Parshas Ki Tisa: A Home For God Built By All People

2:26 The chetah egel, Breaking of the luchos, Hakadosh Baruch Hu for giving us the second luchos, and then back to the story of the Mishkan. That's the story as it occurs in the Torah. But as we will see, how it actually happened is a matter of great dispute. Before we get there, let's ask a fundamental question. We were taught by Uncle Moshe that Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is truly everywhere. Every one of us learned it. Baruch Hashem for Uncle Moshe. Otherwise, nobody would know where our Kodesh Baruch Hu is. So we were taught at a very young age that God is everywhere. There's a fundamental question that I've heard from many people. I'm not just talking about commentators on the Chumash, but in general. What does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu dwells in the Mishkan? Hakadosh Baruch Hu dwells everywhere. How could there be any place that we could identify and say Hakadosh Baruch Hu dwells there?

3:30 That's question number one. Question number two. Why is the Mishkan so important? What's the value of the Mishkan? So this question, we're not going to wait to answer. We're going to answer it right now. It's an answer we've given already this year, but I want to make sure that everybody has it clear. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, and the Medrash is clear on why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. Nesave Hakadosh Baruch Hu Leo Sloyes Barach Dira B'Tachtonim. God desired to have a dwelling place in the world down below. That's why God created the world. God created the world so that He could be born, He could be seen, He could have a dwelling place. A place where He's deeply connected in a lower realm. If anybody asks you why God created the world, you say because He wanted a relationship with us. That's what it means to have a dwelling place in the world down below. But if that's the case, the Mishkan almost seems like an idol.

4:39 You ever think about that before? What's really the difference between the Egel Azov, the golden calf that Klal Yisrael built, versus the Mishkan? Both of them are representations of God. What does it mean that the Mishkan is a dwelling place for God? If the Mishkan is a dwelling place for God, why can't an Egel be a dwelling place for God? So what was the big sin of the Chet Eigel? It seems exactly analogous to the Mishkan. And it's if you think about it, it's like mamish right there. So let's go back. Let's make sure we all understand the steps. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. Why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu create the world? Because He wanted a dira b'tachtonim. He wanted to dwell. In this world, if God wants to dwell in this world, it means what are we going to have? A place for Him to dwell. What's that place going to be called? The place is going to be called the Mishkan. I, Uncle Meishy, didn't Uncle Meishy tell us that God is going to be everywhere? It seems that it's possible to say that a particular place has a greater indwelling of God's presence than any other place.

5:44 It is possible to say that. If it's possible for God to have a dwelling in one place more than another, what's the difference if we say it's the Mishkan or the Egal Azov? Klal Yisrael says we want to build an Egal Azov. What's the difference? The difference is as follows. Everyone coming with me on this so far? So good. But they don't serve the Mishkan. So maybe they weren't serving the golden calf. We have to see what that means. Is this table God? Definitely not. This table is not an angel. This table is not God, and God doesn't have parts, so we can't say it's a part of God. You can't say Hashem is in the table because God is not limited to the table. The table is not an angel. I just want to be clear. Just so we all get our hashkafah correct. This is not God, worshiping it as idolatrous. Saying it's a part of God doesn't make any sense because God doesn't have any parts. This is not an angel. Just because it's not.

7:02 I know. We learned in school the things we learned in school. But say there. I'm not here to contend. I'm just here to tell you what Judaism says. Just saying a thing. I'm pretty sure you might be misunderstanding. There's no angel in the table. So when you probably heard a rebbe say something like, 'There's an angel over every single blade of grass saying, 'Grow.' That's a gemara. This table is not an angel. Those are two very different things. I'm sure you did not learn that here. So what is this table then? This table is what we call not God, but it is here because it is God's will that it be here. And that means that this table is suffused not with God but with godliness. And what that means is as follows. I don't want to do the temperature debate that inevitably happens every year. Should we open the window? I'm just going to keep teaching. So it goes as follows. This table is not God. But it's godly. It's suffused with godliness. Meaning it's God's desire that this table exists. Every single moment that this table exists, it's because God wills this table to exist. So the godly energy that exists in the world, which is called the letters of creation, the godly energy that exists in the world is in every single thing.

