Vayakhel/Pekudei - Why Moshe Shut Down the Mishkan Fundraiser

2:12 But tonight's mishmar is dedicated to a person who's in this room and he knows who he is. And he's somebody who Baruch Hashem is so big. He's so big. But he doesn't know how big he is. And so I'm dedicating this mishmar to him and this shmuuz to him That Bez Hashem He should know how big he is. There was an event in this week's parsha that never happened before and it never happened since. A miracle is something that only happens once. If it happens twice, it's already Be' Derekh Ateva. This was the biggest miracle of all. It only happened once in the history of Klal Yisrael. The Torah tells us as follows: All the wise people came, those that were performing all the work of the Mishkan. They were building the Mishkan. Each man from his work that they were doing. And these people said to Moshe Rabbeinu, 'Marbim ha'am lahavi.'

3:24 The nation is bringing too much. Midaya avodah malachah, Hashem lassos osa More than the labor that Hashem is commanded to perform. Meaning, Klal Yisrael is doing too much. Klal Yisrael is donating too much to the Mishkan. In the history of the world, this never happened. That they ran a campaign. And that the campaign produced so much that the people who were running the campaign said, "It's too much." It's too much. Moshe Aviru called Bamachna Lemar Ish ve'isha al yasu od malacha l'trumas ha'kodesh. Moshe Rabbeinu got up and he proclaimed in the Machna Yisrael and he said, "Chevra men, women, no more" No more. And the nation stopped donating. They stopped working. And the work was enough. And they even had a surplus of money. This is a big question. Why stop? Imagine we're running a campaign for the yeshiva. We're running a scholarship campaign. We set a goal.

4:45 We want to raise a million dollars, but Baruch Hashem. The guys in yeshiva—they're really working the phones, calling everybody they know. I want to be able to help out chevra that they can't afford yeshiva. So we set a goal at a million. But then all of a sudden imagine Imagine Sammy—we raised one point two Maybe one point four Be like Rabbi Saffer Maybe one point eight. Maybe we raise a little bit more. And then what happens? The chevr is going strong. The shivah gets up And in his own amiable style, he goes. Men Enough! Imagine such a thing. Imagine the chevr put away their phones. Why Raise two million, raise five million We'll have enough scholarship for the next five years. What could be wrong with that? Or maybe Maybe I dare say we'll buy the high school. I'm in. Yes. That's a big rough.

6:03 Maybe we could have. No bunk beds. Maybe. Maybe we could always have the smoothest of digs. Unlimited digs. What's the pshat? Myrshabingu stops the campaign. Since when does the yid stop collecting money? Think about what they could have done. Have a mishkan, get even nicer tapestry. You're doing great. You're doing great. Let's keep going. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Stop." And what happened? They stopped. They stopped. Why did they stop? Let's do more. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Stop." And then they stopped. All of a sudden, he stopped. What happened? Chaver, I want to tell you a secret. There are two ways of serving Hashem: from an abundance mentality. And from an impoverished mentality. There are people in this world who fall and do something wrong. They do an average that they're not proud of. And rather than saying I have to do tshuva They go to an extreme.

7:28 And all of a sudden they're in beis medrash to one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning. They're davening, but they're not just davening. They're like vibrating. You know what I'm talking about, vibrating daveners. They're vibrating. They're making a bracha. All of a sudden, it's like the Baba Sali making a bracha. They're like the Amshinover Rebbe. They said they sit down for pizza on Tuesdays. Dude, you grew up in Tene. What's the pshat? What's the pshat? The pshat is that they think fundamentally I'm not enough because of the things that I've done in my life, Rebbe. If you would only know the things that I've done in my life, I'm not enough. And I have to serve Hashem now. It has to be so intense. It's not normal how intense it is. It's just intense, intense Yiddishkeit. And on the outside, to the untrained eye, it might look like this person is really serving Hashem, but they're not.

