Parsha: Vayakhel: The Third Path (5784)

The Jewish people are told to build a sanctuary for God, to build a Miktosh, a mini-portable temple for God.

And we've read about the Aparsha's true Mithatsava, some parts of Kisea last week.

And this week is Vyakel, Piccudei.

And these Aparsha's are going to be the fulfillment of the plans that were laid out in Aparsha's to Ruma and Titsava.

And I always think that these Aparsha's to talk about the Tabernacle. It's a bit of an acquired taste.

It's not clear to us at least initially why the Torah dedicates so much real estate discussing the Tabernacle.

And it seems to us that there's a lot of repetition.

You know, we have Taruma and Titsava and Taruma.

The Aparsha's to Ruma Moshe has instructed to go through the fundraiser and then to build the art and then to build the table and to build the menorah.

And then to build the actual structure of the Mishron and the covers, the various different covers to go on top of it.

And then we read about the vestments of the high priest in Aparsha, Titsava.

And we're told all the things that we need to do.

And now is the implementation phase. It's almost the exact same content.

But now it's not God telling Moshe, it's now Moshe instructing the people and then and them doing it.

It seems like we could have consolidated a lot.

If you just simply said, well, Moshe told the nation everything that God told him.

And of course there's a lot of precedent for that. Many times the Torah doesn't repeat both when God tells Moshe and when Moshe tells Jewish people,

it just says, well, Moshe did what God told him to do.

And we imagine, if you read these partios, that we could have saved a lot of ink.

You know, in our community, we have a scribe, a sofa.

And I have this dream, I don't want to write my own Torah scroll.

So I'm always badgering him.

I say, teach me, teach me how to write, I want to learn how to write, I want to learn how to write a Torah scroll.

And I tell him, you know, it's easy. I want to write a Torah scroll. It's only what?

Three hundred four thousand, eight hundred five letters, two hundred four five columns of writing.

I'll just do every week. I'll write that week's partial. I'll finish the whole, a whole Torah scroll in, in a year.

Now the truth is, it's not easy at all. If you do that, it's by like five, six, seven, eight hours a day.

It's about to write a whole partial in just a week.

So couldn't the Torah have made it a bit easier?

For all these poor scribes, go easy on them, consolidate a bit.

Let's simplify a bit. Let's do some editing.

They always say that you're supposed to edit.

Remove, remove all unnecessary words.

No, take out the word all. Remove unnecessary words.

Just remove the words that seem to be unnecessary.

And whenever we have the Torah saying something that we would have omitted, it should always get our attention.

And it's hard for us to appreciate the salience of these parcius.

For in the mind, call them, I thought this was hysterical.

They're fly over parcius. Now, that terminology might not make sense to our sizable international audience.

But in America, so it's kind of a big country.

A lot of people live on the East Coast, and a lot of people live on the West Coast, and then in the middle, it's mostly empty.

And the people live on the coasts. They say, well, we got to fly from California, from Los Angeles, from San Francisco, from Seattle, to the East Coast.

To Miami, to, I don't know, Charlotte, to DC, to Boston, to New York.

And everything else in between is just fly over country.

It doesn't really matter. It's a little bit, you know, elitist to say that.

So are these fly over parcius?

And we have the exciting stories of Genesis, and we have the very compelling beginning of Exodus.

And then we have this whole month, really, of the tabernacle.

And I will remind you, we also have the book of Leviticus upcoming, which is also hard for us to appreciate.

But of course, there's nothing in the Torah that's extra.

There's no fly over portion in the Torah. Nothing's empty.

If we find a portion in Torah that's empty, it's really empty from us. It's not empty from it.

So in this podcast, I want to try to share some of the ideas that are powerfully relevant, and valuable, and salient for us.

You know, we don't have a temple. We've never seen a tabernacle.

Yet there are insights and lessons that can completely reshape our lives, that can help us develop ourselves and actualize our potential,

that can enrich our lives in meaningful ways.

So let's begin.

Today we have two segments, a short, very nice one, and then a little bit of a longer retro, a retro segment.