8:28 So this cup of water has a bracha. By making a bracha, I'm accessing the godliness in this water because I have a unique Jewish soul. See, it worked out nicely. Because I have a unique Jewish soul, I can access the unique godliness that's in this. And therefore God gives me a commandment. And He says, "Make a bracha on this," because by making a bracha you reveal the godliness of the physical world. I'm going to say that again because I want you to understand this. Every single mitzvah, without exception, every single mitzvah exists in the physical world because the reason we do mitzvot is to reveal God in the physical world. By revealing God in the physical world, that's how we make for Him a dwelling place in the physical world. So again, we started off this year. We said this is the order that the Torah was given. There was a commandment to build a mishkan. Then there was the chet ha'egel. Then there was the breaking of the first luchos, the giving of the second luchos, the forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and the actual construction of the base of the mishkan. That was step one. Step two, we asked the question: What does it mean that we build a mishkan and Hashem's presence is dwelling in the mishkan?

9:51 Doesn't God dwell everywhere? That seems to be a contradiction to Uncle Moshi. Step three, we said, what does it mean? Why does God create the world to begin with? What was the answer we gave? God desires to have a dwelling place, a relationship with us. That's what an apartment is. It's a place where two people go to live. A dwelling place in the world down below. Step four, how do you build a dwelling place in the world down below? The answer is the mitzvot reveal God in the physical world. This cup of water doesn't look to my physical eyes. It does not look different from a moment ago when I made that bracha. It doesn't look different from my physical eyes. But from a spiritual perspective, if we could put on spiritual glasses and we looked at this cup of water, what would we see? We would see that the godliness of this cup of water has been tapped into. That's what a mitzvah does. So far, so good. Why don't we say brachos on everything?

10:44 That's a good question, and the Gemara in Brachos discusses exactly what is the boundary and the border of every single bracha. And the reason you're asking that is because the Gemara also thought of it and said, okay. So if that's the case, then how do we access the godliness of everything? It's not necessarily a bracha. The way that I access the godliness of a lulav is by shaking it and making a bracha. The way that I access the godliness of a sukkah is sitting in it. But not every mitzvah gets a bracha. Depending on the situation. We're not getting into that now. You see that a mitzvah engages the physical world. There are no mitzvot that don't engage the physical world. We are not Tibetan monks. We don't believe in going up to some mountaintop and just sitting in a meditative state. Why not? Because for Jews, we must engage the physical world. You don't engage the physical world; it means you're missing the essence. So far, so good. Any questions? When you make something godly, that's not. I didn't make it godly. I didn't make it godly. God made it. That's why it's godly. Not me. I didn't make it godly. All I did is I accessed its godliness. And then that's how you make a dwelling place. That's correct. Think of it like this.

11:45 Right now, the world is a mask. My job is to pull back the curtain so that God could be revealed within the physical world. Then God will feel comfortable. Right now, He doesn't feel comfortable because He's wearing a mask. Who feels comfortable when they're wearing a mask? As we get closer to Purim, we'll discuss why we put on costumes on Purim because that goes into the depth of this. So we're gonna get to that. Now, there's the way of access and godliness is not always by engaging it. Sometimes the way we access godliness is by abstaining from it. For example, I access godliness by drinking this water, but I wouldn't access godliness in pork because God says the way to access the godliness in pork is to abstain. So sometimes I have to engage the physical world in a positive way. Sometimes I have to engage the physical world in a way in which I abstain in order to reveal its godliness. And if I made a mistake That's what's called tshuva. The way that I reveal the godliness from the mistake—that's called the process of tshuva.

12:49 It will work with every single thing. For example, this table. Putting these phones on this table to record the shiur is accessing. One hundred. There is nothing in the physical world. There is no activity that a Jew can do that is neutral. Every one of our activities is going to be meaningful. If we use this table just stam as a place to eat, we didn't access the godliness in the table. But if we used it to eat in order that we should be able to have a better concentration when we come to shir, then we've accessed the physical. That we've accessed the godliness in the food. In the table, in the entire process of eating. Make sense? So what's the difference between the mishkan and the agel? This is the entire difference. You ready? It's very easy. The difference is. The cheta egel exemplifies the physical, whereas the mishkan subjugates the physical to the spiritual. I'll say it again because I want to make sure everyone gets it. The purpose of the cheta egel was to do what? Both the mishkan and the cheta egel have massive amounts of gold.

