Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Foundation of the Tabernacle is Faith

Okay, everybody. Thank you. Thank you again for coming. And uh tonight's sheer is dedicated uh for a Refuah Shlema for Natan Ben Ziso and Chava Leah bas Sprintza Bluma. And as always, for all those whose health has been affected by the war. And of course, for the safe and quick return of our brothers and sisters held in captivity. Uh and uh really for the lasting unity and achdus of of of all of Am Yisrael. An aliyas neshama for Yitzchak Hirsch uh ben Eliezer. And as uh we announced last week, uh Yibaneh has put down a down payment towards the purchase of a Sefer Torah hoping to establish a beginner's minyan uh for at least Monday and Thursday, perhaps uh the rest of the week as well. And uh this is actually a need that is not met. Uh there are Shabbos minyanim for beginners, but there is no weekday minyan uh for beginners, and this would be one of the first, if not the only one uh in your in uh this part of Yerushalayim. Help us reach our goal. Please give generously. Uh we are looking for partners to help complete the payment for this uh Sefer Torah to commemorate the memory of a loved one or to participate in sharing uh our love for Torah. Donations can be made either on the website or by link on the YouTube description box uh below. Uh once again, as I mentioned last week, um the 613th mitzvah of the Torah uh is the mitzvah to write a Sefer Torah. Every person is supposed to write a Sefer Torah. Most of us, including me, are not really able to write a safer Torah, but a number of post can say by participating, by paying, by enlisting yourself as a person who is contributing to the writing of a safer Torah, in that way we actually fulfill a great mitzvah. So, this would be a mitzvah of Sefer Torah. A safer Torah. Uh, so now we're in Parshas Ki Sisa. Ki Sisa, we've been going more or less on an upward trajectory until this point. You know, everything has been going up. We had the slavery, and then we had Yetzi'as Mitzrayim, and then we had the splitting of the Red Sea, and then we had the receiving of the Torah, and then we have commandments regarding the building of the Mishkan. Le'eilah, le'eilah, up, up, up, up, up, up. But then we come down with a crash. And this is the infamous story of the Egel HaZahav, the golden calf, that to this very day is a blotch. And again, the way the commentaries explain it is that, you know, when we received the Torah at Har Sinai, when Moshe Rabbeinu, you know, after the 49 days of preparation and Moshe Rabbeinu coming down, we actually were restored to the level of Adam HaRishon before the cheit. We were back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We would have had immortality. We would have lived forever. And the same way that the original stay in Gan Eden was destroyed by the cheit of the Eitz HaDa'as, the tree of knowledge, so too the return to Eden was shattered by the cheit of the Egel. So, the cheit of the Egel, in a sense, harkens back to the very beginning of the world's history. When the perfect, beautiful existence of Gan Eden was shattered because of man's disobedience to God's commandments. And so too, the chet ha'egel shattered everything that we achieved. We became mortal. In fact, there's a chazal that says that had there not been a chet ha'egel, we wouldn't have had forgetfulness of the Torah. Anything we would have learned in Torah would have remained with us forever. The chet ha'egel brought us into mortality. The chet ha'egel brought us into forgetfulness. The chet ha'egel caused all sorts of detrimental impacts. And in fact, chazal actually say there's not a single aveira for which klal Yisrael is punished that doesn't have a certain measure, so to speak. The sin of the golden calf is still being paid for in installments. Yes, baruch Hashem, God did not destroy us. Yes, Moshe Rabbeinu prayed, and yes, klal Yisrael did teshuvah. And Yom Kippur is Yom Kippur. This is interesting point. Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the second tablets, according to chazal, on Yom Kippur. And the reason why Yom Kippur, it's a bit of a chicken and an egg problem, Hashem forgave the sin of the golden calf on Yom Kippur. Is it the pshet, however, that Yom Kippur became a day of forgiveness because Hashem forgave the chet ha'egel, and therefore that made Yom Kippur a day of forgiveness? Or is it the other way around? Hashem forgave the chet ha'egel because there was something in the nature of Yom Kippur that causes forgiveness. You can debate this either way, but the simplest understanding is Yom Kippur became Yom Kippur because it was the forgiveness of the chet ha'egel. And this is when Hashem taught Moshe Rabbeinu the 13 attributes of mercy that we still recite to this day during selichos, and on Yom Kippur especially. Hashem Hashem God who is God of mercy and and and kindness. The Yud Gimel Middos of Rachamim are part of the atonement of the Cheit HaEgel. And however, nevertheless, yes, there was forgiveness. Yes, there was a reestablishment of a relationship with Am Yisrael. But the immortality that we would have achieved as a result of Sinai was not given back to us until resurrection of the dead after Mashiach comes. And as I say, Chazal say, every single suffering that Am Yisrael has is partially connected to the Cheit HaEgel. So this was an awful awful thing. So the truth is my topic tonight is not the Cheit HaEgel, although that can certainly deserve a very extended treatment, but just I want to mention uh two very short halachos, two very short observations about the Cheit HaEgel that it's worthwhile to think about. Uh first of all, both the Ramban and the Kuzari, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, point out that it's very very clear that the Jewish people who worshipped the golden calf were not guilty of of idolatry in the most gross form. They didn't believe that this golden calf that they created was the God that created heaven and earth. That would have been a pretty crazy thing for them to believe. Moreover, even if you look at the pesukim, you see almost explicitly that they did not think the ego was a