Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: How and When Will Israel Build The Third Temple?

[Music] okay hi everybody thank thank you for for coming uh we're beginning now the uh second half of the book ofos a very very large unit that deals in great great detail with the building of the mishigan we're going to have a left ter turn uh oh I'm sorry let me first announce the dedication I forgot to do that uh today's Shear is dedicated AA for B Ben fra and for all those whose Health has been affected by the war and for the safe and quick return of our brothers and sisters held in captivity uh and an accomplished mission to IDF and the people of Israel I'm assuming those are the uh the mission that freed the two hostages uh and the lasting Unity of our people of Israel and Al sh forzar and for schlomo he the father of arck daninsky whose yard site was on the sixth of odor and for Daniel Ben Lev mikal mik whose yard site is on the seventh of other Alf and an anonymous dedication of the safe return of the army and hostages to their homes in Total Health the of the Jewish Nation uh who should promptly return home with and for the coming of mashia now and by the Taylor family as a for their family and for all of K Isel as always we are very general uh very grateful for the hakas Torah and the support may it be for all of the Mish of the people who generously uh support the Torah uh as I had uh said uh we are now entering the parote involving the construction of the mishan and uh this is inordinately repetitive in some ways because we're given the Commandment to Moshe and then the Torah articulates the execution and then summarizes it afterwards there's a total of five iterations of the construction of the mishkan throughout the rest of the book of shos and obviously it's a very very important important Point uh you know architectural diagrams are extremely difficult to communicate by words uh people say it would have been much better if the Torah itself would have pictures now we have to have modern books drawing pictures and who says the pictures are accurate ifes would have given us pictures things might have been much easier and we have this problem in all architectural descriptions whether it's the mishan whether it's the bik of whether it's the final bi it in the book which is the third bikes but for whatever the reason I don't necessarily have a compelling explanation the Torah does not work with pictures uh the Torah works with words and yet the medish says that often Moser rabenu himself had to be shown images of things that Mosher rabenu could not understand something unless he actually saw it the manur is an example other things uh are example where KES actually had to give mosha Renu a visualization uh but there are a few things I want to mention uh Point number one is I want to mention a very very interesting comment of the ramban in the introduction to the book of shos and the ramban is very very maker in his language and one of the Beautiful Things is that the ramban might often say something in three words which is really a whole big thought and if you're reading it quickly you wouldn't even notice that there's something there and that is when the ramban describes the mishkan as a vehicle for bringing God's divine presence into the world he says that through the construction of the mishkan shalas aam this gave the Jewish people the ability to return to the level that they had achieved in the days of Abraham andov a return to Theos an amazing thing so the mishkin was not a new level of Holiness it was a restoration of the Holiness of abob s that's a fascinating idea because it really gives you an understanding that the home of the avice was the mishkan of Hashem was the dwelling place of God on earth now you know there's a famous cliche that's been said many many times and you know cliches are cliches because they're largely true as strange as it is something becomes a cliche because it expresses a truth and the cliche often goes that the Jewish Home is the most important institution in Judaism the home is more important than the show and the proof of that is that the very first thing a community has to create is a Mikvah which enables marital intimacy before there's a Bas canet because it is the bias that is the source of Holiness now in fact refers said this is quite amazing night of Corona rers wrote in the 1870s that he he said he was afraid to say it he said but he he would actually not mind if Schulz if synagogues were to close down for a number of years so people would ReDiscover Yiddish kite in the home now that's almost a prophecy about Corona in which there was a time in which the the Min were closed down and uh I still remember this um apparently Montreal uh I'm sorry um not it was in in Australia Melbourne had a very very very tough Corona policy you weren't allowed to have any Min him at all and when a group of people met together on rosashana 10 people Rashana and then the police comes and everybody dispersed so they couldn't catch them so I see a line there the the police guy says was in the newspaper says we will hunt every last person down we will hunt I mean sounded like Nazi Germany we will hunt them down you know for this I myself uh I was conducting a Seder in or for the boys and we had distancing this is the height of things we had the social distancing and everything in the middle of the Seder I don't know somebody tipped informance the police showed up with guns and they ordered us to disperse all right but be it as in May ref first predicted or actually suggested this would be a good thing because we would discover the Holiness of the home so the ramban is saying mishan is a prototype for the Jewish home now to elaborated a little bit some of forand ran point out an interesting parallelism there were three fundamental miracles in the tent of Sarah remember Rashi says that uh that y brought Rifka into the tent of Sora his mother and he loved her she became his wife and