Inspiration From the Parsha: Vayakheil-Pekudei

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

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We don't cancel any classes.

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

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My dear friends, thank you and enjoy the episode.

You're listening to Rave Arria Woody, Director of Torch, Torra Outreach Resource Center

of Houston.

This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

Welcome back everybody to Partia Power.

My name is Rave Arria Woody and this is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

This week's Torra portion is a combined Torra portion which concludes the book of Exodus.

It's the Yakale and Pakude.

I want to just share five or six points about this week's partial for us to contemplate

and to think about and hopefully internalize into our daily lives.

Firstly, we see the result of the golden calf is that the Almighty Hashem in Ols Mercy

forgives the Jewish people for this grave sin.

And Arsage just tell us that no person on planet earth is ever forsaken from repentance.

There's no one who is ever to think that they cannot accomplish true repentance.

You know, we all have ups, we all have downs.

Human beings that are alive have ups and downs.

Just like our echocardiogram, our EKG will show hopefully that it goes up and it goes

down and it goes up and it goes down.

But if it's a flat line, you know what happens, that means you're dead.

Be as normal human beings have ups and downs.

And sometimes our downs are grave and they're terrible and they're sinful.

But we have to know that Hashem is always waiting for the next up.

Hashem is waiting there for us to repent, to make a correction.

We all make mistakes and it's a great reminder and it's a reason why one of the reasons

Arsage just tell us why this grave sin is listed in the Torra.

Why would such an embarrassing moment of the Jewish people be prominently displayed in

the Torra?

You would want to hide such a thing, you would want to hide one of your big mistakes.

The reason is because beyond the mistake is the lesson of mercy and forgiveness that the

Almighty gifts us with.

So never ever think that you've gone too far, there's no way for me to come back.

Every single person is having their ups and downs because that's the way we are as human

beings and Hashem wants that closeness.

The Torra moves on from that and talks about Shabbos.

The Torra tells us that we cannot perform any of the activities that were necessary for

the construction or deconstruction of the tabernacle of the temple.

We cannot do that on Shabbos and the Torra juxtaposes these two Shabbos and the building of

the temple, one close to the other and Arsage just teach us that it's referring to not

doing any of the activities of the tabernacle, construction or deconstruction on Shabbos.

So we know we have 39 laws and I just want to reiterate something that I've said numerous

times in our classes here at the Torra Center but may not have been repeated on any of these

podcasts.

People make a mistake and they say you're not allowed to work on Shabbos.

I think that's a terrible mistake.

You're allowed to work on Shabbos but what you're not allowed to do is creative labor.

What's the distinction between the two?

So work most of us would assume that carrying tables and chairs from one room to another

is a lot of work.

Moving your couches is a lot of work but is flicking on a light switch work?

That's not work.

Well because work is the wrong definition of what is permitted or prohibited on Shabbos.

What is really prohibited on Shabbos is creative labor.

Moving your couches and your chairs and your tables is work but it's not creative labor.

But flicking on a light switch is important for us to remember every Shabbos that what

is prohibited is not work, what is prohibited is creative labor, writing is creative labor.

If you look at any of the 39 prohibited laws of Shabbos you'll see that they're all

creative activities and therefore the Torra prohibits that because on Shabbos Hashem wants

us to just be, just be in a connection, don't be busy.

It's like a husband and a wife are trying to have a conversation but perhaps the husband

is busy on his phone, closing a business deal or something, don't close your business

deal.

All I want you to be is there, just be there is what most women would say.

So that's what Shabbos is.

Shabbos is let's be there, let's be all in without being busy creating, without being

busy doing other labors of creativity, Shabbos is a time to just enjoy, have peace, have

time for your family and it's the most special gift that Hashem has ever created is the gift

of Shabbos.

So let's enjoy it.

Then we go on in this week's part where we see how Moshe instructs people to donate,

to donate their goal, their copper, their silver, their fabrics to the construction of

the tabernacle.

It's an amazing thing that not only were there too many gifts, Moshe had to stop, he had

to halt all of the donations.

He didn't allow any more donations, imagine if we had an institution, any institution

in the world that says, please stop donating to us.

That would be a remarkable existence where people just gave so much and the idea that

people saw the purity, the holiness, the connection with the Almighty, which is why there

was an outpouring of donations so that each and every person wanted to be part of it.

They wanted to feel this is, this is my connection with the temple, this is my connection with

the Almighty and everybody gave.

Now to the next point is that there was one group of people that did not give right

away and those were the Naseem, the Naseem were the leaders of each tribe, they were twelve

of them and they decided they were going to wait, they were very wealthy.

They said, let's wait till the cheaper stuff are donated by the regular people and then

whatever is left over we will carry that load.

