Vayakhel - Pekudei: 5786 - "And the people were restrained from bringing... and the material was sufficient for all the work to do it, and there was extra." Seemingly there is a contradiction? Rabbi…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 In the weekly parsha, all the craftsmen doing the holy work come to Moshe Rabbeinu and say, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the work.” Moshe gives an order, and a proclamation goes out through the camp: “Let no man or woman do any more work for the contribution to the Sanctuary.” And the people stop bringing. The verse concludes: “The materials were sufficient for all the work to be done, and there was extra.” Now, “sufficient” means there was exactly enough for all the work of the Mishkan, while “extra” means there was more than needed. So the verse seems to contradict itself. Was there exactly enough, or was there extra? There are several answers to this. Let’s give two of them. One answer is that, in truth, there was already enough. But then a Jew came who hadn’t yet managed to bring his donation. He brought it, and they didn’t want to accept it. The man was heartbroken: they wouldn’t accept his gift. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed a miracle, and suddenly there was a shortage of one of the materials, so his gift was needed too. In that sense there was enough, but there was also extra—his gift had indeed been more than was needed. That’s one explanation. Another explanation is that there really was enough for all the vessels of the Mishkan. But what was missing? The resting of the Shechinah in the Mishkan. Each person thought that the Mishkan had been built with the donation he had brought: without my donation, there wouldn’t have been enough. So each person felt that he was the one who had supplied what was needed to complete the Mishkan. But it says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu says of someone who is proud, “He and I cannot dwell together.” So because everyone felt that he was the one who had completed the donations needed to build the Mishkan, there was no

02:08 Speaker 2 resting of the Shechinah. But when there was extra, each person thought: perhaps what I brought was the extra portion that wasn’t used in the work of the Mishkan. Each person felt humbled: his part hadn’t gone into the work of the Mishkan. That’s why it says, “The materials were sufficient.” How were they sufficient? Because “there was extra.” Since there was extra, each person felt that way, and that was enough for the Shechinah truly to rest there. That was really the… And since we’re talking about donations and contributions, I want to tell a story about the rabbi of Jerusalem, my grandfather. There was a woman in Hungary whose husband was very wealthy, and she had no children. She came to the local rabbi and gave him four hundred gold coins. That was a very substantial sum. She told the rabbi to send it to a righteous person as charity, as a pidyon nefesh, so that he would bless her to have children. The rabbi said to her, “Listen, there is a righteous rabbi in Jerusalem, and I think he is the best person to send it to. To Jerusalem, in the Holy Land.” She agreed, and he did send it. Three weeks passed. The woman’s husband was very wealthy, and as the verse says, “The rich man answers harshly.” He came to the rabbi and said, “How could you take such a large sum of money from my wife? You didn’t even ask me.” He hadn’t agreed to it. “Why did you take such a large sum from her?” The rabbi didn’t know what to answer. The wealthy man said, “I demand that you write to the Land of Israel, to Jerusalem, and have them send the money back.” The rabbi tried to persuade him. “Listen, it’s already been given.” But he said, “I

04:15 Speaker 2 insist. Write a letter asking them to send the money back.” The rabbi said, “You know what? If you insist on getting the money back, I’ll pay you out of my own pocket. I can’t pay it all at once—it’s a large sum—but I’ll pay you in installments.” While they were talking, the postman arrived with a registered letter. The rabbi looked at it. It was a letter from Jerusalem, from the rabbi of Jerusalem. He opened it, and there were the four hundred gold coins. He took them out, saw the accompanying letter, and handed the money back. “Here are your four hundred gold coins. Take them.” The husband asked, “I want to know what the letter says.” The rabbi opened it and read it aloud. It said: “I received your letter and the four hundred gold coins. But since you wrote that the woman brought you the money, it may be that she gave it without her husband’s consent. For that reason, I do not wish to accept it, and I am returning the four hundred gold coins. But I will certainly pray for her and bless her to have children.” When the husband heard the letter, he saw the hashgachah pratis in its arriving at precisely that moment. He said, “Send it back.”

05:43 Speaker 3 Back.

05:44 Speaker 2 Yes. May we hear peaceful news. May we hear good news.