he loved her and he was comforted over the loss of Sora his mother and Rashi EXP explains because there were three Miracles that were connected to the tent of SAR and when SAR died those Miracles left there was a blessing in her dough you would eat her bread and you would feel satisfied for a very long time uh she would light neot she would light lights in honor of the chabas and those lights endured the entire entire week and there was a cloud of divine Glory that hovered over her tent that represented the sh and whenu died those Miracles left and when little Rifka maybe only 3 years old some say 14 years old comes in all of those Miracles come back and that gave y the comfort that the greatness that his mother brought into the world could still be replicated so some Fortune point out that you find find The Identical three miracles in the mishkan itself that corresponds to the Miracles of sora's tent a blessing in the bread was the upon there was a showbread there were 12 actually they were Matos like soft P they were not but 12 12 breads were baked every Friday and they were put on the gold shulhan on when the old would be removed and that would remain on the Shan for the entire week till next jaas and then the kohanim would eat it and it was still warm and fresh after being on a cold shulan for eight days that's a br in the D obviously and then the the candle that was lit May that's theid the manur had seven lights but there was one light that at least when we were on a higher madrea never went out and that's the Braha in the light and The Cloud of Glory over Sarah's tent is the cloud of the Shina that's over the mishan so what do you see you see a direct correspondence between the Miracles of Sor imanu tent and the Miracles of the mishkan as if to say the mishkan is a replication an imitation of what a Jewish Home could potentially be and therefore the real Mish of hasem is the Jewish Home indeed say is is when a man and a woman live with Shalom the divine presence is with them they become the mishan now there's a famous statement that that people attribute to kazal all the kazal in fact one could even write a book on famous kazal that are not in we we call them statements of kazal but this is one of the most famous thoughts beautiful thought says make for me a sanctuary so I will dwell in them so it does not say make for me a mishkan so I will dwell in it make for me a mishkan so I will dwell in them it's in your heart and in your soul you build a mishkan for Hashem it's a very powerful idea the mishkan is just a physical reminder bikes later that we have to create a mishkan for God in our heart as the song goes from the in my heart I build a dwelling place for God now it's interesting this is often said in the name ofal which we would assume would mean a a gamar a medish there is no direct gamarra or medish that uses those words although the idea can be found but it is stated in the AL one of the great uh and the ALS himself says I have heard from many lomom it's interesting the didn't have a mocker for it either he says I have heard from many learned people this idea that it says um fact there's a famous uh I shouldn't use this as a m there is a famous Shaker himym that says no Lord help me make a sanctuary in my heart that is M based on this teaching that's an important idea you know all of us pray for the B mikash and all of us want to build the Bas of Mikes but people make a mistake when you think I build the Bas of Mikes by bombing the mosques and starting construction that's not the time and I I'll talk about that for a few moments as well you build a basa mikdash when you make a dwelling place for Hashem in your heart and in your soul and when enough of us can do that work of making a Dwelling Place in our life then the B Mikes appears because the Bas Mikes is a sign of the in other words it's reading the PK in in Reverse just as it says make for me a mikdash so I will dwell within you it also means when I dwell within you then you will have a mikash it works in that way as well that is a condition to a so Our obligation to build means make a place in our heart and our soul for and that is why the three miracles of the mikdash correspond to the three miracles of the tent of s that is the Prototype that is the highest level of a Jewish Home this is what a Jewish Home is now just let me just say a few words though about the the technical idea here uh for me a sanctuary a holy place is actually counted Hally as one of the 613 mitzvas there is a Mitzvah that is called building a Mak kades for the hash with the how do you look at the subcomponents right an altar an Aron are these separate Mitzvah or are these subcomponents of an over arcing Mitzvah called that's raan but be it as it may whether you count the Cale as a separate Mitzvah or as components of the mikash there's a Mitzvah of making aik in the desert it was fulfilled by the mishkan in or it's fulfilled by the B mes so an interesting question presents itself if there is a Mitzvah in the Torah called building a b mikash then why don't we do that mitvah why aren't we why aren't we obligated maybe we are are we obligated to be M or to try to be M the Mitzvah ofes and by the way this is an independence question about corbus that's another question question uh that's maybe we'll talk another time about could we bring coronos today but even without coronos there's an intrinsic Mitzvah called ban bikash so why don't we build a b Mikes how do we get out of it so some people answer just kind of a you know a way out that under modern economic social and Military conditions building trying to build a base of mikdash with almost inevitably trigger war and maybe nuclear war so as a result meaning the same way you don't have to keep shabas it's a matter of life and death you don't have to build the mikash if it's so we would look at it as so some say yeah you are to build the Bas but you have a het not to because of some maintain that that demonstrates a lack