Terumah - Jews Need to Have Wealth!

00:04 It is well known that the Rebbe Maharash conducted himself with wealth. People would say that the verse “And he went out into the streets” was said about the Rebbe Maharash. In other words, his conduct in daily life, his way of living, was marked in every respect by wealth and spaciousness, including in the material sense. As is well known, his household utensils, furniture, and other things in his home reflected wealth and spaciousness. So did his carriage and horses, as people could see. In this way, his conduct in all matters was regal. To such an extent that the Rebbe related several times that when chassidim would come to the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash’s father, bringing gifts of silver and gold, he would immediately say: “Send them to Reb Shmuel; that is his domain.” In other words, his approach to avodas Hashem was one of wealth. The Rebbe once told an interesting story about his grandfather, his mother’s father, Reb Meir Shlomo Yanovsky. He was the rabbi of Nikolayev, a great Torah scholar, and the father of Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe’s mother. And the Rebbe

01:44 told an interesting story about his grandfather. After his wedding, which took place during the lifetime of the Rebbe Maharash, Reb Meir Shlomo traveled to Lubavitch for the first time. That was the custom in those days: after their wedding, young men would go for a year or a year and a half to be close to the Rebbe. They were called “yoshvim”; they would stay there with the Rebbe, study Nigleh and Chassidus, and hear Chassidus and maamarim from the Rebbe. That was their education, a way of life centered on farbrengens and learning; that was how things were done in those days. Reb Meir Shlomo was one of the yoshvim with the Rebbe Maharash. When he returned to Nikolayev after his time in Lubavitch, there was an older chossid there who apparently was not so closely connected to the Rebbe Maharash. He began raising questions about the Rebbe Maharash’s conduct, since he was known to live with wealth. He asked: How could that be? He questioned the Rebbe Maharash’s conduct, his way of living with spaciousness and wealth. At first glance, this was something new in the ways of tzaddikim. Reb Meir Shlomo answered him sharply, using the word [unclear]: “Petach.”

03:22 That word apparently means “fool” in Russian. For whom was all the wealth of silver and gold in the world made, for whom was it created, if not for the Rebbe, if not for the tzaddik? When the Rebbe would tell this story, he would add that the source of his grandfather Reb Meir Shlomo’s answer is in the Midrash on the beginning of Parshas Terumah: “Gold and silver and copper.” The Midrash says that “the world was not worthy of using gold.” Gold is truly so precious and so lofty that, in essence, it should not have existed in the world at all. Why did Hakadosh Boruch Hu create gold in the world? For the Beis Hamikdash. And yet this is remarkable: Hakadosh Boruch Hu created gold during the six days of Creation, and until the Mishkan was built, people used it for many purposes—even for things that were the complete opposite of serving Hashem, as we find with the sin of the Golden Calf, and so on. Nevertheless, the Midrash says: “The world was not worthy of using gold, and it was created only for the Beis Hamikdash.” The entire existence of gold came into the world so that there could be gold in the Beis Hamikdash; that is why gold exists in the world. And just as this is true of the Beis Hamikdash, a place in the world, so it is true of a tzaddik, who is a spiritual Beis Hamikdash, who is

04:56 after all, connected with the idea of [unclear]. The Midrash says of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai that a tzaddik in the time of exile is the place of the Mikdash. It is therefore clear that the whole idea of wealth, the very existence of gold, explains Reb Meir Shlomo’s answer to the chossid who wanted to understand. The Rebbe spoke about this several times and explained that, in our generation, this conduct of the Rebbe Maharash expressed “lechatchila ariber.” As is well known, the Rebbe would always repeat the Rebbe Maharash’s saying: The world says that if you cannot go under, you must go over. But I say, said the Rebbe Maharash, that from the outset you must go over. In other words, his entire manner of conduct was expansive in every respect. This was true in his spiritual affairs, in matters of Torah and Chassidus, spreading the wellsprings and spreading Yiddishkeit, and in everything connected with Jews and Yiddishkeit. He approached these matters expansively, as is known from several stories on the subject. And the same was true in material matters: it was evident in his actual physical life, which was lived with such expansiveness, with the wealth of

