Trumah - Have a Heart - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey guys so in this past week's portion there's something a little bit funny um the portion starts out in exodus 25 by a chef telling moshe to start asking for voluntary donations it says that the lord spoke to moses saying speak to the children of israel and have them take for me an offering from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity you should take my offering and then it brings the details of what they should bring gold copper skins etc and only then in verse 8 it says oh yeah you're going to use this to build the sanctuary this struck me as so funny because imagine a politician going on tv and saying okay everyone so first off i'm gonna need some taxes i'm gonna need some taxes we need money and why you ask ah well we're gonna build schools we're gonna build hospitals roads etc that's not how they would do it first you make the pitch you make the big promises you say oh here oh i'm going to build schools you're going to love the schools i'm going to build hospitals the best hospitals you've ever seen roads oh you won't believe the roads i'm going to make by the way i might need a teensy-weensy little bit of extra money from you guys right that's how you do it but look how the torah tells the story first the torah tells us how it's going to be funded and then why we need the funding now jeremy always quotes to me the famous saying of nietzsche that if you know the why you can always figure out the how he always says tehilo why are you doing this then you'll figure out how but here the torah seems to be doing the exact opposite it seems to be saying that the how is what's important of course we want there to be a tabernacle that's the why we need to have a tabernacle for ourselves dwell with us that's important that's an important why it's a worthy thing to strive for but hashem seems to be putting as the primary thing how you get there saying look look at this first there's something important here now the sages attached to this week's portion a reading from the haft or the reading from the prophets the story of the building of solomon's temple which makes sense because it's a similar subject but sometimes when the sages pick a haftura it's not just because it's a similar subject but actually because they want us to pay attention to the differences now what's interesting is that in the first kings chapter five we hear the story of the building of the temple and it also starts with the how before the y at the very outset of the story it doesn't say well here's the temple that solomon wanted to build and oh yeah here's how he funded it it starts with the funding and then tells you how he used it it's like the bible is showing us the how here is really important don't just look at what was done when you're reading the torah don't look just at the outcome but look how they got there there's something here we need to understand for our lives so now if we go back and compare the how of the tabernacle versus the how of the first temple you can really start to see some interesting differences let's go to our portion and the portion of the coming weeks the words that keep popping up again and again the word that keeps popping up for me is live heart who is to donate somebody with an inspired heart it says and who designs the tabernacle and next week's portion will say may live the wise of heart and then when it actually happens in chapter 35 it says that every man whose heart uplifted him came to donate it says the men came with the women every generous hearted person brought bracelets and earrings and rings and buckles and all kinds of golden objects and every man who waved a waving of gold to the lord this verse is so meaningful because it wasn't just the men it was the men and women together usually just says israel did something here it emphasizes there was an inspiration of the heart that wasn't just of individuals it was of families and the oral tradition you know tells us that golden calf when they were looking for gold to make it that the men actually ripped the jewelry off of their wives but here the husbands and the wives come together with one heart to donate and if you read through the next four portions you just see this again and again you don't have to take my word for it go check the word heart continues to appear and then in chapter 36 something really funny happens it says that moses commanded they announced in the camp saying let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the holy so the people stopped bringing meaning people were having so much generosity of heart that they brought too much have you ever heard of a synagogue or church telling people that they donated too much like stop donating seriously if there's ever too much can't you build like the goldberg west wing and memory of our dear bubba right who turns down donations that's crazy think how marvelous they could have made the tabernacle they just let the donations keep on coming but well she says no it's enough now what's so amazing is that david didn't miss this he read these torah portions he understood that building the house of hashem is all about the heart hashem's not looking for a fancy house he's looking for our hearts he wants to dwell within us he blesses us he wants us to have seeking of him in our hearts our hearts to be open he wants us to have skin in the game we're all part of building the house of hashem so what does david say it's so cool because you have to actually kind of look for this it's not in kings it's in chronicles if you go to chronicle ones d'ivray chapter 22 right before david dies he commands solomon he says you have to build the temple i wasn't able to do it but you can do it but of all the instructions that he gives him what does he focus on most he says now put your heart and soul to seek the lord arise and build the sanctuary meaning he's telling solomon like pay attention the heart is what hashem is looking for in the instructions what he tells him he doesn't first say okay well we need this much measurement and these architectures that's going to come later don't forget first and foremost you put your heart and then in chapter 28 after he gives his that instructions to solomon he looks to the nation and speaks to the whole nation and it says king david rose to his feet and said hearken to me my brethren and my people as for me it is with my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of covenant of the lord and for the footstool of our god and i prepared to build and then it says he turns to solomon again but not in private this time this time in front of the nation and what does he say he again starts with the heart he says and you my son solomon know the god of your father and worship him with your whole heart and an eager soul for the lord seeks all hearts and he understands the thoughts of every creation if you seek him he will be found to you and if you forsake him he will abandon you forever and then only after all this heart he gives the instructions of the construction and what you need to do but then he finishes again and he says if you do this behold the priests and levites and all the workers of every volunteer with wisdom for every service they're going to join you he says you will sweep up everyone to volunteer and he emphasizes the word volunteer for this if your heart is in it but what happens in actuality we see it in the half torah solomon starts taxing and forcing labor he has this amazing huge project going but it's his project nowhere in the process do you hear any talk about the inspiration or open heart of the people the generous heart of