of faith I mean don't you assume that God is going to give you that well but the answer is this though keep in mind that even when schlom built the bikash he was authorized to do so only after he achieved peace remember not which means it is part of the Mitzvah Mikes that there has to be Shalom is so this idea that you don't build in a time when it would trigger armed conflict is built into the very structure of when the Mitzvah was given that's one answer the rambam himself suggests an interesting answer and it's hard to know what his m is that the Mitzvah to build the B of mikdash depends on mashia and maybe it's connected to peace maybe not that until mashia comes it is the role of mashiach to be Bona the B mikdash and therefore until Bia we prepare ourselves spiritually making a place for God in our heart but the actual Mitzvah B is a Messianic Mitzvah question is I'll leave it as a question what's the mocker for that where do you find that when when the T gives you a Mitzvah you defer fulfillment of the Mitzvah till the coming of mashia the mik is not so conditioned in the Torah but nevertheless the rambam says that that is the final proof that somebody's mashia the proof that somebody's mashia is he's Bon so we have as we have the notion that the mik needs Shalom mik needs Masia and then we have the interesting comment of Rashi that the third bik is not going to be rebuilt by people at all it will come down Min which is also sh because if the T gives us a Mitzvah to build the mikdash then literally the Torah is not in heaven how could God bring the M down if we have a mitz for the building so most so although the reasons are not at all that clear the bottom line is that most postum that have discussed this have concluded there is no active Mitzvah to build the B mikash today other than spiritual preparations however I should point out that there is a passage in the T ji that says the opposite of the rambam the rambam says first mashia comes and then we build the mikash says thei no first you build the Bas of mikash and that brings mashia the same way that we say you first come to ER Isel and you show hasem you want GAA and that's fairly well accepted the Yi extends it even to B first you build it what's the expression about the baseball stadium build it and they'll come or something so it says feel the dreams right so it says build it build it and he'll come will come when you show that you care enough so according to the Yami so the people in the Temple Mount or the people maybe more radical who are talking about building the Bas of mikash before mashia they have a m for what they're saying based on thei so it's not totally uh crazy but as they say the rambam himself does not p in that way and I say there are number of different reasons why we're not actively o in the ban bikash and as say our primary aod is M to make our heart and our soul a spiritually again I can get into this virtually every week obviously if the B was destroyed because of the hatred and polarization among Jews it's not going to get rebuilt until we can eradicate that sin and unfortunately we're not there yet although things have gotten a little better precisely because of the war although now they're getting a little again and we have to be very very Vigilant that the B mikdash is not about a building it is about a relationship and that relationship requires that we make our heart and our soul a repository for the that's an a that's the a of life and that includes it includes the the the the the the caring about each other and the Turning toes as I've said many many times already uh this is the the silver lining in the dark cloud of war that war is tragic it is tragic it's tragic for the hostages it's tragic for the families it's tragic for the people that died for theim and for all of us not only because we have empathy and compassion for those who are suffering but because we ourselves live in a state of uncertainty you know now things are stable outside of the war zones but you literally never know right you literally never know from day to day to day what can happen so we're in a difficult time we're a time that needs ra but in these difficult times there are glimmers of Hope glimmers of goodness we learn to care about each other we learn to be worried about each other are making right Etc and are turning to MIT filling or whatever it would be is very very involved in that good good work and those are good things bringing us together the fear always is that we go back to our old habits right uh people are like all of us I include myself obviously we're like elastic bands you know you stretch the band out but you know at some point it just goes back to its normal place and that would be a very very sad thing that would be a tragedy on top of the tragedy that we don't learn we don't grow uh from this situation but all of these are ways of preparing ourselves uh for the uh for the basa Mikes so now let me just share a little bit a of the commentary that is the I'm I'm sorry before I get to that let me make make another preliminary point because I want to go over a preliminary point and that is there's a very very interesting mlus Rashi and the ramban about the chronology of God's Commandments concerning the construction of the mishkan let's go over this a little bit last week and the week before we had Matan Torah and Moshe goes up to Har for 40 days in fact the very end of par Mish is Moshe is in the mountain on the mountain for 40 days we then have par truma where hasem is giving mosha Ru instructions regarding construction of the mishkan and that continues Paras truma and then par details about the big day Kahuna the kohanim Garment and then we read about the sin of the golden calf when Mosher reenu comes down and then he has to go up and down the mountain to pray for cl Israel he finally comes down on yum Kipper with the second luos and the day after yam Kipper He commands the Jewish people about the mishun that's also bakel and