Terumah - The Longevity Trees

[Music] I once found myself in the famous mure Woods in Northern San Francisco in these Woods live trees that grow literally hundreds upon hundreds of feet tall and have trunks wide enough literally to drive a car right through them a truly Majestic spectacular site after a while I bumped into a park ranger and I struck up a conversation I turned to him and I asked him how old are these trees he said some of them were well over 2,000 years old I was blown away 2,000 years old he continued and said you want to know something fascinating I said sure he said trees are the only living creatures on Earth that barring disease or natural disaster will never die all living specimens have a pre-programmed end to their lives even if they manage to avoid sickness predators and natural elements they will still die not true with trees the trees will live on so as the park ranger was walking away I couldn't help but wonder what makes the tree so different than any other living animal plant or specimen what is it about the tree what exactly about the tree why did Hashem choose it of all the animals and living organisms to Grant it such phenomenal longevity so I believe the answer lies in this paraa the para begins with an architectural dilemma the the Jews are instructed by Hashem to build a largely wooden mishkon in the middle of a desert now if you've ever been to a desert you would know that there's barely enough life for a blade of grass to grow let alone hundreds of enormous cedar trees so where did all the wood come from Rashi quoting a med tanuma explains when Yakov went down to mitzraim he brought with him Little saplings and planted them there and upon his deathbed he instructed his children to bring these trees out with them into the desert when they left Egypt and these are the trees from which the mishun was built now what an absolutely spectac ular lesson Yakov hasn't seen his son in 22 years yoseph was away from him 22 years one would think he would run down to Egypt in a flurry of euphoria one would think he would drop everything and anything just to see his long lost son yet no he remains calm he sees the big picture and brings along saplings that will one day build the Mish out of his sheer unwavering love of Hashem and his mission in this world not a moment goes by without him thinking about how he can contribute to further that mission he does whatever he can do from the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small merely bending down and picking up a few saplings wasn't insignificant enough for yaku what is most amazing is seeing what came out of those few little tiny saplings innocent little saplings that took Yakov a whopping 15 15 seconds to put on his lamp on the way down to MIM wound up being the very walls of the Mishka the holiest building on the face of the Earth yakov's genuine love of Mitzvah propelled him to seek them out even in a moment of extreme personal Joy his pure unadulterated love for Mitzvah blossomed into the very trees from which the mishkan was built when we demonstrate to Hashem now we don't just do his mitos we love his mitv we are sending a very loud message message heavenward we love Hashem and in turn He Loves Us L Hashem loves us when and only when we live our lives with a love of him and his mitzvos the very foundation of the mishkan was built from wood infused with pure love of mitzvos and it is a lesson to infuse our homes with the same many people have the custom to say alaras before they bench during the week in it we say something puzzling alarus Bubba we sat at the Rivers of Babylon crying for y that was just destroyed a group of people that escaped the destruction of are sitting at the rivers of upon the trees we hung our Harps we sat down to rest by the Rivers of Babylon and we hung up our harps on a tree now let's take a step back for a second these Jews just narrowly escaped the utter destruction of B mikdash in the city of Y why in the world did they have musical instruments on them why were they walking with their Harps if you were to wake up in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke you wouldn't run out of your you would run out of your house as fast as your legs could go you wouldn't start rumaging through your attic your old tuba or your Dusty clarinet your trombone your drum set why did these Jews bring along their Harps they were lit they were literally rivers of blood running through the streets of yelim soldiers going from house to house slaughtering anybody they could find why did these people just pick up and go why did they take Precious seconds to grab their musical instruments soaron pernik gives a very beautiful answer he says these Jews knew the secret moving forward they knew that Hashem brings his presence down on this world only to people infused with Sim to people who exude happiness and joy to who people who serve Hashem with enthusiasm the destruction of the came about due to lack of Joy due to lack of enthusiasm to people who just lived as Jews because their parents their grandparents their grandparents lived as Jews they didn't actually care they weren't actually enthusiastic hence the rebuilding of hashem's home on Earth must be with joy if the destruction came due to lack of joy then the rebuilding must be with joy the instruments were our tools to bring that joy we weren't wasting precious seconds getting our Harps getting our tubas we were getting the very tools necessary to rebuild the B mikdash so after searching high and low for what distinguishes trees from the rest of nature I decided to look in a holy safer known as perak Shira peraka is an ancient safer which which consists of a list of sukim that encapsulates each and every plant animal and creature on the planet it is the spiritual DNA of those particular creatures now what I found shocked me the PK for the tree isuru the trees rejoiced for Hashem came down to earth in the entire perak Shira the only reference to a creature that gets up to sing purely out of love of hashem's existence on Earth is the tree the tree's spiritual DNA is one of Standing Tall and swaying in songs singing the song of Hashem hence perhaps they were given longevity they Rejoice for Hashem so he grants them the long and fruitful ability to do so now in tahim there are times when a paragraph starts mmor leid and other times it starts lovid mismar is there a rhyme and reason or is it all random so the gar explains that anytime felt hashem's presence close by he would say misar start he would just start saying to helm but when dubbed felt that the presence was far off there was a disconnect Hashem was nowhere to be seen for whatever reason Hashem was staying away he would muster up his con concentration and tell himself sing David sing he would push himself to sing he would get up and dance he would stand up on a chair and he would sing and only then what he able to say to H it is the only way to bring Hashem close we are all on the road of Life some people walk the road others dance it if we live our lives not merely doing mitzvos but thrilled while doing so we too can Merit having Hashem in our lives if we looked at Mitzvah the same way Yakov did we too would bring Hashem into our lives the story of Yakov reminds us that even the smallest looking Mitzvah can one day turn out to be the very w walls of the mishan some people look at their homes as just that homes a place where we eat we sleep and we eat again other people look at their homes as a mishan a place that permeates Holiness a place that is infused with happiness a place where Hashem feels welcome man is compared to a tree in what way is a Man compared to a tree perhaps the same way a tree can live forever so to a righteous joyous God-fearing man or woman lives forever the impact he has on himself the impact he has on his family the impact he has on the world around him lasts forever he lives for Infinity his mid was become concretized in a modern-day mishkan that shines forever like the tree we have deep roots that take nourishment from those that came before us like the tree we have a strong backbone like the tree we are forever growing upward but most importantly like the tree we Softly swe back and forth singing the Praises of Hashem and therefore like trees we live for eternity [Music]