Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Parashat Terumah

[Music] good evening today we're learning parashat terumah and we are going to speak about the tabernacle the mishkan the portable beta mikdash now the commentators argue about when was this torah portion given by hashem in torah in homage it's placed right after parashat mishpatim is right after parashat so we might think that right after the torah was given the jewish people were told about building the mishkan the tabernacle but as we mentioned in in parashat yitro there are some things in the torah that are out of order for example when in parashat it says that moshe said to judge the jewish people we said that this happened on the day after yom kippur because on yom kippur moshe came down from the mountain with the second set of hot of the tablets and only only the next day he was able for the first time to sit because for 120 days before yom kippur he was on the mountain he went for 40 days after a giving of the torah he came back on 17th of tammuz he broke the law he went again up uh came back on um and he went again for 40 days and he came back on yom kippur so moshe didn't have a time to sit except for after yom kippur so some commentators say that um that pasha thiruma was also said out of order so where is really the place for parashat rumah and tetzaveh um we know that parashat rumah and tetzaveh are both instructions on how to build the mishkan and how to make the the garments of kohin ga of kohanim and coin gadol and the actual building of the mishkan and making of the the garments is in parashat and parashat so in the in between these two parshiot and um next to which means between truman and vera there is a parsha that doesn't belong there and that is parsha kitisa speaks about the golden calf so the commentators say that the the partial golden calf should really follow the parasha of yetro and mishpatim why because when did the jewish people make the golden calf on the the night of 17th of uh tamus this was 40 days after giving of the torah when was moshe instructed to build the mishkan after he came down uh on yom kippur so really um the the the parshiot who might save were moved closer to it to separate the troll from um because it doesn't look good that right after giving of the torah the jewish people are making the um the golden calf the they're doing the sin of idol worship so hashem placed the the parsha kitisa later in the torah so that it shouldn't be the sin of the jewish people shouldn't be so grave so noticeable that they send right after seeing hashem and we'll speak later about why this end and what caused them not so simple so now the question arises why did hashem tell the jewish people to build the mishkan the tabernacle the the holy temple that was portable in the desert some say that this was original intent of hashem as it says they should make a holy place for me and i will dwell among them the hashem from the moment he gave us the torah he wanted to dwell on the this uh earth in the physical world and the midrash says that when hashem decided to give torah to the jewish people he said um i i have a dilemma i want to give the torah to the jews but i love the torah torah is called hashem's daughter hashem created the torah first only then he created the world so torah is the first creation of hashem that's why it's called god's daughter now hashem giving torah to the jewish people is compared to a king who had one daughter and he loved his daughter very much but when time came for her to get married the king said i cannot keep you all for myself you have your own life you need to get married to build your family to have children but i will miss you very much so the king said please when you get married build a a room next to your house like a mother daughter build a room next to your house so that whenever i want i'll visit you and i'll have where to stay so too when hashem gave torah to the jewish people he said i have to give the torah to the jewish people they need to know how to behave in the world but i love torah very much and therefore i ask the jewish people please after you receive the torah build the mishkan build the holy temple for me so that i can dwell among you close to my torah because really the original sephirah torah that moshe rabino wrote was stored in the holy of holies together with the the ten commandments the the the two uh tablets so mishkan represents first and foremost the house of torah the the the the holy temple the betamic dash what is at the center the torah both the ten commandments and the actual sephir torah so hashem said i want to dwell right next to the ten commandments right next to the original torah so that is why hashem's uh presence dwells above the ark of the of the covenant that means that uh let me mute everyone please if you're uh if you buy accent unmute yourself mute yourself right away okay so again the arc of the covenant it's a box contains contains the okay let me mute in such a way that people cannot unmute themselves and then we're not going to be bothered okay very good um if you need to ask a question you can ask it in the chat otherwise everyone is muted now again the ark of the covenant we're going to learn about in this week's parsha um it's a it's a it's a box and inside is the sever torah on top it's covered with a lid golden lid and on top of of it are the uh cherubs the keruvim um angel like sculptures from gold and god dwells