Terumah - Discovering the Essence in Every Mitzvah

2:15 Why is that strange? In the middle of talking about the construction, what does Hashem say? What goes inside of the Aron? The luchos. When would you have said that? If you had a choice of when you were going to tell us what goes inside the aron, when would you have said it? What was that? When you're done talking about the actual thing itself, then you say, and here's what we're building it for to go into it. And guess what, girls? That's exactly what the Torah does. If you look at the end of the construction of the aron, the Torah says. The nasat is the kapores on the aaron, and you'll put the kapores, the lid on the aaron milamala from above. The el ha aaron titei naseidos asher etein elecha, and you shall put the luchos inside of it. So exactly where we would expect the Torah to tell us where the luchos go, we would expect it at the end of the construction of Aaron.

3:13 But what's the obvious question? It tells us where. Not only in the end, it also tells us repetitively in the middle. So we have two questions. Number one, why does it repeat it Why does it repeat it twice? That tells us that the luchos go inside of the aron twice. That's our first question. And if it was going to tell it to us once, where should it tell it to us? At the very end. And here we see that not only does it tell it to us at the end, it also tells it to us in the middle. Now it's very, very rare Very rare thing that Rashi will tell us that he doesn't know something. Very strange that Rashi tells us that he doesn't know something, and here is one of the strange cases where Rashi says, "I don't know." Listen what Rashi says: Ve'ala aron tita nesaedus, and inside the aron you should put the edus, you should put the luchos.

4:13 Lo Yadati Ilama Nichpol. I don't know why it was repeated. Then Rashi goes on to suggest the pshat. We're not going to get into that for now, but just a strange thing to notice. Rashi highlights the problem that there's a k'feilos haloshon that it repeats itself. The Torah says the luchos go inside the aron twice, and Rashi says I don't know why. Why is that such a mystery? More than anything else in the Torah, here Rashi has an answer for everything. How would we learn Torah without Rashi? And yet here Rashi says Lo Yadati. What's the significance of the fact that this was like some big, mysterious, tremendous? How could this possibly be understood? Those are the three questions we have for tonight. Number one, why can't you take the poles out of the arrow? Number two, why does the Torah repeat it twice? And specifically, why does the Torah tell it does in the middle? And number three, why is this such a mystery that Rashi says he doesn't know and then just suggests a pshat? How could Rashi not know? Rashi knows everything.

5:14 Those are our three questions for tonight. I want to share with you an answer from the Kaddushas Levi, from the HaLeGir of Levi Yitzchak of Vriditchev, the great Hasidic master. I'm not sure that I'm doing justice to the Kaddushas Levi. It's a beautiful Kaddushas Levi. I'm going to say it in the way that I understand it best, and I'm going to say it in the way that I think you girls will understand it best. But this is not exactly what the Kedushas Levi says. He doesn't say it in this way. I'm just explaining it for me in this way. Maybe for you in this way. There's a feeling, at least that's a feeling that I have, or a feeling that I have less today than I did, 25 years ago. But it's still a feeling that I have today. Sometimes I feel like my Judaism is very disjointed. I'll tell you what I mean by disjointed.

6:02 Sometimes it's hard to see how everything lines up and works together towards this common goal. Imagine you were working in a business And your boss tells you, "I need you to do these three things. These three things are your job." So, one of the things you naturally understand how this is the mission of the company. And this job creates that mission. For example, let's say the mission of the company is. We want to produce. Let's say it's Apple. We want to produce iPhones. And your job, as part of your job, one of the three jobs that you have It's to sell an iPhone. You're an iPhone salesman, so you work in an Apple store. Somebody comes into the store; they want the specs of all the different options of the iPhones. You give them all the different specs. It's very easy to connect the dots there. Apple produces an iPhone. I sell an iPhone. That's how I contribute to the mission of the company.

