Vayakhel: Achdus in Klal Yisrael, the Mishkan, and the Tikkun for the Chet HaEgel

Transcript

Moshe. ... על עדת בני ישראל, ויאמר עליהם, אלה הדברים אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם. Parshas Vayakhel. Makhil, makhil. Vayakhel Moshe, hu makhil. He brings together all of the adas Bnei Yisrael. Everybody. We'll soon learn, nashim v'taf, women and children too. Everybody. Everybody gets brought together, b'hakhel. In Parshas Kedoshim, Moshe Rabbeinu also speaks to all of Klal Yisrael. Daber el kol adas בני ישראל. That's how Parshas Kedoshim begins. Ha'ikar yud tes, pasuk chaf. Hahalachos sheb'Parshas Kedoshim gam kein, נאמרה לציבור הרחב. It was said to everybody. Rashi says, מלמד שנאמרה פרשה זו, שנאמרה פרשה זו בהקהל. Rashi in Parshas Kedoshim says clearly that it was said b'hakhel. U'vechol zot, לא כתוב ויקהל משה, says daber. Al kol adas Bnei Yisrael, lo katuv takhilu. Muvan me'atzmo. If you're speaking to everybody, then you got to bring them all together. How can you speak to everybody if you're not going to bring them together? Today, it's shayach to make loudspeaker, and intercom, and internet, and email, and text message, so you could speak to nobody and everybody gets the message. You know, they say over a story that there was once a Rebbe, a moreh, that he decided that he's, you know, for a week he needs a vacation. He can't come to teach. So what is he going to do? Instead, he's going to leave a tape recorder to give the speech through the tape. He'll play the tape and they'll listen to the tape. Won't be a live broadcast, but it'll be a broadcast already pre-taped. No? After a week he wanted to see how it's working. So he goes to the class, and he looks through the window, and he sees that there's nobody there. Where is everybody? They also left a tape recorder. So they had a tape recorder talking to a tape recorder. Today, you're able to talk to everybody by not having one person in front of you. But in the old days, if you want to talk to everybody, then they all had to be there. So it's muvan me'atzmo, self-understood, that if they spoke al kol adas Bnei Yisrael, that they were all there. So it doesn't have to say Vayakhel Moshe et kol adas Bnei Yisrael. It doesn't have to say takhilu, bring them together, because if you're speaking to all of them, you got to bring them together. Why is it that there it doesn't say Vayakel, and here, here, mudgash, Vayakel Moshe et kol adas Bnei... He spoke. Vayedaber Moshe el kol adas Bnei Yisrael. And just like over there it self-understood that it was b'hakel, that he joined them all together, otherwise he couldn't speak them all together to everybody, right? So here too it should be self-understood. Why does it have to say, why does it have to madgish b'myuchad Vayakel Moshe? This question all the mefarshim ask. It's a very, very good question. Now the truth is, I could tell you a very interesting pshat, a very interesting pshat. You know, Rashi points out that Vayakel is an interesting lashon. V'hu lashon hifil, she'eino osef anashim b'yadayim, ela neesafim al pi diburo. Vayakel doesn't mean that he physically, physically, you hear?

Doesn't mean that he physically joint picks them up and brings them together. It means that he told them to come together and they came together, with a force to come together, where they told as a tzivui to come together, or they were asked takilu. Was that a chiyuv? Was there any ones, so to speak, if they didn't do it? I don't know what the ones would be, but was it forced, or was it, in English, what's the opposite of forced? Voluntary. Voluntary. Doesn't say. Again, see, this is the difference between my shiur and other shiurim. Nobody would even bother to think of this. No one even bothered to work. I'm reading with you the Rashi. ... Rashi אומר, ... doesn't mean ... doesn't mean that he mamish put them together. He didn't go with the bus and picked them up. Maybe he sent around a chariot, the camels, to pick up everybody. Who took care of the transportation? Maybe vayakel, he mamish took care of the transportation. He brought them all together, literally, physically. Says Rashi that's not what it means. What does it mean? Vayakel, bidibur. He caused it to happen. So I'm asking, was it voluntary, meaning, was he asked? Were they asked to come? Were they told, Show up? You better come. Doesn't say. We're going to learn that it's possible. That what Rashi means is al pi diburo, he requested. Diburo isn't just meaning that what, shehu amar, ela shehu bikesh. Al pi diburo could also mean shehu bikesh, lafukei shehu chiyev. So maybe in Parshas Kedoshim, chiyev. Told everybody, get together. You know, there's something called mitzvas hakhel. At the end of Devarim, we're going to learn Mishneh Torah, hakhel, that they have to come together in the Beis HaMikdash. There it's tzivui. There you have to; you don't have a choice. Hakhel, that everybody comes together, there's no choice. So maybe in Parshas Kedoshim also there was no choice. K'ilu tam bechiyuv, betzivui. Ma she'ein kein over here, it was hemnes safim al pi diburo, al pi bakashato. Does he mean diburo lafukei, that he didn't actually bring them together? Or does he mean al pi diburo, al pi mevuksho, bakashato, he's asking, not clear. This is chiddush that I want to say, not so sure. We're soon going to learn about this, okay? So the first question, Dani, is: lama פה כתוב ויקהל, ומדבר על כל עדת בני ישראל, ... ויקהל, ...? This is a she'eilah mufseset. Od nireh tirutzim harishonim v'achronim al hashe'eilah הזו, okay? Parshas Kedoshim doesn't say it. So I'm saying, you know, it's interesting. How did it happen? Rashi goes out of his way to explain, hu lomar, .... אלא על פי דיבורו. מה הכוונה? על פי דיבורו, שלא ממש הקיל, אלא הוא אמר, או על פי דיבורו means, הנסכים על פי הבקשה שלו. He asked, and they came. That's all it means. It doesn't mean more than that. So then we could say in Parshas Kedoshim, it wasn't al פי דיבורו, it was b'chiyuv, b'tzivui. He didn't mamash put them together. He didn't drive them to the asifah, but he told them that they must come. While here, al פי דיבורו, he requested. Why? Why the difference? Is this the true pshat? And if it is, machi luk, lamah chiluk? That's od nedaber al zeh. Let's ask another question. Vayakel Moshe את כל עדת בני ישראל, and what does he tell them? אלה הדברים אשר ציווה ה' לעשות אותם, ששת ימים תיעשה מלאכה. So was he makhil אותם to teach them Hilchos Shabbat? Is that what it was about? How do you know not? Maybe, yeah. It just says he was makhil אותם, and he taught them ששת ימים תיעשה מלאכה. Or maybe it's for the next parsha about the תרומת המשכן, the whole building of the Mishkan. Which one is it?