right there between the angels the divine presence and whenever hashem spoke to moshe their voice would come up from the ark in between the two um cherubs and emanate from there to be heard outside so hashem dwells right next to the torah that he gave to the jewish people that is one uh explanation why the commandment of of to build the mishkan was given right after um giving of the torah and according to this the part parsha pluma is in the right place the commandment to build to build the mishkan came right after giving of the torah however according to another explanation the reason why jewish people had to build mishkan was not because that was original plan of god it was not because hashem wanted to begin with to dwell among the jewish people in a centralized beta mikdash but rather it was something necessary only after the jewish people made the sin of the golden calf the commentators say that originally every jewish household was supposed to have a misbehave an altar and every jewish household was supposed to be um a miniature vitamix dash so every uh family was able to bring offerings in their own house in their own backyard and who would be the kohen for the family the behold the firstborn every family would have the first born male and if the family doesn't have a firstborn male whether the father or the son or the grandfather or grandson then they the oldest member of the family would serve as a kohen and every family was able to communicate with god serve god in their own way that was the original plan of hashem however when the jewish people made the golden calf hashem said i can no longer allow every family to have their own beta mikdash why because they they showed that they have still desire for idols and if i allow every jewish household to have an altar and to bring offerings there is a great risk that that many families will bring idols into their betamigdash and they might have wrong thoughts they might sacrifice to foreign gods shalom and therefore the service of hashem is no longer given to individual families but rather hashem said we must build a centralized temple beta-mikdash the tabernacle mishkan so that there is supervision and and from then on uh the privilege to serve god was taken away from the firstborn males and was given to kohanim because they showed their commitment to god their loyalty by not serving the idol the idols the the golden calf only the tribe of levi the levites and kohanim did not serve the golden calf and therefore hashem said they will remain the servants of god in the national tabernacle the national temple so according to this explanation the reason why god told us to build the temple or the mishkan was only as an outcome of the golden calf as something to atone for golden calf so these are two uh views of on on why we we have at the national temple beta mikdash that we're waiting for one as original uh plan of hashem to dwell among the jews and one as atonement for atonement for golden calf and as as a precaution that the jewish people should not serve god privately that's too risky but rather they should serve all together um on the national uh altar in the national beetaming dash now let's start the partial we are on page 445 of the arts and chapter 25 hashem spoke to moshe saying from let the jewish people take for me a portion a donation from every man whose heart motivates him you shall take my portion and there are 16 different um items mentioned that the jewish people donated gold silver copper turquoise wool purple wool scarlet wool linen gold hair red dyed red skins skins of tahash animal acacia wood olive oil for illumination for the menorah spices for the anointment oil and spices for the aroma aromatic incense shoham stones stones for the settings for the effort and the breastplate and they shall make a sanctuary for me so that i may dwell among them that is the the source of the of the first reason that hashem wanted to dwell among the jewish people from the beginning so that he can be next to his beloved people and next to his beloved torah it's interesting the jewish people are considered the son of god and the torah is considered the daughter of god and the jewish people and the torah are the the groom and the bride the jewish people are like the groom and torah is our color our bride now turn to page 447 first comes the ark of the covenant they shall make an ark of acacia wood verse 11 you shall cover it with pure gold from within and from without so they made three boxes one of gold on the bottom the second one of wood that you put inside the golden box and then another smaller box of gold that you insert into the wooden box and then you cover the lip with gold as well so the box looks golden on the outside on the in on the inside but but between the the two golden covers is acacia wood and you shall make on it a gold crown all around you shall cast for it four rings of gold to put on each corner and you shall make staves of acacia wood staves are poles that you insert into those four uh rings two on two rings on each side so one pole on each side with which to carry the ark since the tabernacle was portable they would disassemble it and then transport it to their new location you shall place um the verse 15 the staves shall remain in the rings of the ark they may not be removed from it this is a negative commandment to remove the poles from the ark other uh vessels of the mishkan also had staves like the the golden table the