Parshat Pekudei 5784 (2024) by Rabbi Baruch Taub

okay good evening everybody can you hear me okay okay well Freddy welcome back safe and sound no accidents on the road from meot okay good okay tonight we're learning the sponsorship of tonight's share uh is forua for Bria Bas and the of our learning tonight there there should be a a speedy recovery a this happens to be the grandmother of our uh technical director David haiser who is with us tonight at the year and we should only know simpas for all of our families and especially for you David good news coming okay let's learn a little bit uh the first the first piece is from the sh the son of the and and he brings out a very interesting thing which I think sometimes you can go through the par and things just somehow go over our head Mish Moshe put up the mishan he put in the the the connectors the whatever the the the the boards support Bo the beams oil and he put over the the oil the tent right the first thing he did was theot the lower uh curtains the goat skin curtains he first put that up and afterwards he put up the supporting beams the crushing the rabbi say Mish Mish Mish the beams are not called mishkan the the curtains are referred to as the actual Mish the actual Tabernacle right IM um Moshe the vacuum I don't this seems to be a a typle a typ here in this I'm sorry when he put up the Mish the Mish the word mishkan the Tabernacle refers in a technical sense to the covering to the the term seems that he put up the lower curtains covering the whole mishkan first right the under curtains there are different levels of curtains o he put up the O Pur Rashi the goat skin the goat skin covering of the of the Mish CL if you want to say that the order of the Mish is there's a general statement and afterwards individual statements um that's fine right in other words the point is there's something missing here this is this is backwards right he actually put up the the the the lower cover of the mishkan um before he put up the beams the supporting beams which hold it up so so according to the he writes either you had you had people standing there holding it you know like some some places that you they have a minut that you give a cover to four people to hold the at a wedding right so it could be you could say that they had people holding up the curtains the riot until the crushing were put down oh the rabbis actually say right uh it was done miraculously so we have to understand why go to this trouble having four having you don't need four people you need a lot more than four people you need about 100 people holding up holding up the curtains until they bring in the breams OR it was a miracle why why why not what the you know there was a mlus between K between um B and Moshe what goes first the mishan goes first the kushim goes first right he told he told them to build the the the cim and so said to mosha what do you mean you first you build a house then you put the cim in and he says bet kale you were standing in the that's exactly what the ronam wanted we're not going into that conversation what mosha Renu had in mind but they had this whole discussion right what to build first right so good terms of building first it's all hit it on the head you build the the the curtains first and then you build the bring in all the Caleb but but what was this all about right what purpose do this serve why didn't they build it like normal construct construction companies right first you put up this supporting beams which will hold the the curtains right that would come afterwards and afterwards curtains so he says something uh very beautiful thought very beautiful thought I want to S the whole purpose of the Mish was a dwelling place for the ronam that the ronam should come down and live amongst us and influence our lives right right the Mish and its were to bring down the the spiritual uh light of Theon to be that it should it should it should affect us like he gives an example a there's a body that carries a you have two very contradictory items there right so now we're going to see the right which he did with this is after the we discussed this last week also building the Miss was after the and at that point the Jewish people were not exactly ready really ready to embrace Theon and have the the in other words the Mish the Mish was actually a gift right we were on a low level we were bereft spiritually so it it we were at least animated enough to want right we wanted something so and hasem wanted to know that was there was much more okay so El put first preceded so he put the curtain which is like completing the mishkan he gave us that spiritual the total spirituality of the mishkan even when we were on a very uh low level spiritually right and before we were ready for it right um to strengthen us spiritually so that we would be would respond to that that Cur that really we really not really deserving of it was Mish a gift from AES being on an inferior spiritual level right so the wanted to inspire Us by giving us the whole thing he gave us the whole Cur the whole structure of the mishkan on top right at least they wanted the he knew that they wanted the he didn't stop there they wanted the there right but we knew we knew that we had not reached the the ultimate levels of spirituality we needed to work on our we we had to carry the carry our weight we had to carry the K we had to do something therefore the were put up first he gave us the entire he gave us the whole thing he gave us the whole thing before the the supporting beams were there afterwards he put in those things that are going to carry the mishan IE the spirituality to create the spirituality from our perspective right Noti there's two Dimensions to the mishan mishan is called mishkan it's called mikash right on the one hand it's Mish is he comes down from Heaven to Earth but it's also mikdash that we have to be mades we have to hold up the beam so to speak and make the kadha go from Earth to heaven right it's a two-way street our relationship with the so he Mish he knew we wanted it we weren't ready for it he wasn't going to give us but he gave us he gave us the the curtains he gave us the cover and and that we had to now put up the we now had to put up the beans we had to do something to demonstrate that we have to participate in the K of having the with us and based on this he has two