Terumah: The Mishkan Within Every Jew—Shabbos, Torah, and V’Shachanti B’socham

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Parshas Truma is the binyan haMishkan, the building of the Mishkan. Of course, the building of the Mishkan is in yonim gvohim. There's tremendous depth, things that are way beyond our understanding even. The Mishkan, the Mishkan, of course, drew the hashraas haShechina, the Divine Presence. So, of course, like I said, it's self-understood, while the Rishonim and Acharonim as well allude to inyonim gvohim, great things, based on a zohar, to understand the secret, the secret of the Mishkan. I'd like to talk not so much the secret of the Mishkan, but the pshat of the Mishkan, which means, what does the Mishkan represent for us, and how it plays an important role in our lives as a Jew and the being of who we are as Jew. And that's in retrospect that we don't even have a Mishkan today, or for that matter, a Beis HaMikdash. So, what role does the Mishkan play, and the essence of a Yid and his life. What are the lessons of the Mishkan, and what is the reason for the Mishkan? Besides, like I said, all the inyanim gvohim, the deep things behind the Mishkan, the sodos, the secrets of the Mishkan. What is the Mishkan? What is its purpose? Why the Mishkan? And how does it relate to every Jew? So I begin by pointing out that Shabbos and the Mishkan are extremely connected. And that should really give us a background, a backdrop on how to understand the Mishkan. We find in the Midrashim, as well as the halacha, that the Mishkan and Shabbos are connected. Chazal tell us that Shabbos, we don't build a Mishkan on Shabbos. Even though the Mishkan, the Beis Hamikdash, is so important, it's such an ikar, yet it doesn't push away Shabbos. But the truth is, it's even deeper than that. All the hilchos Shabbos, the lamed tes melachos, all the laws of Shabbos are directly learned from the Mishkan. So it's not just an observation, an external observation. Here, take a look: the Mishkan, Shabbos. The Mishkan doesn't push away the Shabbos, but the Shabbos pushes away the Mishkan. It's more than that. The whole essence of the Shabbos, all its laws, is derived directly from the building of the Mishkan. Whatever is part of the building of the Mishkan, according to some Rishonim, it's not only the building of the Mishkan, but it's the actual function of the Mishkan, korbanos as well, the avodas haMishkan. It's a machlokes in the Rishonim. The Iglei Tal speaks about, in the beginning of his sefer, Iglei Tal, is it lamed-tes melachos is learned from the building, or is lamed-tes melachos learned from the avodah on the Beis HaMikdash? Either way, Shabbos, its structure, its laws, are directly derived from binyan and avodas haMishkan. Obviously, there's a tremendous connection. Got to be clear there's a connection. Yeshiva Rav Moshe, our great master, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zecher tzaddik livracha.

That a tremendous chidush. Every time the pasuk speaks about the Mishkan, the reverence one has to have for the Mishkan, it connects it to Shabbos. Mikdashi tira'u v'es Shabsosai tishmoru. Every time it's, in the Torah, whenever the Torah speaks about reverence for the Mishkan, the Mikdash, it's tied in the same context, in the same pasuk, Shabbos. Keep the Shabbos, keep the Shabbos, protect the Shabbos. Reverence of the Mishkan, protect the Shabbos. Rav Moshe, Rosh Yeshivas Tzal, explains that the Torah is teaching us a hashkafah. It's not only just a technical halacha, a practical halachic nafka mina ramification, that the Mishkan is not to be built on the Shabbos. It's more than that. It's trying to tell us that even though the Mikdash, the fear, one should fear the Mikdash, the grandeur, the splendor, the greatness, the spiritual holiness of the Mishkan, the Mikdash, yet Shabbos tishmoru. Remember, shmiras Shabbos takes precedence over that. It's more important. Why? Whatever you have in the Mikdash, you have much more in the Shabbos. Rosh Yeshivas Tzal speaks out, and I heard this from Rav Pam, my rebbe, many times. That without a Beis HaMikdash, we survive. Klal Yisrael continues. Maybe even more so. Every time we get a, so to speak, a patch, a smack in the face, and the Ribono Shel Olam takes away the Beis HaMikdash, we come back with prayer and work to try to bring back the Beis HaMikdash. We don't falter and disintegrate and lose our identity. Shabbos. Shabbos. Without Shabbos, the Jewish nation, the Jewish people, the Yid cannot survive. So the Shabbos is more. It's more than the Mishkan. So it's not just a technical halacha. It's not just technically that the law is that the shmirah of the Shabbos takes precedence over the Mikdash, and that you don't build a Mishkan on Shabbos. It's more than that. It's that whatever is necessary for the Yid, for his spiritual being and spiritual growth, Shabbos is actually more to him than the Mishkan. Without a Mishkan, we can survive. Without a Shabbos, the Jewish nation falls apart. Without the Shabbos, the Jewish nation falls apart. What's in the Shabbos that is, what do you call that? It's more than the Mishkan. It's— What about, what is it about the Mishkan that the Shabbos takes precedence and it's more? It's stronger, it's much more than the Mishkan. What is it? So let's give to understand what the Mishkan is, and then we'll understand how the Shabbos, the Shabbos, is actually more than the Mishkan. So let's begin. What is a Mishkan? Why a Mishkan? What is a Mishkan and why a Mishkan? Anyone who you ask will say simply it's a dwelling place for the Rabbeinu Shloilam. Rabbeinu Shloilam has a place to be. The question needs to be addressed, but the Rabbeinu Shloilam is everywhere. Meloi chol haaretz kevodo. The Rabbeinu Shloilam is dwelling, His hashra'ah, His Shechinah is everywhere. There is no place in the world that is void of the Rabbeinu Shloilam. Had it been void of the Rabbeinu Shloilam, it couldn't survive, it couldn't exist. Every person who ever went through a yeshiva or listened to a shiur will somewhere hear this vort from the Kotzker Rebbe, that the Kotzker Rebbe would ask the children.