god. They said, "Let us make an ego. Let us make a golden calf. Ki zeh Moshe ha'ish because Moshe the man lo yadano, we don't know where he is." So first of all, the fact that they underscored the idea that Moshe is a man means they didn't think Mosha was God. They knew Mosha was not God. And they're making the eggo because this is the 40th day from the day that Mosha Rabbeinu went up at Sinai. It happens to be the 17th of Tammuz. And Mosha is a little late or Mosha is later than uh they expected. So they made the eggo to be a substitute. This is the Ramban and the Kuzari. They made the eggo to be a substitute for Mosha Rabbeinu. They thought they needed some type of spiritual intermediary between themselves and God. They thought they were not worthy of a direct relationship. Because essentially they were you might call it almost infantilized. Mosha Rabbeinu did everything. Mosha Rabbeinu spoke to God. Mosha Rabbeinu did the miracles. Mosha's not here. They panicked. They're scared. And in ways we don't understand cuz we don't understand spiritual channeling that much. They made the eggo to be a channeler of spiritual energy. That would flow from God through the golden calf and influence the people. Again, the Ramban points out if you go to the book of Yechezkel that describes God's celestial throne, the Kisei Hakavod. So it mentions there are four faces on the Kisei Hakavod. There is the face of a lion and there is the face of an eagle and there is a face of a shor, a face of an ox or a cow. And then there is the face of a human being who is said to be Yaakov Avinu. And although obviously the whole story of the Kisei Hakavod and the divine chariot in Yechezkel is filled with mystery and Kabbalah and we're not even supposed to delve into it. Actually, a rebbe of mine from there Israel, Reb Mosha Eisemann, wrote the ArtScroll commentary on the book of Yechezkel. He's a very big expert in Nach. And when he did the first chapter, he put a warning. It's almost like a pack of cigarettes. He put a warning on every page, "This is not to be delved into, you know, etc." Um this is called Maaseh Merkavah. But still, the Ramban explains that each face represents a different channel. Like meaning to say that sometimes divine energy is channeled through the lion's face, sometimes the eagle's face, sometimes the horse's face, sometimes the human face. And in particular, since uh animals like uh cows or or bulls or oxen or goats, ruminants, they eat the grass that grows in desert areas. So, this was a source of spiritual energy for people who lived in deserts. And therefore, they thought they would use the agal as a spiritual channeler. And therefore, the Ramban says and the Kuzari both say, "This was not avodah zarah. This was what you might call a chirellary or an impertinence uh of avodah zarah in the sense that a Jew has to understand that I have a direct connection with God. I don't need intermediaries." Now again, um this actually turned out in many, many centuries later to be a perhaps a major point of difference between Hasidim and non-Hasidim. But I don't want to get into that because that's a controversial topic. That among some teachings of Hasidus, they actually looked at the rebbe as a channeling force. By the way, I'm not referring specifically to Chabad, right? I'm talking about the generally and the normally Malachim and the like, that you only get your connection to God through the Rebbe. Among the non-Hasidim, a Rebbe or a Rav is a teacher, is a guide, of course, even if you're not a Hasid. One should have a Rav, one should have a a guide, but ultimately you have your own connection to God. It's not via somebody else. Again, the Rebbe Shlita, according to the Rambam and the Kuzari, the notion that your connection to God is through another person is in fact what the earth another entity, rather, is in fact what the chet ha'egel is, amazingly enough. So, that's something to to think about. So, that's one point, that the egel was not a substitute for God, it was a substitute for Moshe, but even that substitute for Moshe was based on a mistake, looking at Moshe as the intermediary force, when in fact Moshe was not designed to be that intermediary. Uh the uh second point I want to make is on the Yud Gimmel Middos of Rachamim, the 13 principles of mercy. And the Gemara describes this in a very anthropomorphic, in other words, almost a human-like description. It says that God wrapped himself up in a tallis, like a chazzan, like a shliach tzibbur. And remember, it's a very mystical scene in the Chumash. Moshe is placed in the cleft of a rock, and God says, "I will pass my presence before you, but I will put my hand" I'm just reading and saying the words, "I will put my hand over your eyes, and only after my presence has passed, I will take away my hand. You will see me from the back, and you will not see me from the front, for man cannot see me and live." This is what the Chumash says. And God put Moshe in the cleft of a rock, and God covered up his eyes, and the the divine presence passed before Moshe. And when that divine presence passed, he communicated to Moshe the 13 attributes of mercy. And the way it's described is he put on a tallis like a chazzan. And he said, "When your sons sin, veyasu lefanai, and they do this order." Meaning they say these words, "Hashem Hashem, I will forgive them." This is the famous idea that the Yud Gimmel Middos, the 13 Middos of Rachamim, bring mercy into the world, and they are not chozer reikam, they do not return empty-handed. They bring bracha and benevolence, the Yud Gimmel Middos of Rachamim. That's why they're so holy that we only recite them with their if there's a minyan. We don't If you're saying Slichos at home, and if you have to, you can say Slichos at home, but you don't say the 13 Middos of Rachamim. It's like Kedusha, you only say it with a minyan. So, there's a thought from the Alshich, uh who was a contemporary of the Arizal and of Yosef Caro in Tzfat, Rav Moshe Alshich. If you've been to Tzfat, perhaps you were at the Alshich's Beit Beit Knesset. He was the preacher of Tzfat, and he says, "Note that the Gemara does not say, 'When your children