2.11 Parshas Pekudei Review: Shemos Finale

Before we begin this episode, I need only 60 seconds of your attention.

This week and this week only we do our only fundraiser of the year, givetorch.net.

What do we do?

We ask our friends, our listeners, our viewers, our participants to partner with us so that

we can continue doing the work we do.

We don't cancel any classes.

We don't make any exceptions for days off so that we can raise money.

No, we want to continue to teach.

We want to continue to influence in every way we can, just so that you know, last year

in 2025, our videos grew 295% in their exposure, in their viewership.

Our podcasts grew, some of them 10%, some of them 30, 40, 50, 60, some of them 200%.

Really unbelievable growth in the listenership of our podcasts.

But not only that, we have in our torch center, we have ongoing classes, we have lunch

and learns, we have evening classes and chavaras and people's homes, we have our torchwood

community, we have torch unify the new young professional division of torch.

We are guns blazing, doing unbelievable things and we want your partnership.

We need your partnership, givetorch.net.

Thank you.

And if you want to hear an extended pitch, you can listen at the end of this podcast,

we have some testimonials from participants and you can hear more about what we do.

My dear friends, thank you and enjoy the episode.

You are listening to Radearia, we'll be of torch in Houston, Texas.

This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

And we're back my dear friends, welcome back to the weekly Parsha Review.

This week's Parsha is Parsha's Picude.

As mentioned previously, in 5783, the year that we're in right currently right now, we

have a combined two portions of Ayakil and Picude that come together.

This is not every year.

But in this week's Parsha, in this week, it is going to be combined and the second portion

is going to be the portion of Picude, the eleventh portion, eleventh and final portion

in the book of Exodus and the 23rd portion since the beginning of the Torah.

There are 92 verses, 1,182 words, and 4,432 letters.

There are no myths of us commanded in this week's Parsha.

And this portion, as we mentioned, is the final of the five portions discussing the Mishkan,

and its construction, and the final portion in the book of Shamos, the book of Exodus.

A reckoning and accountability is taken for the work of the temple and its construction.

The gold that was donated 29 Kikar, a Kikar's 3,000 Shekel and 730 Shekels, which totaled

in 87,630 Shekels total of gold.

Silver, the silver that was donated 100 Kikar of silver, and 1,775 Shekels a total of

301,775 Shekels total, 100 Kikars, 400 Adhanim, with the sockets that were used to hold

the pillars, and the other 1,775 Shekels were made into hooks and ornaments.

The hooks for the pillars in the courtyard to hold up the screens that fence in the Mishkan,

the ornaments decorate the same pillars.

Then we had 70 Kikar and 2,400 Shekels, which are a total of 170,400 Shekels in total

of copper, and this is the copper that was donated, and the copper was used to build the

copper altar, the utensils, and the sockets of the entrance for the courtyard.

The walls were used to make the covers, the big desksurads, to wrap the utensils for

travels.

Everything that was created also had a wrapping that was a casing for whenever they traveled.

The turquoise, purple, and scarlet walls crafted, the priestly garments, the apho, the apron,

the khoshain, the breastplate, the meel, the robe, or the coat, that sits the crown on

the forehead, the michnasaim, the pants, the cutones, the tunic, the avnate, the sash

or belt, and the mitsneffes, the turban or hat were all created with those wool donations,

the turquoise, the purple, and scarlet walls.

Moshe inspects and approves the work, and he says, behold, that they have done it exactly

as Hashem commanded, and Moshe then blessed the Jewish people.

Hashem tells Moshe to erect the mishgun on the first day of the first month of Nissan,

which is going to be this coming week, the month of Nissan.

Hashem instructs Moshe on the order of assembly for the mishgun and its vessels, when the

mishgun is complete with every vessel in its proper place, the heavenly presence descends

upon it, indicating that Hashem's glory was resting there.

The Jewish people would only travel when the clouds of glory moved.

The cloud of Hashem would be on the tabernacle by day, and a fire at night throughout their

journeys.

This cloud showed everybody that Hashem's presence had come to dwell within the temple, within

their midst.

Some important lessons on this week's parasha.

The first is a lesson of accountability, every single penny, every single penny that

was donated to the tabernacle was accounted for.

The laborers were accountable for their work, and every donation with tremendous scrutiny

was accounted for.

This is important, I think, in every one of our lives to have an accountability not only

for our money, but also an accountability for our time.

What's more valuable, time or money?

Time shouldn't we have an accountability for our time, every day evaluating what did I

do with my time?

What did I do with my life?

What did I do?

What was I...

Hashem gave me this gift of life for 24 hours, what did I do?

And plan what's going to be with my next 24 hours, how may holding up my part of the

bargain that Hashem has gifted me with?

Then we see the order of the assembly, like the creation of the world, or say, just tell

us that just like the light was created first, the curtains, which allowed the light in or

out of the tabernacle, the curtains were assembled first.