Tell me, where does Hashem reside? Where does Hashem dwell? Where is God? And he would say, wherever you don't throw Him away from, wherever you don't fatreib Him, wherever you don't make Him run away, He's going to be there. U'mefatreibtem is dort nizer. Ribono Shel Olam is everywhere. And that's, of course, on a simple level. You start reading more Zohar, and every living thing has to have the Ribono Shel Olam's hashra'as haShechinah, otherwise, chiyus. Vayipach b'apav nishmas ruach chayim, and nafach, b'dilei nafach. Life, life means Shechinah in some form or another. So how are we to understand that the Mishkan is the dwelling place for the hashra'as haShechinah? There's a Medrash that actually says this. The Medrash says that the chiddush of the Mishkan was until the Mishkan, the Ribono Shel Olam didn't dwell in this world. The Ribono Shel Olam wasn't, baMidbar Rabbah, Yud-Gimmel Beis. The Medrash says clearly that when a person wants to know where the Ribono Shel Olam... it's something new. The Mishkan is new. What's new about the Mishkan? It's hashra'as haShechinah, that was until the Mishkan came about. The Medrash actually says that when Adam did his aveirah from eitz hadaas. When Adam did his aveirah from the eitz hadaas, Rabbeinu Shalom said, That's it, I'm out of here, which is really what the Kotzker is saying, that if we, if you kick the Eibishter out, he runs, he goes away, he disappears. When the Mishkan came, all of a sudden Rabbeinu Shalom reappeared. There's also a shittah in the Rishonim that it's directly in correlation to the eigel. It's a whole question when the tzivui was, before the eigel, after the eigel, right? Big discussion. Pashut says it has to do with the eigel. So again, because of the eigel, because of the golden calf, the Rabbeinu Shalom said, That's it. Mishkan. I need a Mishkan. You see that sin makes the Rabbeinu Shalom not be present, and Mishkan somehow draws the Eibishter back and brings His presence among us. Like the pasuk actually says, Veshachanti b'socham. That's what it says, La'aso li mikdash veshachanti b'socham. So in the simple pshat in Mishkan, Mishkan means, and that's the translation of the word Mishkan. What's the translation of the word Mishkan? Dwelling place. Mishkan, Shechin. The Rabbeinu Shalom dwells. Mishkan. Sometimes the greatest Torah that one could say is pshat, a simple translation of the words. Mishkan, veshachanti. The root word of Mishkan is veshachanti. I will dwell. What does that mean? Till now I'm not here, and now I'm dwelling among you. And these midrashim seem to back this. These midrashim seem to give strength to this yesod, that the Rabbeinu Shel Olam is not here yet. He comes back to dwell in the Mishkan. Now, of course, we could sit and discuss that obviously there are levels of dwelling. I mean, obviously, because the Rabbeinu Shel Olam has to be in this world for this world to exist. And at the same time, we're saying He's not here, and therefore He has to find a dwelling place. This is a big discussion, which I don't want to go into, because that's not the point of this shiur. The point of this shiur is not to sit here and discuss the different levels of Shechinah and hashra'as haShechinah, and what was before the Mishkan and what is after the Mishkan. Those are for the deep philosophers, so to speak, the Rishonim, who discussed great things which are beyond our comprehension. But I do want to point out that there's got to be, like I said, a pshatavah, what's nogea to us: what was before the Mishkan and what is after. Rabbi, why so far did I set it up properly? You're not maskim. Why not? It's a very simple question.

What was before and what was after. That's what we want to know. And, yeah, what was before Mishkan and what is after Mishkan. That's the beginning of today's shiur. Everything I said till now was just basically stating the facts. There is a Midrash that Hashem was not here. I can't mean He was not here. It doesn't make sense. It can't be not here. So I look around my shiur room and I understand what it means to be here, not be here at the same time. That was a joke. Or sadly, maybe not. You could be here and not be here at the same time. How come everyone's laughing? Because they know what I'm talking about. Okay. Point being, before He was not, had something to do with Eitz Hadas, all right, good. And something more or different change happened with the Mishkan. Adam Harishon's sin, maybe egel has something to do with it. The drashim talk about the union of the egel, a direct correlation between the egel and the Mishkan. One thing, like I said, is clear. There's something about Shabbos which is a big part of the puzzle to understand Mishkan, what it is, what was before and after, and how is it that Shabbos is greater than that, that's more important than that, and that Shabbos is actually its essence. Its laws is all Mishkan. So let me discuss with you what the Rambam says. The Rambam says, interestingly enough, the reason why we have a Mishkan is the Rambam. The Rambam says, what's the point, the tachlis, the tafkid, the reason for the Mishkan? So this is the Rambam in Sefer Avodah. The Rambam has a sefer called Yad HaChazakah, and one of his books within the Yad HaChazakah is the Sefer Avodah, which is the eighth part, the eighth volume in this Yad HaChazakah. First chapter is Hilchos Beis HaBechirah, the first perek, the first halachos. You can't go wrong, okay? First chapter, first halacha, and that is the halachos of Beis HaBechirah, the chosen house, which is the Beis HaMikdash. Says the Rambam the reason for this: Mitzvas aseh la'asos bayis laShem. It is a house for Hashem. Interesting. It's called Beis Hashem. The Beis HaBechirah, the Beis HaMikdash, is bayis laShem. Muchan. It has to be a house which is prepared, lihyos makrivin bo hakorbanos, v'chogegim eilav shalosh pe'amim ba'shanah, shene'emar, v'asu li Mikdash. V'kvar nisparesh baTorah Mishkan she'asah Moshe Rabbeinu. So the Rambam is trying to address the question: what is the difference between the Beis HaMikdash and the Mishkan? Which, of course, we could sit here from today, literally till tomorrow, and even maybe, maybe more till Moshiach comes, which hopefully will be before tomorrow. And we could discuss the nuanced differences between the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash, which he's going with his hand like this here. Go ahead, Rebbe, go ahead, give it to us. Yes, I'll tell you what's going to happen. What's going to happen is we'll start with the mem of Mishkan, and before we even get to the shin of Mishkan, already the oilam will be out the door already, lunch and... It's a long conversation. But one thing for sure, the Rambam is meramez, the Rambam is hinting here, and we need to deal with that issue. And he says, It's already explained in the Torah, the Mishkan that Moshe made, v'haya l'fi sha. So the Rambam simply learns that the Mishkan and the Mikdash, the basic difference is this was only for a short while, l'fi sha. It was only meant temporarily, and Beis HaBechirah is actually what? More permanent. Bayis is set. It's a home. You know, I would give you an example that just, I don't fully agree with the example, but it makes a little bit more, as they say, palatable. A person rents an apartment, he's still not settled. He goes from one...