they start construction after Yumer so if you follow the sequence of the Torah chronologically the way you come up with is this Moser raenu is given the Commandments about the mishan during the first 40 days he's in Haren before the golden calf but he doesn't communicate it to is till after theel and after they were forgiven in other words Trum which is hashem's Commandments to Moshe is before the Pud which is Moshe telling B Israel and B Israel carrying it out is after the right that that's the sequence of the Torah itself that is exactly how the ramban understands it the ran understands that gave Moshe the details of the Mish before the the first 40 days he was in but because of theel Moshe did not communicate it to B is till afterwards now there's the ramban understands that the paros are supposed to be read in chronological sequence interestingly enough Rashi based on other mid isik Rashi actually once again we we saw this in Matan Torah itself Rashi applies the rule tah the Torah does not follow Chron ological order and Rashi says the paros of truma and when God is giving Moshe the details were not even communicated to Moshe till the third time he went up to harini to get the Torah and even though it's written beforehand so what does that mean that's very very interesting meaning according to ramban Hashem gave the remember I mentioned before that although the ramban cannot disagree with the principle that the Torah does not always follow chronological order he doesn't like the principle very much so whenever he can get around it he always does the ramban has a very very strong inclination that we always interpret the Torah in chronological sequence unless there's an absolute abolutely compelling reason natu sometimes there is Rashi is more free in using it and Rashi uses it with so if you were rearranging the paros to follow chronological order you would put MOS RAB was up there for 40 days there's the AEL he goes up the last time that's when he's given the details of the mishun and that's when he comes down and gives it to us in other words TR would be adjacent to each other Trum is God's command to Moshe is moshe's command to B Isel and they're carrying it out what are the implications of rashi's rearrangement of and so some learn an astounding idea that it is rashi's position that if there wouldn't have been AO there wouldn't have been a mishun at all mishkan is a response to had there not been a it's always interesting to speculate the hypothetical form the tah would have taken right the Torah took a certain form because of our actions had our actions not taken that form the Torah itself would have been reconfigured and according to Rashi one reconfiguring configuring would have been there wouldn't have been a mishan the question is why according to Rashi what is the connection between ago and mishkan so there are three different ways of understanding the connection the first way is articulated by The sorno raaj sorno Who great great uh reown commentary very maybe an early Aon question how you classify the Sno lived in Italy the Soro says that the mishkan is actually although it creates a spiritual closeness it actually shows a certain weakness because in an Ideal World God would be accessible everywhere every house would be a Michigan every home would be a Michigan you wouldn't need a special place to serve God you wouldn't need special people you wouldn't need special rituals every meal would be a corbine the the ago created a distancing the ago created a mer so yes Hashem and his ra still gave us a way to connect but a specific Place specific times specific rituals specific ways so the idea of a mishkan is a monument to a spiritual failure in which the ago created a distance the ago created a and had there not been aego we wouldn't have needed that spiritual Way Station that's what the sorno says and that could be the meaning of rash why there wouldn't have been a mish had there not been a there are some problems with the sno's understanding because according to the sorno why would we have a b mikash when mash comes I mean one would assume that as the as the world is getting to a higher and higher and higher perfected level the whole world should be the Bas ofes you see I mean the fact that our yearning is for a b mikdash even in a perfect world seems to suggest that there's something inherently desirable and it's not stem a concession to our nefil but nevertheless this is the Soros point and this could be what Rashi means that's shot number one a second explanation of Rashi might be based on the kusari the famous book of Ravi and he points out the following he points out an interesting Paradox that on one hand the tah is very much against idolatry obviously and the Torah is against physical imagery do not portray God in any physical way the tah itself says remember you saw no picture you saw no image right in fact there even about having images of the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets lest you look at them as objects of worship and yet if you walked into the kak the nakot the holiest place in the world you're going to see these two cherubs these two Ken over the Arin look like little children we have Idol we have statues so to speak in The KES Akash now during the second temple we didn't there was no AR in AES so if you walked into the Kash it was an empty room but in the mishkan and in the bias of SCH you have the Cen so what's going on Shi develops the idea that when people have a certain human need to connect to God a certain way and they're not able to connect to Hashem except through that vehicle Hashem will give them in some Kosher Way the vehicle that they need to have that connection R Ley says visualization is a natural need of a human being it's very difficult for me to relate to something or someone that I can't see in any way now the problem is once I engage in visualization I could be steered into idolatry into paganism into various other depravities so Hashem kind