Vayakhel-Pekudai 1993

Today is Parshas HaChodesh.  This is the Shabbos before the month of Nisan and we read a special Torah portion for the Maftir.  We take out two Torahs.  The rabbis have arranged it that almost every year Parshas HaChodesh comes out on the Torah portion of Vayakhel and Pekudai.  It seems strange that this particular Torah portion should be chosen to be read at Parshas HaChodesh.  What's more, in the special Maftir that we read for this Shabbos we read about how the Jewish people were given the first two commandments.  They were given the commandment to make Nisan the first of all the months and they were also commanded to take the lamb and to tether it for four days and then to slaughter it and, of course, to put its blood on the door and to actually make a seder.  It would seem that G‑d would not allow the Jewish people to gain their freedom until they first did these mitzvahs.  The mitzvah of declaring time, of declaring which of the months is going to be the first month, until they did the mitzvah of taking the lamb and tethering it for four days and then slaughtering it and then the mitzvah of having a seder.  It seems strange that this is what G‑d wanted of the Jewish people before they would receive their freedom.  It would seem that G‑d would tell the Jewish people that they should arm themselves and that they should fight for their freedom.  It would seem that this would be the best way that they could have achieved their freedom, and that is that they should have been able to defeat the Egyptian army in battle, but this is not what G‑d wanted the Jewish people to do.  Instead, G‑d wanted the Jewish people to declare Nisan the first of all the months.  He wanted them to take the lamb and to tether it for four days and then to slaughter it and put its blood on the door.  Then He wanted them to have a seder in which they ate the lamb.

What's more, in the Torah portion Vayakhel in which we learn about how the Tabernacle was constructed we learn first about Shabbos.  What does Shabbos have to do with the Tabernacle?  Finally, at the end when the Tabernacle was completed it says, "And Moshe was not able to come into the Oah Moab because the cloud rested upon it and the glory of G‑d filled the Tabernacle."  It seems strange that it is repeated here that the glory of G‑d filled the Tabernacle because it said that in the immediate sentence beforehand.  It says, "And the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of G‑d filled the Tabernacle."  It also seems strange that Moshe was not able to enter into the Tabernacle when the cloud rested on it.  After all, when he received the Torah he went up into the cloud.  Why was it that he was not allowed to go into the Tabernacle when the cloud rested upon it at this particular time?

It seems to me that in this Torah portion and in the special Maftir that we are reading for Parshas HaChodesh G‑d is telling us what is necessary in order for the Jews to survive.  G‑d knows that the Jewish history is going to stretch ahead for many thousands of years, and, therefore, He has let us hear what is absolutely necessary for Jewish history, for the Jewish people to survive.  We know that sometimes the Jewish people have to take up arms in order co defend themselves, especially when they face an implacable enemy like Amalek or Hitler, but G‑d did not want the Jewish people co think that they always had to rely on force of arms in order to survive, that they needed more than force of arms.  They needed a strong belief in the fact that G‑d needs us in order to help Him perfect the world and that G‑d is ready to help us whenever we turn to Him.  That is the most important element in the survival of the Jewish people, that most of the time we can get by even without having to take up arms.  After all, since the time of the Bar Kochba rebellion which finished in the year 135 until the rise of the State of Israel the rabbis, by and large, did not want the Jewish people to take up arms because if they would have taken up arms they would have been suicidal.  It is true that when Hitler came there was no other choice because Hitler founded Nazism which was a Messianic movement which believed that the world could be saved if all the Jews were killed, but during the Middle Ages the church and Islam did not want to kill the Jews; they wanted to convert us.  Although it is true that there were pogroms and it is true that during the first crusade the Jewish communities along the Rhineland were annihilated and when Chelminitzky revolted against his Polish masters many of the Cossack peasants that a third of the Jews were killed in Eastern Europe, but, by and large, the policy of non-resistance, of not caking up arms as a group served the Jewish people well because when a drunken mob would enter into a ghetto they would kill a few Jews who they would find in their hiding places but, by and large, most of the Jews would escape because when somebody offers no resistance usually a person gets tired.  The mobs get tired and they withdrawn, but when you offer resistance they fight until they kill everyone.  It is the same thing with a person who comes into your office and you want to get rid of him the easiest way to get rid of him is just to agree with everything he says and then he will leave.  Of course, I am not asking a person to act deceitfully and to agree with whatever a person says so that you can get rid of him, but in many instances you do actually agree with him and if you are busy you just agree with him and then he has nothing more to say and he leaves.  But why is it that Shabbos is talked about before we talk about the completion of the Mishkan?