Apartment to the... he's moving around, okay? Finally he gets his house. Bayis means he's settled, all right? So for lack of a better example, I could poke holes into every word that I just said as an example, but it's good enough for you to get a little bit what the Rambam is saying. But the Rambam is saying is that the Mishkan was lefi sha, which is really the same thing as the Beis HaMikdash. There's no difference between the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash. In essence, it's the same. One was lefi sha, Mishkan, which means it was temporary, and the other one was what? Permanent, like a house. And its purpose was obviously the same then, right? It was more or less the same, and that is korbanos, aliyah l'regel. Now one would have to ask, why is aliyah l'regel, which means that we go up three times to celebrate with the Ribbono Shel Olam, a definition of the Beis HaMikdash? It's a law that's by the Beis HaMikdash. It's one of the things that we need to do, to be oleh regel, but that becomes the essence, that becomes the identity, the identity of the Beis HaMikdash. I understand the identity of Beis HaMikdash is korbanos. That I understand. But that the identity, essence, if someone would have to say, what is the purpose of the White House? And the answer is nothing. That's more or less what it is. That's what you would say, and you'd be right about it. I'm kidding. If someone needed to identify what the purpose of the Rabbeinu Shlom's house, right? So I would say it's a place, korbanos, that you happen to go there to visit. Yes, you need to go three times a year. It would seem that aliyah l'regel might be, of course, a mitzvah, might be one of the things that is Beis Hamikdash needed for it, but it takes on the identity of that. That becomes what? You hear this question? That becomes the whole Beis Hamikdash. That becomes the whole, what do you call that, essence and, may I use a Yiddish word, is that okay with everyone? It becomes the taich of what the Beis Hamikdash is. That's what it is. It's aliyah l'regel. And I believe the answer, yes. Yes. Aliyah l'regel. Aliyah l'regel is the essence of the Beis Hamikdash. Korbanos is the essence of the Beis Hamikdash, and aliyah l'regel is also the essence of the Beis Hamikdash. And of course the Mishkan l'fisha. But we need to, what, rabosai, talk a little more, a little more, to understand what is Mishkan, what is Beis Hamikdash, and again, in the backdrop, so to speak, of Shabbos. There's a beautiful... Nefesh HaChaim. The Nefesh HaChaim discusses what's the point of the Mishkan. Why do we need a Mishkan? What do we have from the Mishkan? So before I tell you this Nefesh HaChaim, there's a Ramban. Ramban, in the beginning of Shemos, in his introduction to Shemos, the Ramban writes that with the Mishkan, the Bnei Yisrael returned to the ma'alah ruchni that they had during the time of the Avos. That the Shechinah was me'alah aleihem, Avraham's tent, Yitzchak's tent, Yaakov's tent. The Ribono Shel Olam dwelled among them in their tent. So the Mishkan brought them back, brought them back to the ma'alah, to the spiritual level, the lofty spiritual level of Avosam, where they belonged. And I guess you have to understand there was a detour, Mitzrayim.

There was a detour, egel. All these detours. It took a toll on Klal Yisrael. Then the Mishkan brought them back to the lofty level, their essence, their being of what they were supposed to be as Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. It's interesting, it's interesting that Nefesh HaChaim actually speaks about it. There's a part of Mishkan which is actually a replica of the heavenly Ribbono Shel Olam's kingdom above. I think the Sfas Emes even speaks that there's a Beis HaMikdash shel maalah and a Beis HaMikdash shel matah. It seems like the Beis HaMikdash is a replica. It's a replica. You know, I don't know if today it's such a big tourist attraction, I don't know, but when I was younger, there was something called Holy Land. Holy Land was a place in Eretz Yisrael that you went where they rebuilt the entire, they made a replica of the entire Beis HaMikdash. And when I started to learn about Beis HaMikdash, I started to think to myself that even the Beis HaMikdash is a replica. It's an interesting observation. When a person goes to Holy Land, And he sees the replica of the Beis Hamikdash. You know what goes through his mind? What goes through his mind? That he's in the Beis Hamikdash? Of course not. He starts having feelings and thoughts of what it once was like. It's a replica. It's supposed to be a remembrance, a resemblance. Throw in all the nouns that you want, okay? And that's what happens when you go there, right? You maskim, yeah? That's what happens, right? Yeah, good. You start to think, oh, it's interesting. This is what... It gets you thinking. It gets you thinking, yeah? It gets you thinking. According to the mefarshim, and according to the Chazal that the mefarshim are based on, it's very possible that the actual Beis Hamikdash proper is actually a replica. And it's supposed to get you thinking. Huh? You hear? It's an interesting observation. That itself is a replica. It's a replica of something else. And what is it a replica of? The Rabbeinu Shloilam's kingdom in Shamayim, the Beis Hamikdash shel maalah. The nefesh hachayim says, I have news for you. It's actually a replica of a human being. It's a replica of a human being. He explains that the Beis Hamikdash resembles the person. Try and find the exact paragraph, okay, where the Nefesh HaChaim speaks the clearest point of this. So first, here he brings here. Okay, you know, this would be the sharpest language that the Chacham uses. He says like this: Oh, l'zois, harei kivado ikar inyan haKodesh vhaMikdash, b'shriyas Shechinas Yisbarach hu ha'adam. You have to understand that when you read the pesukim, the pesukim themselves are teaching us this yesod, and that is, Va'asu li Mikdash v'shachanti b'socham. And Chazal say, b'socham. It doesn't mean b'sochai, but b'socham, in them. So right away, the grammar doesn't read properly. Va'asu li Mikdash — you have to make Me a Mikdash — v'shachanti... So good, I understand, v'shachanti b'socha. Yes, I agree with you, but you have to read the words, though. Va'asu li Mikdash — you have to make Me a Mikdash — v'shachanti b'socham.