The Almighty who knows the intentions behind one's heart, Hashem saw that this was an act

of laziness and this was an act of perhaps not being as willing to give and Hashem punished

them.

In that, Hashem took his letter, the letter that represents his name is the letter

Yud.

Hashem took his letter out of their name, the Naseem.

And if you look at chapter 35 verse 27, you'll see that the word Naseem is lacking the

letter Yud and the reason is because Hashem says, no, you were lazy, you didn't carry

out this with alacrity, with excitement, with energy, with love.

But rather you're waiting, let's see what, and I think that this lesson for us is when

we have an opportunity to do a Mitzvah, when an opportunity comes to us, let's jump on

it.

Let's not wait.

Let's not say, oh, I'll take care of it later.

You have an opportunity to do a Mitzvah to feel a closeness to Hashem.

You don't say, I'll wait till later, you jump on the opportunity, you do the Mitzvah as

quickly as you can.

The next point is about the gifts that Hashem gives each and every person.

We see that Hashem chose specifically Bitsalo and Ahliya to be the craftsman to put together

the tabernacle, all of the utensils because Hashem gave them a special talent.

It wasn't arrogance for them to volunteer, it wasn't, they were chosen and we have to

know that every single one of us have great qualities and we all have flaws as well.

But we need to always remember that these are gifts from Hashem and we are obligated

to utilize them.

It's not bad.

Once in a while I'll volunteer, we have to be proactive in utilizing these qualities

that Hashem gives us.

They're given to us as a reason.

Bitsalo and Ahliya were great craftsmen, they were gifted as architects, they were gifted

with certain talents, they should never ever say, I'll just, I'll be humble, I'm not

going to, no, Hashem gave you the talent, you're obligated to use it.

We see a couple of examples in the Talmud where there were families that were gifted with

certain gifts, one that was baked bread, one that was able to sing, one the family that

baked bread.

Anybody who asked them for the recipe, they shared it, no problem, they gave, they had

the special talent, but they shared it with other people, they didn't hold it for themselves.

There was another family that knew how to sing very well and people would ask them to

sing for them and they were like, no, no, this is only for our family and they got

punished for that terribly when you're given a special gift, you need to use it, you

need to utilize it, don't be humble with it, don't be shy with it.

You have to go and maximize the gifts that Hashem gives you.

When we go into the beginning of the last portion of Exodus, of Shemot, it's the portion

of Piccudé, we see that there's an extra caution that Moshe takes about not being suspicious

and that is because people were donating gold, silver, copper, all of these fabrics and

cloths, Moshe wanted to show accountability for every single dollar, transparency on

the highest level and this is incumbent upon each and every one of us to ensure that

everything that we do is cautious, we're cautious particularly if we're dealing with the money

of the public, mom and heggdish, like an organization, people give donations, you need

to make sure that every dollar that's used in that organization, you're careful to have

a last penny that there's accountability, that there's caution, that it's money's not

being wasted, that money's not being used for purposes that are not 100% necessary.

And this is something that we see that Moshe gave an accounting to all of the people

that were around him, whether it was the leaders of the tribes, it was the men, the women,

the children, that he wanted them to know, I didn't take one single penny for myself,

every single ounce, every single milligram of gold and silver and copper and linen that

were donated were used in the temple and nothing went to him to his own pocket.

You know, the Talmud warns us that someone who is a Gabbites Daka, someone who is the

person who the Gabbai who collects the money in the synagogue and gives it to the poor

people, such a person should not collect his debt in the marketplace.

And if he does, someone owes him money, he shouldn't, if it's a personal debt, they shouldn't,

he shouldn't put it in the same pocket that he typically puts the charity money of the

community.

Why?

So that nobody should suspect that he's mixing his own money with the congregations money,

with the charity money.

It's something which is so important for us to be cautious, to go out of our way, to ensure

that there is no suspicion.

And we have to be proactive about this to ensure that there's clarity, that there's transparency.

And Hashem should bless us all, that we should have an amazing Shabbos.

We should all enjoy learning through the Torah portion, taking out the lessons that we

can from it and elevating ourselves one step at a time.

My dear friends, have a great Shabbos.

You've been listening to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast, a torch production.

Become a supporter at torchweb.org, because your assistance enables more Torah learning

around the globe.

To find more lessons offered by torch, please visit torchpodcast.com.

Thank you Rabbi.

I understand there's 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%,

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, 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.

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 a kiddish and for a davening, it's unbelievable what goes 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 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 till 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, Mr. Mondais 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 Torah.

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 the 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 the torch.

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

world.

As 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 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, they 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 are 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 all

the tools you need to be successful in life, marriage, family and all areas of your life.

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

money we need to continue to operate, but I want you to be part of it.

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

we're doing.

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