the the mizbayah the golden spare and the the copper miss bear and uh those staves were allowed to be removed but the staves of the the ark had to remain even while the ark is resting at the at the at the resting place um verse 16 you shall place in in the ark the testimonial tablets that i shall give you now this pasuk also uh seems to hint that the the commandment to build the mishkan was given even before moshe received the the tablets because it says you shall place in the ark the luho the tablets that i shall give you means hashem didn't give them yet and hashem already tells us the mitzvah to build the mishkan okay now we turn to page 449 the ark cover the kapoor you shall make a cover of pure gold verse 18 and you shall make two keruvim the cherubs of gold hammered out shall you make them from both ends of the cover which means they took a chunk of gold and working only with hammers they hammered out the the chunk that it should be a cover and together from the cover rise up the the two um angelic uh kiruvim verse 20 the keruvim shall be with wings spread upward sheltering the cover with their wings with their faces toward one another each one stood on two ends of the cover facing each other and with their wings leaning towards each other almost touching verse 21 you shall place the cover on the ark from above verse 22 it it is there that i will set my meetings with you and i shall speak with you from atop the cover from between the two keruvin now next comes commandment to make the table you shall make a table of acacia wood you shall cover it with pure gold and make for the golden crown all around and make for it a molding of one-handed breath all around and make a golden crown on the molding as well all around and make four rings of gold and place them on four corners verse 28 you shall make the poles the staves of acacia wood and cover them with gold as well so the table just like the the ark was made of wood but covered with gold okay now page 451 verse 29 and you shall make its dishes for on on which we will put the the bread the spoons the shelving tubes and its pillars of pure gold and on the table you shall place show bread before me always on the table there were six shelves on one side and six shelves on the other side and on each shelf you would put a loaf of bread all together 12 loaves of bread and on top of the bread there was a spice and the bread was baked each friday and it was placed on the table on shabbat during the day and the the bread that was placed on a table of the the week before on shabbat was removed at the same time and the kohanim would eat the bread from last week and this bread would stay for the coming week and the kohanim would eat this bread the following week so kanye would eat uh the bread on shabbat but the bread was baked eight days earlier and the bread still remained fresh and and and uh soft and warm that was one of the miracles that happened in the mishkan next comes the menorah the seven branch candelabra you shall make a menorah of pure gold hammered out shall the minora be made its base its shaft its cups its knobs its blossoms shall be hammered from it six branches shall emerge from its side three branches on one side and three branches on the other side so the minora just like the the kapoor the ar the ark cover was made from a chunk of gold and using only the hammers you had to hammer out the entire shape and both the the ark and the minora the the arc cover and mineral they were very difficult to make and the midrash says that hashem had to make it who to help moshe to make it otherwise motion did not believe it was possible to hammer out the time in order from a chunk of gold without attaching any part to it afterwards it had to be all made from one chunk of gold okay and then the rest of the page describes how the mineral was structured now there is a an argument as to the shape of the mineral we know it had the central shaft and then uh three branches on one side and three branches on the other side so uh some say menorah was with curved branches and some say it had straight branches three on each side and one in the center so if you if you um look at the menu it was on the arch of titus um the famous arch in rome that was built in commemoration of the roman conquest of jerusalem there the the menorah is shown with curved branches but if you look in rambam in his uh mishneh the book of law you will find a picture there that has menorah with straight slanted um branches and that is why we see both of these shapes uh among the jewish people the the chabad hasidim uh follow the rambam picture [Music] that's for hanukkah for hanukkah they copy the menorah of the uh of course for hanukkah the minute can be of any shape as long as the the lights are on the same level but this difference comes from the difference of opinions how the menorah looked in the beta mikdash but since rambam's picture is with slanted straight branches many consider that to be the authoritative opinion that the menorah did not have curved uh branches but rather straight slanted branches um okay but we'll wait until mashiach comes and then we will uncover the menu that was that is hidden from the original mishkan and from the first temple and we will see what it was okay now we turn on p to page 453 verse 36 the knobs and the branches shall be from the menorah itself not attached later all of it a single hammered piece of pure gold you shall make its lamp seven and the cohen