Is it, is it Hilchos Shabbos, u'kilotam? That's the next thing, Hilchos Shabbos, and then, but then the next thing after that is Mishkan. Let me ask you another question. What do shaychus does Shabbos have with the Mishkan? Now, the truth is, Shabbos is a big shaychus to the Mishkan. There's a chiddush that you don't build the Mishkan on Shabbos. So how come the first time, when he teaches us in the beginning, when he teaches us the beginning that we should build the Mishkan, there he doesn't talk about the Shabbos first? This is the second time that he's teaching us about building the Mishkan, which itself is a question. What do you need a second time for? We're going to talk about that also. What's the whole pashut Vayakhel? It's a Chazal, ma shedibarnu. We learned this in Parshas Truma. Everything that it says in Vayakhel, it says in Truma. Brisker Rav asks, all the mefarshim ask this question: What, Vayakhel? There's no point. The whole thing is just repetition. Now, the fact that you put Shabbos next to the Mishkan, now we understand. So why over here? Why not the first time? It's also a good question. But b'ikar, we have to begin by asking, Vayakhel Moshe, for what? To teach them Shabbos or to teach them Mishkan? So I found the Medrash. The Medrash says two ta'amim, two reasons. Vayakhel Moshe, it was to teach them Shabbos. Not like who said—who said Mishkan? You said Mishkan. You might not be wrong, but the Medrash says different. The Medrash says it was to teach them Shabbos. Medrash Hagadol says, since Shabbos is the most chamur... Of everything that we have, even Yom Kippur is only a karet. Shabbos is chiyuv mita. It's the worst sin, is to transgress. Kol hamechalel es haShabbat, the whole Torah, it's ki'ilu over avodah zarah. It's as if he was mechalel the whole Torah with being over avodah zarah. The worst thing is to desecrate Shabbos. So, michomer, from the chomer of Shabbos, says the Medrash, hikilo tam lagid itzeh b'rabim. It's a very important halacha, you know. It's not a simple, you know, do you put your tefillin on the right hand or do you make the shin this way or the shin that way. That's not that important. Shabbat is very important, right? You know, my grandfather used to say a cute story. I told this over to one of the dayanim in Borough Park. My great-grandfather was a big dayan. So he said that the balabatim in his city, they only ask difficult shailas. They don't ask simple shailas. They're very, you know, advanced, advanced in learning, chashuv people. They don't ask shailas peshutim; they ask shailas kashim. הם לא מבינים מה זה דבר כשר, מה זה דבר קל. Why? For example, they feel a spoon, it fell into a pot, milk, right? It's a tipat chalav, it's a spoon. That's a simple shaila. What's a shaila chamurah? In the old days they used to eat kishke, real kishke, real bnei me'ayim, and they used to tie it up with a thread. אשתו תמיד היא עושה את זה עם חוט אדום. Hai Shabbat, hi kashrah, she tied it up with a chut blue, with a different color. So he wants to know if he's allowed to eat the kishke. That's a she'eilah chamurah. ... You don't know the difference between a she'eilah chamurah. Ah, shpoon, ... How bad could it be? ... Where is it? I don't see it. ... This ... put it in a bigger pot. Oh, that's ... You know, that's what happens. Ma nikudah? Shabbat be'emet chamurah. They don't know. People don't know Shabbos is chamur, and the ... the shin on the tefillin is not so chamur, you know, this way or that way. ... You can have people fight over it. ... fights. ... Shabbos is chamurah. That's the real stuff, right? So therefore, ne'emra b'hakel. That's why he put it together. Everybody, nashim v'taf, children, women, everybody had to hear hakhel. So it comes out that the hakhel was for what? For the first parsha, Shabbos. I found another medrash, and the medrash says.

That this was supposed to be a precedent for future generations. Moshe Rabbeinu was supposed to set policy, shema'asifim et ha'kehilah lilmod hilchot Shabbos. People should get together to learn Hilchos Shabbos. So Moshe Rabbeinu, he kiheil lelamed hilchos Shabbos. He kiheil et ha'kehilah lilmod... Mi zeh nilmad, says the Medrash. From here we should learn that you're supposed to join groups together, le'esof et ha'anashim lilmod hilchot Shabbos. I have a little bit of a problem. Forgive me, Medrash. When are you me'asef the anashim to learn Hilchos Shabbos? On Shabbos, that's what it says. Ma'asifim, you gather them together on Shabbos to learn Hilchos Shabbos. The shiur, right? That's the whole shiur, the... When did this happen? When was this asifah? Does anybody know when it was? Now, Rashi says clearly it was mi'mochorat Yom HaKippurim. Rashi stresses, when was the hakhel? Mi'mochorat lemochorat Yom HaKippurim, k'sheyard min hahar. Why does Rashi matgish? What's it so important to know when it was? So we're going to discuss, b'shem Acharonim, a very big yesod why it was after Yom Kippur. But before we get to the end of the shiur, right now I want to point out a very interesting pshat I saw. The Gemara tells us that there's one day that cannot be lemochorat Yom HaKippurim. Which day cannot be lemochorat Yom HaKippurim? Shabbos. You can't have Yom Kippur and then Shabbat. Yom Kippur could be Shabbat, but it can't be Friday. Can't have it. Too much. Friday, Shabbat, it doesn't come out in the calendar. So if it's l'mochrat Yom HaKippurim wasn't Shabbos. So the mefarshim explain why does Rashi stress this? Rashi is trying to tell me that it wasn't Shabbos. שלא נחשוב שהוא הקהיל אותם ללמד את השיעור של שבת. The mefarshim explain, afeimah, that the reason why Rashi says it was l'mochrat Yom HaKippurim, to teach me that it wasn't on Shabbos, because if it was on Shabbos, then you would say, קהילו אותם ללמד אותם הלכות שבת, השיעור הקבוע. כל שבת יש שיעור קבוע בהלכות שבת. Every Shabbos afternoon, every Shabbos, instead of sleeping, you're supposed to make a shiur for Hilchos Shabbos. אל תחשוב שזה היה קהילה פה ללמד אותם ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה, אלא היה ממחרת יום הכיפורים. So it was Sunday. It couldn't have been on a Shabbos, or Monday or Tuesday, but definitely not on a— it wasn't Shabbos that day. So obviously, קהילו אותם לחשבון אחר. So it's against this medrash, because this medrash is saying, הקהילו אותם for the Hilchos Shabbos shiur on Shabbos, unless the medrash is saying lav davka Shabbos, stam during the week he's supposed to be מקהיל אותם to learn Hilchos Shabbos. It's not what it says. If you bring me— you know what, bring me the Torah Sheleimah. We'll read the exact words of the medrash. I'll show you that the mashma'ut I understood the medrash, that it was the regular Hilchos Shabbos shiur. No, no, לא הגיוני לפני. אתה תאמין לי, אי אפשר להקהיל אנשים. יש עניין של בידי שבת בשבתו. To learn Hilchos Shabbos on Shabbos, like there's a kriyas haTorah on Shabbos. Moshe tiken lahem l'Yisrael sheyeh sho'alin v'dorshin b'inyano shel yom on Yontif. No, shloshim yom is for Pesach. Here it is. Chag b'chag. Here it is, here it is. B'inyano shel yom. Here it says clearly, Rabbeinu Baal HaGadah omrim, k'dei sheyilmechu mimcha, doros haba'im, l'hakhil kehilos b'chol Shabbos v'Shabbos, v'lichnos b'batim midrashos l'lamed u'l'ha'oir es Yisrael divrei Torah issa v'heter, dei sheyishmia kol hamiskales bein bnei... Mikan amru Moshe tiken lahem l'Yisrael sheyeh dorshin b'inyano shel yom: Hilchos Pesach b'Pesach, Hilchos Atzeres b'Atzeres, Hilchos... And so this is Hilchos Shabbos b'Shabbato. But it's not on Shabbos, unless you say, so what? He did it this...

But it's supposed to be a remez for Shabbos, maybe, but you're playing a little bit, right? If it would have been on Shabbos, fein, right? Ah, but listen, I cover everything. Trust me, I'm saying barur. There's nothing that I'm not saying which isn't one that I'm saying clear. You have the teretz, you have a kash afterwards. I'm showing you that it's mashma that this was the Shabbos shiur. Yeah, but it wasn't on Shabbos. Unless you say that this time Moshe did it before Shabbos or after Shabbos, but it's a remez for Shabbos. Here it was bothering me a little bit. Okay. Comes out, rabosai, that the Vayakhel is not for Shabbos, according to these meforshim. The Vayakhel was for a different reason. It wasn't hilchos Shabbos to be teaching Shabbos b'Shabbato. It was for a different reason, Vayakhel otam. It wasn't for sheishes yamim. So why was he kilel them? Bishleima if you learn it's to gather the people to learn hilchos Shabbos, and this is the custom in the Jewish tradition that we bring people together to learn hilchos Shabbos, good. But if it's not for hilchos Shabbos, because it was mimacharas Yom Kippur, and many meforshim learn it wasn't for hilchos Shabbos, so then if so, if so, גראַד, I was just thinking, it just popped into my head, maybe that's a teretz to the question: why is it that here it says Vayakhel, and over there by Parshas Kedoshim it doesn't say Vayakhel? Because here it was special hilchos Shabbos to teach me. The halacha of Hakhel. True, there he spoke to kol adas Bnei Yisrael, all the halachos of parshas kedoshim. But here, the pasuk emphasizes, Vayakhel, to teach me that you're supposed to make hakhel. You're supposed to gather the people together, special like a mitzvah for future generations. I don't want to say the word mitzvah, but it's an inyan, to makhil, ki lod ba-rabim, lilmod hilchos Shabbat. So therefore it says here Vayakhel, where there, even though it was behakhel, even though he gathered everybody together, but that was for that time. That was that he happened to spoke hilchot parshat kedoshim to everybody. Here there was a special inyan, lakhil, because this became the tradition, to be makhil ki lod ba-rabim lilmod hilchos Shabbat. So this just popped into my head, maybe why here it says Vayakhel and over there it does not. Like I said, many mefarshim learn the kehilah, the Vayakhel was to teach them the Mishkan. Why was it necessary? To be makhil otam, to teach them the Mishkan. Now notice, we already taught the Mishkan before. There it doesn't say Vayakhel. This is not the first time we're being taught about the Mishkan. So if it's to teach us about the Mishkan, why does it say Vayakhel? Question number two: why does it speak about Shabbat here and not there? And question number three: why בכלל repeat? Repeat. Why are you repeating the same thing that you already told us before? Now, there's many mefarshim that learn among the Rishonim that this is not actually a repetition. It's ein mukdam u'me'uchar baTorah, and therefore this was actually taught before the eigel. This whole parsha is a repetition, but it's all truma repeated over again. This was before. According to many Rishonim, this was before the eigel, by Yakel. Rashi obviously learns not like that. Rashi stresses it was l'machar Yom HaKippurim, l'achar sheyarad min hahar, so this was after the eigel. But this is a machlokes Rishonim. Some Rishonim learn that this is a chazarah on the original teaching to build the Mishkan. Other Rishonim, Rashi b'rosham, Rashi on the top of the list, learns that this was new, a second time, a repetition, true, repeated, but repeated a second time after the eigel. Once before the eigel, once after the eigel. What do you need once before, once after? Something is going on here. So you hear the questions? Question number one: Why do you have to join them together to teach them to build the Mishkan? First time you didn't do that. Second—