06:25 the whole matter expressed with great expansiveness, materially and spiritually. In 5752, which was, for the time being, the last year in which we were still able to hear Torah from the Rebbe, the month of Adar arrived. On 27 Adar, the event occurred in which the Rebbe became unwell, may Hashem have mercy. And may the Rebbe, in the merit of our prayers, very soon, speedily in our days [unclear]. Shabbos Parshas Terumah was one of the last Shabbosim on which we were still able to hear Torah from the Rebbe. The Rebbe spoke then with great force and enthusiasm about this subject, dwelling on what appears in our parsha, Parshas Terumah. At its beginning, Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to say to the Jewish people: “Speak to the children of Israel, and let them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart moves him, you shall take My offering. And this is the offering that you shall take from them: gold and silver and copper.” He then lists thirteen or fifteen things, the donations and gifts the Jewish people brought for the Mishkan. The question the Rebbe asked then was: Why does it begin

07:56 with gold, the first item requested for the Mishkan? At first glance, the order here should have been from the less costly to the more costly. That is generally the order: first copper, then silver, which is more valuable, and then gold, which is more valuable still. And we see that here, too, in this list, the onyx stones and the stones for the settings come only at the end. These were precious things that only a select few possessed, as Rashi says regarding the princes, and so on. So even if the order is from the less costly to the more costly, copper should have appeared first, then silver, and only then gold. Why is the first thing written in the verse gold? And a second question: when we look at the work of building the Mishkan, we see that they needed a larger quantity of copper than gold. And plainly, the Jewish people had more of the other materials than they had of gold, because gold was more valuable. Nevertheless, the Torah begins here with gold. The explanation the Rebbe gave then was that this is what the Torah wants to teach us here: Parshas Terumah follows the parshiyos we learned earlier, Parshas Yisro and Parshas Mishpatim, the parshiyos of Matan Torah.

09:21 At Matan Torah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to every Jew: “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In other words, at Matan Torah the Jewish people became a kingdom of priests. And as the Gemara says in Tractate Shabbos, “All Jews are children of kings.” As the Rebbe says in the kuntres, they are not merely children of kings, but kings in the literal sense. The Jewish people are kings; every Jew is a king. And clearly, for a king’s child, and all the more so for a king, wealth is part of who he is—wealth materially and wealth spiritually. That is why the first thing the Torah mentions is gold: to tell a Jew what he must know about his essential identity before receiving the Torah. He must know who he is and what his essence is: he is wealthy. That is why the Torah speaks to him first of gold, because he must demand of himself and ask of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that he have wealth: wealth in understanding, in knowing his Creator, wealth in spiritual matters, and likewise wealth in material matters, which should be abundant, as expressed by the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe also connected this then with the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. As is well known, the Baal Shem Tov said regarding the verse, “For you shall be to Me a desirable land, says Hashem of Hosts,” that Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to every Jew: You are a desirable land. And the Baal Shem Tov

10:55 He explained it this way: Just as the greatest treasures are found in the physical earth—in the soil—the most precious minerals, gold, silver, copper, and various kinds of precious stones; and, as he says, even the greatest scholars and explorers have not yet managed to discover all the precious things, all the boundless wealth found in the earth—so too, the great wealth found among the people of Yaakov, within every Jew, is beyond measure. Even the simplest Jew possesses the most precious treasures. The Baal Shem Tov spoke plainly about the precious things and spiritual wealth within every Jew. But since we know, as we saw with the Patriarchs, that their wealth found expression in physical terms as well—and that is why the Torah details the wealth of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, all the Patriarchs—and Moshe Rabbeinu, too, possessed material wealth in particular, for among the Jewish people the spiritual and the physical go together; therefore, when the Torah speaks in this parsha about the material wealth needed to build the Mishkan—gold, silver, and copper, actual physical things—the Torah is not coming here to

