פרשת תרומה
There is wondrous Midrash in this week’s Parsha which is fraught with difficulty. The Midrash says that when God asked Moshe Rabenu to construct the Mishkan so that He would have a place to dwell, Moshe Rabenu had trouble grasping this concept. When asked what he was grappling with, Moshe responded that God’s glory is so vast, how could He fit His presence into such a small physical space such as the Mishkan? Moshe continued by pointing out to Hashem that even when Shlomo was to build the Beis Hamikdash 500 years later which, was exponentially larger then the Mishkan, even he challenged Hashem by wondering how God’s presence could fit into such a small edifice such as the Beis Hamikdash. How then, said Moshe, could the Shechina be expected to fit into the Mishkan? The Midrash goes on to say that Hashem responded to Moshe by saying that My way of thinking is not remotely similar to your way of thinking and behold, you will see that I will end up dwelling in a place which is smaller then one cubit by one cubit, (between the wings of the Cherubim).
I would like to point out a number of difficulties with this cryptic Midrash. Firstly, Moshe Rabenu personally witnessed God appearing to him in a tiny bush, how then was he unable to comprehend God’s ability to dwell in a Mishkan? Secondly, was it truly difficult for Moshe to grasp God’s desire to dwell in a space “smaller” then Himself? For that matter, the entire world wouldn’t be large enough to contain God as an entity? Thirdly, what did Moshe mean when he looked to Shlomo and the Beis Hamikdash to draw a Kal V’chomer argument? Was the difference between the size of the Mishkan and the Beis Hamikdash so vast that it would really be significant in trying to calculate God’s ability to “fit” into a physical space?
R’ Aryeh Leib Shteinman attempts to remove all of these difficulties with one unified field theory. He begins by asserting that God wanted a place to dwell in this world, and determined that such a place could only be built by the Jews showing their desire for such a place and exerting all their energy in creating this place. Moshe clearly understood this, hence his difficulty; how could the Jewish people “exert all their energy” by simply building a place which is only 20 cubits by 20 cubits? With this realization, we can now understand how Moshe was attempting to make a Kal V’chomer argument from Shlomo Hamelech. If in Shlomo’s time, when the Jews made a huge structure, yet were unable to express the greatness of God through their magnificent edifice, how could Moshe expect the Jews in his time to fathom the glory of God when their own construction was so much smaller?
Now I would like to explain Hashem’s answer to Moshe. Hashem said that behold, I can fit into a space of only 1 cubit by 1 cubit. What Hashem meant to say is that although you are correct, Moshe, that a person has to invest all of his strength to keep the Mitzvos, the way to do this is by listening to My commandments, in all their details, and not by investing all of your strength the way that you thought to serve me. In other words, while Moshe caught the general idea that it is necessary to serve God with all of one’s strength, he was mistaken about the method of applying that strength. God informed Moshe that the correct way to serve Him is by fighting one’s natural rebellious inclination and listening to God’s word exactly. In truth, this method of serving God by doing exactly what He said is indeed more difficult then serving God with all your strength for it is the most likely to invoke a feeling of rebellion in us and is closer to becoming a true servant of God.
To expound on this point, this is not only true by the Mitzvah of building the Mishkan, rather it is true about all Mitzvos. A Jew must constantly strive to serve God not in the way that he feels is correct, but rather in the way that God commanded. There is a similar Gemorah in Berachos דף י’ which says that King Chizkayahu was rebuked by the Navi for not having children at which point Chizkayahu retorted that he saw through prophecy that he would give birth to a son who would be very wicked. The Navi responded to him that this was not his concern! He was obligated to perform the Mitzvah of having children and, come what may, he must fulfill his obligations to his Creator. It comes out that even when a person thinks that he could sanctify God’s name better by not performing any Mitzvah in the Torah, he must abandon his worry for “God’s honor” and simply keep the Torah.
The verse says that we mustn’t detract from the Mitzvos and the verse continues to say that a person must not add to the Mitzvos. One could understand why we mustn’t detract from the Torah, but why would adding to our service of God be problematic? We must answer on a similar vein; that just as God doesn’t wish us to detract from his Torah for it undermines Him, so to adding to the Torah undermines God’s authority and portrays our inability to accept God as our master.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz added a very deep and haunting point. R’ Chaim says that in truth, to perform the Mitzvos physically, requires almost no exertion. The difficulty in keeping the Torah lies in the feeling of bondage that it entails and the rebellion in a person that it elicits. Nobody likes to feel incarcerated and bound by anyone else. He goes on to say that this is the main challenge of the youth today and proves his point by inviting one to look around at the world’s youth. In his time, he claims, the youth wanted freedom so badly that they were willing to do anything to get it. Parenthetically, we certainly see this is true in our time. R’ Chaim concludes by saying that this inability to accept authority clearly stems from haughtiness and offers some practical advice on how to overcome this. True feelings of grandeur should generate in a person a desire to become as great as he could be – Godly. When a person follows in the way of his creator by listening to what God said exactly, there is no greater accomplishment then this, ergo, there is no greater person then one who keeps the Torah meticulously. Acting this way will cause a person to feel true splendor as opposed to synthetic feelings of opulence.
May we be Zoche to humble ourselves to fulfill every Mitzvah in all it’s minutia!