Vayakhel-Pekudei - Silencing the Scoffers

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in ra Israel 5775 2015 this week's paraa is parak and Par PUD we have the two Paras that speak about the construction and the completion of the construction of the mishkan of the Tabernacle and the Torah tells us that after they completed all the different parts the verse says in chap 39:33 they brought the Tabernacle the parts of the Tabernacle to Moses now I'd like to share with you a magish that comes to explain this verse the the verse speaks about the fact that they brought this Mishka and they brought the parts of the Tabernacle to Moshe and Moshe Renu in the end is the one who's going to actually erect the Mish and he's going to put up the Tabernacle now what is the significance of the fact that they brought the mission they brought the parts of the Tabernacle to Moshe to Moses or more precisely what is the significance of the fact that the T needs to describe that after they put together all these pieces after they constructed everything that they brought it to him to M so the Mish comes to explain this and there are two different parts of the Mish and whenever we have two parts of a mish so generally speaking the Mish will save the part that's relevant to our P that's relevant to our verse for the end of the medish but when the medish starts off with a different topic or with a different idea connected to the same verse that's going to be explained a different verse that's going to bring let's say from from mishle from Proverbs or from wherever it might bring it from or from tum from the Psalms so it's going to use it's going to say an idea which is going to be connected and which if we understand the depth of it can also explain or corresponds to the explanation that is indeed connected to our verse so it's important that we see the first part of the Mish as well not just see the second part which seems to be more relevant to aruk into our verses so the Mish says like this they brought the Tabernacle this is what it says in the verse this ISS in Psalms 31: 19 the lips which speak falsehood will become muted that speak about the righteous one Words which aren't true and they're said with pride and in an embarrassing way that's the verse in Psalms so now this verse is going to be applied soon to our to our verses but first the measur tells us something else when a person says when a person comes on the high holidays when a person comes to admit his sins in front of God so now if that person comes in now a person has already last year a person already admitted all of his sins and God has already forgiven him but now he comes this year and he remembers his sins he mentions the sins from the previous year soem says to that person that your mouth the words of falsehood need to be they need to be muted they need to be quieted down meaning when a person let's say person comes and he's admitting sins of previous years so implicit in that is the fact that he doesn't believe that God has God has already forgiven him and that's a mistake that's actually a statement of a lie and so that needs to become muted says the Mish the mees goes on to say that besides for the fact that when I'm admitting my old sins so there's a belief in my head which is mistaken that Hashem has not yet forgiven me for those old sins there's another problem there's an aspect of Pride and embarrassment because God says you're admitting your old sins what you didn't have any sins this year that you need to admit becoming all prideful and you think that that's all that there is is the old sins and that this year you've been so righteous so there's two aspects here a person can make a mistake when it comes to admitting his sins a person can make the mistake to believe that Hashem has not yet forgiven him and a person can make the mistake to believe that he hasn't done anything new and these are different ways that the y a person's evil inclination tries to get the person now hold on to that thought for a little bit and we're going to continue with the mes which speaks directly toim to our topic which is the the erecting of the Tabernacle another explanation it's important says the verse in the Psalms that those lips which speak falsehood become muted they become quieted unable to speak who is this speaking about what's this a reference to it's referring to Moses When God says to him to create a tabernacle so Moshe turns to the people of Israel and he says to them that you need to bring your donations to this Mish to this Tabernacle now mosha was involved in the construction of the parts of the now there were those amongst the Jewish people who were scoffers and they said is it possible after the sins that we've done after the after this incredible sin of the golden calf that God will bring his presence and place his presence again upon the Jewish people through the actions of the son of amam which is a reference to MOS to Moses is it possible that he'll be able to get us back to where we were before they said it was impossible I'm and says like this there were six months that they were involved in the construction of the M mishkan from the time that they started being involved in the Trum and the donations until the actual Mish was erected it was 6 months beginning of Tish until the beginning of Nissan it took them 3 months to actually construct all of the parts from from yud from the 10th day of fromer all the way until until the 25th of when they finished all of the different parts then there were three months that they put everything away it wasn't yet the time hasem wanted them to to wait until n as we'll see wanted them to wait till the month of P to erect the Mish nevertheless even though they were able to construct the parts of the mishon in an unusually Speedy way everything was done with it was clear that God had helped them to be able to do all of these things to be able to do it quickly these scoffers continued to scoff and they said we see that indeed we've already made it didn't Moses say that we're going to have the we're going to have the divine presence upon us so they kept saying that it's not going to happen it's not going to happen God is not going to bring his divine presence upon the Jewish people despite the efforts of Moses the