say these words,' it says, 'kishayasu banecha,' when your children do these words." Now, most translations just say that means when they say it. That's how most translations go. But if you look at the actual words, it doesn't say when they say the Yud Gimmel Middos, but it says when they do the Yud Gimmel Middos. So, the Alshich says a very powerful thought, that the true source of divine mercy is not by reciting the words, but by living in your own life, those me doubt of rahamim and compassion. That by showing compassion and love to others, you will get that love and compassion from God. It's uh what I call the double emulation theory. By my imitating God, God will imitate me. Meaning to say, I imitate God by following his me doses of compassion, but by my imitating God, that causes God's me doses to be activated upon me. Uh many of you might have heard, or hopefully even read, uh the beautiful beautiful safer of the Alshich's contemporary in Safed, Rav Moshe Cordovero, one of the greatest of the Kabbalists, and he wrote a lovely little safer. He wrote many many things. He wrote thousands of pages. Uh but perhaps the most accessible of his books is a small little safer called Tomer Devorah, the palm tree of Devorah, in which he goes through the Yud Gimmel Meidos, and he talks about what can I do? How do I emulate that middah to bring down divine mercy? Now, technically, for reasons that uh we don't have we don't have time to go into, he is not working off the Yud Gimmel Meidos in Hashem Hashem Kel Rachum v'Chanun, he's working off a parallel list in Micha, Mi K'El Kamocha, who is like you, who bears our sins, which is also 13 meidos, and they do correspond to the Yud Gimmel Meidos of Moshe, but I'm saying this because I don't want someone to write me that I misquoted the Tomer Devorah. I have to I have to take out insurance these days uh these ways. I am very well aware ha that the Tomer Devorah is not directly commenting on the Yud Gimmel Meidos of Moshe, he is commenting on the Yud Gimmel Meidos of the prophet Micha. Nevertheless, there is a correspondence between the Yud Gimmel Middos of Micha and the Yud Gimmel Middos of Mosha. And in fact, we say the Yud Gimmel Middos of Micha when we go to Tashlich. When you go to Tashlich on Rosh Hashanah, uh if you look at the verse that you're reciting, you're reciting from the prophet Micha, "Who is like you, God, that forgives our sins?" And if you look in most Machzorim, even the ArtScroll, above the words of Micha, in small letters, will be the corresponding Middah of Mosha Rabbeinu in the 13 Middos of the Torah. So, there is a correlation, and therefore it's legitimate to say that the Tomer Devorah is indirectly a commentary on the Yud Gimmel Middos of Mosha. But again, what is the beautiful teaching? It's not the words that gets you the redemption. It's not the words that gets you the compassion. It's the behavior. I become a merciful person. I become a compassionate person. That brings divine compassion not only to me, but to the world. And the Ramak, Ramak is Rabbi Mosha Cordovero, uh combined with the Kabbalah of the book, cuz it is it is after all a work in Kabbalah, but it's a very practical guide to how to forgive, how to accept, how to deal with difficult people, how to judge people with kindness, how to overcome the angers and resentments that we have. So, it's an absolutely beautiful book. Almost everybody who uh reads Tomer Devorah finds their lives changed for the better in one way or the other. And there are, you know, many many uh not many, but a number of English translations. You can get them online and etc. So, it's it's a relative particularly chapter one, which is about the Yud Gimmel Middos. There are other things in the book which are sometimes less accessible, but the famous chapter one of of Tomer Devorah, uh talking about emulating the 13 midot of rachamim is a very, very accessible thing and, um, you know, I occasionally put in commercials for things that, uh, people should look at. And the term Devarim very definitely is something that one can get a great, great deal of benefit. Again, uh, the Ramak uses Kabbalistic terminology because that was his language. I mean, this was his natural language. For him, Kabbalistic terminology is like the way we speak English. This is literally the way he thought, the way he functioned at every level. Uh, but there are underlying practical messages that even if you don't understand the Kabbalah, there are messages you will very definitely get from the book. So, that was the second point I wanted to make. Meaning, the first point about the ego was that it was not idolatry, it was intermediary. And the point there is very interesting. So, if you think about this, the sin of the golden calf was not so much a sin against God. It was a sin in undervaluing my relationship with God. For me to believe I'm not worthy of that relationship except via an intermediary. So, on some level, the cheit ha'egel was more of a betrayal of myself than a betrayal of God because it was a It was an erroneous feeling. I am not worthy without the intermediary. So, that's point number one. Point number two is that the importance of the Yud Gimmel Midot is not only in their recitation, but in their emulation. Uh, and the diuk is the the inference is from the words k'sheyasoo banaycha, when your children do these midot, not when they just say these midot. Now, the anthropomorphisms of God wearing a tallit, uh, that I'll we'll have to again leave for another time. Although, Rav Soloveitchik says that that that actually the Halakhic makor, source of why we wear a tallis Yom Kippur night. You know, the for the men. The only day of the year where we wear where men wear a tallis at night is Yom Kippur night. Now, granted, since you don't make a bracha on tzitzis once it's night, you got to put on your tallis before nightfall, but we wear it for the entire maariv service. Why is that so? And Rav Soloveitchik said, because since Yom Kippur is the day of the Yud Gimel Middos of Rachamim, and indeed Yom Kippur night we recite the we recite the the Yud Gimel Middos of Rachamim, and Hashem put on a tallis for that occasion. So, whatever