examples two different examples in Egypt we were on the 49th level of of T we were speak [Music] okay I'm right we were if we would have stayed a little bit longer in in Egypt we would have been irredeemable we were so iMed in the negativity of MIT right thean would have waited any longer it would have been the end of it would have been to borrow from the the N the musel or the nimel curtains okay to use a phrase right so we were not worthy of that's the point right he rushed us out I'll on the on the hope that taking us out of the whole purpose was to take us to SII to Hari to receive the Torah right and that's what he did he he he sort of made a catchup he rushed us out there was rushing us out he the whole exercise of was rushing us out right getting us in in in a in a spiritual mode to to want to desire to be desirous even though we weren't worthy but he wanted us to create that sense of worthiness amongst our selfworth amongst ourselves to get to ouri and he says another example who Shabbat we say in the second not in the first L the first L the first of the Ten Commandments that Hashem giveth the shabas because he rested on shabas but in the second right it's right in the last it's because because of what was the point of this would not give a shabas until we were ready he wouldn't have given us the Torah when shabas until we were ready la Al there would never be a Torah we were we were not ready to receive the Torah we were not deserve but we wanted it right there was a certain desire but but shabas spread it its wings on and that heighten our desire to do shabas that this whole thing of we were not worthy of being taken out of Egypt if he wouldn't have taken us out it would have be the end of Cl Israel but he took us out because he know we wanted we wanted to do the right thing even though we weren't really on a level to do the right thing so that'ss bringing us to right in the first set of in ISRO The Ten Commandments we on a very high we could be prepared for shabas even before it comes is not mentioned as the reason for shabas in the first luas we're a very high we didn't need it we didn't need to remember right right so that's that's the point here remember right that I took you out I rushed you out I got you out of there and I brought you to a spiritual moment that's what's in these finalas okay then he just he off one of the four which we read before right in the month of So reading pares right and um the month of niss the preparation for PES is like it's like almost putting up the curtain of the B mikash of the mishkan and before the crush him and we come into the Seder with the crush him okay I just want to add one thing that I saw many years ago said that um why is it called shabas a shabas before PES why is it called the many answers to that question why is it called shabas so um he says because until we had only one reason to keep shabas first because rested on shabas therefore we rest on shabas with with PES we were given that second or sh to keep chabas shabas now shabas there are two reasons for the the origin the source of Kad okay let's go to number two this is from the D morai we used the DOR M last week Mor Dro great who a great was a great mugg in yusan but he's going to ask three questions and he's going to answer the question with a piece from R hutner he's going to really paraphrase something that MIM of R hutner so let's see what his questions are the PUK says at the beginning of the parish these are the pish Mish the Mish of testimony M this is the counting that was done Al Moshe by Moshe okay um Rashi on this on the words mishan the mishan the Tabernacle the Temple of testimony of adus what is the testimony so Rashi says it's testimony to now the word v is a difficult word to translate V he um he was lenient he overlooked he overlooked he was he overlooked for the sin of the the remember that word it's very very important he was he overlooked the fact that they the of the the doing of the stayed with them stayed with us now I've got three questions number one theor says in teachers anyone who says that closes his eyes and pretends he doesn't see right his life will be overlooked to say such a thing about Theon doesn't Overlook anything right he's God of mish right his works are perfect he everything he does is M it's Law and Order how do you say that overlooked the what does that mean right question number two it says for for protection K from this word thear there sh theel the golden calf is sh the golden calf is still with us there is no such thing when when when we sin as CLA Israel sins part of the punishment will come because of the sin of the agel the sin of the agel is is somehow always mixed in it doesn't go away was such a Trav it's still there it says on the day that I I chose you right so so he didn't he didn't Overlook the sin the of on the sin of the right third the fact that fact allowed us to have the mishan and he is g to live with us because he was he was there he atoned for the US for the right not true God never leaves us he lives with us even when we're impure even when we're so three questions he's asking right what do you mean k is a VIN that he overlooks K anyone who says that is a VIN he overlooks his life is finished right number two he asks that the agel what do you mean the agle's gone the agle's not gone the Gora tells us that every time qu Israel sins there a people that the agel plays a role here the part of the punish is for the agel right and thirdly what do you mean he dwells with us because he forgave us for the agel he he he forgave us of the angle overlooked the agle no K lives with us even in our Tuma he really lives with us right he might be angry at us but he lives with us okay so he's going to answer these three questions with a piece from rner he says all and I heard an explanation for this based on something R mimer we might have done this mimer many years ago I'm not sure but it doesn't matter says like this there were two Dimensions to the giving of the Torah on the second day of chose us to be the chosen people we were chosen on the second day of right that's when he chose us says you will be a treasure to me from all of the nations of the world right whether the six the seventh of he gave the actual Torah to them this says so you have two things on he chose us on the second of s and he gave us the Torah on right so