14:00 So they're both very physical things. But the Chayta Egel, what was the main property? What was the goal? What was the focus? The focus was the physical. In the Mishkan, the focus on the physical is only that the physical should reveal the spiritual. So the difference between idolatry and spirituality is what's the focus. It's possible to say that godliness is in the physical world, not God. God is not the physical, but godliness is in the physical world. When the purpose is the physical, that's idolatry. When the purpose of the physical is to reveal the spiritual, that's Judaism. For example, if we use this table for the sake of the table, not for the sake of something higher than the table, not for the sake of something transcendent, and I'm worshiping the table in order to get what I need in the physical world, then I'm using the table in an inappropriate fashion. Does that make sense? Because the table is physical. What's my focus, girls? The focus is on the physical. What do we call that? Idolatrous.

15:03 But when the focus is not the physical, rather the physical is shedding its mask and revealing the inner dimension of godliness. That's called yiddishkeit. Does that make sense? So far, so good. With all of that in mind, if you have all of these basics, and only if you have all of these basics, we're now going to go into a very famous machlokas between Rashi, the Ramban, and the Zohar Hakadosh. There's a concept called "Ein Mukdam Umuchar B'Torah." The Torah does not necessarily write itself in chronological order, and we're going to discuss why. So the question is: Given everything we've said, which came first? The Chetah Egel, or the commandment to build the Mishkan and the donations? Which came first? The Chetah Egel, or the commandment to build the Mishkan and the donations? What did we say? Let's go back to the beginning of the Shir. What was the order? That it was given him. What was the Torah's order? Let's go through it. We started. What was the first thing? Hashem gives the Torah.

16:34 What was the second thing? Hakadosh Baruch Hu commands us to build the Mishkan. What was the third thing? Cheta Egel. The breaking of the Luchos, the giving of the second Luchos, and the forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and then the actual construction of the Mishkan. So in the Torah, what came first? The commandment to build the Mishkan. The giving of the Torah, the commandment to build the Mishkan, the Chetah Egel, the breaking of the Luchos, the giving of the second Luchos, the forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and ultimately the building of the Mishkan in the Torah. What came first? The commandment to build the Mishkan, and then the Chetah Egel, and then afterwards, finally, the actual donation and construction of the Beis Hamikdash. The Ramban Nachmanides. The Remban says that's the order in which it occurred chronologically. That means historically. If you had a time machine and you went back to the time of Ar Sinai, what would happen first? The commandment to build the Mishkan. Then the Chetah Egel. Then the ultimate donation and construction. Rashi, Rashi disagrees. Rashi says Ain Mukdam Umuchar b'Torah. This is one of the cases where the Torah was not written in chronological order.

18:03 In fact, Rashi says this is how it went. It's based on a Medrash Tanhuma. First came the Chet Ha'egel, and then only afterwards did Hashem give the commandment to build the Mishkan. And that commandment, Rashi says, was given on Yom Kippur. And then there was the donation and construction of the Mishkan. So listen to the machlokus between Rashi and the Ramban. The Ramban says what came first: the commandment to build the Mishkan. What came second: the Chet Ha'Egel. What came third? Ultimately, we were forgiven. Then we went ahead and donated all the materials. And built the Mishkan. That is the Ramban, Nachmanides. Rashi disagrees. Rashi says first came the Chet Ha'Egel. Then on Yom Kippur when they were forgiven, Hakadosh Baruch Hu commanded them to build the Mishkan. Lastly they actually went ahead and donated the materials and built the Mishkan. So far, so good. Everyone got it.

18:55 But to complicate things, there is a third sheita. The Zohar Hakadosh says there was a split opinion. He says first came the commandment, just like in the Torah. At that point, Klal Yisrael donated all the materials necessary for the Mishkan. Then they did the Chet Ha'egel, and only after they were forgiven did they rebuild it. Did they actually not rebuild it? Did they build the Mishkan? According to the Zohar, you got to get all the details down. It's going to be awesome once you get it down. According to the Zohar, first comes the commandment, and second comes the donation of the materials. Only afterwards comes the chetah egel, and after that they actually built the mishkan. So let's review all the shiitas again. Just make sure everyone's got it. Even if you missed it, here's your third or fourth opportunity to get it. One more time. In the Torah, how is it said? The giving of the Torah, the commandment to build the Mishkan, the Chetah Egel, the breaking of the first Luchos, the giving of the second Luchos.

