Parshat Vayakhel 5784 By Rabbi Baruch Taub

okay good evening everybody okay let's get started par vak you have to forgive me for the uh the sheets maybe it doesn't anyway not important let me just get to number one number one is two pieces from rakov kineski on the uh on the paraa vak and first he deals with the the anomaly of the opening p v v Moshe is so why is it he he made aah he brought all of Isel together there the only time that in the Torah that it says vak there are other times that he might have spoken to CLA Israel together but there seems to be an emphasis here on on on bringing CLA Israel together there seems to be a necessity to bring Israel together as part of the message that he's going to give which is the building of the mishan donating to the mishan right but somehow this has to deal with the concept of vak of bringing everybody together okay so let's see what he says umel theel was the 180 degree opposite of the moment at har in what way when the Torah was given the was it's actually a singular was like one person uh with one heart it was a tremendous Unity of Cl Israeli but now right after the AEL so the Gori said say is an amazing it's an amazingi there wasn't just one but there were 12 egas of every shave it made in AEL now we have to understand that the the making of the EG is complicated right in a it sense it's it's a votara it was a turning from Hashem they couldn't wait a couple of hours but they they desperately wanted an intermediary to help them there was a need they felt they felt they felt that they had no ability to lead themselves they needed some something so each shave it they all had their own uh makeup and their own Direction so each shavid immediately made their own agle right so that's a dangerous dangerous moment right when the unity of CLA Israel in a matter of hours were dissipated with 12 different approaches to you see many gods of different nations you didn't have this this kind of nonsense so we we really took it we took it too far um it's clear that amongst the tribes already there was it was M it was M who's going to be chosen there was absolutely no unity and every sh made their own God so now MOS is coming to present the mishkan to them the mishkan which is going to be the antidote for the aaz to bring us back to bring our Focus back to right so the first thing he had to do was bring them together this is part of the of the Mish that he brought them together into so this was this is not a a random statement in the Torah and the uniqueness is because it's really part of the message of what was necessary after the ago we were so we were so divided we all always speak about Unity you know why can't we all get together and unity is an important thing and we always speak about it but anybody living today in the last four months five months in the last two years you have you don't have to be a brain surgeon listen I'm not a prophet and I don't I don't give reasons for why things happen but you you you don't have to be a brain surgeon to see that tremendous mocus the lack of unity in clra the last few years with this whole Reform movement of the judicial system which was really a front really a front to change the dynamic of AR that it should be a a nation amongst the Nations rather than a Jewish State andat Torah Israel this was really what was going on and what is still we you know we would hope that when the tragedy struck what we're dealing with now we would hope the unity would would maintain itself there was tremendous Unity the first two months but lenu it's all come back it's coming back in in in terrible ways in lack of unity and and really I don't want to say it I can't say it that this whole thing came about because among other things the tremendous lack of unity that that was the the mlus the mocus of CLA Israel was really almost like the historical period of Kaneka right the enemies of Kaneka were not the yonim they were the MIM they were the Jews who who turn to Yovan for their philosophy so again I'm not saying that this is the reason nobody could say that but you have to be have blinders not to see that this is some kind of a some kind of a major contribution to what would the the tragedy the that we're dealing with today so mosu saw that right away and he vak second piece from vov here is rashi rashi says in vak this was the day after when he came down from the mountain the talks theor tells us that three mites that were commanded to do when we came into Israel the appointment of a king the coronation of a is to destroy the arch enemy of the Jewish people which represented everything that was opposite of Torah and morality and ethics believe and to build aik now so building the base of and the Forerunner of the B is the mishan that built MOS built with right is it was the last in the pecking order it was number three right M Mish what do you see here in preparation for going into Israel MOS doesn't what does he tell them when were forgiven for the we spent some time discussing that last week immediately the the order was reversed and the third item on the pecking list became the number one numo why why was the order changed right because of the this is what was necessary now when CLA Israel dropped in dramatically in their spirituality they didn't have a Shepherd they didn't have a leader for such a short period of time they immediately went into into a mode be because of this reason after the Chua there necessity to have a a place to come and to offer to have it to embrace where they can have a relationship withon which is I always say the purpose of our existence in this world to develop a meaningful personal relationship with that's what Torah is about that what what m about but our purpose in this world is to to embrace the Reon to surrender to him to have a relationship with him and from that relationship comes all of the other things that we're supposed to do right only here only only so the order was changed for a reason there was okay the next piece is from my my Hebrew safer Kona and um we're talking we have chabas in in this para and we also have chabas last week in Kisa but there is a subtle distinction between the presentation of the mitzah of chabas in Kisa maybe not so subtle and the presentation of the mitzah chabas in our par what's that so here we have the P from our six days we do so here we have the the mitzah shabas it's given incidentally we spoke about this about a month ago very important you saw the mitzah shabas was given what what does Friday what does the six days