Al, well among them. Now, I understand the concept, but what do you do with the reading of the pasuk? So the Nefesh HaChaim wants that it's actually the reading of the pasuk too. That's how the pasuk reads: V'asu li mikdash. Because what is a mikdash? And I quote again: ודאי עיקר ענין הקדש והמקדש הוא שריא שכינתו יתברך הוא אדם, שמתקדש עצמו כראוי בקיום המצוות כולם, שהם תלויים גם כן בשורשן העליון בפרקי איברי השיר קומה, כביכול, כלל כל העולמות כולם. You have to understand, man actually encompasses all the worlds. It's olamos. He encompasses great things. Nefesh HaChaim says this point: עשו עצמו המקדש ממש. People translate the pasuk that if you do the mikdash, then you get the side benefits, so to speak, the benefits of v'shachanti b'socham. Says the Nefesh HaChaim, you don't know what mikdash is. Mikdash is just a replica. It doesn't mean anything. Who is the ikar haMikdash? It's the adam atzmai, says it clearly. He says it's a marsha, Maharsha in Sotah chaf aleph, it says the same yesod. But he says it clearly: עשו עצמו המקדש עצמו. He becomes the mikdash mamash, u'v'socho Hashem yisbarach Shemo. כמו שכתוב, היכל השם, היכל השם המה. וכמאמרם זכרונם לברכה, ושכנתי בתוכם, בתוכו לא נאמר אלא בתוכם. So then what's the Mikdash and the Mishkan? So he continues later, the Nefesh HaChaim. This is the Shaar Aleph, perek daled. דרכנו יש לומר גם כן, שרוצה לומר, אל תחשבו שתכלית כוונתי הוא עשיית המקדש החיצוני. There's a Mikdash chitzoni, which means a physical, almost like a, right, that you could see. אלא תדעו שכל תכלית רצוני בתבנית המשכן וכליו רק לרמז לכם. It's supposed to be a lesson to you, שממנו תראו, וכן תעשו את עצמכם. You got to make yourself. That every time it says in the pasuk, וכן תעשו, not וכן תעשה אותו. תעשו, make yourself. It's an interesting interpretation. Otherwise, you understood the translation, וכן תעשו, that way? It's a big chiddush. You see, I'll tell you, I know many people that are the caliber of Rabbi Weiss, heard this Nefesh HaChaim hundreds of times. But the more I read it, the more I understand that he's learning a pshat tovel, like a brisker pshat in the pasuk. ועשו לי מקדש doesn't mean Mikdash. It means Mikdash, make yourself. For karet, it doesn't mean make a mikdash, and the side benefit is v'shachanti b'socham, like Chazal say, b'soch kol echad v'echad. It's not even going on the mikdash, which is so, so to speak a—give me the right word in English—it's a... No, the replica. It's a new—when you have an airplane, you buy a, you put it together, it's a—huh? Replica. The replica where there's a head before. I don't need you for that. A prototype. Okay, next. Model. Model, that's it. Ah, that's it. Ah, that's it. I couldn't get—it was on my tongue, and I couldn't get the word the whole time. The word is model. That's a model. The regular Beis HaMikdash is only the model. You want to know what the real Beis HaMikdash is? It's you. V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'sochchem, because it's you. V'chein ta'asu. Gotta make yourself. It's a translation of the word ta'asu. Ta'asu, not just ta'aseh. Ta'asu, u. Ta'aseh atzmechem. It's a dikduk. People don't realize that. Reb Chaim was learning a amodi chiddush in the pasuk. V'chein ta'asu.

Asu atzmecha. Hey, tasu atzmecha. You have to make yourself. So when a person looks at the Beis Hamikdash, yeah, what does he take from it? He takes from it the lessons of the Beis Hamikdash, and he creates himself hashraas hashchina. There's a very famous poem that the Chareidim wrote. Today it's a song; they made a song out of it: Bilvavi mishkan evneh. In my soul, in my heart, I will build the Beis Hamikdash. Bilvavi mishkan evneh. In my soul I will build a Beis Hamikdash, and for this Beis Hamikdash I'll put up a mizbeach, and for this mizbeach I'll be makriv nafshi hayechidah. Korbanos, the Rambam Rishonim tell us that whenever there was a korban, the person thought to himself, It should have been me. I think there's a song, It should have been me, it could have been me. ... It could have been me, could have been me, should have been me. When you are makriv a korban, it could have been me, it should have been me. Now, rabosai, when you did a chet, when you did a sin, so of course you need to get punished. It should have and could have been me that I should have went through this punishment. But what happens if the korban was not a punishment korban? What happens if the korban was a korban olah? So also he has to think, It could have been me, it should have been me. Which means, actively is nafshi hayechidah. So the inyan of the Mishkan is to give a physical, an external, because human beings need to see and need to feel and need to touch. But there was a world within that world, you see. Nothing in the Beis Hamikdash was literal. Everything in the Beis Hamikdash was that the Jew would take from that and live from within his world of Him, the Ribono Shel Olam, Him and the Master of the world. And that's why the Mishkan, the Mikdash, it contained all the different worlds, so to speak, the inner worlds. You know, the word korban actually has a spiritual and an emotional, and that is liskarev, to come close to the Ribono Shel Olam. A person could live a physical life, could live a physical life, but the physical life is not the eternal. The internal is the eternal. The Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, that's true, but that was just a physical thing. Chazal tell us that the Ribono Shel Olam sang when He destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. Mizmor, mizmor. Bo goyim nachlasecha. The goyim came in and destroyed. Chazal say, what are you singing about? You know, imagine a guy sees his house burning down and he's singing. You know why he's singing? Because he's getting the insurance, and he was on a burnted down. But if he doesn't have insurance, you think he'd be singing? No, no. Definitely not. So what are you singing about? What are you singing about? So Chazal say, sheshafach chamasoi al etzim v'al avanim. Etzim v'avanim. That's what the Beis Hamikdash is. It's just etzim, it's just wood. Etzim v'avanim. First of all, it was pretty expensive, etzim v'avanim. You know how much gold was in there. And yet, what do we minimize it down to? Etzim v'avanim. The Beis Hamikdash, that's all, that all, that's all it means is etzim v'avanim. And the answer is, you hear? What's the answer? When you understand what the point of the—

