The Mishkan: Giving of Your Heart

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas Hatorah (www.bircas.org)

In Parshas Vayakhel, the Jews were commanded to contribute to the Mishkan. Hashem requested donations only from those who were “generous of heart,” meaning, those who felt like giving. Besides the inherent oddity of the mitzvah being voluntary, it seems almost counterproductive. The Midrash Tanchuma (Naso 16) teaches that the main purpose of rescuing the Jews from slavery and giving them the Torah was for Hashem to dwell among them, which required that there be a Mishkan. If the donations were optional, surely it was possible that the needed funds wouldn’t have been raised. Why did Hashem command that donations for this critical institution be voluntary?

The Alter of Kelm explains that the Mishkan needed to be built with sincerity of heart. If Hashem was to dwell among us, we needed to truly desire closeness with Him. The act of building His house had to reflect the loftiness of the builders, and therefore could not be an obligation. Donations that were strictly voluntary ensured that only those who really cared would participate, and their noble motivations enabled Hashem’s presence to dwell amongst the Jewish people.

The Sefas Emes notes that the command to build the Mishkan was given after the sin of the Golden Calf. He infers that the Mishkan is testimony that every Jew, even one who is still repenting for past sins, can break through and connect to Hashem if he truly desires the closeness in his heart. Just as they were able to connect to Hashem despite their past, we too are always capable of connecting to Him. Any effort that we make to connect our heart to Hashem is deeply cherished.

In Sanhedrin (106b), Rava states that his tefillah was much less powerful than Rabi Yehuda’s, due to his sincerity of heart. These words are astounding. Rava, one of the holy sages of the Talmud, felt inadequacy in his own dedication to Hashem! We certainly cannot rest on our laurels, convinced that our own tefillah is adequate. We must ask ourselves, how much does Hashem mean to us? Are we really giving Him our full hearts?

Rabbeinu Bachaye wrote an entire sefer focusing on the need to connect to Hashem with our heart—Chovos HaLevovos. He observed that his generation needed to be reminded of these fundamental principles. Our own generation surely needs more work in these areas. Rabbeinu Bachaye explains that the heart is the basis for all of the mitzvos. Hashem doesn’t want mitzvos to be mere actions. Rather, a mitzvah’s value depends on the amount of heart we put into it.

HaRav Fischel Schechter offers an amusing analogy to describe this idea:

A wife left clear instructions for her husband on how to prepare dinner. However, when she called later to hear how it went, he reported that the food came out of the oven inedible! She went through her instructions step by step with him, conceding that he seemed to have followed her instructions. She was mystified as to what went wrong. However, when she finally came home and inspected his results, she understood immediately. In disbelief, she exclaimed, “You set the oven at the right temperature, but you didn’t turn it on! I had to tell you to turn the oven on?”

We have the entire Torah before us, serving as a road map that enables us to turn every moment into eternity. Still, the heart, the willingness to serve Hashem happily, and the fiery enthusiasm that we put into our mitzvos can’t come from a book. It must come from within us.

May we be zocheh to give Hashem our whole heart!