12:23 prescribe ways of fulfilling mitzvos. Rather, it is telling us that wealth is inherent in every Jew—this is his very essence, [unclear] wealth, especially material wealth. In this light, we find another very interesting explanation of [unclear] connected to the Mishkan. It concerns a well-known story in Tanach, which the Rebbe once discussed at a farbrengen and connected to what we were speaking about earlier. It is the familiar story told at the beginning of the Book of Shmuel about how Shmuel the prophet was born. The prophet relates what happened when Chana had no children and came with her husband to the Mishkan, which at the time was in Shiloh. The entire sequence of events is recounted in Tanach. She entered the Mishkan and stood in prayer. As it says, “Chana prayed to Hashem and wept bitterly”—she prayed from the depths of her heart. Tanach goes on to say that Eli the Kohen, who was the Kohen Gadol at the time, saw Chana standing there and pouring out her heart, and she

13:55 “her voice could not be heard, and Eli thought her drunk.” He thought she was actually drunk. He called to her and said: What is this? What are you doing here? How can such a thing be? You should not be drunk in the Beis Hamikdash, and so on. She replied, “No, my master. I am a woman of sorrowful spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before Hashem.” She was asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu, pouring out her heart and asking for a child. As the story continues, he promised her that she would have a child, and so on—the rest of the story. We read this story in the haftarah on Rosh Hashanah every year. Now a simple question arises: What was this exchange about? What was the disagreement between Eli the Kohen and Chana? The whole matter is hard to understand. How could Eli the Kohen suspect her? It is the complete opposite of what was happening: he thought she was actually drunk, when in fact her prayer was “I have poured out my soul before Hashem.” What was her answer to him? What was the exchange between Eli the Kohen and Chana about? This entire sequence must be important, since it was included in the Rosh Hashanah prayers. We pray on Rosh Hashanah, on this holy day, the first day of the year, and in the Rosh Hashanah haftarah we read Chana’s prayer and everything that happened to her there. So what is the connection between this story

15:31 of Chana’s prayer and prayer on Rosh Hashanah? The Rebbe gave a rich and wonderful explanation of this that speaks to all of us. When Rosh Hashanah arrives, we see something strange. Rosh Hashanah is the time for crowning the King. As explained in Chassidus, what is Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah is the establishment of kingship, the coronation of the King, the Day of Judgment. It is a time when a Jew stands face to face before Hakadosh Boruch Hu and calls out, “Our Father, our King, we have no king but You,” “Reign over the entire world in Your glory.” We ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to be King. When you stand face to face before the King, you should forget the entire world and all its concerns, including what you need for the new year. When a person stands before the King, even thinking about something for himself is like rebelling against the monarchy. For when you stand before the King, you stand like a servant before his master, in utter self-nullification, with your entire being. That is what Rosh Hashanah is about: the time of coronation, when you stand face to face and call out, “Reign over the entire world in Your glory.” We ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “We have no king but You.” I want You to be King. A person stands before Hakadosh Boruch Hu and gives himself over to His kingship in utter self-nullification. Yet when Rosh Hashanah arrives, we ask for material things. In fact, the halachah is that on Rosh Hashanah we must ask for material things. Halachah also tells us to eat the symbolic foods on Rosh Hashanah, and so on, so that all will be well, so that we will be written and sealed for a good year

17:14 materially. The maamarim also explain at length that the main judgment of Rosh Hashanah concerns specifically material matters, material blessings. So the question arises: How can a person stand on Rosh Hashanah in the deepest self-nullification, like a servant before his master, and ask for material things? [unclear]. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur [unclear] material things. Yes, [unclear]. But at the same time, the point is even clearer: this is a halachah written in the Shulchan Aruch, and it is what all Jewish communities do in practice, in all their customs and versions of the prayers. All of these deal with material matters. In particular, in every community, when they reach the order of the shofar blasts, open the machzor, and speak about material matters, they do so with great feeling, with great [unclear]. How can anyone say that this is not what Rosh Hashanah is about? Well, the Rebbe explains that this was the disagreement between Chana and Eli the Kohen. Eli the Kohen’s argument was this: He did not mean, G-d forbid, that she was literally drunk. His claim was that she was drunk in a spiritual sense. He saw Chana asking for something material: she wanted children. She was asking for a material matter, a physical thing, a material request. And she was asking at length, with great concentration and effort,