7:04 But let's say you had two other jobs, and they seem to be random. They don't seem to necessarily connect all together. Maybe your job is to put together in a spreadsheet all the iPhones that you sell. So you can sort of wrap your head around it. But you're like, does that really fit in with the mission of the company? You sold the iPhone. Why do we need to track how many iPhones I sold? Because you don't necessarily see the bigger picture. So you don't necessarily understand how each thing connects to every other thing. In fact Who's probably the only person in Apple that understands how every single thing in Apple connects to every other thing? There's only one person in Apple that probably understands it. His name is Steve Jobs. It was Steve Jobs. He died. It was Steve Jobs, and I would argue that that's an excellent answer because in his time, Steve Jobs was not only the CEO of Apple, but also as the founder of Apple, he understood the mission statement of Apple from his guts. It was his mission, and he understood how every single part relates to every other part. I think today the CEO of Apple is a guy whose name is Tim Cook.

8:11 It's a good answer. But the point is this: only the guy on top sees how every piece of information works together with every other piece of information. Like the guy who runs apps also has to know about the guy who runs the particular piece of software or hardware within Apple's phone that tells you what direction you're going in. Like all of these things need to work seamlessly together, but to us it feels like many different parts. It doesn't necessarily feel like it works together. I don't know if you've ever had this feeling in Judaism, but sometimes at least to me it feels very. Disjointed in the sense that it's difficult for me to see how one mitzvah and another mitzvah get us from point A to point B. A Jew is told to keep Shabbos. That's not every day that I need to keep Shabbos. I need to keep Shabbos every seventh day. A boy is told that he should wear tshitzis, tallis, he should wear tefillin. You should keep kosher. You should give tzedakah. But these are not mitzvos that I have every single day. These are mitzvos that come up when they come up.

9:22 I don't have to wear tefillin the entire day. I have to put on tefillin in the morning. I'm not davening the entire day. We're davening shacharis, mincha, and maariv, right? So it sometimes feels, at least to me, and I'm sure you've had this question also. How does doing all of these things get me from point A to point B? You ever had that question before? How does any of this have to do with? Let's make up that point B is connection to Hashem, right? If the goal of Judaism is to connect to Hashem. This is the way you hear people ask the question. They go like, "So" Does Hashem really care if Does Hashem really care if I do boer on Shabbos? Does Hashem really care how I separate my food on Shabbos that I can only separate the good from the good and I can't separate the bad from the good or the good from the bad? I can't spit out watermelon seeds on Shabbos. Does Hashem really care? You're telling me that in Shamayim, this is what it sounds like when people ask me the question. You're telling me that in Shamayim,

10:20 Hashem is in there looking and going, you didn't cut your food right on Shabbos. It doesn't feel to us necessarily to be an activity that connects us deeply to Hashem. Does that make sense? Or maybe they ask the question a little bit more philosophically, which is the way we're asking it today. How does all of this together contribute to this picture? So even if I don't understand one part, that's one thing. You're telling me I have to do all these random 613 mitzvot in order to get close to Hashem. It doesn't feel like it's one cohesive movement. Like, for example In your marriage, you probably understand how all of these things connect to the larger goal of building a family. A father who goes out to work understands why he is going out to work.

11:06 To make money in order that I should be able to pay the mortgage, to put food on the table, to pay for tuition, to give tzedakah. That's why I go out to the job that I have. I have a mission, and it's very clear to me how this gets me from point A to point B. So let's say a guy is putting together his week, and he says, "I'm going to be working five days a week." I'm going to be working four days a week. Let's say I'm going to be working Monday through Thursday. I'm going to work half day on Friday. I'm going to come home in time for Shabbos. What do I do on Sunday? Because remember, the goal is that I want to build a family. So what do I do on Sunday? On Sunday, I might.

