Terumah - Transforming The World One Donation At A Time

1:51 We're doing something with the money. The money is not the goal. The question is what you do with the money. If you get a donation, let's say Sharfman's is running an expansion campaign for the building, and they say they give it a name. They say it's the next level building campaign. We're taking Sharfman's to the next level. So whatever the name is, the reason they give it a name is because they don't want you to focus on the money that you're giving. They want you to focus on the investment that you're making. So if we were naming this parsha, we would never name the parsha Truma because that's about the money that you donate, not about the Mishkan that you build. Even though the entire content of the parsha is about the Mishkan that you build. So far, you so far so good. You hear the question? In other words, very simple. If I was naming the parsha, we name the parsha Mishkan and not Truma. Truma is about the donation. Mishkan is about the destination of the money. So far so good. I want to tell you a story.

2:53 It's a chassidish story. It's a beautiful story, but I want you to pay attention to the details because the details are really important here. It used to be that sometimes orphaned children would marry other orphaned children because it wasn't so simple to marry an orphan. Today we have a tremendous amount of money in the Jewish community. So if Chassvashalim somebody's orphaned, somebody else has money. But it used to be that it wasn't so easy, and families would get together. Families who each had a bit would get together, and they would marry off their children to each other. It wasn't so simple for orphans to marry into regular families where people weren't orphaned. Very often, what would happen is that orphaned girls would marry boys who were also orphaned and had lost their parents. It once happened, and this Chasidah Shemai. It once happened that there was an orphaned boy engaged to an orphaned girl. This in the times of Tsarist Russia.

3:53 And this or it was in a specific town. It was in Tsarist Russia, and the orphaned boy, the day of the wedding, was arrested and drafted into the Tsar's army. And to be drafted into the Tsar's army was a death sentence. Nobody ever came out of the Tsar's army. Certainly, nobody came out religious. But you didn't come out for twenty years. Meaning, for this girl who was going to get married and lose her husband. Just got drafted on the day of their wedding. It's the craziest thing ever. She's not going to have a husband for the next twenty years. So she ran to a tzaddik whose name was Rav Mendel Vitebsker And she said to Rav Mendel Vitebsker, "My chassan just got drafted into the czar's army" And Rav Mendel was a big tzaddik. Rav Mendel said to her, "Don't worry, everything's going to be okay." And she said, "No, Rebbe, I'm not satisfied with you just saying it's going to be okay."

4:50 I want you to swear to me that it's going to be okay. And Reb Mendel said to her, 'I swear to you that it's going to be okay.' And now she had menuchas nefesh. If the tzaddik swore to her that it was going to be okay, then everything was going to be okay. Reb Mendel of Tapskert now just made this nedner. He just made the shavua that he was going to get this boy out of jail. So he ran to the jail and you go over to the person and you say what's it going to cost me to get this guy out of jail. Obviously I'm going to have to bribe him and the jailer would be offended how would you ever think that I as an officer of the czar would ever even be attempted to take your bribe. I would never in a million years do that. It would cost you 500 rubles to get this guy out of jail, which was basically the jailer's way of saying for 500 rubles.

5:40 I'll get your guy out of jail. So Rav Menlovetevsker said, "When do we have to get you the money by?" He said, "By sundown tonight." By sundown tonight, Rav Menlovetevsker said, "I have to get 500 roubles." So he ran to two other tzaddikim. The two tzaddikim that he ran to were the Kedushas Levi, Rav Levi Yitzchak Mibrachiv, the Halakha Kedushas Levi, and the Alter Rebbe of Shneir Zalman of Liadi, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe. And Reb Mendel of Tesker came to them and he said, "We have a terrible tragedy. This orphaned boy got drafted into the Tsar's Russian army. It's going to cost us five hundred rubles by sundown tonight." We have to go collect the money. They started going door to door and they realized this town doesn't have five hundred rubles. There's no way we're going to be able to raise the money in time.