18:53 with tears. And what was she asking for? Material things. Eli the Kohen, the Kohen Gadol, was astonished: How can someone stand in the Beis Hamikdash and ask for material things? You stand in the Beis Hamikdash, the holiest place, where the table with the showbread stood, and ask for material things there? You are standing in the holiest place in the world. There, you should be completely detached from material things and not ask for any of them. But Chana explained to him in her answer: On the contrary, what she asked for was the greatest and deepest thing. For when Chana asked for children, life, and ample sustenance, that is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants: to make a dwelling for Him in the lower realms. On the contrary, when you stand in the holiest place in the Beis Hamikdash, and when you stand on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, you must know: “Reign over the entire world in Your glory.” How is the glory of Heaven revealed most fully? How is the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed in the world? When there is material abundance, when there are children, life, and ample material sustenance, these can be used to bring glory to Heaven. In this, the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed most fully. For when Jews, who are the people of Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“And who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth”—are blessed with material wealth and abundance, that brings the greatest glory to Heaven.

20:33 The greatest glory to Heaven. Through this, the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed in the world, and through this we make the world a dwelling for Him. As the Rebbe says, and as explained in Tanya, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling in the lower realms.” Of all the worlds, Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose specifically this physical world. His desire is for this physical world to be a dwelling for Him. The same is true of the Beis Hamikdash: specifically physical gold, silver, and copper. As King Shlomo said when the Beis Hamikdash was built: “But will G-d indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain You, how much less this house.” King Shlomo himself said this. There are the heavens and the heavens of heavens, and they cannot contain Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Where did Hakadosh Boruch Hu choose to rest His glorious Presence? Where does the Shechinah dwell? Specifically in “this house,” a physical place containing physical gold, silver, and copper. So this is what Chana was saying: When a Jew comes and asks for his needs in prayer, when he asks for material things, a Jew’s material life is part of “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling in the lower realms.” He asks so that, through those material things, the purpose can be fulfilled: that the world become a dwelling for Him. And it is precisely then that the purpose is connected with

22:04 The deepest inner dimension of the soul. “I poured out my soul before Hashem.” For “I poured out my soul” comes from the very innermost essence of the soul, which is bound to the innermost essence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. From this we see that this physical world is the ultimate purpose of “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms.” This explains not only Rosh Hashanah, when we study this account—the story that helps us understand the avodah of Rosh Hashanah—but also the avodah of prayer every single day. As we discussed last week, on Friday we spoke in the class about prayer: prayer as a rabbinic obligation and prayer as a Torah obligation. And we discussed prayer as Chassidus emphasizes it: prayer as spiritual avodah, and prayer in which one stands face to face. As is well known, when Chassidus speaks about prayer, it speaks primarily of tefillah in the sense of “joining an earthenware vessel,” an expression of attachment. According to halachah in its plain sense, prayer is about asking for one’s needs. As the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch state, that is the obligation of prayer according to halachah, according to the revealed dimension of Torah: when a Jew needs something, he asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu for it. And we see this in practice in the Shemoneh Esrei, much of which deals with physical matters: health, livelihood, and other physical needs. A Jew comes and prays. As is well known, the avodah of prayer, as Chassidus

23:34 explains it: tefillah is related to “joining an earthenware vessel,” and “joining” means connection. The central point of prayer is connection and attachment: a Jew stands face to face, connecting and binding himself to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But how does that fit with the fact that, according to halachah in its plain sense, prayer is about a Jew asking for his needs? The answer is the same explanation given for Rosh Hashanah and Chana’s prayer. This is the true explanation of a Jew’s prayer every day. On the contrary, when a Jew stands face to face before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the innermost dimension of his soul is revealed, and he connects with the innermost dimension of Hashem’s will. Prayer, after all, is connection. The greatest attachment, the greatest connection a Jew can have with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is to grasp the higher purpose. He grasps Hashem’s inner intention: that “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms.” So he asks that here, in the physical world—not only in the higher worlds, but here in the physical world—there should indeed be material abundance in the plain sense, through which the honor of Heaven will increase. And that this world should become a dwelling place for Him. This is also something the Rebbe said on many occasions. There was once... a yechidus. Not a yechidus—a story. Years ago, the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, z"l, was in America. And he was...