11:38 I might take a break, which is important. I might need a break, but I'm also going to be my kids' little league coach if it's on Sunday afternoon. Why am I going to be my kids' little league coach? Because I'm building a family. I want to be involved in my children's lives. What are we going to do on a Matzah Shabbos? We're going to go out to Avos Ubanim. I'm going to learn with my son because that's the point of building a family. What are we going to do Sunday night? Maybe we're going to go bowling together as a family because I want to do family things. So you can sort of see how everything in your life, even the breaks that you're taking, is very obvious. This is the goal.

12:08 And these are the things that I do to get to the goal. So that's what it looks like to be a father. As a mother, I imagine it'll be the same things. I'm gonna take a job because I want to help support my family, and I have talents that I want to express. But also, I might take a job that has less hours because it's more important to me to be a present mother. A present mother is there by bedtime and bath time, and maybe she's making dinners, and maybe she's doing homework with the kids. Maybe she's just hanging out with the kids and nurturing them in a very deep way. It's not the pshat that she's taking the job, let's say that only lasts until three o'clock in the afternoon because she's doing anything less. It's just the way that she aligns herself with the mission of the family. So far, so good. Does this make sense? I know it's hot in here, and I know it's very hard to focus when it's hot. I'm also hot.

12:52 We could open some windows, but do me a favor. I think this is a really important concept. So just a gentle reminder about the phones, not for me, just because they asked me. I have a gentle reminder about the phones. Baruch Hashem, ninety-nine percent no phones. It bothers me the one percent because I want to reach every single Jew. Also, if it's hot, we'll do our best. The windows are already open. The same. In Judaism, do we have that? Is it clear what the goal is, and is it clear how everything gets us from point A to point B? I would say it's not so easy to understand. There's mitzvos that are constant. There's mitzvos that are not constant. What's an example of a mitzvah that's constant? Emunah Hashem Abas Hashem Yiras Hashem. Those are things that a Jew ought to have all the time in their life. Those are the bedrock of our relationship with Hashem. I have faith in Hashem. I love Hashem. I stand awe-inspired in front of Hashem.

13:45 And those are certain types of mitzvos. And then there's the I don't want to call them random. Chas v'shalom. But there's the mitzvot that I do, not all the time. Every once in a while, maybe even daily. The point is, I'm not living with them in the same mechanism. So listen what the Kedushas Levi says. This is an unbelievable art, and it's relevant for every single one of us. The luchos The luchos that go inside of the aron They represent the constant mitzvot: emuna, avos Hashem, yiras Hashem. That's why the luchu starts. I knowchi Hashem alokecha. I'm the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt. That's a constant awareness that a Jew has of emunah Hashem. So that is in the Aaron. But then every other vessel in the Beis Hamikdash represents another mitzvah: the Mizbeach, the Menorah. The different courtyards in the Beit Hamikdash. Every one of those aspects of the Beit Hamikdash doesn't represent a constant mitzvah. It represents a one-off.

14:53 It represents an aspect, but it doesn't represent the essence. It's like the difference between what's in the Aron and the mission. That's why it's constant. What's outside of the Aron is important because those are all the things that contribute to the mission. Says the Kedushas Levi as follows: This is an unbelievable idea. Remember what our question was? We had three questions. Question number one: The rods and the Aaron don't come out. You know what that means? It means that Aaron needs to be portable. It means I promise you, Hashem blesses her. It's good. Everyone should recognize it and bless her. But trust me, she already does. She has all the blessings she needs. The Aaron needs to be portable always. What does that mean? It means you need to be able to take it to every aspect of your avodas Hashem. The essence, which is what's inside of the Aaron, when you bring it into the details That's what makes the details meaningful.