of the week have to do with that so we exhausted that topic if you remember the importance of er shabas why we We Begin Kish Friday night y so I'm not going to go back to that issue we discussed a major mimer from rutner on this but here you have shabas now we write in our par when mosha starts Gathering us together first he gives us shabas then he goes to the Mish in last week's para in the order of shabas and the mishkan were in the opposite direction first we had the mishan last week and then we had chabas so here we quote the what's the purpose of the Mish as we just discussed a moment ago to create a physical place and space in in in our world where we can come and look and find atonement from our by bringing Caron truth be told the truth is the Mish was supposed to serve this purpose before the after we sinned and we worshiped aora however want you look at it even if you're saying that they the rans that they were looking for some kind of leadership to bring to fulfill what mosha wanted to do it's already a vodar nobody asked that right once you do something out of the box that's a right a z right the purpose of life is AEM serving Hashem the moment you step out of the box it's aara it's the total opposite of would not help stands opposite of the a in the Mish as we just explain explained AEM a in the Box out of the box complete opposite G at Kumo how can we restore our spirituality after we've done something that is totally 180 degrees opposite of what we're our whole existence what we're supposed to be that's why after so therefore after theel we dealt with shabas than theel last last week now we do chuva and now we begin with chabas chabas is the answer has the power the power to tone for even the extreme I quot all right whoever keep properly even if he worshiped Idols even if he worshiped Idols like the generation of Enos right he will be forgiven after shabas came and we're given the m a the Mish can now do its function it's to to atone for the rest of the sins of claw Israel now really let's talk a little bit about that why why shab why does shabas have this power what is inherent in chabas that that makes it you know a quid proquo to aora chabas represents everything in the Torah so it can do away with all of Hashem right so it can do away with which is the antithesis of all how does that work why shabas right again AAR the opposite of hasem right so let me explain I might have many years ago explained this but I think this is very important and very very very yod to what we're talking about there's a concept about shabas called shabas is May chabas is a taste a foraste of of the of the the world to come right right where where does where do we if you want to know if you want to test the veracity of a potion of a point in hash you have to see how it plays itself out in right so where does this concept of where do we live this out in the of shabas where do we see this where do we see shabas right we see other Concepts right where is it not in KES Kish it's not in shakas it's not M where do you have the concept of shab you know where you have it anybody know you all know in benching why of all places is it in benching why is it in that mitz which by the way is one of the only two bras that area right and all the other bras that we make the hund bras we make a day right they're dur right so why in the M of benching do we have this concept of what is what is we are striving we strive in this world to be B not B we do our Mitzvah we learn Torah it's we're we're working towards a goal after 120 years 120 at least 120 American years not Canadian years right and that's our sense of arrival right we've arrived all that's that's it everything we've done every you know there's a famous Story the Von the great V and had a sister came to visit him they hadn't seen each other in 50 years and she came to see him and he sat down with her and he says I love you I miss you but listen that's it we have plenty of time in the ol to get together we have work to do here now you'll tell me that the vnon was the uh the the the classic litvak right that's you where where's the where's the the warmth but he he he we have we have business we have work to do here in theas we're going to sit together don't worry we'll be together we'll be together right it's a it's a sense of arrival meaning that when we have MIT in the Torah we so so now how is shabas how is shabas right we we work very hard to prepare for chabas right AR chabas right a shvs no matter how how short how long a shvs is we never have enough time right um and and we're not as good at AR shabas as we were hundred years ago you know I heard from two G I heard from ra P I heard from ra Sal that what this door is missing is not necessarily shabas right it's Arab shabas the feeling of Arab shabas is missing right so we prepare everything for shabas shabas comes what's I can't do this I can't do that I can't do no that's not the I've arrived it's a sense of arrival I don't have to do this I don't have have to do that I have everything I need in the kadou of chabas I it's not I can't do that I don't have to do that that's a sense of arrival right I always give the Marshall you know um you want to take your family out for dinner and to your favorite restaurant that the kids love to go to and you're going to go out if you're living in h Sunday night right here there's no such thing as Sun them out there was a special birthday somebody graduated from Yeshiva something and you're going to take them out to their favorite restaurant so the whole day nobody ate they limited what they ate for breakfast they get into the restaurant they all order what they want to order they have a tremendous meal and they're sitting back there stuffed and all of a sudden their next door neighbor shows up at the table next door two hours later right and they are going to the menu and they're ordering food and you can't even look at what's happening not that it's in your business right but you you're never going to eat for the rest of your life right then you get home and a couple hours later maybe whatever you're doing hopefully you're sitting and learning a little bit right saying some till him having a conversation with you learning with your children whatever you're doing right all of a sudden you go take a walk into the kitchen you open up the fridge door and you're a little hungry you know you're looking for something to eat right you go into the Bread Box you go into the cakes room right what's why is that because because eating eating