The one that really would fit better last year's partial podcast cycle than this year's, but that's okay.

Partial begins, Moshe God, there is the nation.

Everyone's there, and the purpose of this congregation is for Moshe to tell them,

okay, it's time to build a tabernacle, we need the gold, we need the silver, we need all these types of wool, special stones.

But the first thing Moshe tells them is about Shabbos.

It begins with a quick instruction to not violate the Shabbos.

Now we've seen this before. Shabbos seems to always be connected to the tabernacle.

We have to build the tabernacle, but we cannot do it on Shabbos, and all the things that are necessary, all the activities,

all the types of work that are necessary to build the mission are all the 39 categories that are prohibited to do on Shabbos.

But here's the question.

Why must we be told again and again with relation to the tabernacle to not violate the Shabbos?

You know, we could be told in many places, there's all sorts of midsts of us that we cannot do on Shabbos.

And we talked about writing a Torah scroll, right?

Correct, not right.

Correct.

You have to write a Torah scroll.

Correct.

That's the final of the 630 mosques to write a Torah scroll.

May you do that on Shabbos?

Well, writing is one of the third and prohibited items of work.

You don't do that on Shabbos, but we're not told that over there.

We're told it with relation to the Mishkan.

So what's this deeper connection between the tabernacle and Shabbos?

So this is an idea, and this is an idea that we've shared in the past.

We're going to take it in a little bit of a different direction today.

Very powerful, very deep idea.

There are multiple types of sanctuaries.

Of course, we have the tabernacle, that's the sanctuary, and that's a portable one that you could assemble.

And this is something we need to travel, either reconstruct it when you sell them in the new place that you have encamped at.

And we have the first temple, and we have the second temple.

And then we have, of course, the Mishkan that was made, the permanent one that was made in Shiloh and Shiloh.

But as I just tell us, there's yet another type of sanctuary.

A sanctuary that's still around today.

A sanctuary that actually encompasses what we are trying to do here in our lifetimes.

All the way back in chapter 25 of Exodus, at the very beginning of the instructions of the tabernacle, the verse says,

The asu-li-miktash, God, Tasmoshah, God of the Jewish people, they shall make for me a sanctuary,

Vishachanti, and I will dwell be socham in them.

A sanctuary, that's singular.

In them, it seems at a place, the commentary is point out.

The verse should have said,

Why does the verse say, I want to be socham in them?

So the saints tell us that this is the hint that in addition to the physical sanctuary,

the physical tabernacle, every individual must construct within themselves.

A sanctuary, a tabernacle.

Within each person, there ought to be a sanctuary.

Every person is supposed to make themselves into a sanctuary.

Into an abode, a damasile, a hospitable residence for the Almighty.

And after the verse is telling us,

In addition, of course, to the mistrown, it's telling us,

You should make the whole nation to make for them within themselves.

A sanctuary, and God will dwell inside them.

The ultimate objective for us.

If you could kind of create an image of what we're supposed to turn ourselves into.

It's to turn ourselves into a sanctuary, a tabernacle.

To carve a space within us, to carve a place in our heart where God will feel comfortable.

A hospitable abode for the Almighty.

Now, this idea fundamentally transforms our understanding of the Mishkan.

It's not only some one-time deal that was done once thousands of years ago.

Each one of us, we need to do that.

We have to assemble ingredients, materials, qualities,

and use them to build a sanctuary.

Residents forgot within ourselves.

Now, what does that entail?

What would we need to do to make ourselves a place where God can dwell?

Well, the first thing we need to do is to remove, from within ourselves, any noxious elements that are incompatible with God.

We have to make sure that we are fully compliant with the will of God.

If God says, I don't want this, and you sound doing it nonetheless, well, that's not a place where God wants to be, so to speak.

If we're completely encemed with the will of Hashem, then Hashem says, okay, this person is carving out space for me.

We're supposed to live our life like we are in the constant presence of a great king.

How do you behave if you are around royalty?

Today, we're going to have so many great examples of what royalty looks like.