20:00 The forgiveness on Yom Kippur and ultimately the construction of the Mishkan. That's how it's written in the Torah. The Ramban says that's how it went. First, there was the commandment. Second, was the Chetah Egel. Third, was the building of the Mishkan after Hashem forgave them. And Yom Kippur, and that's when they donated the material. Everyone clear on the sheet of Sarimban Nachmanides? Next, Rashi. Rashi says, "Ain Mukdam Umukhar B'Torah." Don't get caught up in how the Torah tells the story. The Torah told the story one way for a reason. How did it go down? First comes the Chet HaEgel. Then comes the commandment on Yom Kippur when they were forgiven to build the Mishkan. Then there was the donations. And ultimately, that was followed by the construction of the Mishkan. The Zohar says a split shita. First, there was the commandment. At that point, there was the donation of the material. Then, afterwards Comes the Chet HaEgel. Then comes the forgiveness on Yom Kippur, and only afterwards they actually build the Mishkan. The question is, who cares?

21:16 So the Ramban says it happened in this order. Rashi says it happened in that order. The Zohar says it happened in the third order. Who cares? Why do we care, Girls? I want to teach you a secret. Every single thing in the Torah has a meaning. When you study Chumash, and you only study the bare outline of it, and you just this is what most people do when they hear this year, they have a test, and the test says as follows: In what order were the following things happen? The commandment to build the Mishkan, the Chetah Egel, and the actual construction And in the test, it's going to tell you to memorize these facts and then to write it on the test. But that's not enough. The Ramban said his shot for a reason. Rashi said his shot for a reason, and the Zohar said its shot for a reason. The question is, what is the underlying theme? What's going on underneath the surface? That the Ramban said it must be this way, Rashi said it must be that way, and the Zohar said it must be a third way.

22:23 There's a famous Maimer Chazal that everybody in this room knows. Tonight we're going to try to explain it. In the place where a b'al tshuva stands. Even the greatest tzaddik in the world cannot stand. The Gemara in Shabbos tells us that by Har Sinai everybody was reborn. We were gerim. Since a ger has a halacha that they're totally reborn, they start their life anew. At Har Sinai we totally started a brand new life. That means every single avera that we had done up until Har Sinai, you with me? Every single avera that we had done up until Har Sinai is wiped out at the time of the giving of the Torah. What level were we on? That's called being a tzaddik. At Har Sinai, every single person that was there was a tzaddik. When you're first born, you didn't do any averus. We were all in the state of pure righteousness. What happened almost immediately? Forty days after the giving of the Torah.

23:31 Cheta egel, and then on the following Yom Kippur we attained a new status called about tshuva. What is about tshuva? We went from being tzaddikim to bale tshuva. About tshuva is somebody who descends into the physical world, does something inappropriate with the physical world, but instead of just keep going downwards, they use it as a propeller. They rocket themselves back up. They use it as a spring. If you were going on a trampoline, the tzaddik is on his way up, the Russia is on his way down. But the balschuba, when he hits the trampoline, because he's gone down, he uses that downward motion to propel himself or herself up even higher than the level of a tzaddik. So fascinatingly, when we first got the Torah, what level were we on? Level of a tzaddik. When we built the Mishkan, maybe we'll see. When we built the Mishkan, what had already passed?

24:33 Yom Kippur. Which means what had changed? We were now on the level of a bal tshuva. What's the difference between a tzaddik and a bal tshuva? There are three differences between a tzaddik and a bal tshuva. The first difference is the course. The tzaddik's course is straight and true. The course of the tzaddik is upward, doing the right thing. What's the course of the bal tshuva? The course of the bal tshuva is my past. Was a problem. My future is uncertain. The tzaddik doesn't mess up. The tzaddik knows his course. He knows where he's headed. He's confident, and he doesn't have to look backwards because his background, his history is fine. But the balschuvah, my history, is a problem. My future is unknown. I'm capable. The balschuvah knows of doing an avera. The tzaddik, according to the Tanya, doesn't do the avera. Doesn't it say in the pasuk, "Shavu yipol HaTzaddik v'kum"?

25:34 We're not getting into that now. The definition of a tzadik, according to Tanya, is straight and true. The tzadik does not mess up. The balschuvah, he's looking behind her; she's looking behind herself. He's looking behind himself, and he knows my past is a problem, and because of that, I know that my future is somewhat uncertain. That's the first difference between a tzadik and a balschuvah. The course of life. The second difference. The tzaddik lives a life that we will describe as unblemished. Unblemished. When the tzaddik looks at his life, he never made a mistake. The bal tshuva says, 'I have blemishes on my life, but my blemishes turned into mitzvos. Because what do Chazal say? When you do tshuva me'ava, you turn your averos, you turn your zdonos into schuyos, you turn it into merits.' Whereas the tzaddik doesn't know from that experience, the tzaddik never has the experience of I'm turning my averas into mitzvahs.