the people and all this and in chronicles it gets even too it gets even worse it says behold i build i am building a house in the name of the lord my god he says to the king ram and he says he says i want to burn uh incense and have show bread and in the morning in the evening and he says the house which i am building this is what he says to the king hero he says the house which i am building is great for our god is greater than all gods why do i need to build such a big building because our god is really great our god is really big he needs a big house so how does he do it it says you can't make this stuff up it says and solomon counted all of the strangers who were in the land of israel after the census which his father david had counted so he finds the strangers meaning the gentiles that were living in his own they were found to be one hundred fifty three thousand and six hundred and he made of them seventy thousand who bear burdens okay so he takes these people some of them are gonna have to bear burdens eighty thousand to hew in the mountains and three thousand six hundred overseers listen to this carefully to make the people work you can't make this up he hires these strangers people from the nations to be overseers of the work but it actually doesn't say of work in it says in the hebrew it says it doesn't say to just make them you know get them to work is like that's like a heavy word that means to enslave an evid is a slave we left egypt and now we're he's enslaving us just like it's it's it's so different than what david was saying but now look what happens just one generation when his son becomes king the people say rehab please don't tax us so hard please don't work us so hard but he won't listen he says oh yeah i'm going to keep on doing i'm going to do even more than my dad did and that's why it was so easy for yerevan to just build him a new temple a new calf a new god look how flimsy their love was of the temple the majority of the nation ten tribes were willing to leave but then look at the tabernacle even hundreds of years after the tabernacle was built look how the nation lovingly tended to the tabernacle it stood for decades in shiloh and then when it was destroyed they made a new one in nove according to the sages and then after that one was lost they made a new one in gibon and then when the temple was built the oral tradition says that all of the parts of the tabernacle were hidden underground meaning it's still in existence it was never destroyed the talmud attack tractate sota says that which moses created can never be destroyed solomon's temple was amazing it was beautiful it was huge but the people they could let it go their hearts weren't in it but the tabernacle which was only a temporary thing it was only meant to be temporary that was never destroyed the building the temple was destroyed but the tabernacle was never destroyed because the hearts of all of israel were invested in it and there's such a deep lesson here you know sometimes we look at at least i feel like some of these grand projects that we're working on oh this is so important i need to do that that's so important just doing doing doing accomplishing trying to accomplish you know trying to get this and that done it's so hard to remember to keep our hearts in check make sure the hearts are in the right place and not only our hearts the torah makes sure and to say that this was a family affair the husbands and the wife the wives is my spouse's heart in this with me are my children's hearts in this with me are they with me in getting this done jeremy and i you know we were lucky enough to go away this past weekend without the kids for the first time in what might as well be forever because i can't remember the last time we went away it was so healthy for us just to step back as soon as we get so swept up hard into what we're doing we forget to pay attention to how we're being not just what we're doing but how we're being like okay gotta get the kids to school got them get the soccer practice build jeremy build the farm hosting the group do this do that but what about our hearts hashem tells us don't look at the goal and then figure out what you need to do to get there figure out how you want to be in the world where you want your heart to be where you want your family's heart to be and then from that you'll figure out what to do and what comes out might not be as grand as solomon's temple but moshe teaches us sometimes you can just say that's enough that's enough donations i don't need so much i don't need to get it so well done it's about being so much i need to get there with the right heart and that that we build it might not be as grand as what solomon had but it may be more eternal in hashem's eyes because it was done with the right heart so with that i wish everybody a beautiful and inspired week filled with uplifted hearts and love of hashem bye guys hi my name is jeremy gimpel a lot of people want to know exactly what the land of israel fellowship is and what members receive when they join so let me explain the land of israel fellowship is a global online community with hundreds of members from over 40 countries around the world their live sessions and gatherings that create a direct personal connection to the land of israel and the lovers of israel from around the world there's no online gathering that i'm familiar with that is connected to the land of israel that unites and brings together such a diverse group of people backgrounds and nationalities it feels like prophecy it feels like something we need in these times a window in to a better future on the horizon there's a divine unity we experience every week in our fellowship broadcast we heard these amazing teachings from an authentic hebrew and israel perspective and our jaws drop not only because they ring so true and are such a blessing because they are so consistent with what we believe these sunday morning gatherings are nothing less than a house of prayer for all nations cindy lo the united states of america the land of israel fellowship is an amazing resource for learning torah the bible and the prophets unfiltered and uncensored directly from the land of israel we've been studying torah for almost 20 years but we feel we are stepping into it more than ever and seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture we're encouraged more and more every week calen ardell usa members receive access to all the archives in the library of teachings on every portion of the torah the biblical feast hebrew prayer prophecy sessions on the ancient wisdom of the prophets of israel to help us navigate through these turbulent times these sessions are so rich i re-listen to each and truly each session is the best one yet tehela is a tremendous asset and the teachings ari shares are so rich i've read the bible so many times and i've known the things you are teaching the hebrew understanding is what christians have missed for centuries sister georgian from germany the land of israel fellowship is truly unique because it's built upon personal relationships with the teachers of the fellowship myself rabbi arya bramwitz in tahila gimpel every member has direct access to the staff 24 6 via email or direct whatsapp to ask questions to comment to connect directly to all the teachers and over the last years we've connected to some of the most beautiful people on the planet so if you want to find out more and join the land of israel fellowship you can click on the link below and if you want to try it out for just a month you can email fellowship at the land of israel.com and we'll hook you up i hope to see you shalom from the mountains of judea