But it used to be that there weren't, you know, prime ministers and presidents. There were kings.

And people would tremble to be in the presence of a great king.

God is the king of all kings.

And he's been around forever, will be around forever.

And he controls everyone and everything.

And we have to behave at all times like we're in the presence of God.

And that's what's needed if you want to make yourself into a sanctuary worthy of God dwelling within you.

And of course, this is a lot of work, but this is our life mission.

And the Mishronism is the model that we must emulate.

So of course, we're hoping, very soon, please, God, to witness the actual rebuilding of the temple, the third temple,

but even absent the temple, it's incumbent upon us to create a mini sanctuary within ourselves.

To improve ourselves, to perfect ourselves, to cleanse ourselves, to refine ourselves,

to make ourselves worthy of being a sanctuary for God.

The Tama tells us that someone who was arrogant, who was haughty, who has hubris.

God says, so to speak, I cannot live with that person.

You think he rules the world?

Well, there's just an incompatibility.

So if someone's arrogant, that makes them not a candidate to be a sanctuary for God.

If someone displays a lack of faith, that's saying, where's God? God's not here.

Okay, God's not here. You have created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

God's not here. You're not a sanctuary for God.

If someone doesn't rely on God, well, the Thunna place where God wants to dwell.

Thunna place that's fitting for it.

Someone must have a abundant, refined character.

Someone must adopt the agenda of God. Make his will your will.

Someone must not allow anything that runs counter to God, to have any foothold within them,

if they want to be a sanctuary for God.

So this is obviously a description of vast, all-encompassing work.

This is what Hashem wants.

Make within yourself a residence where God can dwell.

It's hard. It's all-encompassing, but it is of the highest priority.

And everything good that we do is part of this process of making ourselves into a sanctuary.

But here's the point. You cannot violate the Shabbos to do it.

This is the highest priority.

But that does not mean that you should trample or shove aside anyone else or anything else to do that.

Building the tabernacle, building a sanctuary cannot override Shabbos.

We have to sometimes stop the sacrosanct work of building a tabernacle for Shabbos.

We cannot run roughshod over everyone and everything to accomplish this.

When we build a sanctuary, we can just barrel over anyone else.

Our mission cannot be predicated upon trampling over others.

Yes, we need to build a sanctuary, but there's a right way to do it, and there's a wrong way to do it.

We cannot move fast and break things in pursuit of this scroll.

So we spoke about this many times.

Moshe is told to go save Jewish people.

It's the will of Hashem.

And what does he say? Send Aaron. I don't want to make Aaron feel bad.

And this decision is the decision that God criticizes him for.

And God gets angry, so to speak, with Moshe.

But why? God's only angry at Moshe.

For his refusal to listen to God.

Only because Moshe misjudged Aaron's character.

Aaron was truly happy, glad in his heart.

And therefore Moshe had an incorrect assessment of Aaron's sentiments.

And that's why God got angry at him.

But if it were true that Aaron's feelings would have been hurt, then Moshe's decision to withhold from building his sanctuary, so to speak, that would have been correct and lauded.

As a matter of principle, Moshe's calculation was accurate.

Similarly, again, we've talked about this in the past.

Moshe, after he agrees to go save Jewish people, he stops off by Jethro and gets permission to leave.

Why? Because Jethro and Moshe had made a pact that Moshe would not leave without permission.

But God told you to do it. You build your tabernacle.

You cannot override Shabbos whenever you are building your sanctuary.

It must be very cognizant of the fact that the ends do not always justify the means.

In our parasha, we have the laver, the Kior.

That's with the Kohanim. They wash their hands their feet before they enter into the Mishkan.

And today, we don't have a Kior, but we still have this concept.

I say this, tell us.

In the morning, you wake up, you wash your hands before you eat, you wash your hands after you use the facilities, you wash your hands.

And that's in some way resembling what was done in the Mishkan with the Kior.

So this is a great story.

The great Rabbi Israel Salantar.

He was once washing his hands, and that's the Mitzah, right? He washed your hands.