that means, we put on a tallis on that occasion as well, because we're emulating Hashem. You see, it's a funny thing. By emulating Hashem in the putting on of the tallis, maybe that will that will arouse us to emulate Hashem with the Rachamim and the compassion as well. And that's the halachic source for why we wear a tallis Yom Kippur Yom Kippur night. Now, what's interesting though is that God didn't only wear a tallis. God wore tfillin. Now, again, I'm I'm just reporting this. I'm not explaining this because, you know, I don't understand what's going on either. But the Gemara in Brachos tells me that God puts on tfillin. And the Gemara even asks, well, what's in God's tfillin? In our tfillin, we have four paragraphs. We have the Shema, talk about God's unity, God taking us out of Mitzrayim, V'haya im shamoa, Kadesh, V'haya ki y'viacha. Right? So, God's tfillin, I'm sorry, our tfillin are praises of the greatness of God. What's in God's tfillin? God's tfillin are all of the praises of the Jewish people. Mi k'amcha Yisrael, who is like your nation Israel? So, we wear t'fillin praising the Almighty. And the Almighty wears t'fillin praising us. Like the Berditchever, Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who was always great Chassidic rav who defended Am Yisrael. He was always defending the Jewish people to God. Once said to God, "God, if a Yid drops his t'fillin, if we drop our t'fillin, we pick it up, we kiss it, we put it in a safe place, we cherish it. We are your t'fillin, Hashem. And we get dropped, and we get stepped upon. You have to pick us up. You have to kiss us, because we're your t'fillin, and we treat your t'fillin, or we treat our t'fillin, which is about you, with tremendous respect. You should treat your t'fillin with the same respect that we treat our t'fillin. Now, um those of you that say Anim Zemirot on Shabbat, in the yeshivas, they don't say it except on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So, Anim Zemirot is again is a very mystical song about the Shechinah, about the divine presence, and it's an aleph-bet acrostic, but in the letter pei, it says, "Pei ro alai u'phe'eri alav." Pei ro, "His glory is upon me, phe'eri, and my glory is upon him." So, just in case you don't know, let me point out that in the Chumash itself, t'fillin is called the glory of a person. Pe'er. So, when it says, "His glory is upon me," that's a remez to the t'fillin that I wear proclaim the glory of God. Pay re a love. My glory is upon him. The tefillin that Hashem wears declares the glory of Hashem. I'm sorry, declares my glory. Pay re my glory is upon God. So, whatever this means because obviously God is not physical and obviously therefore God is not wearing leather boxes that are black. But spiritually God wears tefillin. And it mentions that when God wrapped himself in a tallis and taught Moshe the Yud Gimmel Midos of Rachamim he was also wearing tefillin. Of course, that leaves us with a question again which I'm not going to answer and that is what day did God teach Moshe the Yud Gimmel Midos of Rachamim? On Yom Kippur, right before Moshe Rabbeinu went down. On Yom Kippur you don't wear tefillin. You don't wear tefillin on Shabbos and and Yom Tov, right? So, how could God wear tefillin on Yom Kippur? But the short answer is it didn't become Yom Kippur till Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the Luchos and showed that God forgave us. So, when Moshe is still at Har Sinai, it's not Yom Kippur yet. Yom Kippur became Yom Kippur that year in the middle of the day. Meaning whenever Moshe Rabbeinu came down, it was the coming down from the mountain that made that day the day of forgiveness, the day of atonement. So, Hashem could still wear tefillin in the first half of the day. So, this is the only Yom Kippur in history that uh kind of didn't start off as Yom Kippur. It became Yom Kippur when Moshe Rabbeinu uh came down. But putting this aside though, uh the idea that Hashem was wearing tefillin is especially significant because when God says to Moshe I will pass by you and you will see me from the back and you will not see my face. Rashi brings you will see the head knot of my tefillin from the back. You will not see me from the front. For man cannot see me and live. But you will see kesher tefillin. And by the way, that's also picked up picked up in Anaf Meros. In the letter kuf kesher tefillin her the enough. Hashem showed the humble one, Mosha kesher the knot of the tefillin. So again, this is actually it's not my topic for tonight, but I guess I'm spending time on it. All Torah is worthwhile. That is, what is the significance of God showing Mosha the back of the tefillin? And what does it mean you will see me from the back? And you will not see me from the front. What is the front and what is the back? So here the meforshim explain that Mosha asked Hashem a very specific question. Mosha is praying for the Jewish people. But he also asks Hakadosh Baruchu hodi'eni na es drachecha. Show me your ways. That's in the Chumash. Show me your ways. What does that mean? So the Gemara actually explains that Mosha is asking I want to understand divine justice. I want to understand because everything you do is good, everything you do is right. Why are there righteous people who suffer? Why do tragedies occur to tzaddikim? Why do resha'im prosper? I don't understand the world that you created. Where things don't seem to be just, They don't seem to be fair. They don't seem to make sense. And Moshe figures that, "I'm so close to Hashem, maybe I'll get to understand what's going on." So, when God says, "I'm going to pass by you and you will not see my face." That actually means you won't understand. This is the meaning of the statement that Moshe Rabbeinu reached 49 levels of understanding of God. There are 50 levels of understanding. Most of us are kind of way down there. Moshe Rabbeinu got 49 levels of understanding. But, the 50th level was withheld even from him. And that 50th level is an understanding of why the righteous suffer, why the evildoers prosper. And indeed, the Chasam Sofer says, "This is the meaning of you will see me from the back. You will