of makes boundaries that I will give you this concession but it has to be in this time and in this place the mishkan is a the whole migan not just the Kash is a very visual way of serving God we serve God by by altars we serve God by sacrifices we serve God by architecture now God doesn't need the architecture and God doesn't need the sacrifices but we need it and therefore Hashem is giving us a concrete Visual and physical way of relating to him now that was exactly the sin of the golden calf the sin of the golden calf was we needed we thought we needed an intermediary mosha was our intermediary mosha is gone so we need the golden calf to be a spiritual medium whatever that means so says the kuzari that once we showed that we have a weakness of visualization Hashem gives us a visual way of relating to him so it's a little different than the first way the first way was simply saying oh since you sinned you are no longer as close to me as you would have been so you have to approach me in a certain place and in a certain time in other words the mishkan is almost an ones according to the kusari the mishkan was a concession to the spiritual weakness we exhibited in the had there not been aego you wouldn't have needed that visual medium of connecting to God and again the rambam himself says that not about mishkan or mikdash the rambam says by coros in theim it's well known that the rambam says Hashem doesn't care about coros but coros are a concession to our idolatrous impulse to serve Idols in a certain way and that was such a powerful impulse that that had hasem said go had hasem said go cold turkey we wouldn't have been able to pull ourselves away so he gave us a way to serve him so the same s the rambam says about Corban essentially says about mishik cim Hashem gives you a physical tangible visual way of relating to him I remember hearing from my own Weinberg that the great attraction of Christianity was it gave you a very intimate way of connecting to God because God is so close to you that he became human and died for your sins now granted that's she it's just not true but it's an enormously appealing idea in other words the way religion gets people sometimes is by offering ideas that can be very very comforting even though they happen not to be emis uh but that's why one of the reasons why Christianity has such an explosive growth because it does create that type of notion of an intimate connection to God uh for us to have that intimacy it's a little more difficult to fully comprehend and the kusari says the mishkan or the mikash was one of those ways that we could feel that connection so that's approach number two so approach number one is the mishan is like an Onish because of the the distancing in our relationship to God because of the according to the Kari it is a concession to our need for tangible visualization and had there not been a we wouldn't have needed that concession so we wouldn't have had it and then there's a third explanation for Rashi which is actually based on a medish that the mishkan is a sign of divine forgiveness that even after theel when we were banished God is showing he's still with us in other words it's a comfort uh so we have these three explanations meaning Rashi does not give you any explanation Rashi just says and the Mish Commandments were given after theel implying had there not been an agel there would not have been a mishkan but Rashi does not tell you why so we have three explanations we have the sorno that the mishkan is a sign of distance we have the kusari the mishkan is a concession and we have the medish that says the mishkan is a sign of divine forgiveness but the the common denominator is had there not been a there wouldn't have been a mish and this is in opposition to the Ran's view that mishkan would have existed even without the so the ch olical point is quite quite interesting uh but it's important to be aware of this major M between Rashi and the uh and the and the ramban but now let's go to the initial commandment God commands Moshe truma take a donation from B Israel because the B the mishkan has to be built by donations and contributions that all of am Israel makes and it gives you a whole list zah gold KF silver noas so the AR asks a very interesting question the materials for the mishun seem to be listed in descending order of value gold silver copper you're going down but then at the very end of the list the very last thing it says aam these are the onx stones that are on the Coen God's shoulders the these are the jewels of the breastplate now the jewels of the breastplate in particular were extremely valuable they were rubies they were sapphires they were diamonds different ones at least so says if we are listing things from higher to lower why are the aim listed at the end of the list they are even more valuable than gold and they should have been mentioned first right a technical question aim were the most valuable why are they at the end of the listing if zahav is number one so on this the gives three t the first terrce is a technical answer he points out that all of the other materials were used in the construction of the mishan itself the gold the silver the copper the aimim were not used in the construction of the mishkan they were used only exclusively I mean gold was used for big deuna too but gold was used in the construction of the mishkan but the a luim were not used in the construction of the mishkan at all they were only used used for big day Kahuna and since big day Kahuna are of a lower level Hally in kadha than the actual mikash mishkan so it's relegated at the end because they are the least kades because they are only big day Kona they are not the actual mishkan itself that is answer number one that the or gives answer number two the or gives is we actually read in par that the aim were contributed were given a specific Source normally we're not told who gave what we don't know some people gave gold some people gave silver we have no idea