But instead of taking copious amounts of water to really fulfill the Mitzah properly,

he was like putting just a little bit of water to discharge his responsibility in the most meager way.

And someone's at him, Rabbi, this is a Mitzah. This is a Mitzah to wash your hands.

You should take a huge cup of water and pour it over your hands.

And the Rabbi responded, well, where does the water come from?

There's an old woman here. She's the water carrier, or as an old man here.

And they have to schlep the water.

And they got to walk all the way down to the well and pick it up and pull it back here on their back.

If I use more water, they'll have to schlep more water.

So yes, it's great to pour lots of water, but you're trampling over someone else.

You cannot build your sanctuary if you're going to override Chamis.

You cannot build your sanctuary and demand that other people will go schlep water for you.

I will tell you as an aside, at a conversation with my friend David.

And he just happened to mention the story. I said, David, you don't understand.

This story is in my notes, but it's his partial podcast.

So that's like a wink from God, made me very happy.

We're here to build a sanctuary.

And that's perhaps the reason why this part of the Torah is emphasized and is told at such length.

And it's a nice lesson to remember that's our job to build a sanctuary.

But we have to be very careful not to violate Chamis, not to violate other things that would be a terrible way to build a sanctuary

by trampling over others and doing things that are not okay.

That's segment number one.

segment number two talks about the actual building of the tabernacle.

So everyone's there. Everyone's gathered.

The whole nation.

And Moshe outlines what they need to donate.

And what they need to build.

And they begin.

And it starts with fundraising.

Everyone wins their gold and their precious precious materials.

The princes bring the precious stones for the afro for the Khoshen.

And in only two days, all the necessary materials are assembled.

And then they begin the actual construction.

The vessels, the art, the manure, the table.

The inner altar, the outer altar, the aforementioned labor.

And all their accouterments.

And then the beams, and the bars, and the brackets, and the bases, and the covers.

The gold here, one, the red.

Goats in one, and the tachash cover.

The linen.

The wool.

The hocks.

Everything.

Everything done in perfect fulfillment of the plans.

Precisely following the immutable measurements.

The exact measurements to a tea.

Moshe tells the nation about Patzala.

Patzala is the grand foreman together with Haliyov.

And all the artisans and craftsmen.

And craftswoman, craftspeople.

The men, the women, they work on the Mishdhan.

And all the associated things.

And actually we have the description of the vestments of the high priest.

And at the end of Exodus, I don't want to spoil for you.

But at the end of Exodus, the Mishdhan is complete and is inaugurated.

And of course we hear more about that in Leviticus.

The commentary is investigate a stunning element of the construction of the tabernacle and its vessels.

So who built it?

Patzala.

He's the foreman.

And his primary lieutenant is Haliyov.

And then there's a cohort of volunteer artisans and craftsmen.

Who were these people?

What were their credentials, their qualifications for these roles?

What training did they undergo?

How do they know how to do all this intricate and delicate work?

I have a friend whose father is a glass blower from Italy.

And he creates these incredible ornate glass items using very ancient methods.

And these are family traditions that have been the family for generations and centuries.

And they pass it on to the kids and they apprentice.

And they work at it for years before they become experts.

To be a craftsman and an artisan to world-class work, you need a lot of training.

Whenever you see people that have tremendous ability in one field, you always understand that they didn't just fall off the boat and do it.

They were trained.

They started off as being novices and they became experts.

Some of those are like an ice carving.

You've seen that.

An ice carving.

And they just chip away at the ice and it becomes some sort of image.

That's a steel.

You work a lot of time to do that.

The paint.

Every profession, every occupation needs some degree of training.

And the more intricate the work, the more highly specialized and steel must be.

And if you want to work on Rolex watches,

you got to undergo a two-year intensive training.

You know, to my friends.

My friends, Bill and Bruce.

Trained gemologists.

You have to go to school for that.

You want to do surgery.

You've got to do a pre-med, your med, your internship, your residency, your fellowship.

These people doing incredibly intricate work.