First of all, why do you have to repeat what you already taught? Third of all, why bichlal do you talk about the Shabbos here, while the first time you didn't talk about the Shabbos? If Shabbos and Mishkan have to be taught together to teach me that you don't build a Mishkan on Shabbos, so let it be the first time taught that way. Why all of a sudden was the Shabbos taught here? Good questions, no? Okay. There's an interesting Rabbeinu Bechaye. I appreciate if you bring it to me. Bring me the Rabbeinu. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns that the repetition to build the Mishkan is from love. Hashem is showing how important it is to build the Mishkan again and again. When something's not that important, you don't repeat it. Say it over once. He says it's five times it says to build the Mishkan. Rabbeinu Bechaye is beautiful. This week's parsha, Rabbeinu Bechaye is unbelievable. Here, what is this? Oh, it says like this. V'haya ha'inyan, vayaas, vayaas, here. It says again, he did and he did and they made and they made and they did it and they made it and they did it. V'haya ha'inyan, says Rabbeinu Bechaye, why does it have to repeat it so over again, over and over again here? Make and do and do and they did do, they did. Just say, make the Mishkan and they did it and that's all. Lazkiro chamisha pa'amim, hakol... Lemaalas haMishkan, for the importance, to show the importance of the Mishkan. Vederech chibah, and to show love. K'shem shematzinu shehizkir HaKasuv chamishah pe'amim Yisrael b'pasuk echad b'Sefer VaYikra. It says five times. Oh, he knows, he's already looking. Parshas VaYikra, there's one pasuk that says the word Klal Yisrael, mentions the Jewish people five times in one pasuk. HaMidbar Ches, pasuk yud tes. Beautiful. Five times. Go look it up, five times. A quiz. I know it's there. You want to read it? Read it. Go ahead. Yeah, five times. Why? When you love something, you repeat it. For example, people love money, so they repeat, they count it over again and over again. I have a million dollars, a million dollars, a million... They don't stop talking about how they have a million dollars, right? Okay, we got the point. The mega. Mitoch chavivus, when something is dear. Yeah, nigmar, you can't win. Somebody from Georgia won it. From Georgia. Okay. Now, you hit. V'kitzur. That's one pshat, that the reason why it repeats it, repeats it, repeats it, repeats... yeah, this is here. It says, Al tistakel b'star me'eilah, timtza ma'as haMishkan, v'hizkar shem harbeh pe'amim, v'yeh koli trumah. How many times do you have to repeat the same thing? And the answer is to show the importance and to show love, that the Ribbono Shel Olam has a tremendous love to Klal Yisrael and the Mishkan that they built. Okay. Aboysai, let me tell you over another pshat. A, why it says Vayakel. Why does it repeat it? Why Shabbos? To answer all the kashas. You ready? This parshas Vayakel is actually, according to the Medrash, a direct continuation of Parshas Ki Sisa. In Parshas Ki Sisa, we have the story of the eigel. To correct the eigel, we have Parshas Vayakel. So says the Medrash. In Medrash Aggadah, which Rabbeinu Bechaye quotes a little bit further on, the eigel, we have to correct the eigel. The eigel was in Parshas Ki Sisa; Vayakel comes to correct the eigel. How? If you notice, by the eigel it says, Vayakhilu kol ha'am al Aharon. They all came together, vayikahel, vayikahel ha'am al Aharon. Yeah? Vayikahel ha'am al Aharon. Yeah? They jumped, they put, they came together to jump on Aharon. Lechaper al zeh, Vayakel Moshe...

It's kol hadaas bnei Yisrael. Zeh, l'umat zeh. To correct the hakel that they came for the eigel, we have Parshas Vayakhel. Vayomru, they said to Aharon, Kum aseh lanu elohim. Vayomru. Moshe also has a vayomru. Vayomru aleihem. Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas bnei Yisrael, vayomer aleihem. So there, vayomru, kum aseh lanu, is corrected, vayomer aleihem. Eileh hadvarim is to come to correct when they said, Eileh elohecha Yisrael. They looked at the eigel and they pointed and they said, Eileh, eileh, these are elohecha Yisrael. So to correct that, we have Moshe's eileh hadvarim. Says the Medrash, the golden calf, zahav, was made from zahav. We have zava tnufah. We have the gold that was brought to the Mishkan for the dedication and the building of the Mishkan. Zahav, l'umat zahav. This is a Medrash, aggadah that Rabbeinu Bechaye and all the Rishonim bring down. Here it is. Yeah. If you look at the Medrash Rabbah. You hear, the Medrash Rabbah says that actually there was more. There was more connections between—it's probably in the hakdamah, here it is. Yeah, there was more connections between—oh, here it is. Medrash, here it is. Psikta Zutrasa, Reish Vayakhel. Vayakhel Moshe. Tavoi kehilas Moshe v'techaper al kehilas Aharon. The kehila, that they joined together to jump on Aharon, the kaparah for that is Vayakhel Moshe. Tavoi amiras Moshe, dichsiv, Vayomer aleihem Moshe, u'techaper al amiras Aharon. Vayomru, Eilav kum aseh lanu. Tavoi eila dvarim v'techaper al Eileh elohecha Yisrael. Yavoi zahav hatnufah, the gold that they brought, v'yechaper al zahav haeigel, and it's a kaparah for the gold of the eigel. The Medrash Rabbah, perek mem-ches, os vav, says another connection, another similarity. What did they give for the eigel? Parku nizmei hazahav. What did we have to bring? We had to bring choch v'nezem, tabaas, nekumos, all the different jewelry from the women were brought to the Mishkan. You have the Medrash? You have it? Mem-ches vav. כשעשו העגל, אמר הקב״ה, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hmm, hmm, hmm. Oh, parku nizmei zahav, umai viu? Mizuman. וכשעשו המשכן עשו אותן נדבה. The same thing. Kol nediv lev הביאו חכם ונזם, טבעת, וכומז. Not Chumash. I'll tell you another Midrash. You notice Moshe Rabbeinu said, What caused them to make the egel? What caused them to make the egel? Right? So in Parshas Devarim it says, ודי זהב. Too much gold. די זהב. The pasuk says that they brought to the Mishkan till it said, Vamelacha haysa? Dai. Dai. Dai and די, enough. The connection. Midrash, Midrash Rabbah. Midrash Rabbah, Nun Aleph Ches, Nun Aleph Ches, that just like the די, too much of the gold made egel, so they brought too much, די, enough. So the Vayakhel, the Mishkan, the building of the Mishkan was לתקן, and ממילא לחפר על מעשה.