but we actually know who gave the aim and it says the Nim gave the aim the aim were contributed by the heads of the tribes I don't know if that means each one gave his own Jewel right because remember each shavit had it there 12 each shavit was engraved on the jewel so maybe each one gave its Jewel or maybe whatever it was but it came from the Nim now kazal have a very interesting medish double anandra when it says the Nim brought the word Nim has two meanings Nim can mean heads of tribes of course and theim can also mean rain clouds you find in many the N are the rainclouds and kazal combined both of them they say theum got the jewels as a gift in their M that when their M came down in a cloud the Nim were given these Jewels Nim right Nim got from theum the princes got from the clouds and the Nim then decided to donate what they got in the m to the mishkan so says the giving up those Jewels did not involve any sacrifice on their part because they got the jewels as a gift see as opposed to the rest of B Israel the rest of B Israel are giving from the gold and the silver that they got in MIT now that gold and silver was a partial compensation for more than 200 Years of Slavery work oppression they suffered they lost children in order to get this little bit of wealth I mean a lot of wealth out of mriah it came from suffering it was compensation for their suffering and for them to give up the compensation they got for their suffering involves struggle and pain for the theum to give up the jewels did not involve struggle and pain that was just a gift that came with breakfast so says thees values our sacrifices that come with struggle and pain much more than even the more expensive things that we give that do not involve struggle and pain and that is why everything else was listed before the aim because the aim did not in involve suffering and struggle so for example if you have a a very very wealthy person who gives a $100 $100 is is a you know nice donation to somebody then you have a poor person who gives a dollar it could very well be that a KES will be the dollar of the poor person much more than the $100 of the G because $100 of the G does not involve any sacrifice at all if he gives a million that's a different story $100 right not not not such a big deal and this is the statement of the of according to the suffering is the reward so that's the second answer our suffering now this is not just Financial suffering this is emotional suffering as well they tell the story about the bich Le that there was a man who came to the biter before Rashana and the man was at sadic and the man said rebi I have such a hard life I can't concentrate in my learning I can't concentrate in my daving I can't do my Mitzvah with the enthusiasm I need to do rebi please ask Hashem to give me a braa for a good year you know it's not that I want the wealth and I want to live a luxurious life I just want want to serve Hashem and these conditions will allow me to serve Hashem better and you know my heart is just the sh sh can you bring the bras down and the briter said to him I know you I know you're a righteous man and I know your I will do what I can and after rashishana or in the course of the year the man 's life continued to be very difficult and he went to the predit and he said rebi did you pray for me why weren't the prayers answered and the priter was very sad he said to the man I'm so sorry Hashem cherishes your Aida much more this way yeah you would do more without all of these things but what you're doing is so much more precious to the this is what gives him it's a perspective that that we can have sometimes as we go through the different struggles that we have then the gives a third answer again the question is why is the ab luim mentioned at the end the breastplate stones and the says because kazal tell us that the Nim gave it last because they waited to see what everybody else would bring they basically said let people take care of it we will simply give whatever needs to be given at the end and the says true is proactive not reactive you don't simply wait to see what other people are doing but you want to help you want to be mtic and therefore God is a little critical of the nium because they didn't see SE the moment they just waited to see what other people would do again it's a little bit difficult sometimes it's actually worthwhile for you to look at what people are doing but the says the should have had is a spontaneity of generosity which you want to give you don't just wait and see what other people do so these are three of why the a are mentioned last now a final nud I just want to share with you is once again a very very famous for it very very famous although it's not from but it's many say look at the language Hashem speaks to Moshe is speak to B is and they should take for me truma a donation now the question is what do you mean they shall take for me uh the Commandment is they shall give for me so it shouldn't have said it should have said they shall give for why they shall take for so a very very famous answer that's given by many is that your attitude towards and mitzvos when you're called upon to give is that you're taking much more than you're giving your attitude should be I am getting by what I'm doing that that's the attitude that whatever it is I'm giving up I'm getting much much much more and indeed by Stucker this is what we say we say that um when it comes to what you give is what you take and what you take is what you give what does that mean let's say a person lives his life to accumulate wealth when he dies all that wealth goes to other people so what you take in life is what you wind up giving away what you give in life is what you take with you so you take what you give and you give what you take whatever I spent my life taking I wind up giving whatever I spend my life giving I wind up taking that's going to be my SAR uh there is a star again I'm a little reluctant to tell this story because I