olam. Hashem Elokei Avraham, Yitzchak v'Yisrael. Ribono Shel Olam, where does this lev come from? It comes from the Avos, because we are the Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak v'Yaakov. We have big hearts. Shomrei zais, we ask You, Ribono Shel Olam, watch this, keep this zechus, l'yetzer machshavos levav amecha. Our yetzer sometimes pushes us to do things that's not according to Your ratzon. It's not right to do. But then when you see how we give b'lev shalem, you see that the heart is with You. You see how big hearts. Memeila, this should counteract the yetzer machshavos levav amecha, v'hachein levavam eilecha, and therefore guide us. The heart is good, the heart is big. Maybe sometimes it becomes swayed off the right derech. And Dovid HaMelech understands that where could such a heart come from? It's because the Ribono Shel Olam gave us this heart. It's not a regular heart. The heart itself begins with the fact that the Ribono Shel Olam is mashreh Shechinaso b'soch halev, so that we could give back with the lev. And this is the lev of the dibus halev. With this, I think.

We can understand what the Rabbeinu Shalom was looking for. He's not looking for small. He's looking for a masa shekel. No, he's looking for a lev, which is so big. The kol dod lev yevieha, bring me your heart, because that's very big, and I have plenty of space where I could be shochein, I could live there. I've told you many times a beautiful story about my zeide, Reb Shmuel David Walkin, zecher tzaddik livracha. Zeide zatzal was a tremendous baal chesed. Zeide zatzal was a tremendous machnis orchim. From the shanchayir, all the people that he was together with in shanchai always talked about his great tachnasas orchim, especially in the days of Shanchai where nobody had anything and they needed a place, a home, warmth. They used to say, Over m'flakumt tzer Avalkin, fa'kalt a trumken, a varme maiseh. I heard this from Reb Aharon Kreiswirth, zecher tzaddik livracha. He was machnis orchim, and they all spoke about with reverence. I once met Reb Mordechai Schwab from Muncie, the heilige tzaddik Reb Mordechai Schwab from Muncie, and I said, No, I know that you were apartment mates with the zeide. They had one apartment and they put a partition in the middle. Half the apartment was Reb Mordechai Schwab and half the apartment was my zeide. Two families in one apartment with a partition in the middle. Yeah, yeah, vade, vade. And he started telling me the hachnasas orchim of the zeide. I said, Tell me, Reb Schwab, how big was this apartment? It sounds like there was not much room. So how does everybody talk about the tremendous hachnasas orchim? How many people could have been there already? How many people were able to sit in that house there? Reb Mordechai Schwab said, Pstakke geven a kichel. A kichel is a kitchen, a small little kitchen, and it was very little room. And then he said to me, Hachnasas orchim, hachnasas orchim is not that you bring the person, the orech, into your house. You bring him into your heart. And in the heart, there's plenty of room. In the heart of a Yid, there's plenty room. There's plenty room. I'll never forget the way he told it to me. The Yiddishe heart, Jewish heart, is so big. There's so much in it. There's so much love for the Eibishter, so much ratzon, so much will to do good. And as we soon will speak, so much hatavah, so much kindness. With this, we could go back and explain. Chazal tell us that Aharon HaKohen was zoche to wear the Urim V'Tumim. Halev shesameach b'gedulas achiv, the heart that was happy for the greatness, that his brother was elevated to such greatness and he wasn't jealous, he should wear the Urim V'Tumim al libo, on his heart. Malimusar say it wasn't a reward. It wasn't, b'schar, as a reward for having this lev tov that he got the Urim V'Tumim, but that was the proper place for it. The Urim V'Tumim was that השראת השכינה. There was kedusha. The Ribono Shel Olam spoke to Klal Yisroel through the Urim V'Tumim. The proper place was Lev Aharon, the heart of Aharon, the heart that was pure, and the heart that was clean, and the heart that was kind. And that heart, because that was the whole Mishkan, and that was the ultimate place, Aharon's heart, where the Urim V'Tumim was supposed to be. V'yikchu li terumah. We spoke that the moment that Klal Yisroel said, Naaseh v'nishma, miyad, amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, right away the Ribono Shel Olam said, V'yikchu li terumah. What's the connection, Naaseh v'nishma, and why right after Naaseh v'nishma the Ribono Shel Olam says, V'yikchu li terumah? It could be the pshat is, rabosai, Naaseh v'nishma shows great will, ratzon, to jump in. And of course it shows ahavah, lashon of Chazal, megilah razeh l'bonai. When Klal Yisroel said Naaseh v'nishma, the Ribono Shel Olam wanted to know, My children. There was a tremendous love that Klal Yisroel...