But this, I go back to explaining the Rashi. Rashi says, Vayikhalu, vayikhalu, vayikhalu. Says Rashi, bedibur shel Moshe. What does bedibur shel Moshe mean? Did he force them, or did he just request? Why was it so important? Now you know what the answer is? Just like by the eigel. No one was forced. There was no tzivui. No one was commanded. Come, let's go. Okay, everybody got together and they made the eigel. Letaken it, Moshe went and he said, I'm going to show the way Klal Yisrael comes together for the good reasons. Since the vayikhalu, which already answers the original question. The question was, why does it say over here vayikahal went anyway? It was bekhilah, because here it was mudgash ha'inyan. They just emphasized, they emphasized the idea that vayikhalu, they came together to fix and to correct, that they came together for the eigel. So Moshe Rabbeinu did it the same way that it was done by the eigel. How was it done by the eigel? They were told, commanded? No. One person got up and said, Let's go and go do avodah zarah, yeah? Spontaneous, voluntarily, vayikhalu, says Rashi, hifil. He didn't force them. Bedibur, because it had to be what? Letaken, letaken. With this, rabosai, I'm going to tell you a very nice pshat, okay? If you take a look, Rashi—I'm sorry, it says, right, Vayikhalu et kol ha'das Bnei Yisroel, right? Pasuk, Vayikhalu, Vayakhel Moshe et. What is et? Vayakhel Moshe kol ha'da—what's et? Vayakhel Moshe kol. You don't need the et. So the Or Hachaim speaks about that. The Or Hachaim says, you know what et—like it says in the Zohar, et is always l'rabot, right? Et ishto, batorah l'rabot. Here it's l'rabot women and children. So that's why it says et, Vayakhel Moshe, not kol ha'das Bnei Yisroel, but et kol ha'das Bnei Yisroel, says Or Hachaim, women and children like it says in the Zohar, women and children included, okay? That's the chiddush. Put together all the people, hakhel. When you have a mitzvah of hakhel, right, in Parshas Devarim, when you have to come, Mishneh Torah, you bring everybody to the Beis Hamikdash on Sukkos. You bring the children, true. You bring the women, of course. The Gemara even asks, what are you bringing them for? Who needs them? They don't understand anything anyway. So the Gemara says that the women is to learn their things, and the children is l'havi schar l'mevi'eihem. To give schar, litein schar to those that bring them. So what about over here? Maybe over here, taku, there was no point. Yeah, maybe. Meaning, since over there there's a mitzvah of hakhel, so the actual bringing is a schar. But here there wasn't a mitzvah of hakhel. Here he brought them together to teach them. So maybe there was no point in bringing the children. That's how I understood Dorachaim. Again. Et. Again, again. Vayakhel Moshe et. Vayakhel Moshe kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Says Dorachaim HaKadosh, no. Et is always to add, to lerabot. What's it coming to? Like the Zohar says, they brought the women and the children. Now why would they bring the women and children? Say why. So pashut, because like every mitzvahs hakhel, you bring the women and the children, right? So what's the chidush then? So what's the chidush? I mean, if every hakhel you bring the women, there's also hakhel. The answer is, that's mitzvat hakhel. And in mitzvat hakhel, there's a schar if you bring the children. The actual keeping of the mitzvah, of bringing them, is a schar. But here it's just hakhel to teach. So what would be the point? Voluntarily. So what would be the point of bringing the children? Maybe you can't understand anything anyway.

That's why it's a chidush here, et, that they brought the women and the children. Or maybe we could say a little bit better. Since the Vayakhel was a tikkun for the Maaseh Egel, and in the Maaseh Egel the Vayakhel was not the nashim, it was not the children. Ha-nashim lo hayu shayach la'egel, kemo sheod nilmad from the Rabbeinu Bechaye in the Rishonim, and that's why women have Rosh Chodesh. Women have a special Yom to Rosh Chodesh. You know why? Because the trumas l'meleches haMishkan was Rosh Chodesh, and they didn't give to the Maaseh Egel an af al pi ken they gave to the Maaseh haMishkan. We're going to soon learn this from Rabbeinu Bechaye, so they got rewarded Rosh Chodesh, od nilmad misa. So the chiddush is, if the Vayakhel is k'dei l'taken Maaseh Egel, so maybe I don't have to bring the women and the children because they weren't shayach to Maaseh Egel. They weren't shayach. Kamashmalan, Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Question is, so why takkeh? Good question, no? Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas... If the whole thing was l'taken Maaseh Egel, are you with me on this? If the whole thing was to fix the Maaseh Egel, and the women had nothing to do with the Egel, so then takkeh you shouldn't have brought them. What do you have to bring them for, just to make noise? I'm sure that when the children came with their party snappers and their toys and their chrezvas, they made too much noise. What'd he bring them for? Right? They came with their party snappers. You see when my kids loaded up for Purim party snappers, I'll tell you, enough to destroy a whole city in Iraq. Enough explosives to destroy a whole city in Iraq they brought. Okay, now you hear? You listening? You listening? If you have any questions, so why? How can they bring it together? What's the pshat? I want to show you something very interesting. You ready? The way we're learning, the giving was to fix the ego. Tell me, did women have to give to the Mishkan? We're going to learn about this now. Everybody take a look at Perek Lamed Hey, pasuk chaf beis. Vayavo'u ha'anashim al hanashim. The men came on the women. How what, they drove what, on top of their shoulders? How did they come on the women? What does it mean? They put them on top of their things and they brought them? Anything, it should be the other way around, that the women came on the men. I don't know. That sounds very difficult for the men to come on the women, no? Obviously it doesn't mean that. What does it mean? So there's a very interesting Rabbeinu Bechaye. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns here, al hanashim because they were actually more important. Then the men. The men came as if to say after the women. The women were first, they were the main, and the men came al hanashim, second to the women, ladies first. So you would say women's lib? No, it doesn't have to do with women's lib. What does it have to do with? Says Rabbeinu Bechaye, because בעצם the whole thing was to fix for the eigel. The whole thing was to fix for the eigel. And therefore the women are not mechuyav to give מצד fixing for the eigel, and they gave anyway, and they gave anyway. So there were ikar. Their nedavah was much more because it wasn't l'taken. What was it for? It was to show hitnadvut. They didn't have to give. They didn't need to fix the maaseh eigel because they didn't do the eigel. So therefore the men were considered second to the women. What are you trying— only Rabbeinu Bechaye. I'm going to read it for you. Yeah, we're going to talk about this. One second. Lamed hei, chof beis. It says like this. You know, I'm not used to this, this...

Print of the Rabbeinu Bechaya. I'm used to the old one here. I can't, I can't, I can't get used to this new print here. You know what? Maybe you find it. I can't find it here. You want to find it? Oh, here it is. I found it. It's a different style, different format, so it's very hard for me to find it. I'm not used to it. Okay. Ki loshon al hanashim yoira, ki hanashim bo'u sham b'tchilah. It means that the women came first. U'kasher bo'u haanashim, kvar matzu sham hanashim. When the men came, they already found the women already beat them to the punch. Shehaviu sham nidvasam tchilah. V'zois mailah gedolah b'nashim, ki b'maaseh haegel lo ratzu la'asos tachshiteihem, v'lo amar baaz ki lo ratzu hanashim b'kach. They didn't want to give it, and therefore, he says this is the pshat. This is an unbelievable pshat. Shlomo HaMelech says, Adam echad meelef matzasi. I could find one man from a thousand. You can find the good man among a thousand men, there's one man. The rest of them are junk, deceitful, not worth talking or looking to, looking at. One, one out of a thousand you could find. But isha, b'chol eileh lo matzati. You can't even find the— you can't even find one in a thousand. Look at everybody laughing. What are you laughing? You found one in a thousand, no? Well, maybe you don't. Married men have to think they found the one, the one in a million maybe, not one in a thousand. Says Rabbeinu Bechaya, there's a remez here, b'chol eileh. A woman had nothing to do with eilah, lohecha Yisrael, nothing to do with the egel. The egel was eileh, yirmoz, yirmoz l'ma shekatuv, Elokecha, Elokecha, the egel. Isha b'chol eileh. You couldn't find an eileh, not one woman. Women had nothing to do with the egel. Rabbeinu Bechaya says— Rishon... me'eileh. Uv'chol eileh lo— you can't find in eileh one woman. Women had nothing to do with eileh, lohecha Yisrael. Uv'chol zeh. And yet, when they came to give for the Mishkan, which was to fix that problem, who gave first? Now the truth is, Rabbeinu Bechaya doesn't say that it was to fix. He doesn't make that comparison. He just says that when it came to the egel, they didn't give, and when it came to the Mishkan, they were first. But the way we're learning, it's beautiful, ah? Because since the whole idea of the Mishkan was to fix for the eigel, so they were patur. They were patur. I'm going to show you something else. You ready? I'm going to teach you something. Vayaviu hanashim al hanashim. So pashut it means that they were there first. I'm going to tell you that the pshat is that they brought al hanashim the stuff that was on the women's ears, the jewelry that was on them. U'kedei l'saken chet ha'egel, that they took off from the women. They grabbed the jewelry from the women and they gave it to the eigel. Vayisparku! Vayisparku, it says that they took off, says the Rishonim, the Rokeach and many other Rishonim, they snatched it off the women. They forced them. They just grabbed it off their ears. In some cases even with the ear. Took off the whole ear, just kidding. Yeah, and they put it into the eigel. Vayaviu hanashim al hanashim. Hanashim al hanashim, that they brought. What did they bring? What was al hanashim? That's what I want.