Beis Hamikdash. Then you realize that this is not that important. I'll give you a mashal. When chas v'shalom, chas v'shalom, unfortunately there's a divorce. Tell me, would you cry about the ring? Is that what you cry about? Or do you cry about the marriage? You're right. The ring reminds and represents. You like the mashal. There's a stone. A ring is a stone. It's etzim v'avanim. You're right. But you don't cry about that. I never saw anybody cry about a ring when you get divorced. Ki sheyesh geirushin, מישהו ילך ויבכה על היהלום, על ה-wedding ring? That's what you cry about? You cry about the marriage. The ring represents the marriage. The etzim v'avanim, the Beis Hamikdash was just representing something. It represented the kesher, the connection, the hashra'as haShechinah b'socham in Klal Yisroel. So it's only etzim v'avanim. I want to show you something interesting. Adam HaRishon, when he sinned, when he did his aveirah, he was thrown out of Gan Eden. He meets Kayin, and Kayin asks him, What happened? What happened? So he tells him, I'll tell you what happened. I did teshuvah, v'nispasharti. I did teshuvah. Miyad, right away, pasach, he started. Adam Harishon, he made up a song. What was the song he made up? Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos. Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos. How did teshuva, Shabbos, mizmor—what happened here? Something happened here, and the answer is very simple. Shabbos is also hashra'as haShechinah. The Ribono Shel Olam rests. There's a special hashra'as haShechinah on Shabbos. Interesting, people don't realize that Shabbos is one of the names of the Ribono Shel Olam. Shabbos is actually one of the names of the Ribono Shel Olam. When the Ribono Shel Olam rests in Klal Yisrael, it's also shavas, right? Shavas—the Ribono Shel Olam is resting, shavas. The word resting and the word lishkon is almost the same word. Rests among you, to be shochein. Vayar Yisrael shochein lishvatav. What is shochein? Dwell. Shabbos—the Ribono Shel Olam rests among us. Sin, chet, makes the Ribono Shel Olam what? Makes a richuk from the Ribono Shel Olam. Shabbos is the same inyan of teshuva that's already brought down in all the sefarim. And people think it's some lofty kind. It's halacha. The Gemara says that whoever does aveiros, even the aveirah of chilul Hashem, that he does avodah zarah k'dor Enosh, if he keeps the Shabbos, moichin lo. The Mishnah Berurah speaks about it in the hakdamah. The inyan of teshuvah and Shabbos is extremely connected, extremely connected. Teshuvah, teshuvah, it's the same root word. Teshuvah and Shabbos, right? This is not my, rabosai, I'm repeating famous, famous Torah. Teshuvah is Shabbos. Shabbos is teshuvah. It's the same. What part of Shabbos is teshuvah? Which part of it is teshuvah? And the answer is, there's a part of Shabbos which is part of the correction process of teshuvah, and that is: a person is meruchak, a person is menutak, a person is cut off from the Ribono Shel Olam. What does Shabbos do? Shabbos makes that the Ribono Shel Olam dwells among. Shabbos makes the same idea of veshachanti b'socham, the Ribono Shel Olam lives and dwells among, among a person.

So the teshuva, the Shabbos, and this is, like I said, not drush, rabosai, this is not drush, this is halacha l'maaseh. To keep Shabbos, it's clear that this is one of the yesodos of teshuva, because there are many things about chet which we don't have the time to discuss in the context here. It's nogea very much in Hilchos Yom Kippurim. There's kaparah and there's taharah. There's different aspects that are needed in teshuva. There's different parts. But one thing for sure is a vital part of teshuva, and that is the connection back to the Ribono Shel Olam. That's for sure. Mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos. Adam HaRishon started to realize that a house that gets burnt down, you got to rebuild it. Do you know how you rebuild the love and connection? It doesn't take much. It's not a big process. It's not a big thing. You come together. Adam HaRishon thought, how is he going to fix the kilkul, the destruction that he made? If you think about it, Adam HaRishon destroyed the world with the help of his Chava, his wife. Tell me something. If you went and destroyed a building, an Empire State Building, it would take an unbelievable job to fix it up. Would you be able to just turn around and fix it? No. It would take tremendous work. Chazal say, Chazal say, that when the Rabbeinu Shalom created Adam, he was asked one thing. What was he asked? Re'eh sheloy tekalkelu es olami. Please don't destroy my world. Don't make destruction to my world. Adam Harishon went with the eitz hadaas and destroyed the world. He was goirem misah la'olam, which can never be corrected on a physical level. There's no such thing. He was goirem, b'zeas apecha tochal lechem, that the earth now has a whole different entity, that you have to work to make your food, to make your money. You know what the real kilkul that he caused? That the Rabbeinu Shalom wasn't directly, openly, visually in the life of a person. That's really what he caused. When a person sat in Gan Eden, when a person sat in Gan Eden, he was lifnei Hashem. Lifnei Hashem, he was mamish together with the Rabbeinu Shalom. And in such, he did not have to do anything. The Ribono Shel Olam fed him and gave him. He was mekalkel the world because the world was meant to be fully hashraas haShechinah. He destroyed the world because the world was meant to be fully hashraas haShechinah, full. It was meant that he should learn Torah day and night. You know, it's interesting, I spoke about this many times. There's a klal, b'zeas apecha tochal lechem. So how come talmidei chachamim don't have to go to work? They can sit in kollel and get paid. Now, I don't want to discuss the merits of different lifestyles for kollel people, yes working, not working. It's a whole big question, b'sheim Baal Yechoi, those that seem to say that you don't need to work and those that seem to say derech eretz im Torah. It's a big controversial topic in the world, okay? And as Reb Boruch Ber says in Kiddushin, in his sefer on Kiddushin, that the topic is a tremendously difficult...