not see me from the front." Now, there's if somebody's approaching me, as they're approaching me, I don't under meaning as things are happening to you, you're not going to understand it. When everything is over, hindsight. Mashiach, the end of time. When everything is over, then you'll understand. Meaning, you will understand it from the back. You will not understand it from the front. And we know Jewish history is filled with suffering, with death, with tragedy. Whether it's the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, whether it's the Crusades, the pogroms, the Inquisition, uh the terrorism that we are still going through. That's the Jewish people as a whole. The individual tragedies and calamities that families have losing children, whatever it would be. And we don't understand. We just don't really understand. But God is But if But if it's any comfort at all, Moshe Rabbeinu didn't understand. And God said, "You'll see it from the back. You won't see it from the front." Now, what is the meaning of the knot of the tzitzit filling? So again, if you visualize a pair of tzitzit filling, so you have the knot, the square knot, in the back of the head. And from the square knot come two straps. And the straps hang in the front. And one strap is to the right, and one strap is to the left. But both straps emanate from a common knot. Uh So, this is the idea. In Kabbalah, Kabbalistically, the right represents the attribute of kindness. The left represents punishment, severity, constriction, gevurah. When you look at things from the front, you see a dichotomy. I sometimes see benevolence and compassion and goodness, but then I see cruelty and judgment and severity. But from the back, you see the chesed and the gevurah emanate from the same place. That gevurah is also a chesed in ways that we don't understand. And therefore, the comfort to Moshe was not only Now, there's two ideas. You will see You will understand me in hindsight, but you will come to the understanding that even gevurah uh strength, discipline, punishment, judgment has its source in loving kindness. And chesed It comes from the same same place. Okay, so that's a little bit about the cheida ego that I wanted to talk about. But now I want to go back to the beginning of the parsha. Again, you have to know sometimes you know, because it's a parsha of the week, we tend to look at each parsha like a self-contained universe. But in reality, you know, the Chumash is all continuous. So keep in mind that this is one continuous speech that God is making to Moshe. A parshas Truma with the details about the construction of the Mishkan. With some other things. Parshas Tetzaveh last week was the priestly garments. And now in the part of Ki Sisa that is before the golden calf, before the golden calf, Hashem is finishing up the instructions. Now there's this is a continuous uh revelation starting from parshas Truma about all the details of the Mishkan. And in Ki Sisa, what are the finishing details? Uh there is instructions about the incense, about the ketores. There is instructions about the shemen hamishcha, the anointing oil that you have to anoint Aaron and anoint all of the parts of the Mishkan and the Aaron and everything else. And it concludes, right right before the cheida ego, it concludes with the obligation to keep shabbos. A paragraph that many people recite Kiddush morning a shabbos morning, and we also recite it in the shmoneh esrei of shachris. And many people say it also Friday nights before shmoneh esrei, v'shamru v'nei Yisrael es hashabbos. They shall observe the shabbos. Now, you may ask the obvious question, if everything is about Mishkan, Truma is construction of Mishkan, and Tetzaveh is big day Kohuna, the priestly garments. And K Sisa finishes up with the Ketoret, the incense, and the Shemen Hamishcha, the anointing oil. What are you bringing in on Shabbos? I mean, bring in Kosher. What are you bringing in Shabbos? So, Rashi explains based on the Gemara that this is a very important qualification that even though I've given you a mitzvah to build a Mishkan, but Shabbos is more important. You are not allowed to desecrate Shabbos in the building of the Mishkan. And in fact, as as I'm sure you know, the the very source for the 39 activities that are forbidden on Shabbos, whether it's writing or harvesting or whatever, are because all of these were processes that were involved in the construction of the Mishkan. So, therefore, the Torah ends the instruction about the Mishkan with the idea that Shabbos is more important than Mishkan. Now, that itself is a very important lesson. It's been well pointed out that the Mishkan represents, as well as the Temple generally, represents holiness in space. It is spatial holiness. Shabbos represents holiness in time. And the Yesodei HaTorah, the foundation is that in Judaism, the sanctity of time is greater than the sanctity of space. And therefore, the Temple of Shabbos, which is a Temple in Zman, is greater than the Temple of Mishkan or Beit HaMikdash, same thing, which is a Temple in space. And again, that has interesting implications uh that one could talk about again quite a lot because on one hand, Judaism does recognize the holiness of space. Eretz Yisrael is holier than Chutz La'aretz. Yerushalayim is holier than the rest of Eretz Yisrael. Then you have the Har HaBayit, and then you have many gradations in the Beit HaMikdash itself until you get to the holy of holies. So, we certainly recognize that some places are holier than others. Although, that does raise an interesting question. Because what does it mean a place is holier? Uh God is more there than he is anywhere else? That's not true. God is there is everywhere at all times. So, God is as much in Modesto, California as he is in the holy of holies on the Temple Mount. So, it can't be God is here is more here than he is there because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is above all place. God is everywhere. So, obviously when we talk about the holiness of a place, we don't mean that God is here more than there. But, we mean my ability to receive holiness is greater. Meaning, this is a better reception area. Just