Then separate the upper and lower waters, and we separated between the Kodash Akadashim,

the Holy of Holies, and the rest of the temple.

The waters, and that was the Kiar, the labor, the sun, which was the menorah, the birds

with wings, which was the Kuruvim, Adam, which was Aaron, and then Shabbos, Moshe blessed

the Jews and anointed the vessels.

He sanctified it, he made it holy, and I think this is an amazing comparison of how the

assembly of the tabernacle was done in the exact order of creation of heaven and earth.

The seven days of creation are represented in the order with which the temple was erected.

It's a very important thing because in every single thing that we do this significance,

order is not random.

We're going to head into the month of Nisan next month, and in the 14th day of the month

of Nisan we're all going to be celebrating the Pesachsator.

You know what's interesting about this Pesachsator?

What is a Sator?

Here is order, it's not random.

The more we look at the into the order of Pesach, the more significance we will find in it.

We see the order of the plagues, it's not random.

We see the order of the Ten Commandments, it's not random.

This tremendous symbolism, this tremendous significance, and this tremendous importance

placed on this in our Torah.

Now Moshe feels badly that he isn't selected to craft the tabernacle, so Hashem rewards

him with constructing items that no others could.

When they ran into trouble, who would they go to?

They'd go to Moshe, and that was a gift that Hashem gave Moshe, because Moshe said,

I want to be part of this, but he wasn't asked to be part of it.

Hashem, because he saw that his heart was there, Hashem gave him the opportunity and the

privilege to take part in the construction of various items when there was a struggle,

when there was a challenge.

And additionally, our sages teach us that Mishkan, the word Mishkan, which means tabernacle,

comes from the word Lishkan, which means to rest upon, where Hashem's presence or Shakhina

comes from the same word as Mishkan, where the essence of it all is about the closeness

to Hashem.

And that's the purpose of the tabernacle.

The purpose, and by the way, about my recent trip to Israel, what's the purpose of going

to the Holy Land?

The purpose to elevate ourselves, the purpose to get closer to Hashem.

Yeah, there's good food, but there's good food everywhere.

Yeah, someone told me, and I was like, I think I'm going to go visit Tel Aviv.

Well, Tel Aviv, you have in every country, Tel Aviv, you have in every city, the every

place has a Tel Aviv.

You want to go for holiness, you want to sanctify the land, sanctify your souls, sanctify

your body.

Now Hanukkah, contrary to what many people may think or say that Hanukkah is made up by

a bunch of rabbis, that's incorrect.

I had once two students who came to the class here, and they were livid.

They said the rabbi and their congregations spoke and said, cover the children's ears.

I'm going to tell you something that's going to shock you.

Hanukkah is a made up holiday.

It's just as fake as any of the non-Jewish holidays, and there's no source for it.

And they were very, very upset, obviously.

So we pulled out the Talmud, and we taught that rabbi through our class, that there is

very, very deep roots for the holiday of Hanukkah.

I'm going to share it with you right here, and that is when did the construction of these

items for the tabernacle conclude?

When did the construction conclude?

Our sages tell us, it was on the 25th day of Kislev, which is the day we start lighting

the menorah.

The 25th day of Kislev, is there a random day?

No, that day was destined to be a day, with a menorah lighting will be instituted later

on in Jewish history.

So it's sourced in the Torah, it's hinted to in the Torah, and our sages give us the

incredible insight through these dates, that it's not just random.

It's given on a specific date to teach us something.

Lastly, my dear friends, an important lesson.

Why is it important for us to learn about the Mishkan, about the tabernacle?

Now we don't have a temple.

Our temple in Jerusalem was destroyed over 2,000 years ago, and we're in exile since.

So now what?

What is the offerings?

What is the, we're going to see soon in the coming weeks in Parshis, Fa'ikra and

Sa'av and Chimini.

We're going to see about all the offerings that were brought.

What does that have to do with us today?

I mean, we're living here in 2023, we're living here in Houston, Texas.

Last I checked, we don't have any altars, we don't have any sacrifices.

So why is it important for us to study this?

In fact, part of our prayers has the carbonate, the actual offerings that we read the verses

of the offerings that were brought.

Our sages tell us something so critically important, and that is, although the actual

performance of the offerings isn't available sadly, today in Jerusalem, but by reading it,

by discussing it, it's as if we've observed those laws.

So my dear friends, don't be dissuaded and lose hope on the contrary.

The temple, the third temple, will be rebuilt.

We believe this every single day we say to Nani Mami Mashiach will come and our temple

will be rebuilt.

And we will be back in Jerusalem, bringing those offerings, just like we did once in

the past.

But what do we do till then?

We relive that experience every day.

We bring our own offerings by the words that we recite about the offerings.

When we learn these portions, talking about the offerings, about the temple, we are rebuilding

that temple in our lives.