trade when they said Naaseh v'Nishma. In sefarim it's written, the Naaseh v'Nishma was if Klal Yisrael was agreeing to become arusas HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to become the bridesmaid of the Eibishter, to become the bride of the Ribono Shel Olam. So when they said Naaseh v'Nishma, they portrayed ratzon, and they portrayed ahavah. So miyad, amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, v'yikchu li terumah, because v'yikchu li terumah needed that amount of ratzon and that amount of ahavah. But rabosai, efsher keminzogin more. Not only the divas halev was about ratzon, not only was it about ahavas Hashem, but it was about hatovah, kindness. Like we mentioned, Aharon HaKohen was zoche to the Urim v'Tumim because he was a meitiv; his heart was lev tov. Chofetz Chaim, I heard this many times from my zeide, the greatest shevach, the greatest praise that the Chofetz Chaim bestowed on a person was, er a guter mensch. He was good, kind. The rest of the kedushah, adam—you know the shpitz of adam is tov. Atah achiloso l'haris es avdecha, es gadlecha. Moshe Rabbeinu tells Ribono Shel Olam, You started showing me Your greatness. What is Hashem's greatness? So we would say there's a lot of—zogt Rashi, what is Hashem's greatness? Zu midas tuvcha. I saw the Orchos Tzadikim, when he talks about the midah of ratzon. Says the Orchos Tzadikim, ratzon means the divus halev, like we spoke. But what is the result of that nedivus halev? Achdus. He gets along with everybody. He's moichel and he's mevater. This is Orchos Tzadikim. Now we need to talk the correlation between the two, but azoi, Orchos Tzadikim. This midah of ratzon, which stems from the divus halev, brings about that the person is b'shalom. He's in peace with everybody. Now we could go and say one step further. What exactly is the nedavah to the Mishkan? It's money, yes. And as we explained, because the Ribbono Shel Olam is looking for the heart. And how does one give the Ribbono Shel Olam the heart? Through the money. But maybe it's even deeper than that. There's more to it. Ribbono Shel Olam is not looking only for your heart. The Ribbono Shel Olam is looking for Klal Yisrael as a group, ichud halevavos, all of Klal Yisrael as one heart. Me'eis kol ish, one person. How do I get Klal Yisrael, ish yitvenu libo, one person, one heart? Ki ish echad b'lev echad. How do we get that? How do we get the ki ish? The answer is we give the money. And then we take that money that represents the lev, and we put it together, and it becomes lev echad. This is a gaon in shiurim. Toichei ratzon v'havo. HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants Klal Yisrael's heart. How do we give the heart? We give through the money, but it's not individual hearts. He wants one heart. Klal Yisrael united is one heart. Ki ish echad, b'lev echad. So he does it through giving machatzis shekel, and maybe that's the machatzis, like the mefarshim say: I give half and you give half, and together we're a whole. The broken heart together with the other heart, and everyone else's heart together is a whole heart. It's very possible that that's why there's such a big yetzer hara of machlokes in money, because the power of money is the power to unite Klal Yisrael, ichud halevavos, and they jump in together through money to produce a Mishkan, and therefore the yetzer hara fights. The yetzer hara, the tanster ein, he finds his mission in dividing through money. And I believe maybe that's what Dovid HaMelech is seeing. He's saying Klal Yisrael comes together.

Unite. Look how Klal Yisrael could unite, and that's the pshat, rabosai. B'shaah she'amru, when they said naaseh v'nishma, how did they say naaseh v'nishma? Naaseh v'nishma omru k'echad. Naaseh v'nishma omru k'echad, k'ish echad, b'lev echad. Says the Ribono Shel Olam, oh, Klal Yisrael was able to create the lev echad v'yikchu li terumah. So how do I get that lev echad and put it into my home? How do I take that lev echad and make it a makom ra'ui l'hashra'as haShechinah? V'yikchu li, miyad, amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, v'yikchu li terumah. V'azvil der Ribono Shel Olam. Ribono Shel Olam's rachmana liba ba'i, it's a Gemara in Sanhedrin, daf kuf vav amud beis. Ribono Shel Olam wants hearts. And what does He want in the heart? He wants that we should be able to join hearts. And when we join hearts, mimeila toicho. What is the toich ratzon of the heart of the Yid? Toicho ratzon of ahavah. It's full of ahavah. It's full of ratzon. It's full of goodness. It's full of tov. And then the Ribono Shel Olam says, v'shachanti b'socham, I will dwell among you. Just end with the following yesod. It's a beautiful Gemara. Gemara says that the Mishkan is forever. The Mishkan is forever. Atzei shitim omdim, says the Gemara in Sukkah, omdim l'ad ul'netzach netzachim. They can never get destroyed. Why? Mishkan sunk into the ground, but it never got destroyed. Why not? Sefarim write, the Mishkan is the heart of Klal Yisrael. Tzur levavi, chelki Elokim l'olam. A pasuk in Tehillim. The heart is like a rock. When it's one rock, Tzur levavi, chelki Hashem, is l'olam. It's forever. V'shachanti b'socham is l'omeid ad l'netzach netzachim, because it's b'lev haYehudi. And there, no matter how much you could try to break it and how much you could try to sink it, it never disintegrates. It always is toicho ratzuf ahavah mibinos Yisrael. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.