25:06 He was sitting shiva in 5708, and the Rebbe went to comfort him. They spoke there about a number of interesting matters. This was in Menachem Av 5708. The conversation was published among the sichos, in Toras Menachem and in several other places. On that occasion, the Rebbe told the Kapishnitzer Rebbe: We need to bring about material wealth for Jews. At first, the Kapishnitzer Rebbe said: But wealth is a greater test. “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” He cited several verses and teachings of our Sages about the test of prominence and wealth, and why one would need it, and so on. The conversation on this went on at length. The Rebbe then explained that there is indeed the test of wealth and the test of poverty, and both are tests. King Shlomo says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches,” because neither poverty nor riches is easy. Nevertheless, if one has to contend with a test, wealth is what Jews ought to have. We need to bring about actual, material wealth for Jews. Why? The Rebbe then cited the Midrash: “The world was not worthy of using gold. Why, then, was it created? For the Beis Hamikdash.” And the Rebbe explained that the Beis Hamikdash also refers to every Jew. Why?

26:37 “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell within them”—it does not say “within it,” but within each and every one. Every Jew is an inner Beis Hamikdash. Consequently, every Jew should have wealth. And we see plainly that Jews who have wealth perform more mitzvos, give more tzedakah, and do more good deeds. So we must ask for this, to the point that the Rebbe persuaded the Kapishnitzer Rebbe to ask that Jews should indeed have material wealth, with abundance in the plain sense. Yes, and he wholeheartedly agreed with this. And this happened several times [unclear]. Years later, in Teves 5744, the Sadigura Rebbe, z"l, came to the Rebbe, and they too discussed the same subject. The Rebbe spoke with him at great length and explained why we must insist on working and asking for every Jew to have wealth. We see plainly that when a Jew has wealth, he has a more beautiful esrog and more beautiful tefillin, and he sends his children to Talmud Torah schools and yeshivos. And the money is used for matters, for matters of [unclear]. We must insist that Jews have wealth in abundance. And indeed, the Sadigura Rebbe also told several stories then about

28:01 the holy Ruzhiner, a member of his family—several stories that bring out this point, that every Jew should indeed have wealth in abundance. And this [unclear] among Jews. That is the significance of gold—material wealth and spiritual wealth. And this is the connection [unclear] to the month of Adar. I simply want to say: the theme of Adar is “we increase in joy”; “When Adar enters, we increase in joy.” And what is joy about? When a Jew [unclear]. The Rebbe says, and we see it plainly too, that when a Jew is happy, his joy makes the people around him happy. Joy itself also has an effect in material matters. It brings greater success. Joy is a vessel for blessing in every area. And the Gemara says that through joy, [unclear] comes about. We see it plainly as well: when a person is happy, he brings joy to those around him, and that simply brings material success. The people around him like being with him and doing business with him, and so on. Thus one can bring about extraordinary abundance in children, in life, and in ample sustenance. And this is especially connected to the time

29:45 of the month of Adar, the days of Purim. As is well known, the days of Purim [unclear] of Jews. As is well known, the difference between Chanukah and Purim is that on Chanukah, Jews showed self-sacrifice in matters of the soul; they sacrificed themselves in matters of the soul. On Purim, there was self-sacrifice involving their bodies. The decree was against the bodies of Jews. That is why Purim has feasting and rejoicing, in a plainly physical way. That is why the mitzvos of Purim are connected to the body. That is what Purim is about, [unclear] physicality, and so on. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant that we “increase in joy,” that Jews throughout the world have great joy. And may they have reason to rejoice. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant every Jew [unclear] kindness and possessions, materially in the plain sense, here below in the physical world. And also wealth—wealth of understanding, and wealth [unclear], “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea,” with the true and complete Geulah. Then, as the Rambam writes at the end of his book, “The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know Hashem”; “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” A joyous month of Adar—we increase in joy.