26:38 He doesn't even know from that. The balschuvah has these blemishes, but also has the experience of turning the averas into a schos. And last but not least, that tzaddik's life is spiritual, the balschuvah's life is physical. That tzaddik's life, because he's spiritual. He's above the coarse physical world. So does the tzaddik do an avera? No. Why not? Because he's not stuck in the coarse physical world. Why did the bal tshuva do the avera? Because he's engaged in the physical world. And what happens when they do a mitzvah? What happens when they do tshuva? They've risen above. Those are the three differences between the tzaddik and the bal tshuva. The tzaddik's course in life is straight. He never makes a mistake. The tzaddik has no blemishes, so he never has to turn any of his averas into schuyos. And last but not least, the tzaddik's life is spiritual. The balechuvah is exactly the opposite. The balechuvah has a past. And because he has a past, he doesn't know. Maybe I'm capable of doing crazy things in the future. The balechuvah's life has stains on it.

27:40 Not pashut. We did averos, but we've also turned our averos into schuyos. The tzaddik never did that. And last but not least, this life of the balechuvah is a physical life. We engage the physical. That's how we got down to begin with, but it's also how we revealed godliness. Given that fact, I want to know who should build the Mishkan. Three options: Should a tzaddik be the one who builds the Mishkan? The tzaddik, whose life is straight and true Who never made a mistake, who's totally spiritual—maybe the tzaddik should be the one to build the Mishkan. After all, what holier place? What spiritual place? Who could build a spiritual place more than a tzaddik? He's never messed up. On the other hand, maybe it should be the balschuvah. Maybe the balschuvah, as we said, B'malchum shabali tshuvim omdim, Ein tzadikim gemurim omdim. So maybe it should be the balschuvah that builds the mishkan. After all, isn't the balschuvah the one who has turned his averos into suyos?

28:41 Isn't the balschuvah the one? Who knows how to engage the physical world? If we want to make a dira b'tachtonim, if we want to make a dwelling place in the worlds down below, the thing that makes the most sense is to have someone who engages the physical. How is the tzaddik who lives a life of spirituality going to get low down here with us to build a dwelling place in the world down below? So those are two options, but there is a third. This is the most provocative. This is the most aggressive. And only the Labavitcher Rebbe could have come up with such an option. Maybe it should be Russia. That's what I love about Chassidus. Why not Russia? What place do we have when it comes to building the Mishkan? The tzaddik is the spiritual. That's an option. The Balchuvah knows how to reveal godliness in the physical. Isn't that the whole Yisod of Dira Betachtonim? And what about us? Do we not have a chelak in building the Mishkan, in building the Beis Hamikdash? We do aviras, and we don't necessarily do tshuva. Most of us are what we call rasha vetovlo.

29:58 We're rasha. We don't want to be a rasha. Doesn't mean we're doing aviras all the time. But we can't necessarily say we've done tshuva for all of our aviras. We can't necessarily say we're not even going to do those aviras again. Do we not have a place building the mishkan? Those are the three options that Rebbe gives. And then, in one fell swoop of brilliance, The Lubavitcher Rebbe shows that all three—the tzaddik, The bantshuva, And the rasha—have a shita that goes along with them. And if you were able to follow since the beginning of the shiur, We can go back to the recording. The reason, Miss Yusafzai, Writes it down with precision is so that we can make sure it works out. The Remban says who should build the Mishkan. It is the tzaddik. Why? Because the commandment to build the Mishkan comes before the avera. According to the Ramban, who should be the one to build the Mishkan?

31:20 We'll see. One second. I'm sorry, the opposite. I made a mistake. It's hard to keep in mind. Start with the Zohar. The Zohar says, But again, To remind ourselves, the Ramban says there was the commandment, The Chet Ha'egel, And then there was the donation and construction of the Mishkan. Rashi says there was the chet ha'egel, Then there was the commandment. After the chet, When they were forgiven on Yom Kippur, And then the donation and construction. The Zohar says the donation and the commandment and the donations came first Then the chet ha'egel, and then the actual construction. Let's start with Rashi. That's going to be the easiest one. Rashi says the chet ha'egel came first. Which means what, girl? See if you can follow the logic. If the chet ha'egel came first, and only afterwards, after they did tshuva, was there a commandment to build the mishkan? What is Rashi saying? Who should build the mishkan? The bale tshuva.