benching the midst of eating and benching is is temporary it's it's like I'll never eat again not gonna happen it's May it's a May it's not really F fulfillment I I've arrived I've arrived I'm so full I can't eat anymore I can't believe I ate the whole thing there used to be a once saw somebody had a t-shirt that said I can't believe I ate the whole thing right but five hours later you're starving again right because it's a sense of false arrival eating eating all of our tiers all of our all of the the pleasures the physical Pleasures that we we run after all like that but eating is the the primary example right so benching benching when we finish eating right that's May a it is a taste of the world to come it is a sense a temporal sense of arrival right arrival in the sense that we've come to complete aotus Hashem we've come to the we've come to the Embrace of a we've embraced him we have surrendered to him and he's embracing us that's olus that's the world of truth right that's what shabas is that's the point here that's the point here of why shabas is mentioned in between last week's par shabas than the ago here the here it's chabas um rather theel and shabas and here it's shabas and then the and then the Mishka right because we need the shabas to correct ourselves okay now I added in on this page before we get to the final piece on the other page I I added because I didn't think I'm gonna have enough time tonight so I added this on the right side number three this is from saakar a few times we've used aakar shakar is umin who passed away a few years ago on it's an amazing it's an amazing safer um it's an amazing safer because you see that there's nothing he didn't know everything that he brings in here I mean what it's just an un who live in Nat um you know McDonald's when I came to McDonald's for the first time the sh in the Bas medish I saw on the shelves um two complete shelves of a y like multiple copies of so I asked Dr feberg he should I don't know if you're here tonight we're all doing for you but I asked him why is this he says well for two years Rabbi cats learned from beginning to end between right now if you know Rabbi cats I mean most between they have they learn a mishna here a mishna there is are very serious but to take and go through beginning that's that's that's a but I just want to read a little piece from on this on the paraa and it'll dovetail with what we're going to see afterwards B was chosen B was the leader mosha chose Bal and somebody else from the sh of done was from Yehuda the highest spiritual Madre of and the one he chose from D was the lowest shav it right so but why was he chos Lio he gave the ability horos to teach that that he was given a Grace by the grace of the ability to teach he had to teach he had a lot to teach he had to teach people how to um I mean this is really a technical school Beyond to teach people how to build a b mikash how to do the carving how to do everything right not posha but it's much more than that because it wasn't just the physical ability there's tremendous Caba every everything in the mishkan and what the mishan was put together is based on our cabalistic teachings right there's a lot of a lot of hidden stuff here behind the behind the paru behind the the the the mask of the mishkan in any case he had the ability to teach this is a fascinating point he's bringing out there are many there are many great Scholars who have trouble teaching they don't have the ability to give over says in this week's they they had it in their heart they couldn't they couldn't get out they did not know how to teach so he was given the ability to teach we see many times you know you can have someone that's a great scholar great rebi a great whatever and someone you know you you love him he's a role model but his she I can't go to his Shear I don't understand what he's talking about he can't you know it it's said it said it I want to tell you the has a very famous essay and which he some of them knew T were expert in tanak some of them didn't know right talking about so complicated right the truth is he says that if a person has the lacks the ability of explaining ofb right it's a understanding that means they don't fully understand it right they're daring thing to say but said it person could know but it's difficulty teaching other people okay other he says some people say in the name of they had a PS if a person has a number of answers to one question they're weak means he doesn't have the real answer to the question right when there's one answer the t is strong now but he says brings a Chas there's another side to this coin you know gim in chabas when rash and and when they came out of the mar this is right if you want to remember where this gor is it's on the 33rd D in chabas which is the story of when shim came out of the cave right so he would ask a question in the cave had 12 answers when they came out of the cave he would ask one would be 24 answers all right wants to say there is having a number of approaches to things that's that's a good thing too but there has to be one particular you know answer right we don't pluralism pluralism as a social contract is a very dangerous thing to Jewish people to call Israel pluralism is a very dangerous thing right there can be many different approaches to things but you know some people believe nebuch in our age of assimilation that there were three mountains that the Torah was given on there was the Orthodox Torah and the conservative Torah and the reformed Tor each were given on a different Mountain so we know like you know there's one Torah pluralism is a dangerous concept when it comes to religion right all Jews are Jews without a question but philosophies the philosophies that's a totally different story it might be a philosophy but can we call it y we don't we know that's the problem anyway he writes at the end sometimes even if a person knows something he can't he can't express it can't can't articulate it is not clear in his mindus if you see a Torah scholar who's learning is like hard like like iron is not clear just over the line again a person has a problem expressing it if I can't express it right it means I don't know it enough and I have to stop myself and I have to tell you come back tomorrow and I'll give it over to you properly hopefully okay let's go the final page this is from we've seen him a number of times this past year or two one of the great MIM in in his d d I think I think his son is still long is the Rob of RAV but in any case I I chose