like cell phones, right? Some areas you can receive, some areas you can't receive. The idea of kedushas makom is it's a greater ability to receive kedusha. But, it's not really a differential in terms of the actual kedusha of Hashem. So, be it as it may, Judaism does recognize holiness of place but the idea of Shabbat is more important than Mishkan teaches me the holiness of time is even greater. Okay. So, this is a relatively simple arrangement. Terumah, Tetzaveh, Ki Tisa until the end of the ego is all about the details of the construction of the Mishkan ending with Shabbat. But at the very beginning of the parsha, there's something else that comes in. And that is Ki Sisa esh rosh bnei Yisrael. When you count the heads of the Jewish people, each person should give a ransom, a kofer, a ransom. Also coming from the word atonement, an atonement for their soul, and they should give a half a shekel. A mitzvah of half a shekel. By the way, half a shekel is a lot more When you when you when you when you read half a shekel, do not think about a half shekel today. It's it's a it's a weight of silver, half a shekel. Now, here is the thing to keep in mind. It's a little confusing because there are actually two different laws that this possuk is stating. Actually, it's maybe three different laws. Two explicitly and one implicitly. Law number one has really nothing to do with the Mishkan. And that simply says, whenever Jews are counted for a census, for a minyan, for anything else, you never count them directly by heads. You don't say 1 2 3 4 5 6. They can only be counted indirectly, such as giving coins and counting the coins, or giving pebbles. Shoel would sometimes count pebbles, or even giving sheep. In other words, this is not directly connected to a half shekel. This is simply a law Jews are not supposed to be counted directly. Right? Because if you count directly, there is what is called negef. Negef is plague. Thus, we find at the end of the book of Shmuel when David Hamelach had achieved towards the end of his life he had achieved great victories and he was very proud of his people. He commissioned his general who was also his nephew Yoav ben Seruya to count the people. And Yoav said you don't want to do that. David insisted and as a result there was a mageifa. So the question how could David not know the halacha that that's a good question. The Glorious Brocho says he didn't know a din or he forgot a din that even children know. Okay. Whatever the issue was that this caused a mageifa. This caused a plague in Am Yisrael. So this is halacha number one that whenever Jews are counted we don't count them directly. Now this raises an interesting question. So that's why you find when we count people for a minyan we don't say 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. We we we we we we mention a pasuk that happens to have 10 words. Hoshia es amo varech es nachalaso v'reim v'naseimenu olam. Some people have this thing they say not one not two. That's a little ridiculous. I don't think that means anything but but some people do it that way. Now once again I want to emphasize in the desert it happened to be the people were counted by giving a half shekel but this halacha is not a half shekel halacha. This is a halacha called the halacha of or the prohibition of direct counting and the imperative of indirect counting. Okay and this was the problem of David Hamelach. Now that does raise an interesting question. Uh if I am a religious Jew am I allowed to respond to a census? Let's say whether it's an Israeli census or an American census. How many people in your family? Right? Am I allowed to respond? I'm counting my family. I'm counting. So there are some post game that actually say you're not supposed to respond to a census. Some connected to their overall philosophy of support for the state of Israel, whatever it would be. But, halakhically it is permitted because the tabulation of a census is an indirect count, meaning in fact the other way around, if you don't respond to a census, you may have direct count. Some government person's going to come and say, "1 2 3 4 5." But, when they're simply counting numbers off a piece of paper, so they're adding numbers on pieces of paper. Right? So, that's actually So, a census is a very simple indirect way of counting people. It is not directly 1 2 3 4 5. Okay. Now, as an aside, why should it be the case that direct head counts bring magefa? What what is What is so destructive about a direct head count? Why is that so? The Torah doesn't say. The Torah just says, "They shall give a ransom for their soul, and there shouldn't be a negev, a plague. There should not be a plague." So, the simplest explanation is that all of us need the merit of being connected to a community, to its tzibbur. Standing alone, we may not be worthy of God's mercy. But, when I connect myself to a larger tzibbur, then the merit of the tzibbur can protect me as well. The problem is when you're counted, when you're singled out, even if it's just momentarily, there's that 1 second where it's just you. That's 1 second kind of, you know, takes away your your your shields from radiation. You're now exposed. So, you never want to be separated from the community by even being singled out for a counting. So, when I say, "1," I That means for that second, you're separated. So, don't do that. Okay. So, that is the first halakha, which again, I want to repeat, has nothing to do with the half shekel. Except for the fact that a half shekel is one of the ways that that halakha was kept. That halakha was kept by giving a half shekel, but it could also be fulfilled by pebbles, by sheep, or even by reciting a pasuk of Shema Yisrael. Now, there is a second halakha that says there is a specific chiyuv mitzvah on the Jewish people to give half a shekel. But, here we have to divide it in two components. There is an annual chiyuv of half a shekel, or there was. Today, it's only a commemoration. But, in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, there was an annual chiyuv of a half shekel, and that went to the operating budget of the Temple. That was for korbanos. The Beit Hamikdash had a