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Parshat Vayak'hel (5765)
This week's section covers the complicated construction of the Tabernacle and its vessels. But it strangely begins with Moses gathering (VaYakhel) the Jewish people and telling them about....Shabbat!
"Six days work should be done and on the seventh day will be to you holy; Sabbath rest to G-d, all that do work on it will die."
Rashi explains that there is a connection; G-d is telling the Jews here that although the Tabernacle is important, nevertheless the Sabbath is more important, and therefore it is forbidden to build any aspect of the Tabernacle on Shabbat. (In fact, from here we learn the 39 categories of 'work' forbidden to the Jews on Shabbat).
But this seems very strange; the Tabernacle (and later the Temples) was the essence of Judaism!
It was here that G-d, the Creator of all being, was actually REVEALED and felt by the Jewish people! How could Shabbat be more important than that?
Why not just let the Jews work for a few Shabbats, finish the Tabernacle sooner and then start observing Shabbat?
Also the sentence about Shabbat is not clear. "Six days work should be done"?
Why does is say it in the passive "should be done"? Why doesn't it say "Six days do work".
Even more; why does it say it at all? There is no commandment to work six days!
To understand this here is a story.
The Baal Shem Tov (Besht for short) once came to a certain town for a visit. All of the Jews in the area, young and old, were there to greet him with joy and celebration .
When he visited this town, he would usually lodge in a certain inn owned by a Jew and receive the hundreds of people that came to seek his advice and blessing there. But this time when he arrived at the inn the owner stood before the door and begged the Besht not to enter.
"There is a group of foul-mouthed, drunken hooligans inside, listen! You can here them out here! A real bunch of blood-thirsty Jew haters, over twenty of them and they are looking for trouble. This is no place for the holy Baal Shem Tov! Please, there is another inn in town and the owner is a good friend of mine, I hate to do it but please I beg you to go there."
But the Besht just smiled, assured him it would be all right and motioned for his followers to accompany him in.
He opened the door and the previously muffled noise from the drunkards blasted out loud and clear.
He took one step inside. For a second, when the ruffians saw the holy man standing in the door they froze in silence. The Besht motioned to one of his entourage; a Chassid holding the hand of his small son, to step into the room and stand the boy on a nearby table.
"Now, Moshele" Said the Besht to the child, "sing something happy for our friends. Something that will make them dance."
The ruffians looked at one another, then at one who was obviously their leader who winked back at them as to say 'what have we got to lose, let's see what happens' and the boy began to sing a lively Chassidic melody.
He had a beautifully clear voice, lively and full of happiness. The leader of the gang listened for a few seconds, closed his eyes in drunken stupor and began to move his head from side to side in rapture, a wide smile covering his face.
After a minute of this his whole body abruptly shuddered. He threw his head back, opened his mouth wide and, as though he just found a million dollars, let out a scream of joy. Spinning and leaping like a man possessed; dancing, sweating and pointing at the boy yelling, "You are Moshke and I am Ivan!! You are Moshke and I am Ivan" while his friends whistled and clapped their hands in glee.
After a half-hour the Besht told the boy to stop. The leader, drenched in sweat and out of breath took a deep swig from a nearby bottle, approached the boy, took both of his hands in his own and said "you are Moshke and I am Ivan!!" All his men were smiling and laughing good heartedly.
The Baal Shem Tov miraculously had made peace.
The Besht then walked to the nearby Synagogue followed by all the people and the entire episode with the gentiles was forgotten.
Twenty years passed and the boy grew up. He married, settled down, had many children and went into business, becoming a wealthy merchant dealing mostly in cloth and traveling the world wide. His home was open to the poor and many Yeshivas owed their existence to his generosity. But he considered the charity he gave to be the secret of his success.
One time he was traveling in his carriage on the way to a big business deal through a forest road. His work was fraught with danger; travel was always a risky business.
But on the other hand, that was why people were willing to pay handsome prices for his wares and he firmly believed that his charity and good deeds would protect him. They always had.
It was an uneventful ride at first and after an hour he was already feeling safe, he had two strong, fresh horses and his driver was the best. Then suddenly the carriage stopped. He opened the door to see what had happened. A log had fallen across the road; he and the driver would have to move it. He got out and removed his coat.
Suddenly frightening looking men armed with swords and knives popped out from behind trees and rocks all around them; it was a robbery!
Seconds later Moshe and his driver were lying on the ground bound and gagged. All their belongings had been confiscated and their carriage was being ransacked for money.
At first he was shaking with fear but then he regained his composure. "If now is the time for me to die" Moshe said to himself, "then this is what G-d wants. So I should be happy. And if G-d wants to do a miracle, I should also be happy. And if He me to somehow get out of this by my own wits, then being sad and afraid certainly won't help. So in any case I have to be happy!"
And he began to sing a lively song.