The reason for that is that Shabbos is more important to Jewish survival than even temples of synagogues or houses of worship, that what G‑d is telling us in this Maftir and in these Torah portions is that the most important thing co ensure Jewish survival is personal commitment, that you must be willing to give you time co Judaism.  You must be willing to personally commit yourself to do the mitzvahs of Judaism, that it is more important that we observe Shabbos than that we even have synagogues.  It is more important that we personally commit to observe Judaism in all our daily life than to give huge donations in order to make sure that we have houses of worship.  In Europe the Jewish people were scattered in little villages with each little village having a Jewish store.  Many of the villages did not have enough Jews in order to have a minyan so the Jewish people would not have a minyan even on Shabbos.  They would only get together on the High Holidays to make sure that they had a minyan, and there was no problem with them assimilating.  There was no problem with them intermarrying or acculturating.  The reason for that was because they were personally committed to furthering Judaism, and their children say that, Therefore, their children were committed as well.  There was a foolish theory in America that was current for many years that all you needed co do in order to ensure Jewish survival was to have Jews belong to synagogues.  Jews did not have to come to synagogues.  All they had to do was write a check to make sure that they belonged to synagogues.  If they identified with a synagogue then Jewish survival would be assured, but this we know is nonsense, You can belong to all the synagogues you want but that does not assure that you or your children will remain Jews.  Also there was a feeling that Jewish ethnicity would make sure that the Jewish people survived, but Jewish ethnicity is not a very powerful tool for Jewish survival.  It wanes after a generation or two and Jews become exactly the same as their neighbors, They do not have unique customs.  They do not have unique languages.  They do not have even a unique way of thinking.  Therefore, this Parshas HaChodesh teaches the Jewish people what is necessary in order for us to survive throughout the generations.