16:02 If you don't connect the details and the essence, your Judaism feels disjointed. It feels like I'm just performing an activity, and it does not feel connective. When a person takes out the garbage this morning, I had such a nice experience. We have in my neighborhood Because Baruch Hashem and Eretz Yisrael, when they build, they don't always build so legally. They build, and then it's not exactly normal. The builder pays off somebody from the area to say it's legal. So in my neighborhood, when they built it, the way they built it is like a cul-de-sac. It's a dead end block, and you have to go down a ramp to get to my block. Have you ever been on Nachal Zavitan? You have to get down a ramp. There's an interesting feature of that ramp. When you're going down the ramp, the ceiling of that ramp is like an overpass. It's too low. It's so low that a garbage truck or a fire truck can't get down the ramp to pick up our garbage.

17:02 So a fire truck would have to come in from a completely different entrance, which is a whole mess because they block that entrance. I'm talking about the garbage trucks. Anyone on my block needs to walk the garbage up to the block above us because a garbage truck can't come down to my block. There is an ancillary benefit because on my block there's no garbage, and on the block upstairs there's tons of garbage because they have two blocks worth of garbage. But there's a reason in my family when you take out the garbage, nobody wants to take out the garbage because you have to schlepp the garbage an entire block. So you know what people on my block do when they're going out in their car. You see people with the trunk open and they just load up the back with garbage. It's disgusting. Baruch Hashem, nobody sits back there. But they load it up with the garbage and they bring it up. Now today, I was walking out of my house. I know that the garbage that's sitting there really bothers my wife.

17:54 So my car was full of svarim to bring to Bar Miriam, so I couldn't load it up in the back. I took four humongous garbage bags and I walked it up the block. It's like you're doing you know. I'm doing pull-ups with the garbage. I walked up the block and I deposited it. My wife came home, and I can tell she's really working on her akharasatov, because she said, 'I want you to know it means so much to me that you took out the garbage.' And I said, 'Yeah,' and I was like a real man about it too. I didn't just put it in the back of the trunk. I was doing like pull-ups with the garbage. I ruined the entire thing for her. She's like, 'Good for you,' you know, like it was. How taking out the garbage brings joy to the people that you love. But if you don't see how taking out the garbage contributes to your family, somebody else will take out the garbage. It's not important for me to take out the garbage. Why should I daven?

18:49 Is this really getting me closer to Hashem? Why should I learn Torah? Is this really getting me closer to Hashem? Why should I be careful about whether I turn the lights on or off on Shabbos? Why should I be careful how I eat my food on Shabbos? What was that? It's true what you're saying, but it's a little bit scary the way that you're saying it. I'll tell you why. The point of Judaism is not selfish. The point of Judaism is not just for you to become the best version of yourself. It's not a personal growth thing. Exactly. And if it's hard for me to realize how this contributes to my relationship with Hashem, then it becomes very difficult for me to be inspired by it. It's hard to wake up in the morning, and this is what people say it in the wrong way. They say like. It's hard to daven because I feel like I'm saying the same words over and over again, and I feel like why is that meaningful? What they mean to say is I don't see the essence of Hashem in tefillah Right? I don't see how I don't see how.

19:45 And the problem is that people read the English and then they say the same thing. They're like I don't know what half these words mean. I don't know what sala means even though they just wrote it on the English side. And like you say it and you're like. Hallelujah! Praise be Thy Master, right? Rock of my kingdom, light of my nation. Right? I don't even know what half the words mean, right? It's hard to find meaning in it. The way that we really need to say it is: How does this connect to the allness? How does this connect to the larger mission? Did you ever hear a she'er this year or any time in your life? I'm sure you did. Did you ever hear a she'er this year where the rabbi gets up and he shows you a million different connections? Where it's like this connects to this and any time was that? Was that age discovery? And then at the end of that year you watch people. This is the reaction they always have. They go, whoa, that was crazy.