shall kindle its lamps so as to give light toward its face and that means that the central light in the middle had its um wick in the center of the lamp each branch had a golden lamp that means a a ball a container for oil and inside the container was a wick so in the center the week was in the middle of the ball however the three branches on each side had their wicks towards the central lamp this was to show that the menura actually represents wisdom the light the light that minora produces is the enlightenment it represents uh the seven kinds of wisdom the central is the torah and three on one side and three on the other side represent other wisdoms of the world one of them being science one of them being philosophy one of them being music mathematics and two others and the point is that the three side the three kinds of wisdom on one side and three kinds of wisdom on the other side the physical wisdoms secular wisdoms they point towards the central light of torah to show that all kinds of wisdom are important but they're only important because they are supposed to help us understand the torah better so a jew is supposed to learn science biology chemistry physics astronomy a jew is supposed to learn mathematics and philosophy logic and music and all the the important wisdoms of the world but not in order to become respected in order to earn money in order to be called a professor uh and and in order just to know but a jew is supposed to develop his mind with all kinds of wisdom so that he can understand torah better through mathematics through sciences through philosophy and music uh we can understand and appreciate hashem appreciate hashem's creation and appreciate the torah now verse 39 says of a talent of pure gold shall he make it a talent is a measure which is approximately 150 pounds so minora weighed 150 pounds and it was made of pure gold which since gold is um very heavy it's a heavy metal it's not so much um it's a it's relatively a small chunk of gold because gold is heavy the amount of gold that we're saying 150 pounds it's a lot it's expensive but volume of wise it's not so much okay now we go to chapter 26 and we're talking about the actual structure of the tabernacle until now we spoke about the vessels the utensils um the ark the table the menorah for some reason the commandment to make uh the misbehave the altar is going to be given later now the the tabernacle was made of wooden um beams vertical wooden beams all around that served as a as uh as walls and it had a roof made from layers of material and according to some there were three layers of uh roof of various materials and according to some there were four layers of roof the first layer was for beauty second layer was to uh provided protection from rain and the top layer was also for beauty but also the beauty for the outside already so it was the roof of the tabernacle was beautiful to look from the inside and it was beautiful to look from the outside and on the ins on the the central layer was um waterproof to protect against rain okay so first we speak about the roof you shall make the tabernacle roof of ten curtains and it was it is made from four kinds of string twisted linen string turquoise wool purple wool and scarlet wool with the woven design of keruvim shall you make it if you look from the inside on the roof you will see angelic images woven into the roof the left length of a curtain was 28 cubits and the width of four cubits so there were uh ten of them sewn together five were on one side five on the other side and then they were connected the the the five curtains that were sewn together were sewn permanently on each side but the connection was with hooks and loops so if necessary they could be separated if you need to fix them or wash them so you would divide the roof into two halves and then take care of it and then reconnect now verse 4 speaks about the the hooks and the loops you shall make loops of turquoise wool at the edge of each set of curtains and verse 5 says 50 loops on one side and 50 loops on the other side and now we go to page 455 verse 6 you shall make 50 hooks of gold and you shall attach the curtains to one another with the hooks now we go to the second layer of the roof that is made from 11 curtains so the second roof was a little bit longer and it covered completely the the top layer the bottom layer and plus it hung over more to cover the walls you shall make curtains of goat hair for a tent over the tabernacle 11 curtains shall you make it the length of a single curtain 30 cubits and the width of a single curtain four cubits and here you have six curtains in one set and five curtains another set you connect them with the same hooks and loops but this time the hooks were copper the bottom layer the hooks were golden okay now in verse 14 we go to the third and fourth layers of the roof you shall make a cover for the tent of red dyed ram skins so these are already skins and they are made of um waterproof material and on top of it is a cover of takash skins and tahash is a special animal that existed only at that time and its uh skin and the the the hide was multi-colored various beautiful colors and uh the topmost layer was made from tahrash skins now we go to the description of the walls verse 15. you shall make the planks of the tabernacle of acacia woods standing vertically 10 cubits the length of each plank which means 10 qubits are 15 feet so the the walls the wooden walls of the