The Leader in the Background - Rabbi Yamin Goldsmith

we heard primarily about the mitzvos to build the mishkan including the physical structure of the mishkan and most of the kalim in the mishkan and in this week's parsha in parashastava we hear primarily about the command to to anoint the kohanim and to make the begotten the special clothing that those kohanim are going to wear and many of the mufashim ask a general question about parshas tatava where is moshe rabbenu his name is absent from the entire parasha he's mentioned all over the humish and he's mentioned all over last week's parsha and he's mentioned all over next week's parsha and on and on he was the one giving the command to build the mishkan so where is he now where is he in parashastitsava many mufashim offer beautiful explanations the balhaturim ravyakov and ashir who died in 1343 he was the son of the rush he is the author of the tour and he gives two explanations on the very first passage in our parsha first the balaturin says that later in the honest in parshas when binay israel sinned at the egg al-hazahav moshe begged moshe pleaded with akash baruch to forgive banay israel and one of the things that moshe said to a kashmaru who was if you hashem do not forgive binay israel erase me from the book erase me from the torah that you wrote now obviously hashem did of course forgive binay israel but the balaturing says that the words of atsadik like moshe abenu are so powerful that even if he utters something conditionally that is taken by god at face value and has the result has to result in something has to have some sort of impact moshe said that hashem could erase his name so hashem does in our parasha it's quite powerful message about the power of words that is the first explanation of the baalha touring the baltimore offers a second explanation he says that since this parachute deals with the begudim of the kohanim and the promotion of the kohanim to their role it might be too sensitive for moshe to be mentioned in this parsha originally moshe himself had been slated to be the cohen goddal but now that zahus was being passed along to his brother aro and the torah wanted to prevent any negative feelings on the part of moshe and so his name was left out of the parsha moshe for his part as the most humble and most unpretentious person in the world was filled only with happiness for his brother for arun but the torah from its perspective wanted to teach us a very critical lesson be careful with the words you use and be sure you say nothing that could possibly hurt somebody else the torah recorded this entire parsha anonymously just to ensure that moshe would absolutely have no negative feelings about having lost the opportunity to become a coin to become the coming gundam those are the two explanations of the bala touring another beautiful explanation is given by rav sv hirsch morgenstern of cuts he died in the year 1920 he was the grandson of the cut skirt rebbe and rob sv hersh morgan turn of cuts says the following phenomenal idea in last week's parsha the torah told us of the command to build the mishkan and about the command to to construct many of the kaling in the mishkan and in this week's parasha as i mentioned we hear about the promotion we hear about the sanctification of the kohanim and of their begotten and moshe what's his job says rav city hersh morgenstern moshe has a job too in this week's parsha what's his job his job as always is to be the leader of banay israel and specifically what's that job in this week's fire shop it's the very beginning of the parsha his job is moshe israel your job moshe is to lead benay israel to direct benae israel to lead the kohanim to lead arunachalene moshe rabbenu is his job is to convey hashem's commands and to convey hashem's directions to ben israel and to the kohanim and how is moshe told to do that well that says rab morgenstern is moshe's curious absence in this week's partial a jewish leader must connect with the people a leader has to think of the needs of the clown of the needs of the nation this is no time to take the spotlight yes moshe is moshe moshe is lokambi israel kimoshi owed there has never been and there will never be another leader like moshe rabbenu he will always be moshe and that is what we hear so often in the torah vaidabarachem el moshe laymore most of the time we hear that the mitzvos come from hashem and they're conveyed through moshe but in this parasha when banay israel is hearing about and learning about the mishkan and the avodah and the roles of the kohanim and the roles of the kalim in the mishkan at this point moshe's job is to blend in so to speak moshe is told and so are all future leaders of binay israel your individual personal identity must take a back seat to the identity of the cloud you represent the nation and the nation is not about you it's not about your needs it's not about your wants it's about the cloud and how is that message conveyed by only alluding to motion by not mentioning him by name he's there he's leading he's the leader the leader is there but moshe the individual is so to speak nowhere to be found have an amazing day everyone [Music]