6:30 So the Alter Rebbe said, "I have an idea, but you have to trust me." We're going to go to a guy whose name is Velvel. Velvel was a Jew who went completely off the derech. He moved out of the ghetto area. All the Jews used to live in one neighborhood, and he moved and lives on the gentile side of town. He lives with the Gaon. Velvel is completely off the derech, but Velvel is super wealthy. We're going to get the money from Velvel. The deal is this: this is what the Alter Rebbe said to the Kedushas Levi and Rav Menlovetevsker. No matter what happens. You're not allowed to say a word. Is that okay? They went to Velvel. They knocked on the door. Velvel was known as a miserly person. He didn't want to give up any of his money. They came. There's these three big tzaddikim: the Kedushas Levi of Mendel of Tevesker and Roshner Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe. They're there. They knock on the door. Velvel opens the door and he goes, "What do you want?"

7:28 They said, "There's an orphaned boy." This is a terrible tragedy. It's the day of his chasna. He was just drafted into the Russian Tsarist army. It's a five hundred ruble bribe, and we need to give it to him by tonight. Velvel said, "Wait right here." He went into his house. They were able to see. Went into his office, opened a safe. And they were like, "this is geshmak." If you don't open up the safe to get like a kopeck, you open up the safe because that's where you keep your big money. He opens up the safe, comes back to the door, and he's holding a crusty, moldy copper ruble. It's only one ruble. They needed five hundred. He says, "Here, this is for you." Rav Mendel Vitebsker and the Kedushas Levi wanted to say something. They wanted to be like, 'Really? We asked you for five hundred rubles. We came to the other side of town. Do you think we came to get your one ruble coin?' But of course, they made a deal with the Alter Rebbe that they weren't going to say a word.

8:25 So they didn't say a word. The Alter Rebbe looked at Velvel. He said, Velvel, thank you so much for your tzedakah. He took the coin and put it into his pocket. The three tzaddikim are walking away. The Alter Rebbe says, remember, not a word. They're down the block when all of a sudden they hear behind them footsteps running in their direction. Velvel is calling and he says, please come back. I forgot. I have a little bit more for you. He said. They turned around. They came back to the door. Velvel went back into a safe. He got a couple more rubles. He handed them five rubles. Thank you so much for coming. Saddikim were like five rubles. We're trying to get five hundred rubles. Now we have six rubles total. What are we going to do with six rubles total? The Alter Rebbe said, "Don't say a word."

9:09 So they didn't say a word. The Alter Rebbe graciously took the five rubles, put them in his pocket, and said, 'Thank you so much, Revvel. We really appreciate it.' And again, they started walking away, and again the same thing happened. Revvel came back and he said, 'I'm so sorry. I found more money. Please come back.' It started to happen over and over again. Every time he would give them a little bit more. First he gave one ruble, then five, then ten, then fifty, then a hundred, then two hundred, and eventually he just gave them the entire five hundred rubles. Tzadikim were shocked. What just happened? They turned to the Alter Rebbe and they said How did you know that this was going to happen? So he said, 'Look, it was very simple. I knew three things. Rav Mendel Vitebsker is a big tzaddik.' And he gave a shvua that it was going to be okay, so obviously it was going to be okay.

9:58 I also knew that the money had to be collected by sundown, so we didn't have time to travel to a wealthier town. That means the money must be here in this town. And he knew the only one that had that amount of money was Velvel, so we had no choice but to go to Velvel. I had no idea how it was going to work out. They said to Velvel, "What was the story here? Why'd you give one ruble and then five rubles and then ten rubles and then fifty rubles and then a hundred rubles? Why'd you like? What was going on?" So Velvel said, "I want to tell you my story." Everyone knows that I'm off the Derech. Everyone knows I don't keep Shabbos. Everyone knows I don't keep Kosher. This is my life. It's pretty meforsham. He said, "I want to tell you." When I was growing up I was a stingy kid.