Topic. Because there are contradictory Gemaras and contradictory Chazal and contradictory halachos, he says we need a Rebbe to answer, to answer, to answer this question. We need a Rebbe to answer this question: what's the correct method and lifestyle? And I don't want to discuss it here, or maybe ever, okay? But one thing is clear, that those that sit and learn and don't work, what do you do with the klalah of בזעת אפך תאכל לחם? Baalei haTosafos answer this question. On Chumash, Baalei HaTosafos, on the peirush on Chumash, say that the klalah was not meant for someone who's sitting and learning. The klalah was not meant for someone who's sitting and learning. Why? Why? And the answer is very simple. The klalah is meant for the world achar hakilkul. It's in the world where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not the eminent, and the person doesn't live with the Ribbono Shel Olam. In that world, in that world, yes, there's a בזעת אפך תאכל לחם, that Hashem is not open, zon u'mefarnes u'mechalkel, and man has to go and live his life and find, search to find the Eibishter in that. It's a big yesod I just told you. Why did the Ribbono Shel Olam make it that way? And the answer is because it's your job to find. Till now, the Eibishter delivered. You lost that. So now the job becomes what? Search me, find me. Find me in your daily life, find me in your parnassah. It's the biggest yesod I just told you, rabosai. You hear what I just told you? Had we been zocheh, the Ribono Shel Olam would have been openly there to take us. Now that we lost that, so now we have to find Him. You know, marriage, it's interesting, it's called machzer achar aveidaso. The Ribono Shel Olam took a rib, and it's our job to what? To find that rib, to search for it. Ha'ish asher nasati imadi. Part of the eitz hadaas was this yesod. The Ribono Shel Olam gave us a present. We lost that gift, and now our job is to what? Now we got to go and find and search to get it. This Torah is living in the world, a world where the Ribono Shel Olam and His word is the world that you're living in. That itself is the world. That's the world the person lives. So there, that world is no b'zeas apecha tochal lechem, because you do find Hashem, and you are living with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and therefore you don't have the klalah of b'zeas... There's an interesting Alter from Kelm. The Alter from Kelm writes, to him, what is the yesod of the Mishkan? Is the aron the Torah. It's the home where the Torah, the aron is. Okay, what I just told you, the Alter from Kelm, the Chochmah v'Daas, writes that the yesod of the Mishkan is a bayis for the aron. It's a bayis for the Torah. Mirtzashem, we can talk, and I want Rabbi Weiss, mirtzashem, to give me a little more information. Tell me, there was a tzivui to build the Mishkan. Was the aron a part of that tzivui, or was the aron a separate tzivui of building the Mishkan? Was it nichlal in the regular tzivui of ועשו לי מקדש? Was it part of it? It's a big talk in the Rishonim. If the tzivui of the Mishkan was all of Klal Yisrael and Moshe had to build the Mikdash separately, the aron separately, in Brisker Torah the issue becomes: is the aron one of the klei haMikdash? Okay, I see I lost the oilam, so we'll chazer a minute. You hear?

Haravais, you know what I'm talking about? It's a big machlokes Rishonim. If the building of the aron was nichlal, included in the klei hamikdash, you had to build the menorah, yeah, you had to build the shulchan, you also had to build an aron, or it's a separate mitzvah to build the aron. It was a different—it's very—the Rambam. That's machlokes in the Rambam, the Rishonim. He does. That's why I want you to do homework, but I'm not going to do your homework for you. But you want me to eat for you also? You want me to sleep for you? I thought that could work the other way around. Maybe you guys could sleep for me. I need, I need someone to come and offer a donation. You got me. You sleep enough for all of us, huh? How come everyone's smiling? For some reason, everyone understands the joke. Not a joke, my friends. Not a joke. Not a joke. Okay. Point being, this is your homework. It's very possible that the whole Mishkan is actually what? Aron. It's all the aron. That's all it is. It's a bayis for the aron. Olam haTorah. You know, people discuss a make-believe world, so to speak, and I don't mean in a derogatory way. Somebody calls it Olam haTorah. What, there's an Olam haTorah? Simply means the people that live in that world, they make up this Olam haTorah. I remember growing up. Well, I don't remember growing up. I wish I grew up. Al kol panim, as I was officially growing up, I remember that Rabbanim, Roshei Yeshivas used to say, the oylam tainus, the oylam tainus. I heard from very wise people that took about the word oylam. Which oylam is taining that? How many people already are saying this, huh? How many people are already saying this, yeah? And even within that world, how many people are saying this taina that you're saying? It's a few. So which oylam? The oylam is taining the oylam. Make it sound like there's a whole world. And the Torah says, Yes. Yes, it is. It's an oylam. There's a world. It's called the Olam HaTorah. I don't know how many people live in that world. Baruch Hashem, it's getting bigger and greater, but it's a world within the world. It's a world within the world, rabosai. And in this world, the map looks much different. There's Nahardaa, there's Sura, there's Pumbedisa. It's a different world. Yes, it's not Moscow, and yes, it's not Dubai, all the wild places out there. Seems like a small, what do you call that, a world of spiritual, what do you call, theoretical world. Yeah, but it's a world. Remember, I think Reb Yerucham Levovitz, zichrono tzaddik livracha, I believe. It was him. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't remember. I think it was. He once said, I'm discussing the Chofetz Chaim. Tell me, how big was the town where the Chofetz Chaim lived? It might have been the size of this beis medrash. All right, I'll give you, it's a little bigger than this beis medrash, but not too much bigger. All right, it was a tiny little... I heard from my zeide zichrono livracha, the Chofetz Chaim chose that on purpose. He didn't want the hustle-bustle of the big cities and all the tumult and machloikes and lashon haras that go with it. He wanted to live in a simple, dereful — in Yiddish they call it a dereful — small little village. He could sit and learn. It's quiet. There's no problems. Well, relatively no problems. How many problems could five people in a town... Well, the truth is, that's not a good answer. That's not a good point. But whatever, it's a lot less than the big city, okay? Yeah? He says if you looked at the map that was created by the European Union, all right, of Russia and Poland and Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and you had to look for Radin, you wouldn't find it.