I want to say pshat. You'll tell me, what am I, a rishon? I could say my own pshat? I'm like, am I crazy? The Meshech Chochmah, for a different reason, learns like this. The Meshech Chochmah comes and says, doesn't understand. How could you bring all the rings and everything? It was muksa. Muksa l'avodah zarah. Didn't they give all their jewelry to avodah zarah today? Bring me my kisvei Avraham, bring my grandfather's sefer. How could you use the stuff, the jewelry? Muksa l'avodah zarah. They set it up, they wanted to give it away for avodah zarah. Answer: not the women's. The women's weren't. They didn't want to give it for avodah zarah. So therefore, what did they give for the Mishkan? Not their own, because their own was donated already. It was donated goods, it was donated to avodah zarah already. Oh, that's my grandfather's kasha. My grandfather doesn't understand the Meshech Chochmah. Give me the kisvei Avraham. Okay. While they find it, let me explain to you the halacha a little bit. Some of you have a hard time understanding what I'm talking. I don't know if you understand me. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns—okay, fine. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns that, you see, it doesn't say that the men and the women came. It says that the men came on the women. It's a language, it doesn't make sense. What do you mean? And the answer is, they came after, like, it was on the women because they were there first. Point: they gave first. They jumped to give, the women gave. They jumped ahead of the men and gave. And the chiddush, because even though by the eigel they didn't give it all, here they were the first ones to give. And the way we're learning, it's beautiful, because since the whole idea of the nedivos haMishkan was to correct the fact that they gave for the eigel, so the women who didn't give technically shouldn't have to give, and yet they were the first ones to give. I'm telling you, maybe there's a whole different understanding, translation to the words, Vayavo'u ha'anashim al hanashim, which means that they brought what was on the women, al hanashim, the jewelry that was on the women. Who said? Meshech Chachma learns like this, and he says the reason is because otherwise it wouldn't be fit for nedivos haMishkan. You weren't allowed to give it to the Mishkan. Why? He says like this: Anashim hevi'u hatachshitim b'oidam al hanashim, mishum d'amar kozel l'akum. If you say that this belongs to the avodah zarah, I'm giving my jewelry, my utensils to the avodah zarah, lo mitzri l'hedyot. You are still allowed to use it, but muktzah l'ovdei kochavim is mutar l'givoyah. It becomes asur to give to the Beis HaMikdash. So their own, hatachshitim shehayu b'yad hanashim, that they wanted to give it for the avodah zarah, that would turn into muktzah, that you weren't allowed to use for the Beis HaMikdash. Ma she'ein kein b'eilu shehayah al hanashim, but those that were on the women, there was no problem because they didn't want to give. So therefore, when they came to the Mishkan, they gave the women's jewelry. My grandfather says, doesn't make sense, because they took it and they changed the tzurah. What is the Meshech Chochmah talking about? They didn't just give the jewelry; they had to melt it down and change its format, its form, its tzurah. Once you change the tzurah, then it's mutar l'ah gvoyah. It's mutar for the Beis HaMikdash. Once it's burnt, it's nothing; you've changed the format. I'm saying, so the question is, what is the Meshech Chochmah talking about? But the way I'm learning till here, I understand why they gave the jewelry of the women. Why? Because since the whole idea of the giving was to letaken, to fix exactly what they did by the eigel, they joined together in the eigel, so they joined together over here. Vayomer, vayomer zahav, zahav. What was the story of the nezamim that they took it off the women's ears, the women's noses, or whatever they wore in those days? So therefore, when they came to the Mishkan, they did the same. They took the jewelry off the women for the Mishkan. Like it? Interesting. Huh? Could be.

A lot of people, when they show them that somebody else says what they say, they get depressed. They come and they say, Ah, that's it. So what was the whole idea? By me, I get excited. It means I'm saying good. Right. So he says, but he doesn't say why, though. He just says that the pshat—he says the pshat I want to say, anashim al anashim means that they took it off the women. But he doesn't say why. But the way I'm learning, it's very good why. Yeah, that the reason is was an anecdote, letaken, letaken et maaseh. So Chizkuni says, okay. Now, Baruch shekivanu al nekudah zu. Okay. With this, rabosai, I want to go to explain why bichlal the repetition. Why the repetition? Why repeat the maaseh haMishkan after the eigel? Rabosai, the answer is very geshmak. I saw the Shem Mishmuel says a very nice pshat. He says like this: Kol nediv lev. Does it say nedivei lev or it says nediv lev? Singular. The Rishonim point out, in order to build a Mishkan, you did not need tzibur harachav, even a yachid, nediv lev. You didn't need everybody. Yeah? It could have been built— Like big individuals who wanted to support the whole Mishkan, says the Shem MiShmuel, after the eigel, you needed everybody to be involved. Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael, and he told them to build a Mishkan. There's a building of the Mishkan before eigel, kol nediv lev. Then there's a building of a Mishkan after eigel, Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael, you needed everybody to join in. Wait a minute. It's a different tzivui. The first tzivui was to build, kol nediv lev. They didn't build it yet, kol nediv lev, individual. It was the power of the individual. After eigel, no more. It was the power of the tzibur, Vayakhel Moshe. Davka neizer. Maseches Shabbos says, the Gemara says in Zevachim, daf kuf yud ches—kuf yud beis, excuse me—the Gemara says that till eigel—I'm sorry, till Mishkan, hutru bamos. After Mishkan, ne'esaru bamos. What is a bamah? A bamah is, it's called a mizbeach yachid, a bamas yachid, an individual. After the Mishkan, the yachids, you had to bring it to the Mishkan. Why? Because of tzibur. The avodah went from a yachid, that now it has to be, has to be. Betzibur. Bamas yachid was kosher till the Mishkan, the individual bamah, the individual altar. After Mishkan, says the Gemara, you weren't allowed to have a bamas yachid, an individual; you needed tzibur. Okay. Rabosai, why? The way we're learning, it's very gishmak, because since the chet of the eigel was the chet of the rabim, the chet of the eigel was the chet of the rabim, so letaken chet ha'egel, you needed Vayakhel Moshe to fix it with the rabim. The Mishkan was letaken the eigel. So just like the chet eigel was rabim, Vayakhel, the tikkun of Mishkan after eigel, after Vayakhel Moshe's kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Now let's explain a little bit deeper, because it's a little bit shallow just to say, Ah, the eigel was b'rabim, and therefore the Mishkan has to be b'rabim. It's a little bit shallow. This is rabim, that. So you fix it b'rabim. Yafeh me'od, anachnu masbirim yafeh me'od.