have heard from the family that it's not true so I'm going to tell the story without any names because it's a great story even if it's not true because uh so but I'm not going to connect it to the family anymore because they feel it's not true and then I mean what I didn't make up the story I mean I mean the story was reported and the family said it wasn't true so I'm not going to connected to the family but here's the story uh a wealthy philanthropist who was a very very very generous supporter of all all aspects of Toran Judaism died but he left uh an interesting sa he left a will for his children in which he said that his one request is he wants to be buried in his favorite pair of black socks he had a pair of black socks he liked that war in chabas he wants to be buried now of course we normally don't do that but okay whatever it is he wanted that so the sons go to the kadish and they say say you know our father requested in his last will he wants to be buried in black socks so the just said no we don't do that everybody gets buried the same way we have standard issue simple you don't get to choose individual things okay so the kids were really heartbroken because they they had no idea why their father cared but if their father cared it meant something to them and the fact that his last request uh was not honored was a source of great pain to them but but they were given another letter by their father before he died to be opened after Shiva so they opened the letter after Shiva and the letter is I assume that you asked the kadisha to bury me in my socks and I assume they said no as I knew they would say no and I want to explain to you why I made this request because we were Z to accumulate a lot of wealth we were very successful in business but but I want you to know when you leave this world you don't even take a pair of socks with you you take nothing with you at all and therefore know that the purpose of this wealth is to give is to share because you take nothing with you and I want that you to graphically understand so again as I say this is a story that was said about a very well-known philanthropist but the family says didn't happen so I'll just take it as a parable it's a mushal I mean even you know the historical truth is not relevant here because we're talking about a parable about life okay so what you're giving is what you're taking they say with ra story thator panovich became a so he wanted he wanted to introduce his kala to ra and the woman said to raak rash spoke to the woman and the woman said you know I will do anything for my husband's learning I will will sleep in the street I will wear one dress I will live on bread and water I will undergo any sacrifice so my husband will learn there is nothing I won't give up right really Mish so the story goes yeah these might be stories I don't know if they're true The Story Goes Rak told the guy afterwards break off the engagement get out of it as soon as you can because she's communicating the idea that having a husband learn is a sacrifice I'm giving up I'm suffering ing well okay A person can suffer for a while but after a while becoming a martyr is intolerable you have to look ra said to someone who is not looking at this as sacrifice and deprivation but someone who sees the pleasure as so much greater than the inconveniences that it's a pleasure so it the the L would not be I am willing to suffer for Torah the attitude should be it's not suffering it's sweetness it's good this is the story they tell about Rak and that's the same idea you got to feel that you're getting you can't just feel that you're giving so in this connection they tell um a a very very cute story about uh the altar of of naric the alar of naric r y yel harvit was a very very interesting personality very extreme personality in many many ways um the naric in Europe Le less so today today maybe I shouldn't say this I don't think you have the real ners that you had in the olden days but you know before World War II naric were so so so amazing in their amuna their B their courage their eccentricity sometimes uh because they were so committed to a cause that they would behave in ways that were a little unusual for example exle uh naric believed in B that if you have trust in God no matter what God will give you what you need so naric of rashash is the story about rash of naric um who came to Kennedy Airport and without any money he didn't take any money because he said I know that Hashem will give me what I need he came without any money and a student happened to be in the airport and went up to the rash and said oh can I give the rash a right oh yeah and he's driving and the student at some point coughs and somewhat uncomfortably says I I just wanted to ask the Riva um if I wouldn't have been here um did you have any plan to get to the price said no he says did you have any money because he he knew did you bring any money he says no he says well how would you have gotten to the place if I wouldn't have been here so the Shea said you were here when weren't you what's the problem that was naric naric had this extreme idea of of amuna uh so The Story Goes that there was a gav a wealthy guy who was from but he was very stingy he didn't give any stalker to anybody he gave minimal contributions and somehow the alar of naric was able to break through and get a lot of money for his yeshivas so the other Russ shivas didn't understand how could the altar of naric be so successful what's his secret so someone said what is your secret how do you get through to this guy so the alternative Artic says I'll tell you the difference between me and you you come into a rich home you wipe your feet so there shouldn't be any mud you you know carefully sit down not to wrinkle anything you treat his possessions as something significant you kind of value his wealth and then you ask him to give it up the a person doesn't want to give up something that's so valuable says me the alter vartic said is I come in