32:26 Rashi says, Who better to build a dwelling place in the world down below than those of us who have done tshuva? We know how to engage the physical. That's our life. We've made a mistake. We know how to bring God into this world and reveal Him in this world. The Ramban says the commandment to the Mishkan came before the sin, as it is written in the Torah. The Zohar says the commandment and the donation come before the Chaytaiga. Which means what, girls? The Tzadik. Because the donation of the materials needs to happen by who, the righteous person. If the donation would have happened after the Chetah Egel What would we have said? No good, because then they were in a state of Balechuvah. Says the Zohar, who can be the one to build the Mishkan? Only a righteous man, only a spiritual man. So the Ramban says it has to be the Tzaddik. Rashi says it has to be the Balechuvah. But this is the daring pshat. The Rebbe's pshat is the daring pshat. The Rebbe says, 'Who builds the Mishkan? The Russia builds the Mishkan.'

33:47 The Russia builds the Mishkan. Why? Because the command to give, the command to build the Mishkan comes to who? Comes to the tzaddik. But then what happened? After we were given the command, there was need for new luchos. Watch this move of the Ramban, unbelievable move, girls. After we did the Cheta Ega, what happened? Moshe Rabenu breaks the Luchos, and now Hakadosh Baruch Hu says we need a new set. The covenant, the Bris was broken, so we need a new Bris. But what do we not need new? We do not need a new commandment. We don't need a new commandment. Isn't that an unbelievable thing? Listen what the Ramban is saying. Chop the detail. According to Rashi, who builds the Mishkan, the Bal Tshuva? Why? What comes first, the Chetah Egel? Only afterwards do we get the commandment when we've done Tshuva. According to the Zohar, the commandment and the donation comes where? Right away in the beginning. It's only for the Tzaddik. According to the Ramban, we were given the command to build the Mishkan as Tzaddikim.

34:58 Then we did the Chetah Egel. We became Rishonim. We needed a new bris. We needed new luchos. A covenant was broken. We needed new luchos. We did not need a new command to build the Mishkan. Why not? If we needed new luchos, why should Hashem come again and say, 'Build the Mishkan'? Wouldn't that have been like a classic shear? You could have for sure heard a shiur like this? God had to give the Mishkan twice because the first time He gave it. He had to. You could hear this. The Torah gives it twice. Chazal ask, why did it happen twice? The first time is when we didn't do the aveirah of the chet ha'egel. Then He needed to give it to us again because we broke it with the chet ha'egel, just like the luchos. And yet it doesn't happen. So the command to build the Mishkan was given to a tzaddik. But it was kept even for the Russia.

35:50 Which means that according to the Ramban, even if you are the worst Jew in the world, you have a chelik in the mishkan. Even if last night you did the thing you're so embarrassed of. It doesn't diminish your capacity to participate in building the mishkan. Today we live with the psychology of I did an avera, it's over. I have no chelik. How many times have I heard from guys and girls? How do you want me to wake up in the morning and daven after what I did last night? How many times? It's so hard for me to daven and pour out my heart to Hashem when I know that what I did last night was against everything that God wants. What would Rashi say to that? Rashi would say, "You'll be a balschuvah, then you'll build the Mishkan." The Zohar would say, "It's true. In this current state, you can't build the Mishkan. The commandment and the donation of the Mishkan need to happen when you're righteous, and you are no longer righteous." Comes along the Remban. And the Rebbein says it doesn't matter if you did the biggest avera of your life last night.

37:00 People say I would never cross that line. Have you ever heard people say I would never cross that line? There's a Rebbein in Mevaseret. His name is Rosteinert. He has the greatest line of all time. He says, "Don't tell me what you would never do. There's what you've done and what you haven't done yet. And when you do that haven't done yet thing, you're going to feel the first time you do it." Then you'll get used to it. But the first time you cross that line, the person who says I would never break Shabbos and then they break Shabbos, in that moment, the feeling they have, I'm out. I'm done. There is no recovery from that avera. The Rembahn says in that moment, you are no less worthy of building the Mishkan than you were five minutes ago. When we got the commandment to build the Mishkan, we were tzadikim, and then we did the worst avera of all time. We built an agel. It was only one of the only ten commandments that we had.