20:34 Why is that so gishma? Why is it amazing to see how they connected this word to that word to this thing to that thing? Because it starts when we start to see the larger picture of something, it naturally sits well with us. It's like oh. I see how everything comes together. I see how everything is becoming this thing—the stuff, the luchos inside the aron. That's the essence. That's the mission. That's what has to be on your head all the time. That's the goal. That's what you're working towards. And munas Hashem, avos Hashem, yiras Hashem. But it's not enough that it stays inside the luchos. That stays inside the aron. What does it need to be? Does it need to be portable? I need to bring it from point A to point B, from point B to point C. I need to take it with me wherever I go. So why are the staffs why are the rods inside of the aron? Why are they kept there at all times? Because the aron always needs to be portable, even when it's sitting still.

21:30 It's not just for when you pack up the mishkan and bring the mishkan from point A to point B. It needs to be portable. Even inside the Mishkan itself, it always needs to be traveling. That's what the Kedushas Levi says. That's why it says it twice. That's why it says it twice. One, when does it say it? Right after we're told to keep the rods inside of the Aro. And what's the very next thing it tells us? Even though it's in the middle Put the luchos inside of the Aro because they're connected. The staff. The rod stays inside of the aron, so it's portable. And then, what does the Torah immediately tell us? Because the essence goes in there, and the essence needs to travel. And then again, at the very end of the story, what does it tell us? And the whole point of the aron was to house the luchos. So there's two different things happening. One is the end. When you tell us what a living room is made of, there's going to be couches. There's going to be a little table. There's going to be svarim. There's going to be a mirror. There's going to be pieces of art. And then at the end, what do you say? The living room is for people to sit in. That's the mission of the living room.

22:38 So it makes sense that it's at the end. But it's also in the middle. Why? Because it has to be portable. It has to be brought to every single vessel in the mission. Now I want to say one last thing, and then we'll finish for the night. But this is a big one. What does Rashi say? Rashi says. I don't know why it repeated it. If you were listening carefully What was Rashi, perhaps, telling us? That you don't have to know why. The knowledge The knowledge is not the essence. If you could know something intellectually It means you're not tapping into its essence. The essence is larger than words can articulate. If you can talk about something, then you can. I can talk about it, but the thing itself remains beyond words. Like if somebody ever asked you why you love your child I don't know. I have no idea why I love my children.

23:43 And if I could tell you why, wouldn't that be sad? I love my kids because they bring me nachas. You don't really love your kids then. You just love the fact that they bring you nachas. Real love cannot be articulated. It cannot be explained, nor should it have to be explained. It stays in a state of beyond knowledge. Girls, what's the holiest day of the year, according to many? Purim. Purim, because Yom Kippur is only Yom K. Purim. It's only like Purim. According to many, Purim is the holiest day of the year. And what do we do on Purim? We can start to talk about Purim now because Rosh Chodesh is out of this Friday Shabbos. On Purim, people drink. Why? Because they want to go beyond the level of knowledge. You drink and you remove das. What's the big chiddush about removing das? Why is it? It sounds like a funny thing, but is drinking a Jewish thing to do? It's not.

24:36 It's not a Jewish thing to do at all. And the idea that I should drink so much that I shouldn't know the difference between a tzaddik and a rasha, I shouldn't know the difference between Rav Chaim Kaniewski and the Labavitcher Rebbe and Hitler. Oh! That's Haman. Haman was at least as bad as Hitler. And Mordechai was an unbelievable tzaddik. We're told how much you drink? That you mix up the biggest tzaddik in the world and the biggest Russia in the world. That's the craziest thing. You know what the answer is? We're going to a state that's beyond das. When you go beyond das, when you go to the essence, remember from the perspective of the essence, there are no categories. Zadik, Russia, mitzvah, avera—those are all things you can talk about. They're categories. They're scientific categories. You can talk about them in language. What happens when you go beyond knowledge? Now you touch the essence. What does the Torah do here when it comes to the aron? It says, "I'm going to tell it to you twice." Rashi goes, "Why?