treasury. They would buy animals and incense and oil and flour for all the korbanos, and this had to be supported by public funds. You couldn't have an It's not like yeshivas. An individual couldn't say, "I'm sponsoring all of the service in the Temple today." Didn't work. It has to come from klal Yisrael. And this was a tax. This was the tax that everybody had to give a half shekel, which went into the funds that used were used for korbanos, the oil of menorah, incense, and this was an annual mitzvah. As long as there was a Beit Hamikdash, and the fiscal year of the Beit Hamikdash began in Nisan, not Tishrei, Nisan, and the shekalim collections began a month before in Adar, Where people would give the half shekel for the korbanos. And indeed, if any of you have an accounting background, it's it's very very fascinating the whole tractate of the Mishna, Maseches Shekalim, that talks about surpluses. What if there's a surplus in the budget of last year? Does it get carried over? What can you use it for? What if there's a shortfall? What if I sent my shekalim through Federal Express and they got lost? And indeed, we have historical accounts of armed guards in which, you know, people from Bavel, they would send millions of shekels on the way and there'd be robberies and the like and but so these are actually discussed, these accounting issues and these liability issues are discussed. So that's the Machatzis HaShekel of korbanos. Annual. But that's actually not the Machatzis HaShekel. This is a big mistake people make. The Machatzis HaShekel that is being referred to in Parshas Ki Sisa is not the Machatzis HaShekel of the korbanos. It is a Machatzis HaShekel that went towards the building of the Mishkan, a one-time Machatzis HaShekel that was melted down and made part of the structure. And what was that? These are called the adanim. The adanim are the sockets. If you ever look at pictures, you'll see the walls of the Mishkan were thick beams. And the way the beams were carved is they were carved with two teeth like prongs at the bottom, like the prongs on a plug, and each prong was placed in a silver block called a socket. So when they would assemble the Mishkan, they would put down the silver blocks, the silver sockets, and they would insert the boards or the beams, they weren't boards, they were beams, into the sockets. And these are called Adanim. And the Adanim, all of the Adanim, uh, which held the boards in place when they would set up the Mishkan were made from the half shekel silver contributions of Bene Israel. So, this is not the Machatzis HaShekel of korbanos that was every year. This is the one-time Machatzis HaShekel that went for the Adanim, for the melting down, for the construction of the Mishkan. So, if that is the case, and that is the case, this raises a very, very interesting problem. And that is this is the only part of the Mishkan where God mandates a required amount. Every other part of the Mishkan, every person gave what he wanted to give. You give gold, silver, copper, techeiles. Now, I don't know if somebody could get out without giving at all. As far as we know, there were no examples of people not giving at all, but there was no cheshbon how much you had to give. Whatever you gave was up to you. The only part of the Mishkan, the only part of the Mishkan that had a required, actually, it's not only a required minimum, it's also a required maximum, because it says the poor person cannot give less, the rich person cannot give more. We'll talk about that another week, actually. But, the point I'm asking is, when it comes to the Kodesh HaKodashim, when it comes to the walls, the beams, when it comes to the wall hangings, when it comes to the mizbeach, when it comes to the shulchan, it was funded out of the voluntary contributions of people. Nobody told you how much to give. When it comes to the sockets, God says, "Everybody must give half a shekel of silver, so they will be melted down to make the sockets of the Mishkan." See, why is that? Why is the only part of the Mishkan that has a mandatory minimum fixed It's minimum maximum. Mandatory fixed contribution is the adanim? So, the Ber Yitzchak had a very, very khashuva uh darshan in Yerushalayim uh years ago, Rav Yosef Zvi Salant, says the following explanation. He says, "We find that there are a total of 613 commandments connected with the Mishkan. If you analyze every one Now, we know the number 613 corresponds to the human being, because we have 248 bones, which are the positive commandments. We have 365 sinews and ligaments, which are the negative commandments. So, in a sense, the number 613 correspond to the human being. The Mishkan is a prototype, so to speak, of the human being. To put it another way, the goal of our lives is to make ourselves a Mishkan for Hashem, a dwelling place for God. We are supposed to be the temple of God. Now, the reason why every part of the Mishkan is constructed based on what people want to give, want to give, is because as we build our Mishkan to God, everybody's Mishkan is going to be different. Some people are gold, silver, copper, wool. Hashem doesn't want sameness. Everybody constructs their own sanctuary, their own temple, their own mode of worship. It's not possible for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to say everybody gives the same because everybody is different. And that is why as a general rule, everybody gave different amounts and different things to the Mishkan because in my Avodas Hashem, I bring different things in the construction of my Mishkan, different personality traits, different midot. But the Adanim represent the foundation, right? The sockets are the foundation. And therefore the concept is in general, I'll flesh it out in a few moments, even though everybody builds their Mishkan in a different way, it must rest on a common foundation. That's the idea. The foundation got to be the same. So what is the foundation? What is the foundation of life? What is the foundation of our sanctuary that we build for God? So let's look at the Gemara in Makos. The Gemara in Makos tells us that Hashem gave Moshe 613 commandments. But the later generation saw or the sages