8:38 They're not serving Hashem. They're just overcompensating for the fact that they feel so badly about themselves. To serve Hashem means to serve Hashem in a balanced way. What does it mean to serve Hashem balanced? It means I am enough. I made mistakes in my life, Moshe. There, I made mistakes. It's. People make mistakes. So we'll do tshuva, like the Rambam says. We don't have to get all fancy. The Rambam says Do you admit what you did? I admit it. Do you regret it? I'm not proud of it. If it happens again, are you going to choose differently? I'm going to choose differently. That's tshuva. But there are people that when they do an avera They're just like they don't know what to do with themselves. Now it's over, now it's farfallen. I don't know where I am in the world. Everything is bad. And you see these people, they go very up and they also go very down because one minute you might see them in the base measures till three o'clock in the night.

9:40 And they're learning and they're chasring, which is beautiful. But the next morning, they or two mornings later, they can't wake up for shachris because they're so broken by themselves. The pasuk says, "Banim atem la Hashem lo keichem." We are the Rebbeinu Sholm's children, and the Gemara in Kiddushin says, "Benkach u benkach karuyim banim." We have to know that we are Rebbeinu Sholm's precious children. And whether we are perfect or whether we are imperfect, we are the Rebbeinu Shalom's children, and that's never going to change. A child, no matter how far they stray from their parents, remains a child. Even if Chassid Shalom, we don't participate in the relationship with our father. We will always be a son to our father. Even if we make a mistake, you're still called the Rebbeinu Shalom's son. Afal pisha chato yestral, who the Gemara says you didn't haveira. You didn't haveira. That does not in any way diminish your identity. You're still a Jew.

10:42 You're still a Jew. You're fine. You're okay. Say there, you have some work to do. There's tikkunim that need to be made. But you have not, for one second, in any way, chas v'shalom, been diminished in the eyes of the rebbeinu shalom. We need to do better at participating in the relationship in a healthy way. We are okay, even when we make mistakes. And the Gemara in Gittin takes it even further. The Gemara says, "Ein Adam oymed al devrei taira l'mk nishshabah." You made a mistake. You should know that's your greatest area of learning. The Rebbeinu Sholom created this world in such a way that we make mistakes, and that's how we learn. When you guys were little and you were learning how to walk, I promise you, not one of you. Just picked up one day and walked. You all fell. And you know how you learn to walk because when you fall, your mother and your father said, "It's okay. It's okay to fall. Let's try again. It's okay to fall." That's how we learn to walk. The reason we don't trip all over ourselves all day long is because we learned how to balance ourselves. And how did we learn that from our failures? We're designed to fail.

11:57 We're designed to fall. We're designed to do sometimes things that we're not proud of. It's the only way we can learn. And even though our rebbeim get up and they say over and over again, "Listen, I've made these mistakes. I've made these mistakes before. Just don't make the same mistakes that I'm making." And that it frustrates us as parents and as rebbeim that we try to tell people, 'New, if you'll only do this.' And we tell the talmidim, "Thank you, Chaim." We tell the talmidim, "We're like, listen." Like the marshal of their mechel If there's a maze and you're trying to get to the end of the maze, you would be wise to listen to the person who's standing on top of the maze because they'll guide you out. You'd be wise to listen to your parents and to your rebayim and to your mentors that are older. They've walked this path before.

12:44 So take their advice. They know how to get to the end of the maze. And no matter how much we scream it, it doesn't work because at the end of the day, the only way to learn is trial and error. And frankly, trial and error is the best possible teacher. Yaakov Avinu named Benjamin. The Rav Avraham ben A Rambam writes because his name was Ben Yamin, the son of Days. Meaning, who would be his teacher? Life will be his teacher, because Benjamin didn't have a mother to teach him how to negotiate this world. So Yaakov Avinu named him Benjamin. Life will be his teacher. He'll learn what he needs to learn. Because you do something and it doesn't work and then finally you go, I have to do something different. How long are we going to be the fly that's smashing up against the window? We're like, it just has to try harder. Maybe then I'll get through the window. You're a fly. You're not getting through the window.

13:41 Look for an open window. But it takes us time. We have to smash against that window over and over again until we realize there has to be a better way. That's okay. It's okay to learn. It's okay to be 18 years old. It's okay to be 19 years old. It's okay to make mistakes. People like, but I don't know what I'm doing. None of us did. All the adults in your lives, acting like they were perfect their entire life. It's not true. The only way that these people got so knowledgeable is because they made mistakes. There's no such thing as somebody that doesn't learn if he's not making mistakes. It's a bad thing that we do. We stand up here, we pretend to be perfect. Choshev Rebeyim. And it's true; these people grew tremendously, but they were once upon a time eighteen and nineteen years old.

