Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Ki Tisa 1

good evening today we're learning parat ktis we're using R scroll Kash and we are on page 485 whereas the last two Torah portions spoke about the events of the first year since the Jewish people came out of Egypt that occurred after yum kipur when Moshe came down with the second set of the tablets this par speaks about the events that occurred right after uh the Jewish people received the Torah and that is why we will see at the end of the paraa we go back to um all the way from the receiving of the Torah until Yip basically this par is going to tell us the missing information um from the time Moshe went up to Mount Si for 40 days what happened while he was away what happened when he came back and then he went back again up the mountain for another 40 days and came back and again he went up for a third period of 40 days altogether it took him from shav the giving of the Torah until yum Po and after he came back God gave us the Commandment to build the mishan the Tabernacle the portable bet mikdash um and that is why our sages say that the Commandment to build beta mikdash was the result of the golden calf that we read about in this week's para because the Jewish people made the calf because they started serving a a statue a force besides God Hashem said I can no longer allow Jews to have personal altars personal M at home it must now be a national Temple and the job of Servants of God has to be given to one group who are going to preserve it study it it can no longer be given to the firstborn of every family because that can become very dangerous every family might decide to make a representation a statue an intermediary between them and God and God forbid there might be idol worship if not for the golden calf every firstborn boy would become the Coen he would be the representative of the family in front of God and every family could have an altar a miniature temple in their home and they could bring their own offerings but from then on no more uh private altars it had to be a national altar now what is the reason that the the Torah switched places is why did we uh put the story of the golden calf um after the construction of the mishan or the description of the construction of the mishkan and various answers are given but one simple answer is that we have a rule that Hashem always brings the uh healing before the disease Hashem always introduces The Cure before the disease and here this is the cure um the fact that the Jewish people will donate money to the beta mikdash to the temple to the the mishkan as willingly as they donated the money for the golden calf will be in some measure atonement for them and um even though it happened later but Hashem already knows the desire and he put it in the Torah earlier to show don't judge the Jews negatively don't say look at them they took off their gold earrings and they gave it to Aaron to make the golden calf the Jews are good at heart and if you ask them to donate to Hashem to the bet mikdash they will do it quickly and and uh willingly and that's what we see they did and the the Jewish people donated so much that Aaron um and Moshe had to say enough we don't need anymore please stop they had to give command no more donations we're overwhelmed with donations God willing every every synagog and every Yeshiva should be able to say that and again God saw that the Jews want to serve God the Jewish people want to give from their heart to a higher cause and that is why when mosha wasn't there and they um decided to construct an intermediary to speak to God they said what for something spiritual something that will allow us to connect to God of course we're going to do it and they gave their gold earrings willingly and their intent was not to serve Idols their intent was just to connect to God and they knew that just like Moshe was an intermediary a prophet speaking to them on God's behalf so they thought the golden calf will they thought that it it is just like a microphone through which they will be able to communicate with God for sure they knew that the calf that they just made themselves is not God now let's start the paraa first we finish up the story of uh the the last two Torah portions where um the Jewish people donated for the construction of the mishkan and various utensils were described the garments of coin uh Coen anden were described and now we explain um where did silver come from and where um some other uh utensils and some other things that are necessary for the service in the mishkan came from now um page 485 in Arash Chapter 30 verse 11 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying when you take a census of the children of Israel you shall every man shall give Hashem an atonement for his soul when counting them so that there will not be a plague among them when counting them Hashem says before we go further let's count the Jews and again knowing that this happened after y kipur after the story of the golden calf when many Jews died it's understandable why Hashem wants to count them now that some of the Jews fell due to their sins I want to count how many Jews are left and Hashem counts them like a faithful Shepherd like a loving Shepherd who um wants to know the number of his sheep so to Hashem counts the Jewish people but interestingly how does he count the Jewish people it says in verse 13 this shall they give everyone who passes through the census a half shackle coin of the Sacred shackle and it tells us how how much it is every shekele is 20 G and they should give half a shekele which is 10 G uh as a portion for Hashem the word um comes from the word aor which means a collection of silver or gold in this case it is silver in in modern Israel they name their coins according to this aora is equivalent to our scent and shekel is equivalent to our dollar so Hashem said to Moshe tell every Jew to take a coin whose worth is half a shekel equivalent to our 50 cent coin take that coin and give it to the general collection box at the end we will count how many coins there are and we'll know how many adult male