and the prophets of later generations saw that this was so difficult, so they kept on reducing it to 15. Now now again, please understand when it says that different people David Amalek reduced it to 15, that doesn't mean he knocked out mitzvahs, but it means he took all of the commandments and he tried to create categories of them. Categories. And it mentions that the categories kept on getting fewer and fewer because it was so difficult for us to keep those things in our mind. So for example, I'll just mention the very end of the list. Yeshayahu mentioned, I'm sorry, Micha rather the the prophet Micha mentioned Micha before in the year Gimel Midot of Rachamim. Micha mentioned famous three. It says, "Ma'aseh Eloheinu Elohim what does God ask for you?" Kiem asos mishpat to do justice. Avos chesed, love kindness. Hatnei'a leches im Hashem Elohecha to walk with God with humility and humbleness. So Micha got it down to three. The Navi Yeshayahu little later got it down to two. Shimru mishpat ve'asu tzedaka keep justice and give charity. Again, I'll I'll running late so I'll I'll save for another time why did Yeshayahu eliminate hatnei'a lechet modest okay. But the point I want to make is that after Micha got it down to three and Yeshayahu got it down to two even two is too much, right? Do you just say about a certain politician, he couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. Right? So Habakkuk Hanavi got it down to one. You got this one idea, you're covered. And that is the pasuk in Habakkuk, one of the prophets tzadik be'emunato yichyeh. That tzadik will live in his faith in God. Emunah. Emunah is the adanim, meaning to say when everybody builds their own Mishkan with their own materials, but there has to be a common foundation. What is the common foundation that everybody needs? Emunah in Hashem. Cuz when I have emunah in Hashem, I I know God is involved in my life, then I will want to serve him, then I will have to learn how to serve him, then I will do all the other mitzvahs, because I ma'amin that Hashem is involved in my life. So, based on this, the adanim is a remez, is an allusion to emunah. So, here's the here's the thing. So, on one hand, why is it a common amount? It's a common amount because everybody builds the Mishkan in their own way, but emunah has to be the common denominator. But now, let's go even further. Why are there two adanim? Every board has two adanim. Right? There are two prongs, two adanim. So, here's the pshat. Because emunah has two components. There's emunah in God, emunah in yourself. Rav Sadoq famously says, just as a person must have faith in Hashem, they must have faith in their ability to have a relationship with Hashem. And that ties in beautifully to the sin of the golden calf. The sin of the golden calf was that of Aaron. Remember Rashi, without going over old territory, Rashi learns that all of these commandments were given after the golden calf. And now you understand it. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that you're worthy of a relationship with God. So, the Adonai is the foundation of emunah. But emunah are two things. I believe in God. And I believe that God believes in me. This is modeh ani every morning. We say we give thanks to God for giving us back our lives. And we say rabba emunasecha. Your faith is great. This is a part of the These are words from Megillah Secha. What does it mean your faith is great? I thought faith is what I have in God. It should say rabba emunasi. My faith is great. Why do I say your faith is great? So, the truth is grammatically, emunah in Tanakh does not mean faith. Emunah in Tanakh means faith- faithfulness. God is faithful. I mean, that that's the simple shot. But, the Hasidic masters will say your faith is great is God has faith in us even if we don't have faith in ourselves. That every single morning that you open up your eyes and you check the obituaries to see that you can get out of bed today, God is whispering in your ear, "I believe in you. You count. You make a difference. You have what to accomplish in the world because that's why you're here." So, that's the double level of emunah. And finally, note that the adonim are constructed from a half shekel, not a whole shekel. Again, there are other meanings of the half shekel about carbonus that I will discuss when we talk about the machatzis hashekel of carbonus, but I want to focus on the adonim. The half shekel reminds me of the other aspect of the cheider ego that I only understand half of the story. Meaning, the big challenge to emunah is Moshe Rabbeinu's question, why do righteous people suffer? And how do I get over that hump? By understanding the limits of my understanding. Half. I only know half. So, look at how beautiful this is. So, you see with the trumah so adonim three aspects. Number one, it was a uniform contribution as opposed to the rest of the Mishkan where everybody gave whatever they wanted. Because the adonim represent the foundation. The foundation is emunah. So, everybody does their own thing, properly so. But the common denominator is emunah. That's why it's uniform. Number two, there are two adonim because emunah in God, emunah in me. And it comes from half a shekel because the way we deal with challenges to our emunah is to know that we only have half the story. Right? So, this is the the beautiful inner meaning in the adonim of the Mishkan. So, again, again, people confuse us. The reason why this confusing is uh when other shaini starts, we're going to read again this part of Ki Sisa because of the mitzvah of half shekel, but that's referring to the half shekel of korbanos. So, we'll talk about that as a separate schmooze. But, the pshuto shel mikra, the simple meaning of the pesukim here, this is not about the half shekel of korbanos. This is the one-time half shekel for the sockets. So, don't confuse them. These are two different mitzvahs. One was a one-time mitzvah, and the other is an annual mitzvah that will continue to exist uh even after the Beis Hamikdash is built. So, I want to wish you all a a wonderful Shabbos, and uh b'ezras Hashem we should be zocheh to shalom and geulah b'mheira v'yameinu. Amen.