tabernacle were 15 feet high very tall and each beam was one cubit a cubit is the length from your elbow until your longest finger that that's about a foot and a half so each beam was a foot and a half wide by two feet um long so that each beam each plank was very heavy it was um solid wood heavy heavy wood a foot and a half by two feet 15 feet length it weighed a ton and it was so heavy that moshe rabbeno was not able to pick it up and hashem told moshe you have to assemble the mishkan moshe said how can i pick it up hashem said just try and moshe touched the the beam applied a little pressure and the beam stood vertically miraculously by itself okay when the jewish people traveled these huge beams were transported on wagons uh pulled by oxen okay each plank had two tenons which which are two sticks coming out on the bottom which were inserted into a special foundation of silver now we turn to page 457 there were 20 planks on the southern side with four 40 silver sockets on the bottom two sockets under each plank for each of the tenants and 20 planks on the northern side with their 40 silver sockets and on the west there were eight planks two planks in the center and i mean six planks in the center and two on corners okay now verse 26 speaks about the bars in order to keep these um heavy planks uh steady they shouldn't sway and they shouldn't separate they they had a system to put a ring on top connecting two planks so if you have uh two planks like this there was a ring connecting both of them and there was a split in in in each plank so that the ring can go in and also there were two bars going through in the middle of the wall they would bore a plank and insert a metal pole and this metal pole went throughout the entire wall and so they did on all three sides and there were two poles um one one in the center bore through and two um on both sides one on top and one on the bottom the the two planks the the two bars that were on top and the bottom were on the outside of the wall and the central one was in the middle board through the wall okay you shall make bars of acacia wood and the middle bar inside the planks shall extend from end to end you shall cover the planks with gold and its rings shall you make with gold as housing for the bars and you shall cover the bars with gold so even though even though the the planks were made of wood but they were covered with gold and the bars were made from wood and they were also covered with gold now we go to page 30 that that goes into page 459 you shall erect the tabernacle according to its manner as you will have been shown on the mountain so motion shown the entire process of building the vessels and building the mishkan on the mountain so that when he came down and instructed the jewish people uh he he knew clearly how it's supposed to look now on page 459 verse 31 we speak about parochet the curtain the partition to divide the holy of holies and the rest of the tabernacle you shall make a partition of turquoise purple and scarlet wool and linen twisted weaver's craft he shall make it with a woven design of a karovin so the the parochet the curtain also had the design of angelic images you shall place it upon four pillars of acacia wood plated with gold so the mishkan had two parts the holy of holies and the plain holy and um they were separated by the uh partition now the bishkhan was 30 ammo long about 45 feet the holy of holies was ten amount about 15 feet there was a partition and then another 20 amount about 30 feet so where the partition was it was hanging on four pillars the partition shall separate for you between the holy and the holy of holies you shall put the cover upon the ark of the testimonial tablets in the holy of holies after the walls and the roof and the partition are made they will they brought the ark into the holy of holies covered put the sephir torah and the tablets inside covered it with a with a golden cover with the keruvim and verse 35 you shall place the table outside of the partition in the holy and the menorah opposite the table the table was on the northern side the menorah was the mineral was on the south side verse 36 now at the entrance to the mishkan to the holy part there was another partition and called a screen for the entrance of the tent and that was made from turquoise purple and scarlet wool and twisted linen and embroiders craft and the screen for the entrance of the mishkan rested on five pillars of acacia wood also covered with gold now verse chapter 27 speaks about the the copper altar and the golden altar is going to be discussed in the next torah portion you shall make and the altar of acacia wood five cubits by five cubits square and three cubits its height now the the the talmud says that really it was uh not three qubits in height it was 10 cubits in height but the three qubits that that we discussed are only the top portion of the alter and the altar had horns on its four corners made also from wood and covered with copper the entire altar was covered with copper and they made its utensils the pots shovels basins forks fire pans all of the utensils were made of copper and the copper had the the the misbehave also had a copper netting of mesh work so around the the misbehave around the altar there was like a copper mesh on four sides attached to that mesh were four rings and into those rings were inserted the two poles with which to carry the misbehave now verse eight hollow of boards shall you make the