Jews are there and the question is why can't you just count every person like they count them in the United States and all over the world when they conduct census they count people why can't we count Jews and the answer is right there in verse two in verse verse 12 so that there will not be a plague among them when counting them here the Torah tells us a secret that when you count people there may be a plague this is due to to evil eye when people see that this nation has so many people why do they need so many why do they rep multiply so much that may cause jealousy and that may cause another reason the sages give is that we have a rule blessing can only rest upon something that is hidden from the eye something that is modest when you show off there is no blessing and therefore you have to count your wealth count your children count the Jewish people in a hidden way in an indirect way in this case count them through money we have a another case in Jewish history where uh Jewish people were counted with sheep every man would would would give a a lamb and we have another case in Jewish history where they were counted by pieces of pottery each Jew would have to give uh a broken Shard and then they would count how many shards there are and they would know how many Jews now this half uh of a shekel coin was used to construct a part of the mishkan and that was the the basis of wooden pillar the mishan had wall which were made from wooden beams standing up but in order that the wooden beams shouldn't be uh in the ground shouldn't be touching the moist ground and shouldn't rot they were placed on uh the silver sockets someone is asking when the were the Jews counted with sheep and shards and that is found in the prophets with DAV with SH and so on uh this was some Thousand Years um later or eight eight more like 800 years later okay now um a question is asked why was a coin worth half a shackle used why didn't they use a coin that's worth a whole shackle so there are two answers one answer is that the amount of silver that was necessary for the construction of the mishan was enough to be um filled with just half a shekel coin given by every Jew and so Hashem didn't ask for more that's all we need that's all we ask for and the second answer is to remind every Jew that without a friend I'm only half a human being without a partner without a spouse without the community I'm only half and uh therefore the Jews not only uh were counted but they were also taught a lesson now the word um terum which means a donation is mentioned three times in this paragraph and from here we learn that the Jewish people had to donate three separate times the first time the time of the census they donated half a uh shekel coin to be used for the basis of the beams the second time they also gave half a shekel coin and this was used for um offerings throughout the year they they would make a collection half of a silver uh shekel coin once a year and that would be kept in a treasury and every day they would take some money from it to buy two sheep one lamp for the morning one lamp for the afternoon offering and this lasted them for the entire year and this way every person contributed only one coin but he was part of every single communal offering throughout the year in beta mikdash that was the second uh donation and the third donation was already all the other materials necessary for the construction of the mishkan gold and wool and linen and wood and precious stones and so on and so forth now we turn to page 487 here we read about the construction of another vessel not yet mentioned yet and that is called the keor keor uh which in English is called a Laver Laver means a wash basin means a copper vessel a large copper vessel that contains water and it has spouts and Kohan before serving bet mikash they would sit in front of it open the the spout the the foret water would pour out and they would wash their hands and their feet simultaneously because they served uh barefooted and in order to wash off dust from outside they would wash their feet as well as their hands um so page 487 ver1 17 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying you shall make a copper Laver copper wash basin and its base of copper for washing verse 19 from it Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands together with their feet now let's go to verse 22 here we learn about the anointment oil anointment oil called Shem was um olive oil in which uh certain spices were mixed and that gave the fragrance to to the oil with which they would anoint kohanim Kings and the utensils of the mishkan including the mishkan to raise their level to make them dedicated for service of God verse vers 22 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying now you take for yourself Choice spices and it lists the spices there were four spices pure myrr uh fragrant cinnamon fragrant cane and cassum and olive oil and make oil of sacred anointment a blended compound the handiwork of a perfumer and now in verse um 26 would describe what do we do with it with it you shall anoint the tent of meaning meaning the mishkan and the Ark of testimonial tablets arones the table and its utensils thean the Min and its utensils the Candelabra and the incense altar the altar upon which we burn Kor the golden altar the elevation offering altar the outer altar made from copper and its utensils and the labor and its base verse uh now we're on page 489 verse 30 you shall anoint Aaron and his sons to and sanctify them to minister to me and as we mentioned before Jewish kings were also Anointed with this oil this oil was made only once as it says in verse 31 this shall remain for me meaning for God oil of sacred anointment for your generations and uh verse 32 tells us some prohibitions about it it shall not be smeared on human flesh you're not allowed to apply it to any other human besides kohanim and kings and you shall not dup duplicate it in its formulation you're not allowed to make a a similar oil with the same um proportion of spices ever in history it was made once by Moshe and it remained in use throughout