rner explains when a person sins there's two things he does when a person sins there are two tra travesties he is he has he Wasa he he sinned against he trespassed against the Torah itself the MIT that he was given the mice the MIT that he was given right secondly yes there something else another trating another tragedy the hasem in the the relationship the intimate relationship with right someone sins against a mother a father a loved one it's the sin that he did right he yelled to say that a parent right and the second thing is he the relationship he destroyed the the relationship with the parent right so that's the two two two dimensions of a one is that you have you have sinned by doing the the the ver and number two that you've you've distanced yourself from you his Embrace and you haven't taken it you right was po the god chosen is the chosen people right youve rejected that chose he brought us close right what does it mean to be a chosen people that he gave us the Torah right for the sin itself IE building doing the golden worshiping the golden calf right hitting a parent right on that Theon is not forgiving he doesn't Overlook that on that Theon is does not overlooked right and the hairs breath the sin is not is not overlooked he's not lenient right he's not compliant with it right therefore there's never a punishment that comes does not have a little bit of the a right a little bit of the aego because he wasn't M on the itself Overlook at the what did he Overlook what's the that means ofel not the sin of the AEL but what was the overriding Mel that they did an AEL right it was a that they they it was against God right Al as as a as a chosen people who were chosen right embraced us he wants us to embrace him back we didn't Embrace him back on the making of the idol itself that there's no V you do an a shab shabas whatever you kill somebody sh anything you do a right there's no VOR on that you got to do cha right there's no overlooking but on the relationship that you you moved away from me that hurts but I I can't I'm I'm I'm overlooking it right now I'm hoping you're gonna come back and he kept the there right my finally that answers the first two questions right on the final question God lives with us even when we're right even when we're impure explains that's not that's not a a a priori situation that's not an ideal situation but have the preferred thing that who wants he doesn't want to build the he doesn't want to build the Mish in such a circumstances in that being said he kept his there okay so you hear what's going on here he was V he overlooked the the fact that we devastated him we we we we rejected in a certain sense the relationship with him that he overlooks he's hoping will come back the sin itself he doesn't know looks okay final piece on page two is from the saer iasha which is from the gash altar the rashash Sha of sh alter the rashash Shiva of G who in the last few weeks has not failed toh disappoint us right not to disappoint us rather right okay so here he quotes from one of his grandfathers the imis was one of the gas the imis during the first world war he was in Warsaw during the first world warar he said the to answer the question of the here's the P we're dealing with saish you he put up mosha put up the the whole area of the courtyard of the mishan the courtyard of the mishan Mish around right for the M inside and he put up the the curtain the curtain which would be the Gate of the completed the this is before Ma I think the end of the par right he put up he he was making he was Yak the the courtyard right uh is God commanded motion now you know many time so many times in this par it says every time that mosha did something it says but first of all um I think I skipped something here why doesn't it say just says it says he completed it right the he did the he did his job but every other thing in this para and in last week's para was something that was built for the Mish it said as commanded Moshe to do right every and everything that was done so so here's the answer of the IM theater is a metaphor toay the courtyard the inner Courtyard where the is is fear of God theor says Whoever has Torah it's aor shabas anyone who has Torah might be a big he might learn Torah right he doesn't have fear of G he's like a a gizor a minister let's say he gave him the inner keys he didn't give him the outer keys right the is the key to get to Torah the courtyard where you come into the house that's the the the inner sanctum in this same place in the gor announced woe to the person who doesn't have a courtyard with but he made a fence around the courtyard doesn't have anything inside but he made a fence right you have a lot an empty lot you're going to build a house so you put a fence around the lot where's the where's the the house right explains one of the great commentaries in theor shabas means the card right when the was put up it doesn't say Moshe you know did as he was commanded to do right right because talking about yay isay the courtyard is y right Torah without Torah is kind of superficial compar comped to the Courtyard inside which is and the says what is from you he wants you to fear him that's all God wants me he wants a little bit of fear of the Lord we should have a sense of sense of the the explain on this everything is in the hand of God except right so there Rashi says whe one is tall whether one is short whether one is dark skinned whether one is light-skinned right etc etc right all these things are in the hands of the right we have no control over this right you except for that we have control over this is the internal thing that a person has to work on it's true that it was a commandment of God to build the the T says put in the but the Torah did not bring it out as a to point out that mosha didn't do what he was commanded to do no no no in order for be he's got to do it on his own he's got to do it on his own notem Moshe the way God commanded mosha to do not good enough that's for everything else in the Mishka but you're aay it's not because God commanded you it's got to come from yourself now I want to add something else here before I finish this piece something that I've said in past years and understanding this kamorra I might have said it recently I don't remember but this right so Rashi says Rashi gives the explanation that I gave you everything