37:53 What does the Ramban say? Nothing changes. You don't need a new commandment. Even a Rasha has the same mitzvah to build the Mishkan as the Balschuvah and the Tzadik. And we see this in the Luchos themselves. The Luchos are in the Aron in the Kodesh Hakodashim. The Luchos represent all three of these concepts. The second luchos represent tshuva because those are the luchos we got on Yom Kippur when we were forgiven. The first luchos represent the perfection that were given these luchos when we were totally perfect. But those first luchos are also broken. So what do they represent? The Russia, the one whose perfection is broken, not healed, the one who's in that terrible place. That's in the Kodesh Hakodashim. The tzaddik, the Russia, and the balshuva—all three of them are in the Kodesh Hakodashim. And that's what the luchos are. They're embodied by the luchos.

38:43 Which means, and this is what I love, that the mishkan is for all people. The beis hamikdash is for all people. The beis hamikdash is for the tzaddik who's so spiritual, and it's his job to come into the physical beis hamikdash and bring his spirituality down. The mishkan is for the balschuvah, the one who says, 'I sanctify the material world. I've gone down into the material world, and I showed that there's a rabbanis shalom there.' And ultimately, there's the Russia. The Russia teaches us as follows: the Beit Hamikdash is a place for you. Even if you're full of impurity, even if you've done so much wrong in your life, you have a place in the Beit Hamikdash. Girls Imagine if this is what our community looked like. Imagine if our community was a place where we venerated the tzaddik and we said, 'Wow, it's incredible. This person is so holy. This person is so incredible. I look at them and I'm inspired by the fact that they're such incredible spiritual people.' Imagine if we were moved deeply by balei tshuva, by people who did averes, made mistakes, but we gave them room to come back, and they do, and they inspire others because they say, 'I've made bad mistakes, but I came back and look at me now.'

40:00 I've learned from those mistakes. And Adaravah, I'm even in a higher place because of the mistakes that I've made. Our community does that okay. We look up to some tzaddikim. We try to knock down others. We sometimes give room for people to actually do tshuva and come back. But girls, we are terrible at the third. When somebody does a mistake, we are so quick to judge. We throw them out of our community. We throw them out of our homes and we tell them, 'You have no place here.' Because of the averes that you've done, your impurities, you can't dwell with us. We lock arms and we don't let those people in. Our yeshivas are only for the best and brightest. They have to write articles about how hard it is to get into seminary because you don't have the right pedigree. Because somebody, one teacher said something about you that you once did, and now you can't get in anywhere.

40:57 Don't trust me. Go look online, girls. These articles are all over the place. We have no room for Russia in our hearts. We have no room to look at a person and say, 'You are beloved by God, despite the mistakes that you've made.' You also have a chelik in building the mishkan, not because of the tshuva that you will one day do. God willing, you will do that tshuva, but because right now you are beloved, even to ourselves. When we do an avera, our feeling is it's over. What room is there for me now? How can I build a dear b'tachtonim? How can I dwell in this world? How can I bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu down? Given the nature of the life that I'm leading, Rabbi, don't you know what I did last night? Don't you know what I'm planning to do tonight? As we discussed three weeks ago Know that no matter what you do in your life, nothing changes.

41:55 When a parent loves a child, we do not love our children because of anything our children do or don't do. We just love our children. So yes, when your kids make a mistake, and they will, you might be frustrated, but it does not change the love that you have. And I'll finish with this, even though I'm a little over time. I want you at some point tonight—not tonight and tomorrow—but don't wait until next week because you'll forget. To look up an article written by Rabbi Yaakov Bender, The Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Darche Torah. And in this article, he writes about a rabbi who wrote an editorial piece saying that if a child has gone off the derech, perhaps he should be removed from the home under certain circumstances. Rabbi Bender wrote a scathing article against what this rabbi wrote, and he said, 'What lesson are you teaching your child if you throw a child out of the house because of their lack of observance?'

43:07 Everyone is so worried, but this child is going to rub off on another child and it's going to have an impact on the home. That's fair. But the lesson that you teach your child, 'I throw you out of the house. You don't have love in my heart,' because of the way that you're behaving, is a much more dangerous message to send to your other children. There has to be room in our homes, in our communities, and in our hearts, for those that don't always do the right thing, for those that make mistakes, even make mistakes repeatedly. Those are our Kadosh Baruch Hu's beloved children, and they are not less beloved than the greatest tzaddik.