I track mud into his into his house I put my feet on his table I give him the impression your wealth is worth nothing but I have a proposition for you in which I will give you something much more valuable than wealth I will give you H I will give you the of having a Torah I'm not asking you to give me something I'm offering to give you something he says all right so people don't like to give but they're always happy to take so when I ask for money I'm giving them an opportunity to take you're asking for money you're giving them an opportunity to give and that's why I'm more successful now again I I I don't even know if that story is true although it wouldn't be so out of character based on other stories of the alar of naric but it does show you the idea that a person has to feel that they're getting and that's the getter ofum truma now one final point I I want to share with you is again a beautiful story of the pich and the pavich uh was one of the great great Builders of Torah uh you know Lithuania had L had 800 Community raban before small country before World War II and 799 of them died in the Holocaust the pavich RV was the only Community RV in Lithuania who survived the Holocaust and because of this he was obsessed he was a man obsessed with rebuilding rebuilding Yeshiva rebuilding not just but not just yeshivas hospitals orphanages they shov places for anim whatever it was he was a builder of Torin outstanding builder of Torah in fact he said that the biggest sacrifice he made for K Israel were all of the that he could have written because he was a great great genius and a brilliant but he spent most of his waking hours collecting money for all of these institutions creating these institutions how much Torah he could have taught but he you know he he gave it to ra and he gave it to rovski meaning they kind of handled the learning and the P who was a godor spent his life essentially building Tyra building Terra building most us because he really felt if Hashem gave him life this must have been his mission this must have been his T so the punov was a very very magnetic person personality um he was a g but he also was funny he was warm he was kind he had many many stories he was a person like who could relate to everybody he could relate to gdan and if you were like a simple person in the street he you know you'd feel very comfortable with him he made everybody feel comfortable so in a sense that's why one of the reasons why he was such a successful fundraiser because everybody connected him in fact the SAT marev once said when the man on the moon the first lunar launch was in 1968 I think and people were debating is their life on other planets so the satarov says you know I don't have any Ras from kazal about this but I know for sure there's no life on other planets because if there would be life on other planets the pev would have been there to collect money if the pun ofev was not in Mars I can assure you there was no intelligent life in Mars This what said about the pitv so The Story Goes that the punov vichev was once in Chicago to collect money and in those days this is before Jet Airlines so to fly from arel to Chicago would be like a 20 hour flight it was a long a long long flight uh in the 50s or the late 40s and he came to Chicago and he was going to make a pitch and collect money and in the back of the room was another M from naric naric is in b a small Yesa and when the naric person saw the punov he blanched because he figured no way I'm going to compete with him uh so he decided all right I'm not going to collect money today I'm just going to sit in the audience and enjoy the picav speech this is not a day for me to collect because he's going to get all the money in the city so the pun spoke Kadar with humor and anecdote and story and warmth and D Tor beautiful and people pulled out their checkbooks and at the end of the speech the said R there's a very from a very beautiful Yesa also in B please give him all the money you would have given me suffice it to say the nard M did much better than he ever did any other day of his life he got all of the money that would have gone to the pitov so he did very very well he went to the pav and he said Rabbi I am so grateful to you but I don't understand you make made a whole trip from marriage is to Chicago You're Not So Young anymore you know you're not so healthy anymore and you just gave up all of the money to another Yeshiva says I don't understand why you did it and how you did it P said to him I don't know what you mean another Yeshiva are we competing are we fighting each other I collect for Torah learning I collect for Mitzvah if I can get if I can collect enough money that that 20 people could learn for a month whatever why do I care if they're under the roof of the panovich Bas medish or under the roof of the naric Bas medish Lea Kamina we're on the same team we're not in competition now let me just say this is an extremely rare attitude even even for the greatest of rash shivas from n SLE of the mirror was actually that way as well in fact I understand that uh B yov uh the Mir Asser him to take money from donors because what he would do was he he would collect money from donors then if he saw somebody in Lakewood or n Israel he would just give him the money even though it was for me so they didn't trust him with the money because the money has to go to me but that wasle same Hasa that I'm collecting for Torah I'm not collecting for a particular Institution and the like and that too is part of building a mishigan that each of us are working towards the same end we're not in competition with each other you know we're on the same team so the same way I can be happy if I'm learning and growing I I should be happy when you're learning and growing it's not a zero some game where your win is my loss your win is our win your win Is hashem's Win and therefore we rejoice in the of each other so anyway have a good good week and a good chabas [Music] Andes is