14:27 That's how they got to be great. What came before the building of the Mishkan, the Chet Ha'Egel? What happened when Klal Yisrael was Nichshol in the Chet Ha'Egel? What was the feeling they had afterwards? Because that wasn't just any avero. That was one of the worst averas in history, parallel only to the avera of Adam Rishon. Because Adam Rishon destroyed the entire world, and by Harsinai the entire world was rectified. Chazal say there was no more malacham aves and there was no more yitzharo. How could it be that there was no more malacham aves and no more yitzharo? Because when did the malacham aves come into the world? When did we get a yitzharo? When Adam Rishon sinned. By Harsinai, the malacham aves was gone, the yitzharo was gone, because everything was back to square one. And then we did the Chaita Egal, and we broke everything in the entire world.

15:21 What a terrible average that we did! Absolutely terrible avera. And if you think about it, if you look at the Mamare Chazal that describe Klal Yisrael standing by Arsi'ni was a chuppah And Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' And then within forty days, what did we do? We mamish. I hate to use these lashonis, but Chazal use these lashonis. It was like we cheated on our spouse in Sheva Brachos. Can you imagine the feeling that Klali Yisrael had afterwards? Can you imagine the feeling of being so broken? And the Rebbeinu Shlom comes and he says, "I'll give you a chance to rectify the Cheta Egel." You have to build me a Mishka. Because after all, what would be a more suitable tikkun for the chet eigel? If the chet eigel breaks the relationship, what could be more beautiful than literally building for Hashem a home? That's the most unbelievable thing.

16:29 But there was an energy when they were building the mishkan. There was an energy. You know what the energy was? Man, we have to build the most unbelievable home. We just have to give, and we have to give, and we have to give, and it'll never be enough. And if we raise the million dollars, we need to raise five. And if we raise five, we need to raise ten. Because maybe if I'm perfect, and maybe if I raise thirty million dollars and forty million dollars, maybe if I build the most unbelievable mishkan, maybe then Hashem will actually forgive me. And so when they reached the right amount Meir Abenu said, "Stop." We don't need more. You don't need to be more. This is not the way that we enter into a relationship with Hashem. Just do enough. Not just do enough. Don't be ambitious. Of course, a Jew must be ambitious about their relationship with Hashem. But do it from the perspective of Rebbe Nachshon. I'm going to do what you ask me to do. You don't need to overcompensate. You don't need to be crazy about it. You just need to show up and participate in the relationship. Kamoshat zarih.

17:34 This notion that I have to make up for lost time That because at 16 years old, when I was growing up, I wasn't studying like crazy and I wasn't sitting in Beth Medrash all day long, so now I have to come to yeshiva and I have to totally reinvent myself and I have to become a different person. Where in the world do we get this idea from? I'll share with you very honestly. That's what I did when I was your age. When I was 18 years old and I was here in Mevasseret, I felt very much like I had to overcompensate. There's a rebbe in this yeshiva. He comes once a week. He's a very big tzaddik. His name is Revgel. Some of you have the opportunity to learn Torah with him. He's an unbelievable tzaddik. If you haven't had the chance this year, you should make sure to learn Torah with Revgel. He's a real tzaddik. When I was 19 years old, my shana bet Revgel joined the yeshiva.

18:24 He wasn't yet married. He had a chavrusa. His name was Revaiser. Back then, he wasn't Revaiser. He was just Benyamin. And back then, Rav Vogel was just—I shouldn't use his English name, but I will. Today is Rav Asher Vogel. He's a tremendous Talmud Chacham. Back then, he was Adam. So Adam and Binyamin, Ben They were Chavrusas. They were pillars in the base mattress. Pillars, literally. They did not move. And I looked up to them like you can't imagine. And specifically, both of them in their own unique way. But then I saw a picture of a Vogel when he was in high school. Long flowing hair. I was like, oh my God, he was cool. Now I want to be like him. But Avogel, he has a real tzidkustim. If you've met him, he's a real tzaddik. He's very gentle. He's very soft-spoken. He likes to hold his hands like it says in the Gerus Ramban. When you say hello to him, he says hi.

