Parshat Terumah


Based on Rebbe Nachman

"Well," his wife asked, "if your shoes are so beautiful, why does everybody else make a healthy profit from their shoes and you make a pittance?" "I'm not losing money, am I?" answered the Innocent. "And besides, why should we talk about others?

This is their story and this is my story."

All sorts of materials were used in constructing the Mishkan: wool, linen, animal hides, gold, silver and copper.

Various instruments and parts were fashioned from these materials: the Menorah, the Table, the Torah Ark, beams, curtains, overhangs and more.

It's nice to be gold necklace and have everybody ooh-and-ah over you. It's nice to be silver candlesticks and sit as a centerpiece and be admired. It's rough being a copper pot, sitting on a hot fire, being dropped and banged around.

It's an honor being a beautiful woolen curtain, announcing the entrance to God's inner chamber. It's a blast being the Altar, being in the center of all the action: people running up and around, bringing their sacrifices and gifts, laying some at your feet and others on your back (as it were). It's such a pain to be a socket serving as a base for one of the 15-foot cedar

beams overlaid with gold. "Oy, I have such a crick in my neck. Do you have any idea how much those things weigh?!"

The beam has its own lament. Tall, handsome, strong and what's it doing? Sitting in the northwest corner covered by linen curtain. "How's anybody going to know I'm here?"

You may not be gold or silver, neither particularly beautiful or talented. You may be carrying the weight of responsibility anonymously. You may be bursting with genius and energy—and no seems to appreciate it. All those flimsy "linen curtains" and the like get all the kudos and you get ignored. Frustration and jealousy can start to ruin you.  

"This is their story and this is my story."

If a beam is missing or a hook not properly fastened, the Mishkan fails. Your role, in all its details, is vital. No matter how small it may look to others your job is mission critical. You are integral. Appreciate your work and do it well

 

. [The Shunamite woman said] The holy man of God passes our way frequently. Let us make a him a room, and furnish it with a bed, table, chair and lamp, so that he will stay here whenever he comes.'  2 Kings 4:9-10

'They explained, In front of the throne stands a bed. There is a table near the bed and on the table stands a lamp.
Rabbi Nachman's Stories, p. 270-271

The Shunamite woman recognized the holiness of the prophet Elisha. She wanted the energy of that holiness to influence her home. However, the home had to be made ready. A proper space had to be prepared and the appropriate furnishings had to be provided, otherwise Elisha would not come. So the Shunamite woman did for Elisha what Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) was told he would have to do for God's Mishkan(tabernacle). She made an appeal for the building fund.
If our bed, be it a single or double mattress, is not sanctified, the Holy of Holies of our would-be Mishkanlacks an Ark, the container of the Torah. And if there is no Ark, there is no cover for the Ark, no throne. God's voice emanated from the space between the Cherubs that were atop the Ark's cover. No cover means no voice. Our moral lapses silence God.

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