is in the hand of Heaven except right everything's in the hand of Heaven whether you're tall short whether you're light or complexion dark complexion etc etc except for Rashi says sadik rash whether you're going to be a sadic or the opposite right so why does the gamorra not say that rashi's why does the simply it makes more sense everything is in the hands of Heaven except whether you're going to decide whether you're gonna be inside every other choice about your it's not up to you right but this is a choice why doesn't it say that right makes sense right what dides it say what does it be except for so I always learned the gor the following way if you go to an Earthly judge you go to court and the judge says all right listen you have a choice right here's the choice either you you you pay up or you do jail time pay up you're gonna pay up or you gonna go to jail which one is it right the judg is objective right bu said right he doesn't say except for being a s or being a Russia what are you going to do he gives away the what's the way that you become a is his hand right to be except to be AIC in a Russia but please be a s everything is in the hands of Heaven except is giving away what he wants he's not he's a very subjective judge kav right that's the okay let's see the last part of this piece from from the G now he's gonna focus on something else it says you should lift up the right how do you raise a courtyard exactly right in last week it said make the you gotta make it right it's talking about the curtains right by putting the curtains you've made a boundary around the it's there already it's earth right the ground of the courtyard is there the it's there right what does it mean to lift it up to make it the second Callum IM is based on the IM that we started with right means and he's telling M Elevate the elev move on makes makes sense J it can't be made by itself you can't make it right regular material thing right you make something round or Square the airace the space the empty space the airace of the Mak is there and the ground of the Mak is there just make a fence around it that's not good enough you can make a a beautiful fence right can make a fantastic fence but you haven't done anything tangible right sometimes you do something negative right the the world the great world the great leaders of the world are are critical of the that we in Israel because we're we're not we're not taking care of the Palestinians we're killing the Palestinians right right when it came to a million in Syria that a million were killed nobody said anything in Afghanistan nobody said anything in with in Ukraine every country in the world including Israel took in Ukrainian refugees right what's going on here why Israel has to save the Palestinians Egypt built a great wall immediately built a wall so they couldn't get in every Arab nation is not why aren't they taking them in the wall but you avoid doing what you really should be doing right excuse me for the political example but that's what he's saying here you can do Torah you can do Torah mitz back to reality you can't just come to right you can do misses right you can you know um but it doesn't mean you have right you have to work on it you have to elevate yourself you have to work very hard on fear of fear of God in order to acquire it to get that inner fernel of of uh living a spiritual life theay right that's up to us God doesn't give it to us now he concludes at the end ofos we have this week that The Cloud of Glory was on top of the mishan during the day and a was there at night that was the great miracle of traveling in the in the midbar in the end off is thek is in the ey in front of the eyes of all the Jewish people say in all of their Journeys right rash I got a question the clouds were not there for when we were traveling the cloud was there when we were when we were resting so what do you mean the cloud was there and the the fire was there when we traveled right but how do we understand this Ella listen to what he says place where we camp that's also a journey from the place where we camp we we we go to it's a stop it's a rest stop like you see on the highways rest stops right and maybe not in this country but you see in other countries a rest up right so you're also traveling everything is called a everything is called a journey a rest is also called how do we understand that what he says the opposite resting is also the traveling is resting because we're going to a place of rest so why do we call the place where we rest really a journey it's coming to tell us a major thing here the journey that a person takes in this world this is not a place of this is you know it's not the place where we're resting right he gotas it's a journey life is a journey we have to keep moving right not be satisfied with what we have physically right we're on a journey for 120 years to get to the world of Truth the pror Trin this is the this is the you know the the gate house into the main store Main Place right right then he he he says he has got yish here we're going to skip the yish prepare yourself in the anti chamber right this is our world so you can enter we can enter the world the world the world of Truth aor he says here proor we said before is theay that's what's going to get us in there the the courtyard our life's work that we leave this world with we come to the while we're here in this world TR we remember the Trin right all okay I don't want to know just in yish he say really the sometimes gives us a Shuckle you know if you know those of you who know Yiddish what he writes here I'm Gap their B sh sometimes the the owner of the palace the king of the palace sometimes gives us a little bit of a an earthquake right um to remind us that we don't M off we don't live here this is only we're only stopping this is a stop stopping right mate we're going to another place and we're not right so a little bit of a powerful serious piece but that's why it says Hamish you have to elevate yourself that's what the mishar and the that's what it's all about to elevate ourselves to to a lofty world through yay to that that as I always said I said last week the purpose in this world is for us to to embrace Theon to have an intimate relationship withon because that's what he has with us that's what he wants with us and that's the way is one of the keys the main key