19:27 It's very sweet to talk to him. He's mabush and he makes really good eye contact. It's very sweet. So I started doing it. At 19 years old, I started walking around like an edel meadol, with my head tilted a little bit, and I was taking short steps, like I didn't want to be a balgiva, like it says in igeras ramban. I was taking very short steps. Our beis medrash, when I learned here 28 years ago, our beis medrash is what's currently your sheerums, and what's currently our beis medrash was called the elephant graveyard. It was just an empty shell of a room, same ceiling. As Hashem, next campaign With the surplus. The mashgiach of the yeshiva He sat in the corner of what is now Rav Isaac's shir room. Next to that long window. He sat in the corner, and one day I was walking up the mountain from the back of the kitchen, walking towards the beis medrash with my hands clasped and my head tilted to the side, taking my short steps. The mashgiach sees me out the window and calls out the window, 'Berg, come here.'

20:35 So I didn't know what to do. I had a dilemma. On the one hand, the mashgiach is calling me, so I should go fast. But on the other hand, the ramban says that you should only take short steps. So I started like Like a doofus. I'm taking quick short steps. This doesn't really look normal. The mashgiach calls out the window and he goes Berg, run! As Torah tells me to run, so now I sprinted. There was a time when I could sprint. I sprinted up the mountain, and I came into the beis medrash. I wasn't even panting back then. I could run like ten feet. And I came to him, and I said "Yes, Rabbi." And he looks at me and he goes "You're not Vogel." It was unbelievable. He understood exactly what I was doing. So I sat with him and I said to him, "But Rebbe" Am I not supposed to be vocal?

21:39 And he looked at me. I'll never forget the look on his face. He looked at me incredulously. And he goes, "No, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." "And I said, 'But why? It says in the Gerus Arumban that I'm supposed to walk like this and talk like this.'" And the Moshiach—I'll never forget the Moshiach. He's like What are you doing? The Rebbe himself created you to be you. Why are you trying to be something you're not? And I sat and thought about it, and I said I don't know. I guess I just feel like I messed up so much in high school that if I don't become this tzaddik, if I don't leave Mivaseret as a real tzaddik, if I don't come back to the Five Towns having reinvented myself, and the entire world is going to look at me and say, 'Berg did very well in Mivaseret.' If that doesn't happen, then the whole thing was a waste.

22:27 I remember he was like Like it was back then. It was a chiddush to me. He had to say to me, "You're already enough." You're a good guy. You made some mistakes. It's okay. You don't have to try to do more than you are. The Abanishim created you to be yourself. Just be yourself. The problem was not that they were donating to the Mishkan. The problem was the way they were donating to the Mishkan. That they never, in their wildest dreams, expected people just to give everything. They had to give everything. Why do you have to give everything? Why do you have to give everything? Only because you think you're not enough. But if you knew, I made a mistake. I'm going to rectify it. I don't need to do more. That's crazy. And listen, what happened when Moshe Rabbeinu? This is what it means to be a rabbeinu. This is what it means to be a rebbe.

23:24 When Moshe Rabbeinu When he looked at those precious Jews And he saw that they had this feeling of "I'm not enough," he said, "Kevrah, just stop. You're okay. You're enough." And he looked at them with such tenderness, and he said it in such a sweet way that Klal Yisrael stopped giving because they were no longer desperate. Because they said, "Oh." Our rebbe told us that we're okay. That's a real rebbe. A real rebbe holds us accountable, and he says, "Yes, we made it. We made an egel azov. We have to build a mishkan to rectify it." But also, it's okay. It's okay. You have to build a mishkan. You don't have to. You don't have to empty the bank. You don't have to give everything away. That's not the way we live. Normal, healthy balance. 'A ma' is a beautiful ma' that brought down in a sefer called Megad Givasah Olam from Rav Shurkin. Rav Shurkin was Rav Salivachik's chavrusha.