I chose to build this Mish right there are three announcements that God made in the world three and only three he made three announcements of what's going to be Bain RAV there's going to be throughout world history famine Thea there's going to be plenty parest and there's going to be good leaders ship they're going to be good leaders ra and then the gorah quoteskim right um and and the gamorra brings he bring I cut this out he brings B is the example the Prototype of a par of a great leader so he asked a question we have to understand why as Al where do you see that was a par that he was a great leader he was not a leader is he never took a position of leadership with cl Isel official political position but he was to build the Mish with the the wisdom blessed him with but this was not forever he he did his job and that was it went back to the B medish sat and learned right this not leadership a person is a leader throughout his life how is this for us harness for us someone with profound charismatic influence on the Jewish people mashia a Masia an influencer malade a great teacher of Torah M someone you can go to he tells you how to he advises you what's the best way to take in life he he knows you and he steers you in the right direction is totally involved enveloped in the needs of every individual and the nation as a whole both private and public right many years but here you know he put together the Mishka and that's it so he has two answers to this question now maybe you might have another answer or two we certainly have one answer that we went through a moment ago the horos that he was given the BR of being a teacher the ability to teach but it was only a limited M it was the of the bik that he taught right it wasn't called Tula right so number one he says just two indications of what a leader is supposed to be the next paragraph I'll tell you why we're talking about benching tonight it's a second in second reference to benching what do you say in the BR of Bon the in the middle of theu why are we asking paru to be it's not just talking about parosa he talking about leadership parosa Direction m why here are we asking for parash we're talking about the building of the the BET mikdash right um Alik right so what does that have to do with Marosa with being me cl Israel right Ella the says that Torah is like a a tower around our neck that's theik is like it's everything it's it's the throat neck is the the source of life it brings together the the moah the body the physicality the spirituality everything all the direction we have in this world comes through the D of the bikash right the mikash is the real parosa of B Isel is from the kadus of it's the source of the portal from Heaven of BR is and more specific speically theik everything comes from there right that's what was busy doing was chosen which is the the basis of the of the right such a person he's building a place now which is going to be the source the portal of all that's going to come from Shay is going to come through that Mish through the bik he has to be someone who is pure shall is and he has to have one second I think did I skip I think I left no no no yeah no we're good we're good this is number two okay so number one he is bringing a this is he's building the place which is in a not only in a physical sense in a spiritual sense bring all the R rookes into the world that's the portal right secondly he says Bell was chosen to do this that to be pure M partnership in other words a parners number one hits the bullseye a real part it's the bullseye the bullseye is is the bik is bringing bringing creating an opportunity and opening up windows and doors to bring too into the world had that in Spades bringing the bikash right but secondly it's not about me it's not about me he had partnership tested him should see who's his partner his partner was from the lowest tribe of the he saw that he could work with it wasn't about me that's why he was the the one the example that gives when the gor tells decrees three things famine right and and S and a parnis the example of Paris is puking for what the the the famine is and what the Plenty is but for for he created something for eternality right more than that the third bikash will be after Messiah comes so B brought everything this world and the next World right meet us but it was also with with not being alone with working with somebody else he's going to build this great thing this Great temple right he has to he can't do it alone so this is a beautiful idea he ends with a okay beautiful M we know the traveled all over the world to raise money for the P OFA right and he was enormous and a tremendous speaker tremendous captivating speaker and he you know the building of the P was nothing short of a miracle you know he was asked I think somebody asked him are you going to build the Yeshiva here walking in the the grounds of the Yeshiva he said I'm going to build the Yeshiva here it's going to be at least 500 tum in the Yeshiva today how many thousands are there and here's going to be a bako for the girls and we're going to have families for for col people who are learning Torah for the we're gonna have a whole right so said to the person said to him one he said you're you're you're dreaming he said I might be dreaming but I'm not sleeping famous story of the P so here he's in it's collecting money and he was invited one of the shs to speak as soon as they saw the pun they said get up say whatever you want right he was giving a which and then he would make an appeal saw the the great Nar R from come in at the back of the sh the you know the Nar rash was a smart man and he figured out that P was going to be raising a lot of money for the picha this this morning right pich with his Brilliance knew that this was the this was this was one of his fores right but I'm gonna stay for the she I want to hear the she I know what's going on but I want to hear a she shock the shock of the Nar when he finished the she the got up he fin finished this she and he saidash the great is here with us today he came to this country to raise money for his yes I know the Yesa I know the rash I know this students they're brilliant they're off the charts it's a mitah to help them and I'm now raising money for the on that day he raised a Fortune of money for The N he was not was a gas I know the desperate situation of I came here to raise money for Torah for learning Torah what difference does it make to me if it's this is what wants that's a okay all right okay thank you all