The Torah's been repeating Binyan HaMishkan. You know why it's repeating Binyan HaMishkan? After eigel. It's a new type of Binyan HaMishkan. The first Binyan HaMishkan was, says the Shem Mishmuel, ... Afterwards it was Vayakhel Moshe. Why? So we're saying because the Vayakhel, Vayakhel, the group, the group, right? Nesfu, nesfu, as tzrichim letaken. You have to fix it. Okay. Come on Midrash. But be'emet it's a little bit deeper, and I'm going to explain to you what I mean. Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky, in his sefer, and they all quote him. Truthfully, it's way before. I found it earlier, acharonim. Says a very interesting pshat. We think that they joined together for the eigel, and to fix that we joined together for the Mishkan. Actually, they were splintered in machlokes for the eigel. They were nifrad, completely separated one from another for the eigel, and to correct that, by the Mishkan we have Vayakhel. Vayakhel. The way we're learning from the Midrash, the implication is they were together by the eigel, nikhalu al Aharon, so Vayakhel Moshe. Actually, it's not true. It's the opposite. They were so splintered and divided when it came to the eigel. So, l'taken it zeh vayakel Moshe for the Mishkan. It says, if you take a look, eileh elohecha. How many? Eileh is what? It's plural. Chazal tell us in the Gemara, Elohus harbeh ivu lahem. They wanted many gods, many, many gods. What do you need many gods? Many? So we know that there's a concept in India of the many gods, type of ideology of avodah zarah to have many gods. Many mefarshim learn that it wasn't so much an ideology of avodah zarah to have the many gods, but they were splintered, divided over what to have, and therefore they had to make many. They tried to find something that everybody could be satisfied with. Elohus harbeh ivu lahem because they were in machlokes. They were in disagreement. You know, it's interesting, because Jews are always in disagreement, right? That's the whole, right? They say ten Jews, twelve opinions, right? Or two Jews and ten opinions, or whatever the saying is. What do you have? You have a Rashi that says this. What do you have? What do you have? What are you showing me? Huh? Eileh is plural. Don't say zeh, it says eileh. Eileh is plural. These, Elohecha, it's plural. It's all plural. Eileh, these. Eileh is these. It's more than one. Elohecha is more than one. The Gemara says clearly, Elohus harbeh iva lehem, because he's talking to many people. Eileh is rabim. Eileh is for surely rabim. Eileh is rabim. Zeh. Okay, it's... okay. Eileh is plural, and the Gemara says they wanted many. So either they wanted many, because that's how a person's yetzer hara works. You know, yetzer hara, he's not happy with one car; he needs five cars, four cars. He's not happy with one home; he needs three homes: a summer home and a winter home and a chages and a vacation home. I don't know. You need more. Many Rishonim, many mefarshim learn. Okay, Ephraim, please, try not to prove. It's a mistake. You make a mistake. The word eileh is plural, and the Gemara says clearly that they wanted many. It's not talking to... Okay, now it says, Elohus harbeh iva lehem. It's a first Gemara. Okay. Now, why many? Many because they were in disagreement.

They were splintered. They couldn't come to a decision which one, and everybody had to fight over. Okay. So, litaken et ze, Vayakel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisroel. So I always wondered, I don't understand, they're going against the Medrash. The Medrash says, Nikhalu yachad. They came together, they joined in unison, in harmony, for the eigel. And then we have a pshat over here that all the mefarshim bring down, everybody speaks about it, they were splintered and they were disarray. So it's a stira, it's a contradiction. So I'll tell you how I answer this contradiction. There's two types of kehillah. There's two types, gatherings of people, hitkalut. The Medrash, Medrash Tehillim on the pasuk, Saneisi kahal mereiim. I hated the groupings, mereiim, of evil people, lashon ra, evil people's gatherings, no good. Hashem doesn't like it. Says the Medrash, there's a kehillah that I like, and there's a kehillah I don't like. You know who I don't like? I don't like the kehillah of the eigel. Vayakhel ha'am al Aharon, I don't like it. Korach, Vayakhel Korach al Moshe, right? He gathered and he put the people together against Moshe to stand up against, that I don't like. Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisroel, that I like. Medrash Tehillim on the pasuk. Again, the pasuk is, Perek Chavav, pasuk hei, in Tehillim. Who says Tehillim here? Saneti kahal mere'im. I hate the gatherings. You hear? They're learning from me. Don't hate, love, but hate kahal mere'im, you hear? I hate kahal mere'im, the gatherings of evils, evil people. Who is this referring to? Korach, egel. But then there's ones I do like, says Hashem. Quotes the Medrash. I like the Vayakhel Moshe. That one I like. But how does one know the difference? I mean, what, because this is for bad causes, for good cause? I was thinking of an interesting point, and then I'll tell you over a chizkuni. Vayakhel, for something, for a cause, no good. When you start joining people for a cause, then they're not really joined. It's not about the kehillah. What is it about? It's about the cause. When you join people for the sake of joining people together, that's for the right reason. Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. He joined kol adas Bnei Yisrael. It wasn't al. I found the Chizkuni says, the rule is, whenever the Vayakhel is followed by al, no good. Whenever the Vayakhel is followed with el, on, no good. Two, very good. No? That's ten what? Vayakel al Aharon, that's no good. When you start joining, you know, a lot of people, they join together to get the other guy. That's not good. That's a gang. Tell me, when you join a hundred people to beat up a guy, achdus, achdus, yeah? The answer is you can't gang up on somebody. Gang on is no good. Bring together to is very good. Vayakel el, k'shuni, no good. Vayakel el, yes, very good. So there's ones that Hashem likes, and there's ones that Hashem doesn't like. It's not good. So when it comes to Vayakel Moshe, it wasn't al. It was kol adas Bnei Yisrael. It wasn't on, it wasn't ganged up against. That's good. But Vayakel al Aharon or al Moshe, that's already no good. Okay. Rabosai, I want to say better, even though this is pretty good also, but I'll say better. I asked the question, did they gang up?

Achdus, so they gang up, splintered. It says, Vayakel, and l'taken itzeh, we have vayakel. So what was it? Vayakel, they joined together. Nikhalu yachad. So how could we come and say that they were splintered and they were divided? So either we say is they were not mamish vayakel, like we just said. They weren't really put together. What were they? They were just ganging up against, but they weren't kehillah. They weren't really nikhalu yachad, joined together. Or we could say a little bit different. Rabosai, I saw a Chasam Sofer, but before I tell you the Chasam Sofer, I'll tell you what I thought, and then I proved my words from the Chasam Sofer. When a person joins together with somebody to do a mitzvah, then we could call it joined together, achdus. To join together to do an aveirah, it's impossible that achdus should come from. When you join together to do a mitzvah, the metzius of achdus is possible. When you join together to do an aveirah, it's impossible that any achdus could come from such a kehillah, from such an asifah. I'm going to show you this, okay? If you notice by Korach, they joined together. The Mishnah tells us that there's a machlokes l'shem shamayim. What's machlokes l'shem shamayim? Shammai and Hillel. What's the machlokes, shelo l'shem Shamayim, korach v'adaso. So the mefarshim ask, it should say Korach against Moshe, just like it says shamayim and Hillel, it should say Korach and Moshe. That's shelo l'shem Shamayim. So many mefarshim learn, and I told this to you, that Moshe wasn't part of the machlokes, had nothing to do with it. If you start up with me and I don't say anything, well, I have nothing to do with it, right? Moshe didn't say anything. Moshe lo amar milah, he didn't say anything. So the machlokes was Korach v'adaso, but it wasn't with Moshe. Reb Shalom Shvadron, but many say before him, I heard this from Reb Shalom Shvadron, the machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim, when it's for the wrong cause, then it becomes Korach v'adaso fighting. Even the group within themselves, they fight. You notice that Korach had one agenda, Dasan v'Aviram had another one, and the Sanhedrin had a third one. Everybody had a different agenda, yeah? They were fighting. You should see the meetings over there. Tell me, you know, there's something called the Knesset. It's kinus, right? You ever see what goes on in the Knesset? It's, it's... I don't know. Later, later. You ever hear of a kinus? Kinus? It's called Knesset, right? I guess kinus is zachar, Knesset is the keva. What's a Knesset exactly? It's a shem etzem. Haknessiah, shem etzem is Knesset? Uh-huh. Okay. It's Knesset, shel anashim, right? It's like a zoo. You ever listen to what goes on in there? It's like, כמו גן חיות. Worse. These are grown-up people behave that way. How do you explain it? They're fighting and killing each other, but it's called a Knesset. And the answer is, כל כנסיה שהיא לא לשם שמים, so it becomes, קרח ועדתו. They're fighting amongst themselves. Each guy is fighting: הלוני, מתפלוני, מתבני, ... It's a machlokes. It's a lichluch. The hatred and the fighting. You ever heard of what goes on in Knesset? Very interesting, huh? But it's Knesset. Yeah, but when it's שלא לשם שמים, when it's not for the right causes, what happens? They fight with themselves. קרח ועדתו. True that they joined together for the eigel, but since it was for the wrong causes, so within there was a lot of machlokes. Now let me tell you over a gevaldige ... a gevaldige, gevaldige ... The ... begins by asking the famous question that we began with: Why does it say, ויקהל משה? It's self-understood that...

