פרשת ויקהל\פקודי
In this week’s double parsha, Betzalel and his crew construct the Mishkan and all of its parts. In parshas Truma, Tetzaveh, and Ci Tisa the instructions were given. Now those plans are finally implemented. In parshas Pekudei, every vessel that was fashioned for the Mishkan is mentioned. Every time the Torah tells us that a utensil was made, it adds that the artisans made it “just as Hashem commanded Moshe.” This phrase is mentioned 18 times! Why does the Torah make such a big deal about it? The making of the Mishkan was a mitzvah! Obviously they had to do it the way G-d commanded them! What is especially puzzling is that Moshe gives all the workers involved a special blessing because they did their jobs as commanded. Why should a person who merely does what he is employed to do get brachos???!!!
Rav Yechezkel Levenstein says that people have a powerful drive towards self-expression. One’s ideas, beliefs, and individuality accompany a person in every action that he does. Even when doing simple tasks or activities a person likes to do things “his way,” or at least he does something special to “leave his mark.” When it comes to mitzvos, we put personal touches on our avodas Hashem. The way we celebrate Shabbos, the way we learn, and the way we do chesed are just a few examples of how we often put ourselves into the picture. There’s a lot “us” in our avodas Hashem. However, even though our personal dedication and individuality are extremely precious to Hashem, having our own personas in mind while doing the mitzvos is completely inappropriate. Our mitzvos are supposed to reflect Hashem, not ourselves. Knowing this, we can appreciate the great spiritual beauty of the artisans. Artisans, whose trade is synonymous with self-expression, could have easily been caught up in building the Mishkan with the creative drive so basic to producers of art. However, their whole motivation while building the Mishkan was to do “just as Hashem commanded Moshe.” This was the real masterpiece.
Rabbi Shimon Green recalls how when a bucher, he was severely distraught when he realized that there was a possibility that the real reason that he loved Torah and mitzvos so much was because they really created a utopia for himself. Who doesn’t want to live in a world full of chesed and chachma? Can any other existence be sweeter than that? The thought bothered him so much that he went to his rebbi to ask how he could be sure he was really serving G-d with pure intentions. Was he really doing mitzvos for G-d’s sake, or his own? “Ask yourself this question every day,” answered his rebbi, “and you’ll be a G-d-fearing man.”
Rav Reuven Fein adds that another reason why the artisans are specifically praiseworthy for making the Mishkan “just as G-d commanded Moshe” is because they were actually incredibly enlightened people who could fully appreciate the beauty of the Mishkan’s design. Hashem had revealed to them all the secrets contained in the blueprint of the Mishkan, and every single detail represented deep spiritual ideas. Nevertheless, during construction, the only thing that motivated the artisans was their pure desire to fulfill Hashem’s word. Although construction of the Mishkan could have been spiritually exciting on an intellectual level, that’s not what excited the artisans. Participating in a project that fulfilled G-d’s will was the only thing that excited them. Unlike others who would be stirred by the deep Kabbala and spirituality, this didn’t motivate the artisans at all.
Some people decide they can only find motivation in Torah observance by granting their intellects extra freedom. For instance, the only way they can happily fulfill a mitzvah is to be inspired by the “taam” behind it. However, this is not what Hashem really wants, and they are clearly not emulating the ways of Betzalel and his artisans. Additionally, if one becomes over-involved in the reasons behind the mitzvos, his power of reasoning can lead him to conclusions that are either irrelevant or incorrect. We find a few instances in Jewish history where even Torah giants failed in their avodas Hashem because they reasoned their way out of doing what Hashem really wanted. One of the most notable cases of this is found in the gemara in Sanhedrin 21. The gemara tells us that Shlomo HaMelech took more wives and horses than he was allowed to by Torah law because he felt that the Torah’s prohibition wasn’t applicable to him. The Torah says that a king should not take too many wives because they will distract him from Hashem and cause him to go after his base desires. The Torah also says that a king should not acquire too many horses because this will force him to employ Jews to manage the horse trade, returning them to, and possibly making them reside in, Egypt, something forbidden for Jews to do. Since the Torah revealed a specific reason for each of these laws, Shlomo asserted that only when the reasons were applicable did the prohibitions exist. However, he thought, someone who would not stumble in these ways was allowed to engage in these practices. He then decided that the Torah surely wasn’t concerned that someone like him would err, only someone on a lower spiritual level. Unfortunately, the gemara testifies that Shlomo HaMelech did indeed succumb to what the Torah had warned him about. We see from here that even a legal argument by the wisest of all men was flawed because it was rooted in relating to the mitzvos intellectually. Instead of looking at the Torah as Hashem’s tailor-made guide for mankind, and every mitzva as an essential building block for existence, Shlomo reconfigured the programming of Hashem’s system. In truth, we share a lot in common with Shlomo HaMelech. Often times we don’t reject Torah principles but either reason that we’re not violating them, or that the Torah understands and is lenient with people in our situation. However, the Torahdic perspective is to accept the challenge of living up to Torah principles and completely apply ourselves to keeping the mitzvos that Hashem expects every Jew to fulfill. We are expected to do “just as Hashem commanded Moshe.”
The Sfas Emes says that the word “mitzva” comes from the Aramaic word “tzavta” meaning “connection.” The Ramchal in Mesillas Yesharim calls the mitzos “intermediaries” between us and G-d. In other words, there would be no way to connect with Hashem if it weren’t for the mitzvos. Therefore, Hashem’s main intention in giving the mitzvos was to give us a means to connect to Him. Since this is the true definition of a mitzva, it makes perfect sense that having only Hashem in mind is crucial to the performance of the mitzvos. If we do mitzvos without dedicating them completely to Hashem, they can’t be “the connection” that the Torah desires for us. The real truth is that the more we focus on Hashem when we do the mitzvos, the greater the connection will be and the higher we will go in our avodas Hashem. Every mitzva presents a new opportunity to deepen our relationship with our Creator and if we appreciate that that’s what the mitzvos are for, we will certainly be taking full advantage of it.
May we all be zoche to do “just as Hashem commanded Moshe”!!!