On the map, you would look, you would have to sit there and go, one second. No, no, that's not... No, I can't find it. But in the map, which really counts, map of the Rabbeinu Sholem's world that he lives in, Radin is huge. It's a huge part, and Moscow, and Dubai, and, ch'ves, give me what are the other places, and Africa is very, very, very, very small. Mechedik, huh? It's an unbelievable thing. If you had to go and look at the map, the map that the Rabbeinu Sholem has in Shamayim of the world, that he looks at the world, the world that he calls the world, yeah, that world has a very, very, very, very, very huge, what do you call that, representation of Radin, and Mir, and Slabodka, and Baghdad. The Ben Ish Chai is from Baghdad. Baghdad, okay, I'll give it. Where did you come from? Tashkent. Okay, Tashkent, yeah. Samarkand, okay. So your house, around where your house in Samarkand is, huge, huge. But the rest of it is all nothing. There's nothing going on there. It's tiny. You can't even find it. Could you imagine you hear two malachim overspeaking with each other. You hear two... Tell me, could you find Moscow on the map? And one malach turns to the other one and he goes... Nope, nope, I can't see it. Can't find it. Nope, don't see it. How about where is—? Wow, how can you not see? I mean, the whole map is ... It's all... Huh? Habayisai, there's an olam, and that was the Mishkan. The Mishkan was a world within a world. It was the real world. It was the world of the Ribbono Shel Olam. And everything there had its ruchniyusdike, ruchniyusdike spiritual undertones. Its spiritual lessons. A korban. The man brought a korban. You know what? He didn't see an animal being slaughtered. He saw himself getting close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, mesiras nefesh, ... Mishkan nefneh. He saw the inner Beis HaMikdash. Mishkan, mizbeach hachosim. What will I be makriv? Es nafshi hayechidah. That's what he saw there. He saw the inner world when he walked in. And that's the pshat that they chogegim eilav. What was aliyah laregel? Aliyah laregel means, k'sheim sheba liro'os. The same way you came to see Hashem, Hashem sees you. So pasuk says it clearly. You came to greet the ... That's what the Beis HaMikdash was. In a world where the Ribbono Shel Olam is not visual. In the world of the Beis HaMikdash, in the world of the Beis HaMikdash, the Ribbono Shel Olam was visual. You saw him, and you saw that he saw you, and that was part of the re'iyah, k'sheim sheba liros. Which means that your seeing was seeing how he sees you. That's how close the connection was. And that was the inyan of the Mishkan. The Mishkan, v'shachanti b'socham, it was an inner. The Mishkan was an inner thing. The Shabbos. That's what I was telling you, is mizmor shir l'yom haShabbos. What's the song of Shabbos? The song of Shabbos. The song is an internal thing. The internal part of a person sings out when he realizes that he did not be mekalkel. The destruction is not there. The destruction is an external destruction. The building went down, but the marriage survived. The building went down, but the marriage survived. Tochei, ratzua v'ahavah, Bnei Yisrael. What is the inner part of the Beis HaMikdash? Pasuk in Shir HaShirim, tochei. It's all about ahavah between Bnei Yisrael. The love the Ribbono Shel Olam has for Klal Yisrael. Turbulence, shattered windows.