10:41 There's certain kids that have trouble parting from their money. Some people just give their money away. I have a Talmud, one of my favorite Talmudim ever. His name is Gershi. Gershi just gives his money away. He gives. He doesn't care about money. He just cares about people. He's the least stingy person I've ever met in my entire life. He has a tzedakah box right by the front door of his house. You don't leave his house without giving tzedakah. He has a bowl full of quarters. And before you leave, he goes, "Don't forget to put tzedakah in." Meaning even his guests come and take from the money that he has set aside. They put it in tzedakah. He just doesn't care about money. But some of us, and this is what Velvel was like. He was what's called a kamson. A little bit stingy. It's hard sometimes when you have money to part from it. And Velvel said when I was a kid growing up I had a hard time giving tzedakah. I was a stingier type of person. And then I got older. I wasn't so frum. But you know what happened?

11:32 I started making money. When you make money, it gets even harder to part from your money. It's not easy to part from your money. He said. So I started becoming more stingy, and the stingier that I got, the less observant that I got. The less that I gave tzedakah, the less that I kept Shabbos. The less that I gave tzedakah, the less that I kept kosher. And finally, I became wealthy and just literally moved to the other side of town because I didn't want to have anything to do with the Jewish community. One day Living on the other side of town, totally off the derech. A Jewish ani, a Jewish poor person, came and he knocked on my door. I don't like giving my money. I had a ruble in my pocket, and I said, 'Here, take the ruble.' And this guy, this ani, who was obviously destitute, who was obviously feeling very, very broken by life. How embarrassing it is to knock on somebody's door and give tzedakah. The most embarrassing thing in the world.

12:26 So when I gave him that ruble, he was so angry at me. He took the ruble and he threw it at me, and it hit me in the chest. And he said, "Keep your ruble" And he walked away. I was sitting there holding that ruble, and I was so angry at him. I gave you this ruble. You don't want it? Fine. I won't give any more money ever. People would come to my door, and I tested them. I held that ruble, and if they came to the door, I would give them that ruble. If they threw it back at me, I would say, "Fine." He said, "Do you know how many times over the years I've handed that ruble to somebody, and they took that ruble and they threw it in my face? This copper, moldy rouble has been thrown at me every time I gave it to Tzedaka. It's been thrown back at me. It's happened dozens and dozens of times over the years. And then when you showed up at the door" I said, "same old test." I opened up my safe.

13:23 I pulled out my one rouble, and I gave it to the Alter Rebbe. And what did he do? It was the first time anybody accepted it and said thank you. And it opened something in my heart because once you start to give, what starts to happen? You start to give more You become generous as you start to give. He said, "So I gave you one, and there was a tiny crack in the armor." So I said, 'You know what? I can give them five.' So I ran after you and I brought you back to give you five. Once I gave you five, I was able to give you ten. Once I was able to give you ten, I was able to give you fifty. Once I gave you fifty, I was able to give you a hundred. Until I was able to give you the entire five hundred rubles. It's an amazing story. And this and the muscle. Again, it's a chesed shemaisa. Who cares if it's true or not? The message is true. The nimschel of this mussel is that becoming a giver is not an easy thing to do. You have to give in order to become a giver. I'm going to tell you a true story. This is a crazy story.

14:21 When I was in America, I told you my crazy schedule a minute ago. When I was in America, I gave a she'er on Sunday morning in Young Israel Aron Cedarist. Anyone here have fake cousins? I'm talking about your mom's best friend or your dad's best friend, so you call them your aunt and uncle. I have fake cousins. They live in Connecticut. She's my aunt. He's my uncle. And their children, two of their three children, live in the Five Towns. I was giving she'er in the Five Towns. I walk into the she'er and there's my aunt and my two cousins. None of them are related to me, but they're my aunt and my cousins, and I love them very much. I said, you can't come to my she'er. I'm going to be laughing the entire time. You guys know that this is just an act. I'm not Rovberg. I'm just little Matt Berg that you know from when we were all kids together. Come on, you can't be here. I'm going to be laughing the entire time. Fine. At the end of the shiur, so I'm sitting with my cousins and my aunt, and I said to one of my cousins, I said, "Is it true that your husband gives out like tzedakah every Sunday, not wearing pants?"