We are going to, first of all, have to be willing to give our time to our religion, The second thing is we are going co have to have Jewish pride.  That, of course, was the reason why they had to take the lamb and tether it for four days and then slaughter it.  They had to be willing to stand out.  They had to be willing to point out to the Egyptians that they did not believe in this spirit worship, that they did not believe that a spirit would incarnate into the lamb at this particular time of the year.  They had to show that they were proud of their own Jewish ceremonies, that they put the blood on the door to show that they did not believe in the Egyptians' way of thinking, that you could manipulate malevolent spirits, chat they were proud of who they were and what they were, and they had to demonstrate their pride.  So, in order for the Jewish people to survive, a Jew not only has to give time to his religion and practice its details but he also has to be proud of what he is doing.  Many of the first generation Jews who came to America actually kept the mitzvahs but they were not proud of it.  They felt inferior.  They felt that they were emotionally tied to it and they really did not want their children to really perform the mitzvahs.  They were not proud of them.  You also have to be proud of your Jewishness.  The third thing is you have co be willing to teach your religion to your children and that, of course, was the purpose of the seder, was in order that the children should learn about G‑d's miracles, that the children should understand that we were to be a vehicle of G‑d's teachings in the world.  Why, though, was it and is it that many Jews who really know what the secret of Jewish survival is, that it is a commitment to Jewish practice, that it is a commitment to Jewish pride, that it is important that we have to commit ourselves to teach our children, why don't they do those things which seem so obvious?  The answer is because they really do not believe that they need G‑d.  They do not really believe that it is important that the Jewish people survive.  They do not really believe that G‑d needs us as a people in order to spread His teachings.  After all, if the Torah is just a product of man and is just filled with manmade ideas, there are other men in the world.  They can propagate these ideas, too.  You really do not need the Jewish people anymore to propagate these ideas.  They are really not sure that there is a G‑d Who needs the Jewish people to exist and there is a G‑d Who can help us.  That is why it says here that Moshe was not able to come into the tent of meeting because the cloud rested upon it and the glory of G‑d filled the Mishkan.  What does that mean?  It means that life is not clear.  The future is not clear, and we all need G‑d's help.  We all need G‑d's help in order to make this a better world.  We all need G‑d's help in order to overcome the problems of life, that G‑d is there to help us.  After all, most of the decisions we make in life we make blind.  We do not know all the facts.  We cannot know everything that we have to know in order to make correct decisions.  After all, before we get married we do not interview 2 billion women.  Before we choose a job or what our occupation is going to be we do not look at the thousands of jobs listed by the Department of Labor.  Most of the decisions we make in life we make blind, and we need G‑d's help in order co make sure we make the right decisions.  Therefore, we recognize the fact that G‑d is there to help us aid that we need G‑d's help and also that G‑d wants us to help Him perfect the world, If Jews do not really believe that then there is no real reason for them to want to perpetuate Judaism.  There is no real reason for them co want to make the necessary sacrifices in order for Judaism to survive.  After all, if Judaism is just a bunch of customs and folkways, why sacrifice for them?  Why have to give up your time?  Why do you have co be filled with Jewish pride?  Why do you have to sacrifice all that effort and financial means in order to give your children a Jewish education?  The answer is, of course, that you have to believe that G‑d wants you to be a Jew, that G‑d wants the Jewish message co be given to the world, that G‑d is there to help you overcome all your problems, but if you feel that you do not need G‑d, that you can accomplish everything yourself without G‑d, then why should you do all these things?  That is, too, why it talks about Shabbos and the building of the Mishkan and that the only commandment that is mentioned at this time is that you should not cause fire to go in all your habitations because fire is a symbol of man's creativity.  We believe that G‑d gave man fire when he left the Garden of Eden, that Adam sinned on Friday but G‑d allowed him to stay in the Garden of Eden through Shabbos, but when Shabbos was over G‑d told him he had to leave the Garden of Eden and man was afraid.  He said, "How can I conquer this new world, this dark world?" G‑d said, "I will give you fire and with fire you can accomplish great things.  You can be a creative individual and shape your environment so it will be friendly to.  you and not hostile to you."  So G‑d gave man fire, but man's creativity is limited because fire can be very dangerous as well as very beneficial and man still needs G‑d's help even though he has the ability co create, but if man believes he can do everything himself, that he does not need G‑d, then why does he have to be Jewish?  If he also believes that there is nothing particular in the Jewish message that the world needs, then why does he need to have to help G‑d perfect the world?  It is important for Jewish survival, not just that we know how to manipulate arms.  It is true sometimes we will have to fight, but the most important thing for Jewish survival is that we recognize that we need G‑d, and that is why G‑d, Himself, took us out of Egypt.  He did not have us fight for our freedom because every Jew had to recognize that G‑d had helped him and that G‑d will always help us and that G‑d wants us to help Him perfect this world.  So, in order for the Jewish people to survive we must, first of all, believe that there is a G‑d in the world, a G‑d Who wants us to help him and Who will always help us and that in order for us to feel G‑d's presence in the world we have to give our time to our religion and practice our religion.  We have to be filled with Jewish pride, and we have to be willing to educate our children.  If we do these things, then Judaism will survive and the message of Judaism will eventually spread throughout the world and G‑d will always help us in all our endeavors.  Let us hope and pray that this will truly be so so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.