intent of Hashem was why was it that there were three months that indeed it was not yet put up that it was constructed but they didn't yet put it up the intent was from Hashem hashem's idea was God wanted that it should be done that the Mish and the Tabernacle should be erected in the month that Isaac was born born and I'll just just thinking about this why would it be and the the mam here that I have in front of me don't explain this but why would it be that Hashem would want us to wait until that moment till that time when Isaac was born so clearly Isaac is the one who represents the beginning of the Jewish people AB of you know Abraham of course was the one who was chosen by God but until Isaac was born it wasn't clear that Abram's pry would be the ones who were chosen specifically as opposed to those who he taught Yesa was the first one who represented the Jewish people the continuity of the Jewish people not just in a spiritual sense but in a physical sense so's birth time the the the month of Nissan represents the birth of the Jewish people the mishkan which represents the the continuation of that relationship between God and the Jewish people so that had to be done in the month at y that Isaac was born that the the Jewish people themselves were born soem had a reason for waiting until that time despite that reason the scoffers continued to scoff and they said that Hashem is not going to be Mas is not going to bring his divine presence onto the Jewish people now the mag says something amazingly interesting it says that despite the fact that these scoffers scoffed and there could be a doubt as to whether indeed the Jewish people would be forgiven hasem did not stop them from scoffing hasm did not stop them from saying what they felt they needed to say but when that month came when the month of Nissan came the time came for the Mish and the Tabernacle to be erected God says to Moses on the first day of this month so you're going to put up the mishon it's almost like nobody knew yet nobody yet knew that what was going on nobody knew what was going on they had put together all the parts and then there was quiet there was quiet they spent three months putting together all the parts and then was 3 months of quiet they didn't know it was going to be finally Hashem says at the last minute almost it's going to be right now we're going to put up the Mish on the first day of the month of Nissan at that time so there was the divine presence said the the divine inspiration said those lips which speak lies which speak falsehood will be muted when they were scoffing at Moses mosha also didn't say anything he didn't do anything to stop them what happens hasem says to Moses put up the Mish now put up the Tabernacle every single person then came at that moment and brought their stuff and at that moment there was nothing to be said the scoffers were clearly wrong those those lips which spoke falsehood were silenced because it became clear that in fact the Tabernacle would be erected the Jewish people would indeed be a part of this this the divine presence once again coming upon the Jewish people now there are there are a few different elements within this mes which are very powerful which I believe can help us in our a in our service of God in our personal growth and to try to get a little bit I want to point out a few points here it's very interesting the Mish the Tabernacle was constructed quickly in the first 3 months of the cycle from Tish until Nissan we've mentioned a few times in the past about the fact that we have 12 months in the year sometimes 13 months but the year is basically split up into two sets of six you have the months from Nissan until Tish from pesak from Passover until Rashana those six months are the spring and the summer and you have from rashishana you have the months of Tish through son Tish through ad so and that represents the the months of the winter now what's interesting here is that the the command to build a mishan was given at the beginning of t on it was given to the Jewish people at the beginning of the winter months and indeed interestingly it took only three months to complete it with hasem gave them special Divine assistance they were able to complete it all within the first 3 months then there was three months of Silence three months of darkness three 3 months where they didn't know what was going to be with this mishon what was going to be with the Tabernacle that they had created they had put together Nissan comes the month the spring arrives the month of pesak the month of the birth of the Jewish people and Hashem says to the Jewish people now now was a time you wrecked that mishon you didn't know it was going to be it looked like it wasn't going to happen it looked like our relationship was broken no that relationship is a strong as ever and it's going to express itself with the putting up of the mishon now why is it indeed why is it that the first three months why couldn't hasem have allowed it to be spread over the entire 6 months of the winter from Tish all the way until Nissan and then it will just be put up right away why was it indeed that there were three months that they were able to finish it quickly and then the whole process stopped and it waited until we get to to Nissan till the spring also interesting when the scoffers were scoffing as they were saying that indeed there's going to be no there's not going to be any the Jewish people are not going to have that Divine experience anymore why didn't Moshe say anything why didem why was Hashem silent why didn't Hashem say no you just wait you just wait you're going to see why was it indeed or why is it important for the medish to point out that nothing was said that hasem didn't say anything and Moshe didn't say anything until that time came and then it became clear and there was nothing for them to say the scoffers were just silent what's the importance what's the the lesson here now I think in in order to understand we need to think about the fact that the Mishka and the Tabernacle represents the Jewish people's relationship with God represents our relationship to spirituality represents our becoming a whole person it represents us coming into a relationship with God having a having a true relationship with Hashem and