So my dear friends, have a magnificent job, and chazak, chazak, venit chazak, may we go

from strength to strength, and have the strength to review these portions again and again.

Asshams should give us the opportunity and the privilege to serve him in the greatest

way possible.

Shabbat Shalom.

Thank you, Rabbi.

I understand there is a fundraiser going on.

Why would listeners want to donate to torch versus other organizations?

So a very, very good question, very valid question.

I want to tell you something like this, okay?

Torch is here for one reason.

Torch is here to share the word of Torah with the world.

Any one of you listeners out there listening on a podcast, listening in a video, last year

alone, our videos grew, our video exposure grew, 295%.

If I told you that there was an investment in the stock market that is going to grow 295

percent, everyone would invest.

I am telling you, my dear listeners, that last year our YouTube videos alone grew 295%

by our viewership.

Our podcast, there are many podcasts that grew by well over 200% as well.

This is a great investment.

I really believe so.

I really feel this in my bones.

I know myself that I keep a very meticulous log of all of our videos.

Last year in 2025, we published 1,092 videos.

I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot of videos.

Bor Hashem.

To me, it's an exceptional privilege to be able to teach and learn Torah together with

so many amazing people, not only you here in the room, and those of you on Zoom every

day, but also those listening on the podcasts and those of you watching live online or later

online, a video on demand, and we're on all these different platforms.

It's all because we have a foundation here in Houston, Texas where we learn, teach from

our torch center and share that Torah with the world.

That's just one component.

We have the torch center.

We have our torch media.

We also have torch wood, which is a torch community with now 15 families, robust programming

for the men, for the women, for the children, every job is, there's over 100 people there

for kiddish and for davening.

It's unbelievable.

We'll go on over there.

Then we have our newest young professional division, our unify.

It's just unbelievable the things that are going on and what we're trying to do is really

open up for people one time a year where we ask everyone to invest in torch.

This is a time, get in on the ground floor because the midst of us that we're trying to

do, we cannot do without the support of the community.

That's their honest truth.

I don't say it as a cliche, oh, we're partners that are, I really, we cannot do it.

We can keep these lights on.

We can't record.

We can't have these cameras.

We can't do the broadcasting.

We can't do any of this without the support of our partners.

And therefore, this one week that you have, you can go to givetorch.net, givetorch.net

and contribute every dollar that you contribute is matched by donors.

The entire week the campaign will be up until we reach our goal because this is our budget

for the year.

We do everything we can to not stop even a single program to raise money.

We continue all of our classes will be on our Monday lunch and learn will be on our

Monday night month, Mr. Mondays will be on our Tuesday morning classes will be on Tuesday

night classes.

Wednesday and everything is on because that's why we're here.

We're here not to raise money.

We're here to teach Dora.

So if y'all would be so kind and generous and support us, we'll be able to end this

campaign just like they did for the temple, right?

What would happen to temple?

They said enough.

Enough donations.

I'm ready to do the same.

Please help us, my dear friends, givetorch.net.

Givetorch.net.

Thank you, Mark.

I appreciate your question.

Now I want to talk about giving to torch.

We are so blessed that God has given us, and it's not just for us, it's for the whole

world.

It's a matter of fact, our choice being chosen is to be a light to the nations, bring

Torah to everyone, okay?

They don't have to all do the commandments, but this is, as you have often said, the

owner's manual for living and for those of us who grew up at a time where a good Jewish

education was not available to us.

Now, there's a little bit here, a little bit there.

I am so grateful that I get to come here four times a week.

But more importantly, as a good friend of mine once said, if you could learn everything

from a video or a book, there would be no universities.

And here at Torch, not only can you come and participate, but even if you can't come,

we take people on Zoom who ask questions.

And I don't know any other organization where you can't, you can actually participate

long distance with a rabbi.

So studying torch is like trying to eat an elephant.

You do it one bite at a time.

How do you learn Torah one bite at a time?

And that's what you give to us.

And for all of you out there, not only is this invaluable, you couldn't put a dollar value

on it, but in addition to that, it's always free.

And the only way it is always free is if you help provide the funds that we need with

they only ask once.

You go to some places every single week.

We pass the pot and try to get money out of you.

But here they wait once a year.

They don't bother you.

They don't send out a give me, give me, give me once a year.

That's all we ask, givetorch.net.

All my friends or my friends from class and my rabbis, they're my friends.

That is my solicitation from y'all to please contribute.

Givetorch.net.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Supporting torch is one of the best things you could possibly do.

It will change your life, Jewish, not Jewish.

Being part of torch will inspire you, will teach you life lessons, and will give you

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Support torch if you can.

We thank you very much.

I know with confidence that the Almighty will succeed our way and we will raise all the

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And if you can please, whatever donation amount, the smallest, the largest, it doesn't make

a difference.

I want you as a partner.

If you can please go to givetorch.net and donate so that you can be a partner in what

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I'd greatly appreciate it and I hope you enjoy this episode.