the 400 years of mishkan and 400 years of the beta mikdash so we used this oil for about 800 years and it was not diminished then at the end of the first temple uh one of the last kings he forsaw that the temple will be destroyed and he took this oil and he hid it deep down in the tunnels of uh the Temple Mount and together with that oil he also hid all the original utensils and he made replicas to um to keep in betam mikdash so that when Babylonians would destroy the temple and remove its utensils they would remove the replicas but not the originals now in verse 34 on page 489 we learn about incense that is called kored a a mixture of spices that were Ground into powder and were used every day on the golden altar to burn with fire to produce uh Pleasant smelling smoke verse 34 Hashem said to Moshe take for yourself spices and it gives some spices here uh three spices I mentioned actually Four uh but the the mishna says that there were actually 11 spices used and uh they were mixed and ground you shall make it into a spice compound the handiwork of a com of a perfumer thoroughly mixed pure and holy you shall grind some of it finely and place some of it before the testimonial tablets in the tent of meeting this describes the service of yum kipur every day we would burn um uh small portion of it on the golden altar but on yum kipur in addition to that we would also burn a little or a bit of it in the holy of holies in The KES aashim in front of the Holy Ark and uh this incense was made once a year and it was divided for for uh all the days of the year and uh there there is a Prohibition for a regular person to make it for his own use an individual is allowed to make it if he wants to donate um this this incense to the temple but a an individual is not allowed to make it for his own pleasure if a person wants to make such a spice he has to use different proportion of these 11 spices then it is okay now in in chapter 31 Hashem designates two people who are going to be in charge of the construction of the mishan Hashem spoke to Moshe saying see I have called by name bitel son of U son of of the tribe of Yehuda I fill him with a a Godly spirit with wisdom insight and knowledge and with every craft to weave designs to work with gold silver and copper stone cutting for setting and wood carving to perform every craft even though Jewish people just uh left Egypt and they did not know how to be Artisans and and and do all these crafts Hashem inspired bit to be able to do it and he was an expert in all these miraculously and he taught other Jews and he supervised them and behold I have assigned with him a holy son of of the tribe of Dan and he also was um inspired to know how to do all these uh crafts now here we see that Hashem designated balel who came from the Royal tribe of Yehuda and Dan who came from one of the lowest tribes and Hashem says for my service every Jew is equal doesn't matter what your background is you can be the one to build the betam mikdash whether you come from the highest lineage or the lowest lineage if you dedicate yourself to serve Hashem you can do it now in in uh verse 12 on page 491 we introduce Shabbat Hashem spoke said to Moshe saying now speak to children of Israel saying however you must observe Shabbat why all of a sudden why however and the connection is clear because just in the previous paragraph Hashem says build the mishkan and this is what you should do weaving gold crafting working with silver and copper stone cutting wood carving bill build all the utensils build this um mishan building grind the spices light the fire to melt uh the the gold and silver and copper however you must observe my Shabbat from here we derive that for six days you could construct the mishkan but on Shabbat you cannot construct mishan and from here we learn what kind of work we're not allowed to do on Shabbat and that is exactly the kind of work that was necessary for the construction of mishan and that is why when we study how the mishan was constructed we will uh see 39 various labors and that is exactly what we cannot do on Shabbat and it continues verse 13 for it is a sign between me and you for your generations to know that I am Hashem who makes you holy why do we keep Shabbat because it is a sign between us and Hashem and verse this by the okay now verse 14 you shall observe the Shabbat for it is Holy to you it's desecrated shall be put to death if there are witnesses how Shabbat was desecrated then there is there is a death penalty for whoever does work on it that Soul shall be cut off from among its people and here we learn about another rule that if a person desecrates Shabbat without Witnesses then of course there is no death penalty because no one saw it however there is KET and that means cutting off of the soul from the Jewish people spiritual excision we call it and and practically it is recognizable by early death before the age of 60 of course not everyone who dies before the age of 60 uh dies because of this sin but usually person who is guilty will die early in his life uh now we continue for six days work may be done and the seventh day is a day of complete rest it is sacred to Hashem whoever does work on the Shabbat day shall be put to that now we're on page 493 and here we have the famous paragraph that we say every the children of Israel shall observe the Shabbat to make the Shabbat an eternal Covenant for their Generations between me meaning between God and the children of Israel it is a sign forever that in a six day period Hashem made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed when God finished speaking with Moshe on Mount Si he gave him two tablets of testimony stone tablets inscribed by the Finger of God now someone is asking a question uh does it mean people who die early um desecrated Shabbat privately and uh the ones that desecrate Shabbat publicly uh have death penalty that is correct but again we don't know why people die each individual that dies we don't know the reason it could be that it is because of KET but it could be because he finished his mission on Earth only God knows but um