One of the robbers yelled out at him, "Hey, shut up! What do you think, this a party?" Another scoffed over his shoulder "Hey, if he wants to sing his last song, well why not!" and the others laughed.
Then, suddenly, a third robber ran over to Moshe pulled out his knife and bent over him. He was like an animal. He smelled of whisky. 'This is my angel of death' Moshe thought to himself.
"Moshke! Moshke!!" the robber almost whispered. "You are Moshke and I am Ivan. Right?? Right Moshke?!" He removed the gag from Moshe's mouth and cut the ropes that bound him and continued as his eyes filled with tears.
"I know your song! You are Moshke. Right?" He was yelling now. "I know that song!"
He was almost crying. "That song you sang in the inn twenty years ago was...there was never...I can never forget it. It was the happiest moment of my life. That music made me crazy! For twenty years I have been crazy! I am Ivan!! Do you hear Moshke!!"
Now Moshe was standing up and rubbing his wrists where the ropes had been.
"Release the driver!" Ivan yelled out "and give them back everything; the carriage, the horses, their money… everything!"
He even tried to give Moshe bags of money and jewels as a present but Moshe refused.
"Listen Moshe" Ivan said when everything had been given back. "Come here." He motioned that Moshe should follow him into the woods.
When they were far from the others he said, "Listen, Moshe. It is a miracle that you are here. Something is driving me mad. Do you hear? I can't understand why that song of yours back then made me so crazy. It did something to me. I can't explain it. I felt like my soul was going to explode; like crying and laughing at once. I've never been the same. I must understand it. What was so special about that song? I must know!"
The only thing Moshe could think to say was to ask the Baal Shem Tov. "The Besht also helps gentiles, surely he’ll help you."
And so it was. One week later they met before the Synagogue of the Besht in Mezibuz and entered together.
Ivan the robber felt completely out of place here and if it wasn't for that song he would have left in an instant but there was no turning back now. They entered the Besht's room and before Ivan had a chance to open his mouth the Besht spoke.
"Since that day in the inn twenty years ago I have been waiting for you.
"Ivan is not your name" the Besht continued. "It is Avraham…. You are a Jew. Yes a Jew. And your father used to sing that song.
"Your parents, Chaim Lev and Sara Sterna, were killed by Ukrainians in a Pogrom some fifty years ago when you were three years old. You escaped by running into the woods and were knocked unconscious and lost your memory when you fell and hit your head on a rock. But you were discovered by an old gentile peasant and his wife who nursed you to health and raised you as their son.
"With your restless, intelligent soul and lack of education it was inevitable that you turned to crime; it was the only place you could succeed. But now the time has come for you to return to the G-d of your fathers. Do not worry, Avraham, It is never too late; especially because all your sins were done due to 'temporary' insanity.
Ivan-Avraham began weeping, his body began to shake and bitter tears of repentance ran down his cheeks.
"Good!" said the Besht. "Cry. It's good to cry over one's sins. But you must never forget to be happy. Remember, Avraham, you are a Jew! You can serve the Creator. And without joy, Avraham, you can never really serve G-d.
The Besht turned to Moshe, "sing the joyous song you sang back then!"
Moshe began singing and the Besht motioned for him to take Avraham's arm and dance with him. He yelled out;
"Moshe! sing! Faster! Avraham, dance!! Until finally Avraham was crying and laughing at once. Like when he heard the song twenty years ago for the first time.
The Besht had miraculously returned another Jewish soul. (Pela P'laim pg 62)
Now we can understand why the Tabernacle and Temples were not built on the Sabbath.
The Temple is where we serve G-d. We do it all: we have to build it, bring the sacrifices, do the service and keep the fire going.
But Shabbat is the day when we remember that really G-d is doing it all; He alone is creating us and the entire universe. He makes everything happen and there is nothing but Him.
So without an element of Shabbat in the building of the Temple we might get so involved in our own achievements (even spiritual ones) that we forget the truth; that our accomplishments are really miracles; a product of G-d's kindness.
And that is why "Six days work should be done" is written in the passive:
G-d wants to remind us that even on the days that we DO work and that we MUST work ….. in reality it is all being DONE miraculously by Him. So-to-speak, we aren't doing it; everything is happening passively.
Therefore we should not sink our entire souls into making a livelihood. And certainly we should set times daily for learning Torah, praying slowly and doing all we can to bring Moshiach.
Just like in the story; Moshe had to do the work, but really it was all miracles.
But we mustn't forget that the real star of our story was the Baal Shem Tov.
Without him none of the miracles would have happened. Just as without Moses the Jews wouldn't have left Egypt and without Moshiach the Jews cannot leave the exile they are in now.
This is the Moshiach we are waiting for impatiently; a man like the Besht who will open our eyes to see the miracles that occur every instant. A man that will bring all the world back to the truth so that soon we will ALL be laughing and crying at once in the Third Temple with...
Moshiach NOW!!
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