Join them together. Says the Chasam Sofer, gevaldik, gevaldik, you know? The parah adumah was called a chok. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense? Sure it makes sense. You know what makes sense? Makes a lot of sense. The parah was lechaper al ha'egel. So clearly, the parah adumah—we're gonna have Parshas Parah coming soon—the parah is lechaper al maaseh egel. Tavo ha'bas, ha'eim, excuse me, the mother should come and clean up for the daughter. So ata bat. Who cleans the dirty diaper? The mother. No person in there, unless you get paid for it, right? You can't do it. What? It says. Okay. So what's the chok? He says a marvelous thing. Tumas meis is hutrah b'tzibur. Tumas meis is hutrah b'tzibur. You don't need a parah adumah for that, you know that? Didn't they do the aveirah b'kehilah? Didn't they join together to do the aveirah? Was the chet eigel b'tzibur or b'yachid? It was b'tzibur. Chasam Sofer. Not that, Chasam Sofer, you don't know. Rabosai, let me tell you something. Gedolei Yisrael of yesteryear, ... rachav yedei tachazalim. Beautiful. Here's the question. It's beautiful. If the halachah is b'tzibur is tumah hutrah, I don't understand, but the eigel was done b'tzibur, so it should be the opposite. The eigel, the tumah, the parah adumah should be needed b'tzibur. Ela sheyesh lomar. אלה שיש לו אימר. Maybe we say that's the chok. No. Because it's not shayach tzibur when it comes to aveirah. It can't be such a thing. It's yechidim who are doing an aveirah. I'm going to read you a Chasam Sofer. You ready? This is a matok, rabosai, you don't understand this. You don't understand the brilliance of this Chasam Sofer. אלה שיש לו אימר, לא שייך קהילה וחיבור וציבור בעוברי עבירה, ואפילו אלפים הם, הכל כיחידים נחשבים, כל אחד לעצמו. כשיש עבירה אי אפשר להיות ציבור. It's not—yechidim. There's a hundred people doing it. It doesn't mean we're a tzibur, because we're doing it for the wrong reason. We're doing an aveirah. עכשיו הוא מסביר למה זה ככה. So in brackets he says, כי כל ישראל נפש אחד. Every Jew is a nefesh echad, כי חלק אלוקה ממעל, because we all have the same makor, Hashem. So when we do an aveirah, ובפרט עבודה זרה, אז נקרעו משרשם העליון, וכל אחד עומד לעצמו. Wait, tiny refi? עומד לעצמו, כמובן. What do I have to do with you? You know what I have to do with you? Hashem. That's my— But if I deny Hashem and I do an aveirah, it means I have nothing to do with each other, whatever. So we're a hundred people doing something. Okay, so that's not kehillah. Safa yikalu kol hadat bnei Yisrael. Ach baavodas Hashem—no, because here we're talking about mitzvah. Why use such a language? Because they got together. Physically they got together, but that's not called kehilah. Ach baavodas Hashem nikalu hakahal keish echad. V'hainu dichsiv, Vayikahel Moshe beredto mehar b'yom haKippurim. Now says the Chasam Sofer, I understand why it was after Yom Kippur. Chibur. Yom Kippur is a time kaparat avonot, v'nitkaper lahem avon haegel. Oz vayakhel Moshe, ki ad atah hayu nifradim. Till Yom Kippur, chet haegel. As a matter of fact, the Kli Yakar even says, Ulchataim is that way. Yom Kippur is a zman where people get together. It's a time where people are b'shalom, they mechaper one, they forgive one the other, and then there's achdus in Klal Yisrael. Ve'amnam—yeah, it's okay, it's okay, the time—ve'amnam, ha d'baavodas Hashem hakol echad, mishum she'anu ovdim Hashem bli taam. So now he says, why is it that when we do ratzon Hashem...

And we're are one, because we don't have tam, we don't have reason. Ki im kasher tzivanu Hashem Elokeinu la'avoseinu, ve'ein boi chiluk ta'amim, ve'ein kan chiluk u'pirud machshavos. Yeah? When we take the mitzvahs, and they don't say it's about what I think the mitzvah is or what you think the mitzvah is. We're all about what Hashem said that we should do. So there's no chiluk u'pirud ha-machshavos. There's no, what do we call that, controversy. They're not splintered in disagreement. And then there's achdus. So the parah adumah, which was a chok, is the tikkun for the maaseh eigel. We once spoke about this. They made cheshbonot. I want this god, you want that god. We want me, you. Why is it not us? The us is chok. When we start wanting to have what we think, I hold like this, I feel, I want this, then there's tam, which means each guy has his understanding. So parah adumah, as the chok, was the tikkun, was the correction. You hear it? We once spoke about this, that since they came with many cheshbonot, so parah adumah is chok. The Chasam Sofer just brings it back into the idea of vayakhel. You know when people join together, when each one is mitbatel da'ato. You know when you have a synagogue and everybody's fighting because everybody thinks that he has what to say and he has a good opinion. If you would come and say, you know what, we have no opinion. The Torah says, and the rav is our mora derech, so that's it. It's the end of the story. There's nothing. Then we're joined by achdut. Part of the problem of achdut is when we start thinking, my opinion, it's different than his opinion, it's different than that, this is different than... That's because we hold we have opinions. Eigel was, we had opinions. By the eigel, everybody had an opinion. Ah, okay, you have twenty opinions, two Jews, twenty opinions. So vayakhel Moshe, Moshe tells them, no. And I want to add, notice what the pasuk says. Vayakhel Moshe et kol adas... vayomer aleihem, אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה' לעשות אותם. It's all under Hashem. This is what Hashem commanded: bimitbatel your daas, your one group under Hashem's command. This is the vayakhel Moshe, and that's after Yom Kippur. After Yom Kippur, tikkun on the chet ha'egel. Okay. With this—ah, wait a minute. You know, Chazal tell us, אהבה התלויה בדבר, סופה להתבטל. אהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר, סופה להתקיים. David and Yonason was ahavah she'eina teluyah bedavar. So what's it תלוי on? It's תלוי on ruchniyus, right? Something which is dependent on ruchniyus is eino mitbatel. So the world always says, everybody explains, because gashmiyus, then the gashmiyus, it can fall away. Gashmiyus is not l'olam. See, for example, you find by the goyim... Even the good guys, they get divorced. Why? Because they lost interest. My life went one way and this one's life went the other way. Because when it's תלוי בדבר, on gashmiyusdige things, so it's not l'olam. It doesn't last forever. When you were younger, you wanted one thing, and when you get older, you want something else. So the way is part. A lot of the divorces—I'm not talking about the Hollywood divorces, which is based on taiva. I'm talking about the good people. There are plenty of good people. Why do they get divorced? Because separate ways. Why? Because since it was תלוי בדבר and it changes, דבר גשמיים change, so they changed. But by ruchniyus, you haven't noticed people are married and they're based on ruchniyus, they just go on and on and on. Why? Because it's קיים לעולם. The ruchniyusdige yesodos stand forever. But the way that some seforim is teaching us, the actus is based on the ruchniyus. What's mechaber a husband and a wife? Why are you running away when we talk about chibur of a husband and a wife? Why go? I say chibur husband and wife, he runs away. Okay, it was just a coincidence, you're saying. Yeah? Ahavah, which is—