so if that's the case so then this is really the blueprint the construction of the mishon is is what represents or what we can we can use to understand how we come into a relationship with Hashem and this is something which is M it's something which is intrinsic in the reality that we live in and the idea that this mes is clearly teaching us is that a person when he wants to come into a relationship with Hashem so there's there there are different there are different periods of time that we interact with Hashem that we have that relationship with Hashem there are times like the spring where that relationship is clear where it's open where it's obvious that Hashem has chosen us and they we are doing his will and and everything is glorious but there are times like the winter there are times like Tish where we start that K of the winter where our relationship with hem goes into hibernation it goes into a state of Darkness it goes into a state of internal growth that we don't see the products yet it's not clear that that relationship still exists even everything has gone into darkness the the whole world the the the trees have lost their leaves the the green is gone it just that's just a reflection of the fact that we're in a state of Disconnect or seeming disconnect from Hashem seeming disconnect from our higher self seeing disconnect from our spiritual relationship with hem now what happens in that kufa what happens when it seems like we have been disconnected from Hashem so Hashem does something at the beginning Hashem gives us at the beginning of this period of darkness before the darkness really hits but as we're going into the darkness he gives us helps us that we should see that he is indeed going to give us a relationship in the future as we work on a relationship now when it's hard when it's challenging so at the beginning we get an extra burst of of divine assistance however what happens is the scoffers come to scoff those little voices in our head which correspond to the Jewish people here those members of the Jewish people who were scoffers those little voices in the head come up and say Hey where's that relationship with God it's not really here you're mistaken you've done so many sins you you God has sent you out God has you know God has exiled you from a relationship with him look at all those sins that you did last year God didn't forgive you last year you might as well come again this year and start being mvad to you know admit your sins from last year hasm never forgave you look where's that relationship gone that's the scoffers and those scoffers are inside of us and they want to prevent us from having that relationship with Hashem and and and finally seeing the relationship with Hashem and what's the approach to that what is the right approach to that the Mish tells us those voices wake up if we fight those voices head on the voices just get louder M doesn't say anything God doesn't say anything God doesn't silence them Hashem doesn't even say don't worry it's going to be soon in 3 months from now I'm going to tell you to put up the mishon doesn't say anything because those voices are there for a reason that requires thought we need to think about that but but those voices are there for a reason and the best way to combat them is to ignore them nothing nothing ultimately what happens to those voices those lips that speak deceit those lips that speak falsehood if we don't respond to them we don't you know take them on head on eventually they are be they become muted on their own because the truth becomes apparent and at One Moment In a split second Hashem turns it around and says put up the Mishka now now is the time it's now the time don't be afraid all of those voices that spoke up we ignored them now this is where it all this is where the pedal hits the metal this is where the rubber hits the road this is where it's going to be this is where you're going to see fin the fruits of the the Divine assistance that I gave you at the beginning now you're going to start to see that it's going to Blossom and it's going to bear fruit and you're going to see the products of your labors you're going to see that relationship with hm is going to come to fruition now what's so important here is that there's a process we spoke last week about the idea of patience that that building a relationship is about patience and and this is what we see here again we see that there's a process and when when someone wants to come into relationship with hem there's there's help and then there are voices that say no watch out it's not going to be and those voices are there and we need to just us don't do anything notice them oh very interesting thank you for your input move on wait just wait and then at the right moment Hashem says here you've waited and here we are here we are today I'm I'm recording this podcast it's now we're coming into the end the the Mish was put up the last seven days of this it's right now starting tomorrow we start putting up the mishon and we start to see the fruits of our labors we've been working on our relationship with Hashem throughout the winter and we've seen we've seen Divine help and we've also seen difficulties and we've seen that it seems like hm is not with us and this is where we start to see as the spring comes as the green starts to erupt as the the as the flowers start to come out and everything starts to you know everything starts to reveal itself we start to see our relationship with Hashem indeed it it was there all along we just didn't see it yet I want to bless you and Hashem should bless all of us please bless me back as well should help us that we should be able to recognize we should put in our efforts we should you know we're building our personal Tabernacle personal mishkon with God we're building that relationship hasm should help us he should give us that should help us that when those voices of Doubt come up we should be able to just notice them and not do anything and should help us to see the completion of this process the the fruits of our labors with hak we should be able to see the fruits of all the efforts that we've put into our relationship with Hashem thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the 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