Broken bricks. Yeah, but the marriage survives. The marriage survives. The relationship survives Shabbos. We can't survive without it. We could survive without a Beis Hamikdash. The marriage could continue. The kesher could continue. The nation and its essence continues even without a Beis Hamikdash. But it can't continue without a Shabbos. Can't. The rest, the Shabbos, the fact that the Ribono Shel Olam rests among us. You know, lcha dodi. What's lcha dodi? What's the concept of lcha dodi? Lcha dodi likras kallah. On Shabbos, we go out to greet. Who are we greeting? What are we greeting? Lcha dodi likras kallah. On Shabbos, who are we greeting? What are we greeting? Of course we're greeting the Eibishter. It means Ribono Shel Olam. It's the kesher, the chosson, the kallah, right? Beis Hamikdash also is the home where it's tochei ratzon v'ahava. We go out to greet. Where was the kallah? And the answer is, the kallah was—she was there. Chosson, kallah, but they're not attached. They're not connected till Shabbos. Shabbos comes, and there's a connection. So therefore the pshat is meyridik. The melachas Hamikdash, the building of the Mishkan, is itself the Shabbos. That's the whole idea of v'chein ta'asu. By keeping the melamed tes melachos, which Beis Hamikdash are you building? You're building yourself. You're building yourself. So you're actually building a Mishkan on Shabbos. You're building a theoretical olam, a world, a Mishkan, which is not physical, and that you can build on Shabbos. The physical Mishkan you can't build on Shabbos. But the opposite: you take all the components of what it means to build a Mishkan, the physical, and we say we're not building the physical, because we're going to do it with what? Spiritual. The same inyan of the Mishkan. I've mentioned to you many times, many times, it's כדאי to repeat, that the seder of Shabbos, the avodah of Shabbos, replicates the entire Mishkan, not only in the lamed-tes melachos, in the entire essence of the avodah that we do on Shabbos. The Maharil brings down that the shulchan of Shabbos, the table of Shabbos, should be a four-legged table and not a two- or three-legged table. I don't know today what we do. Today we have tables that has one big thing in the middle. I don't want to get anyone out of business, but for Shabbos you should actually have a table with four legs, brought down in Shulchan Aruch. Why? Domeh to the shulchan. Domeh to the shulchan, the shulchan had four. We have on Shabbos lechem mishneh. The lechem mishneh also represents the lechem hapanim, and that's why in Zohar and many... Chassidic Rebbes follow this. They have twelve breads. Why? Because of the lechem hapanim. We also have the inyan of the, by Shabbos, we have Kiddush. Kiddush is the yayin of the korbanos. We sing. That's the Shiras HaLeviim. It's all brought down. I think the Aruch HaShulchan speaks about Shiras HaLeviim. Brought down halacha, these things. It's not just, what do you say, nice tidbits, beautiful drush. There's a tremendous resemblance of the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash. The home becomes—oh, hadlakas neiros of Shabbos is the menorah. There's many things, many things we try to replicate the way it was done in the Mishkan, the Shabbos. The Shabbos and the Mishkan, because it's the same concept of what? Veshachanti b'socham. Veshachanti b'socham. This, rabosai, is the pshat in what the Mishkan is supposed to resemble. The point being, the point being, it's an interesting thing. I've thought about it a lot. They speak about how a Talmud chacham...

is bechinas Shabbos. Now it's really, it's really open many places in the Zohar. It's bechinas Shabbos. What's pshat it's bechinas Shabbos? I thought with the Baalei HaTosafos everything fits perfectly. Shabbos, we don't work. Talmud chacham doesn't have the bizayas apecha tochal lechem. That's pshat, it's bechinas Shabbos. Bechinas Shabbos means he bypasses the sheishes yamim to work, because he's connected directly with the Ribono Shel Olam. The inyan of the Mishkan, which is also something interesting, we find that Moshe Rabbeinu—and this is, I, you know, I see the time, and I also know that I have many phone calls that I have to answer now. Some of them are very urgent and important—but it seems like Mishkan sha'aso Moshe. Moshe was a direct—Moshe had to make the Mishkan, right? Moshe was in charge of many of the shekalim, right? There was different collections. One of them Moshe had to do himself. I don't have time to elaborate on all this, but it's definitely Mishkan sha'aso Moshe. As a matter of fact, the Beis Hamikdash got destroyed. The Mishkan never got destroyed. Chazal say because Moshe Rabbeinu's work cannot be destroyed. It sunk into the ground, and it got lost under the ground. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons given why Moshe Rabbeinu did not go to Eretz Yisrael. In order it should be shafach chamaso al eitzim v'al avanim, because if the Ribono Shel Olam would have Moshe come in, and Moshe would build the Beis Hamikdash, the Beis Hamikdash could never get destroyed. And when Klal Yisrael sinned— So he would have to destroy Klal Yisroel, not the Beis Hamikdash. So therefore, for the toiv of Klal Yisroel, part of the mizmor, Sheshavach Chamaser Leitzim Avonim, was that Moshe Rabbeinu should not want go into Eretz Yisroel. Why is it that the mishkan that Moshe made never got destroyed, while the Beis Hamikdash was able to get destroyed? And the answer is very simple, rabosai. The Beis Hamikdash was the external, was the eitzim avonim. The mishkan was hashra'as hashchinah. It was the mishkan, sheshochin b'socham. Moshe was able—Moshe Rabbeinu, the koach haTorah. Like I said, the koach of Torah is that it's beyond the physical. It's connected directly with the Ribono Shel Olam. That can never be destroyed. That can never be destroyed. That can never be destroyed. That inyan, that part of mishkan, v'shachanti b'socham, which Moshe Rabbeinu was able, because he was Torah, because that's what Torah is. Torah means that the or... I was thinking once to my— you understand? I don't know if I follow the thought, but that's the yesod of the thought. The mishkan can never be destroyed, and the mishkan is the Ribono Shel Olam lives with Klal Yisroel. One of the things that gave Klal Yisroel existence in the galus was the Torah, to be able to live, to learn Torah. Because no matter what's around you, the connection through Torah means you're connected with the Ribono Shel Olam to survive. David HaMelech, U'lei seirascha shashuai, az avadti be'oni. No matter what goes on around, the chitzoniy of a person, his inner neshama, his nefesh survives when he's connected to Torah. U'lei seirascha shashuai, az avadti. Moshe Rabbeinu represented this Mishkan, a Mishkan through Torah. Part of the homework for Rabbi Weisses was the tzivui of the aron strictly to Moshe. That'll be interesting. I know the answer to the question, but you'll be pleasantly surprised in the briska Torah about all this. The keilim might have been Klal Yisrael, the aron might have been Moshe. We have to talk about that in great length at a different time. But this was the—I thought I had one more—you said, but I guess we could stop over here. That's the inyan of the Mishkan. The Mishkan can never, can never, because it's about the Shechinah resting with the Ribono Shel Olam, and that's through the words of Torah. Okay, we'll stop over here. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.