24:21 He wrote a small sefer full of stories of gedolim. There was a young man who was a bal tshuva, and he started wearing tefillin all day. Sometimes bal tshuva get very intense. He started wearing tefillin all day, so the rebbeim in his yeshiva were nervous. This is not healthy behavior. So they went to him and they said, 'You're wearing tefillin all day. This is not what Klal Yisrael does.' He says, 'No, but I have perfect kavana, so I could wear tefillin all day.' And the rabbis were saying, 'This is a very big mistake.' " And he was insistent, "No, I can have kavana." So they said to him Which gadol b'tayrah do you want to go to? We'll go to a gadol b'tayrah. If the gadol b'tayrah says you could wear tefillin all day, then you could wear tefillin all day. The boy said he was smart. He said, "I want to go to Rav Shaimberg Zechariah Levrak."

25:09 For those of you who have seen pictures of Rav Shainberg wore hundreds of pairs of sittus And he wore tefillin all day. So the rebbeim said, "we'll go to Rav Shainberg." They walked into Rav Shainberg, and he's wearing his tefillin, and he has his hundreds of pairs of tzitzis. And the boy said, "I'm here because my rebbeim feel that I shouldn't be wearing tefillin all day. But Rebbe, I think I can wear tefillin all day, and I think I could have kavana." And Rav Shainberg looked at him and goes, "What's the matter? You're not normal? Roshenberg, who wore hundreds of pairs of tzitzis, " It was matim for Roshenberg. It wasn't matim for this person. That's what Roshenberg was saying. The avoda of a yid is to be normal, healthy, balanced. To know I'm already enough for the Rebbeinu Shol. I can serve you benachas. Derachah daracheh noam. The way of the Torah is pleasant. Sometimes we see guys in yeshiva that they lose the pleasantness of Torah.

26:10 What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want from us? So in next week's parsha in Vayikra It says Adam ki yakriv mihem carbon la Hashem. When it comes to an animal sacrifice, the Torah tells us when a person from among you brings a carbon to Hashem. But when it speaks about the carbon mincha Listen to how the Torah says it: the nefesh ki takriv carbon mincha la Hashem. When a soul, not a person, brings a carbon minchah to Hashem, and Chazal ask Why does it switch? Originally, it says Adam, and now it switches to Nefesh. And the Medrash says as follows: Amar Hakadosh Baruch Hu Malah ani alav ki ilu hikriv nafsho lefanai. When a person comes and they bring a carbon minchah Which is generally brought by a poor person But that's what they have to give. The Rebbeinu Shalom says, 'It's like they brought themselves. It's like they brought their nefesh.' The Rebbeinu Shalom doesn't need abundance. The Rebbeinu Shalom doesn't need us to bring a lot. The Rebbeinu Shalom needs us to bring ourselves.

27:22 We're heading now into Benazmanim. It's a big avodah, Rabosai. Benazmanim, we dive in with a minion. We're kaveya eatim la'tyra. Very, very, very important, especially if you're home and you have the opportunity to do the mitzvah of kibud av v'eim. Prioritize the mitzvah of kibud av v'eim. Shop for your parents. Hang out with your siblings. Be normal. If you come home over Rebbi Azmanim and you don't know how to take a break You should know that's coming from an impoverished mentality. It's coming from the fact that you're not enough. Rabbi Shlomo Frijfeld, the founding rabbi of Sharyashuv, once walked into the beis medrash in Sharyashuv in Ben Azmanim, and he saw these boys sitting and learning. He pulled the boys over and gave them a couple of dollars. He said, 'Hevra, go make a picnic.' Go out and play some ball. Go relax. The way of a ben Torah is to know I'm enough for the rabbi. Shlom, I daven, I learn, I do chesed, I'm a chabad my parents, but I don't need to go crazy Just because I wasn't my optimal self at 16 years old doesn't mean my 18, 19 year old self needs to become the Labavitcher Rebbe or the Baba Saly or the Shach. We're already enough. And be'ez Hashem If we appreciate that the Rebbeinu Sholom just wants us, our imperfect but authentic selves, then be'ez Hashem, we'll serve Hashem with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and we will be enough for ourselves and enough for the Rebbeinu Sholom.