15:20 She's like, 'It's kind of true.' I was like, 'Because I heard he's Baruch Hashem a person who's been blessed.' And he really gives out a lot of tzedakah, but sometimes he just wants to sit there in his shorts and doesn't want to put on pants. And he's like, 'Look, you're coming to me for tzedakah, so I'm not putting on pants for every single person that comes.' So I said to her, I said to my cousin, "I want you to know" All I want is to knock on the door and collect money from your husband while he's not wearing pants. So she said, 'He's going to recognize you.' I said, 'He's not going to recognize me. When's the last time he saw me? Ten years ago. He's not going to recognize me.' She said, look, give it a shot. I come to their house. I knock on the door. I put on my hat. I made my shirt more disheveled. I made my tie all disheveled. I put chulent all over my shirt, like a real mashulach.

16:10 I knocked on the door. This guy opens the door, and I said I was very soft spoken, a little embarrassed. I was here collecting money for my yeshiva, and he said, please come on in. And I come in. And I took three steps in the house, and he turned around to me and he went Which yeshivah are you collecting for, Shalvim or Reshit? So I said, 'Reshit.' He goes, 'I give money to Reshit. The only yeshivah I don't give to is Mevaseret.' So I said, 'Oh, you knew it was me.' He's like, 'Of course I know it was you. How are you doing?' So I come in. I come in. It's great. I come in, sit down at the kitchen, and sit with my cousin. I'm meeting her children. I haven't seen her whole family. I'm sitting with my aunts. And this guy, the Balabas, who was that? He was wearing pants. That was the worst part of the story.

17:05 And he disappears. He goes somewhere, and I don't know where he went. And he came back. He hands me a check. And I said to him, "Dude, I was joking." "I'm not here collecting money for the yeshiva." And he goes, "It's my pleasure." And I turned to my cousin. I was like, I cannot take this. I did not come collecting for the yeshiva. My cousin looks at me and she goes He gives to everybody. You may as well take it. I opened. I didn't even look at what the check was. I opened up and I saw the number on the check and I was like, No, I can't take this. It was not a small number. Not a small number at all. This was not one ruble. This was not five rubles. This was not five hundred rubles. This was an enormous amount of money. And I turned to my said, I can't take this money from you. And he goes, it's my privilege to support the work that you're doing. I was so touched.

17:53 I was so touched. I was like, I never saw something like that in my life. And it happens to be that in the time I was there, nobody knocked on the door. But as I was leaving, four moshulachim were coming up to the door together, and they told me this happens every single Sunday. The knocks on the door are every other minute, and nobody gets turned away. Wow. Some people are naturally giving. But there's a secret. The Rambam tells us: if you have a thousand, again, if somebody needs it, it's a different story. Let's say you have a thousand dollars in your pocket. You know what the Rambam says? It's better to give it out one dollar at a time than to give the thousand dollars to one place. Why? Because the more you give, the more you train yourself to become a giver. That's what the Rambam says.

18:40 I want to say an unbelievable thing. I heard this from Rav Shai Tal. This is an unbelievable Torah. He's saying it over in the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. It's an unbelievable Torah. What was the Mishkan all about? The Mishkan was all about bringing Hashem down into this world. That's why we built the Tabernacle in order for Hashem to have a dwelling place in this world. Is this the first time in the Torah that we see that Hashem comes down into this world? It happened before by Har Sinai in Parshas Yisro. What does the Torah tell us? That Hashem came down to the mountain. So what's the difference between Har Sinai in Parshas Yisro where Hashem came down, and Parshas Truma where we're building the Mishkan? Listen to what the Lebavitcher Rebbe says—an unbelievable idea. When Hashem came down in Parshas Yisro Lightning, thunder, the entire world changed.