Tluyah b'davar, right? So it's not based on what really makes a ahavah. I'm saying a whole different pshat according to Chasam Sofer. The pashut pshat is, since it's a ahavah based on gashmiyus, the gashmiyus changes, so then the ruchniyus, so then the marriage falls apart. Now we're saying something yoter amok. K'sha'ahavah benuyah al yesodot amitiyim, which is ruchniyus, because that's mechaber two people. What's mechaber a husband and a wife is Shechinah beineihem. That's the glue that sticks them together. You know, there's such a thing called crazy glue, right? Crazy glue, they say—my days they used to have a commercial with the guy with the hard hat, right? The helmet, and they stuck it. They tack it works. I don't know if it works. Probably doesn't work. It's probably a lie. Okay, what's the crazy glue to keep a marriage together? And the answer is Shechinah. If it's based on ruchniyus, right? Why? Because that's the true essence of the ahavah. What puts two people together is Shechinah beineihem. What puts two Jews together? That they're all, kasher tzivah Hashem, they're all chelek Eloka mima'al. So if you take that out of the equation, it falls apart. Okay. With this, rabosai, I want to tell you a meyridike thing. The Beis HaMikdash was nechrav—I'm sorry, the Beis HaMikdash, right, excuse me—the Beis HaMikdash was nechrav because of sinas chinam. And I never understood, what was in sinat chinam? What is it so degred— what's the word in English? Huh? No, no, no. Detrimental. What's so bad about sinat chinam that it brings about churban habayis? What is it? It's a pasuk, you say, Jews don't get along. Okay, so they don't get along. I mean, you have to get along. You're right, you do have to. Why is it different than any other mitzvah? I understood something interesting. Pirud brings chet, and chet brings pirud. If you make that a Jew is disconnected, the Am Yisrael is disconnected from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because you're disconnecting the family structure, so to speak, so then the head of the family is not the head of the family either. What is the Chasam Sofer tells me? Chasam Sofer tells me— I'm almost done. Yeah, you have to run, you have to run. Okay. Okay, go, go, go. The Chasam Sofer tells me that when a person, when a person does chet, it's not shayach achdut. Why? Because chelek Eloka mima'al is what's meached. So if you're mafrid, so you're disconnecting Klal Yisrael from Hashem. Now, by all— who was in Lakewood this Shabbos? Spoke unbelievable. Unbelievable, unbelievable. Beautiful, something special. So by Shaul Shudis, he said over a vort from Apter Rav. Apter Rav was the talmidi Baal Shem, the Ohev Yisrael. That's the name of his book, Ohev Yisrael. He said over gevaldige vort from the Apter Rav. Unbelievable. Everybody understands that a Jew not connected to Hashem, then what does he have? He's a person. He's no different than anybody else, right? What makes us special is that we're connected to Hashem. Little do we know, says Apter Rav, that the reverse is also true, that when we're not connected to Hashem, Hashem is not complete. He says it's almost difficult, he says, to say these words, you hear? He says that's pshat machzit ha-shekel. You know what a machzit ha-shekel? Half. A Jew has to know that he's half the story. There's another half of the story, and that is Hashem. Ani chatzi, u'v'yachad im HaKadosh Baruch Hu, nachnu shleimim. So my shleimut is with Hashem, and Hashem's shleimut is with me. Ohev Yisrael, Apter Rav. Beautiful. Good, so he's saying a very interesting...

He's saying a shaksh. He's saying a very big yesod. Oh. So it comes out like this. That when a person comes and he's mafrid, he's mafrid the achdut in Klal Yisrael. He's taking away the am from Hashem. The melech is taking away the melech from the am. If you destroy the am from the melech, you're destroying the melech from the am too, because ein melech bloi am. Melech, sinat chinam destroys Mishkan, dira batachtonim. Hashem wants—you notice the matzah shekel was for what purpose? For the Mishkan. Because a Jew has to know that he is half and Hashem is the other half. Mishkan works as a home, a chatan and a kallah, marriage, Hashem and Klal Yisrael. You take away one party from the marriage, then the bayit falls apart, and the home falls apart. This is what I want to add to the apter of the melech's gevaldik. Vayikahel Moshe. Moshe taught them that in order for the Mishkan to survive, in order for the Beit Hashem to survive, you need kehilah. You need all of Klal Yisrael, and this answers the question: why did the women give? The women didn't do the eigel. The answer is, of course they didn't do the eigel, but they were needed for kol adat Bnei Yisrael, because everybody had to be b'achdut when they gave for the Mishkan. The Mishkan had to be built. As joint effort, achdus in Klal Yisrael. In case there's no achdus in Klal Yisrael, the Mishkan, the Beis HaMikdash, it becomes destroyed automatically. Automatically it gets destroyed. This is the idea of Vayakhel Moshe. Mishkan needs kehilah. I'll just end with an unbelievable thing. If you notice, by Esav it says, how many souls did he have? Nefashot, how many? I think it was five, five souls. Or seven, seven, seven souls. Yaakov Avinu had seventy. And what does it say, shivim? It says nefashot or nefesh, one. Look at Rashi, Bereishis mem-vav, pasuk chav-vav. By Esav it's nefashot. Rashi brings it from the Midrash. Avodah zarah, so then everybody splintered. Kol nefesh, go read the Rashi. Yeah, says Rashi. Yeah. Brings the Midrash, no? By Esav it says nefashot. By Yaakov it says nefesh. Yeah. No? Matzati b'Midrash Rabbah. I found in the Midrash that by Esav it says six nefashot. Plural, six. Can you imagine six and they're already nefashot. By Yaakov Avinu, how many are there? Seventy. And what are they called? Nefesh. Why? Oivedim l'El echad goes hand in hand. Sinat chinam, and it's not a El echad. You're rooting the El echad out. With this, rabosai, I want to end off with the chassidishe deher, for the chassidim among us. Chassidish, chassidish. Now, yuchsidish, no? Okay. You know, everybody knows that there's 60,000 letters in the Torah, shishim ribui. 600, excuse me, 600,000. And there's 600,000, and there's 600,000 nefashot. Whatever we talk about Klal Yisrael, it's 600,000 nefashot. And everybody knows, the Baal Shem Tov says that everybody has his ot in the Torah. Everybody knows that. But not very many know where it comes from. What's the mekor of that? Does anybody know what the mekor is? This pasuk. Vayitzenah dinahar in the sefer of the Baal Shem Tov is brought down on this pasuk: Vayikahel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Vayomer aleihem, eileh hadvarim.

This is in here. All the eila dvarim asher tzivah Hashem la'asos osam is the kehillah. It's the joining together of all the adas Bnei Yisrael. It comes from this pasuk. That's where the Baal Shem Tov set up, this pasuk. Nobody knows it. Yod'im et zeh? Yod'im? Yes, yes. Who knows? I don't know. This pasuk. Why? Why is there a remez here? The answer is, gar nicht. You know, Mishkan is, Mishkan is, u'k'shavrichu v'Yisrael chad he. It's all one. It's all one thing. And if you miss one letter, you lose the whole connection of Kudsha Brich Hu v'Yisrael. It's all missing. Tikun of the Mishkan was to join together Kudsha Brich Hu. I told this to you by even the aron. I told you the kapores. What was the kapores? K'nei mishalecha, al hakapores. The paroches can define l'maalah, Hashem, Torah, and Yisrael. Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa v'Yisrael chad he. In this pasuk, Vayakhel Moshe, kol adas Bnei Yisrael, vayomer aleihem, eileh hadvarim, Torah asher tzivah Hashem. Hashem commanded. This is all Torah, klal Yisrael, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is the remez that every ois of every Jew. What are we coming out l'maaseh? Mishkan. Mishkan is v'yikahel Moshe. If not, you can't do it. You can't. Don't tell me you're a good Jew if you're fighting with other people. It doesn't work. You must be doing aveiros. I don't believe it. Someone who fights, yeah, but he's learning, but he... I don't believe it. Because I'm sofek katan mefurash, it's אי אפשר. It can't be such a thing. It looks good. It looks, you know, if you're splintered, ego. If you're joined together, then you have Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa, the kesher, the relationship. It's chad, it's taka strong, it's glued together properly. It stays. It has kesher, kol hahavashi eina תלוי בדבר is mitkayem. It's taka, b'zocheh to the Mishkan, Mikdash Shelishi, the third Beis HaMikdash. And we'll be zocheh to Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa chad.