25:36 I don't know. Rashi wasn't saying, "I don't know," like, "I don't know." Rashi was saying, he was saying, this thing of the k'feilas haloshon over here that the Torah repeats it twice Because it's the essence of everything. The essence that you bring to every single mitzvah. I'm davening because I'm connecting to Hashem. I'm keeping Shabbos because I'm connecting to Hashem. I'm doing chesed because I'm connecting to Hashem. I'm speaking and I'm speaking lovingly to people because I'm connecting to Hashem. I'm don lekaschus because I'm connecting to Hashem. If an ox scores another ox. This is the halacha, and that's how I'm connecting to Hashem. I read a Ramban, and that's how I'm connecting to Hashem. Why? Because I see the essence in everything that I did. Because the arum was portable, but it's beyond das; it's beyond the articulation of language. Rashi says, "Why?" Who knows? When we're talking about the essence, it's beyond das; it's beyond knowledge. So Rashi offers a suggestion. He offers a halachic suggestion, but only after he tells us what.

26:32 Meaning, once you know that you don't know, and you touch the essence, now you could give a theory. But you can't talk about the theory until you talk about what? Until you talk about the essence? Can I give you an example of this? I think I said this once here before, maybe three times, maybe five times. But it's worth saying again. Listen, what's the way the Rashi says it? If I know that I love you Now I can tell you what I love about you. But if I can only tell you what I love about you, then I don't love you. If I love you, it's beyond words. But now that I know that I love you beyond words, I can tell you all the list of the things that I love about you. But if somebody doesn't know, they don't have that intrinsic, essential knowledge of I love you, which is beyond language. You don't really love them; you just love things about them.

27:21 So what does Rashi tell us? I can tell you about this. Maybe this is a reason why the Aaron having the luchos was repeated twice, but only after he says what. I don't know why Because Rashi was connected to the essence, the same thing has to be true in our relationship with Hashem. Sometimes there's a thing that we do where we like have to give everything words. We have to give everything like everything has to be understood logically. But logically is only after what? It's only after you've touched the essence. Then you could talk about the logic. There are some people who are worshiping a Judaism of logic, and there are some people who are worshiping Hashem who's beyond logic. We came here this year to Yerushalayim to Beit Miriam. Why? To learn more halacha? For sure, we want to learn more halacha. To learn more and banzal on alatoura? For sure, we want to learn and banzal alatoura.

28:13 But is that why we came? Why did we come? What were we searching for? What did we want in the beginning of the year? We wanted to be. I want to be connected. And it's true. I had you were in America. You probably whether it was NCSY or Olam Mi or your or the high schools that you went to, whatever you were into. You had a place that taught you Torah. So why'd you come here? You know what the answer is. There's a difference between studying the menu and tasting the food. Anyone could teach you the menu. When we come to Eretz Yisrael, we taste the food. Right here is the land of the essence. You walk the streets here, and it feels different. It's not Brooklyn. It's not Muncie. It's not New York. It's not New Jersey. It's not LA. It's not Chicago. It's something different here. Did you ever go to Tzfat? Did you go to Tzfat this year? Yeah. You been up north? I went.

29:03 You go to Yerushalayim. You walk the streets. Have you ever wondered, if you're walking the streets of Yerushalayim, how old those cobblestone streets are? They're old. How many millions and tens of millions of Jews. Walked those streets throughout history. That's a crazy thing to think about. And it's not something you can articulate. Why is that so meaningful to you? You don't know the people that walked there before you. You just know that somehow they're connected to you because they're also Jewish. What's the answer to that question? I don't know. But there's something so amazing. We came here not to learn more about the menu. Of course, we want to learn about the menu, but we want to taste the food. Don't just teach me the halachos of Shabbos. I want to experience the majesty of Shabbos. Don't just teach me the halachos of davening. I want to be able to daven, close my eyes, and really feel that deep connection. Don't just tell me this is the halacha of what I am and I'm not allowed to do. Show me how it connects to Hashem. Make my aroma portable so that I can be connected to Hashem in every aspect of my life. Girls have a wonderful Shabbos.