altar the mizbeh as you were shown on the mountain now we mentioned before that uh hashem commanded moshe to make uh misbehave off earth that is why this mizbeh was hollow it was made of wood covered with copper but inside it was empty and it was filled with earth and the center also was hollow according to some it was filled with earth so the offerings were burnt on on it now verse 9 speaks about the courtyard and the surrounding curtains you shall make the courtyard of the tabernacle of lace hangings of twisted linen and it's a hundred cubits long 150 feet long was the courtyard around the mishkan the mishkan itself we said was about 45 feet long and the courtyard around it was uh a hundred cubits 150 feet long and 50 cubits about 75 feet wide and it's pillars 20 and their sockets 20 of copper verse um 12 the width of the courtyard on the west side lately hangings of 50 cubits 75 feet now we could go to page 463 verse 16. at the gate of the courtyard there was a screen of 20 cubits so the courtyard had curtains on the west side on the south side on the north side and on the east side it had a little short shoulder-like uh curtain on one side and on the other side and the center was the gate and it had a screen in front of it so now we're speaking about that gate of the courtyard and the screen of 20 cubits the entire width of of the eastern side was 50 a mod and the gate was 20 which means the shoulder was 15 ammo and the other shoulder was 15 and the central gate was 20. verse um 17 all the pillars of the courtyard all around banded with silver their hooks of silver and their sockets of copper the length of the courtyard 100 cubits and the width 50. and the height five cubits about eight feet of twisted linen and their sockets of copper now the final verse of the of the chapter uh all the vessels of the tabernacle for all its labor all its pegs and all the pegs of the courtyard are made of copper now with this we finish the the the parsha this week we also read parashat zahr about the mitzvah to destroy the nation of amalek those that represent the ultimate evil those that go against god those who go against morality those that go against the jewish people so we are reminded right before putin about the ancestors of haman harasha who wanted to destroy the jews just like his great-grandfather isaac who wanted to kill yaakov and we are reminded that don't don't forget don't think that was that was only in the ancient history of hamad no it will happen again and again there will in every generation be people who want to destroy the jews and just recently we saw the holocaust the germans the hitler imakshima uh who took after his great grandparents who wanted to kill the jewish people as well for hashem uh we are being protected by god constantly but we have to realize that it's not because of our own strength uh it's not because there is no danger rather the danger exists but hashem protects us constantly and uh even in our times as we speak there are people who are planning how to destroy the jewish people shalom they will not succeed they will go down in history as failures because hashem loves the jews and he will protect us always shabbat shalom thank you for listening now somebody is asking why do we no longer use angelic imagery today we have unfortunately history that it's very easy for human beings to serve idols when people see an image they can start thinking that that's the image in the spiritual realm that's the image of god shallow and that is why we don't use such images um we don't have statues in our homes and many people don't have [Music] pictures of paintings of statues or or random people pictures of sadiq of righteous men are permitted or family pictures but just random pictures of objects or or concepts are discouraged because we don't want people to have wrong images in their mind even when you pray it's important not to have an image to which you're praying because the torah says god does not have image the god does not have a form and that is why um the only image that was permitted was in the tabernacle in the temple where there was uh divine presence where hopefully people would not be mistaken and think that uh that this is an idol because they know this is the house of god and uh these are just servants of god in no manner we should think that the god has any um image or color or shape or form um god is beyond physical um shape or image god is even beyond spiritual world so um it is it is a good question why did they have these uh these uh cherubs keruvim there good question difficult question and nowadays in even in our synagogues we try to keep it simple just plain walls no paintings and even on on the on the parakeet by ashkenazim they're more lenient about it and they have um in uh woven images of lions or minora or or trees uh but by surviving we try to keep the parochial simple and the entire synagogue should not have sculptures pictures and some are even careful not to have trees or flowers in the synagogue that because in all the times people used to serve plants serve trees so if at all possible we should try not to have uh statues paintings uh in in the synagogues or even our own homes okay thank you for your question um shabbat shalom and um happy uh happy puri pull him next week is going to be tanita stare and put him so we're not going to have class on thursday but we might move it to wednesday night again thank you for listening shabbat shalom [Music] you