Ki Sisa - Building a Home That Lights Up the World

Hi, this is David Elmsky with the Parsha in 5, where in 5 minutes I'll try to give you a little insight into the Parsha. And uh I'm going to do uh Parshas Ki Sisa this week. And I want to go right at the beginning. I know we have a lot of really dramatic stuff in the Parsha and on you know, we've spoken about some of it in the past years. But I want to go right at the beginning where we start off with what is essentially Parshas Shekalim. And uh it says that everybody should give a half shekel in order to go and build the Beis Hamikdash. And when we talk about it, it uses the word venosnu. And venosnu, the Meforshim point out, is a palindrome. I love that word. Very hard to work it in. A palindrome is a word that can be read forward and backwards. So, for example, mom is a palindrome. Uh the name Bob is a palindrome. Not very interesting. But there are much more interesting ones. Uh they made a palindrome out of supposedly when Adam met Chava. Madam, I'm Adam. That's a palindrome. When they were building the Panama Canal, they made a palindrome. A man, a plan, a canal, Panama. You can read it forward and backwards. So too venosnu. You can read it this way, you can read it that way. Why? Because when you give, you get. Whatever you give, you give back. And this is very important. And that's why when we collect the half shekel, it's a half shekel. Don't give a whole shekel, give a half. Because your donation has to be joined with somebody else in order for it to be meaningful and build the Mishkan. Because the Mishkan is, as we spoke about back in Parshas Terumah, echad. It's one. It brings people together. And that's why our homes as Balaam pointed out, Mishkan Israel, every home is a Mishkan. We are building a mini base on miktash when we get married and we have a family. And so when we build this Mishkan, we understand that it's two people working together. Each one giving a half a shekel and when you give, you get. It's so interesting that ahava is from the word have to give. The more you give, the more love you there is. And one last point I'll point out and that's in the haftorah of Truma, there's a pasuk. Vayaslu bayis chalonos shkufim atumim. And the explain, the explain, what does that mean? It means that when you make a window in rock, it's like a skylight. It's narrow on the outside and gets wider so the light is diffused. But the windows in the base of miktash went this way. They were narrow at the end and wide on the outside. Why? Because the base of miktash didn't need what was outside. The world needed what the base of miktash had to give. And so we have to understand that the base of miktash has a power to be able to light up the world and Hashem, we should be that we should build the base of miktash that will light up the world and in the meantime, we should turn our homes into that Mishkan that can light up the world. Good Shabbos. >> Mhm.