19:30 But you know what happened after Har Sinai was over? The world changed back because they didn't actually do the work to change. If you want to change, it has to come from you. It can't come from above. You know what it's like? It's like the difference if somebody tells you need to go to rehab because you're a drug addict. So why did they go to rehab? Because somebody else pushed them to go. So when they get to rehab, have they really owned the problem, or are they there because somebody else pushed them to go? That's very different than if somebody says This is not working. I need to go to rehab. I have real problems. I need to get help. I need to see a therapist. I need to get sober. I need to go to a sober living. I need to do the work. It's different, and the change is more transformative because where did it come from? It came from within you.

20:22 This is a big thing in seminary here. If you are in seminary and you're inspired because you heard an amazing shiur You should know that won't last. It feels good for a minute. Maybe it lasts for a day. Maybe it lasts for a week. Maybe it lasts even for a month, but it doesn't last because the inspiration came from above. It didn't come from within. But if a girl comes to seminary and she says, "I'm not here to hear inspiring shirim. I'm here so that the inspiration that I receive can transform me, because I'm looking to become more in touch with my godly soul," she's going to have a completely different seminary experience. In Parshas Yisro, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, an unbelievable part. The world changed, but only for a little bit. The world changed because God came down into the world. What's the difference between Parshas Truma and Parshas Yisro?

21:09 This time we're building a house for Hashem. It's not coming from above; it's coming from below. We build a house for Hashem so that what will happen? So that God will have a place to dwell. The transformation that we make in Parshas Truma is a lasting change in the world. When we build a mishkan, we transform the world not just for a minute; we transform the world throughout all of history because we're making a dwelling place for Hashem. And how do we do that? What does the pasuk say? You all know this. V'asulim miktosh. V'shachanti v'socham. Make for me a mishdash, and where will I dwell? Inside of you. We build the mishkan in a way that it lasts. We transform ourselves. How do we transform ourselves? By giving one dollar and then another dollar. As we give every dollar, we become givers. The more you become a giver, the more you invite Hashem into your life.

22:06 The more real the transformation is. The reason why people don't change in a lasting way is because maybe they get very frum. But if you really want to make a meaningful and lasting change, you have to become a giver. You have to become someone who lives for something beyond themselves. That's why the great ones are always the biggest balei chesed. Because it's not about them. That's why they serve Hashem so well, because they say it's not about me. I'm living for Hashem. I'm living for this other person. I want to make the world a brighter place, a more godly place. It's an unbelievable thing. In this parsha, we transform. What was the name of the parsha? Not Mishkan Shulma, because the focus is not on the house that you build, but on what? On the donations that built it. The transformation doesn't come because we built the house for Hashem. The transformation comes because we dedicated ourselves to becoming givers to Hashem in this world. So the focus of the parsha is not on the Mishkan. That's why it's not the name of the parsha. The focus of the parsha is Truma, the donation. But remember, girls, there were two names that we had for Truma. What were the two names? One was donation. What was the other one? To elevate.

23:14 What elevates us in this world? What brings us closer to Hashem? The dedication, the donation, the money that you give, reaching into your pocket and saying, "I'm a part of this." I'm a part of this, and how do you give? What does the Torah describe it? Kol nidaiv leiv. People would come, and they were generous with their spirit. They would give whatever they had. The more you give, the more elevated you become. The more elevated you become, the closer you are to Hashem. The more real the transformation is. There's a word that we use. I hate it. I want you girls never to use this phrase. People say, "I come to Sharman's for the year. This is my year to be selfish." That's a tragedy. No growth ever comes from being selfish. Growth only comes from giving to somebody else. That's where growth happens. Maybe this is your year to be inwardly focused. Maybe this is your year to say, I'm working on myself this year so that I can become a giver to other people. But if you frame this year as your year to be selfish, there will be no elevation and there will be no lasting transformation. If you give to another, if you're a bala'shesed. If you focus not just on yourself but on giving to somebody else, then by Ezedr Hashem You'll have a meaningful, transformative year. That 20 years from now, you'll say that year changed my life because it was the first time I reached into my pocket and pulled out that one ruble, that five rubles, that ten rubles, and God willing, by Ezedr Hashem, the five hundred rubles. Girls, have a wonderful Shabbos. Thank you, Rabbi.