Where is the training?

A few months ago, they were slaves in Egypt.

They leave Egypt on Paisachan Passover.

A half a year later, it's Sukhas Sukkot.

Exactly six months.

And that's when it's not working.

So these people have a maximum of a half a year since they were in Egypt.

Do they go to gemologists, school?

How they know how to do this.

That's a question that the commentaries investigate.

And the rumbun speaks about this in a few different places.

And he says some unbelievable things.

And we spoke about this in the past.

But today I want to suggest something a bit different.

So in last week's parasha,

we are introduced to Bethala.

God tells Moshe.

Ray C. Behold.

I have called my name, Bethala.

Ben-Uri, Ben-Hur.

Le Matayudah.

Bethala, son of Uri, son of Khur.

It's the tribe of Judah.

And the rumbun,

he notes that this is an unusual way to do someone.

He could just say, well, there's a man in a battal.

Why does it say Ray? Behold.

See, witness this incredible thing to marvel at.

So the rumbun explains that this is really something to behold.

Because Jewish people in Egypt.

They were forced to work back breaking labor of what sort?

Homer, Levenum,

Warner, and Bricks.

Very coarse work.

They didn't learn how to deal with metals,

with fine precious metals, with silver, with gold,

with a huing of stones.

Not only didn't they work in it, they never saw it.

It's something really wondrous.

It's amazing.

It's an astonishing thing to behold.

They'll find something like Bethala.

Bethala, you know, he was 13 at the time.

And he was a Khacham Godel.

He was a very wise man who knew all the steels.

All the different types of work

that was needed for all these different types of materials.

He knew it all.

And you'd have someone was trained.

You never see someone who knows all.

You can see someone be very specialized in one particular area.

But you don't see someone who is an expert,

a world-class expert in so many different disciplines and domains.

So it's a double miracle.

They weren't trained.

In fact, the work that they were doing was with bricks and with mortar.

And you have someone who's an expert in all these very fine intricate skills,

and not just one in all of them.

So despite the fact that Jewish people were enslaved working with hard labor,

there's Bethala, who in the most delicate and fine areas of work,

the gem cutting, and the intricate embroidery, et cetera,

he has expertise.

Moreover, so that's something to marvel.

That's how the rabbi explains.

The verse that says,

A, C, behold, look at this thing which is so wondrous.

And then he adds that Bethala was an expert in not just the craftsmanship,

but also in the secrets,

because each thing, each measurement,

each material, each vessel,

is replete with all sorts of secrets,

all sorts of mystical ideas.

And Bethala knew the physical labor,

but also the spiritual secrets behind each and every part of the mistone.

So this is something wondrous,

something to marvel at, something to behold,

something that if you do not see it yourself,

you wouldn't believe it.

It's going to be a slave,

will be such a renaissance,

man, a polymath,

an expert in so many different domains.

Bethala, he's a phenom,

and that needs to be marveled at.

And then Raban offers a second interpretation.

He cites the midrush.

Midr says that there's a book,

the chronicles of Adam,

and in that book it says,

the names of all the big important people in all of history,

and there's an entry called Building the Tabernacle,

and next to it it says,

Bethala and God showed motion at this book,

Ray, see, look at the book.

Bethala is the right person for the job.

So, Bethala is a complete outlier.

He's a wunderkind.

He has supernatural abilities.

And he was designated since the times of Adam,

to be the one to build the Tabernacle.

Ray, behold, look at this incredible wondrous thing.

But what about all the other people who helped Bethala?

And our partially read,

that it's not just Bethala,

and it's a whole cohort,

not a list, we don't know the list,

but it's a whole group of people

who answer the call and joined in the effort.

How did they know how to do it?

Storban has another comment,

and if you read it very carefully,

it seems like there's a subtle difference

between Bethala and all the other artisans and craftsmen.

The first tells us chapter 35, verse 21,

that all men whose heart inspired them,

and all those whose spirit was generous,

they came, and they joined the efforts,

and they contributed towards the Tabernacle.

And they're on ban in his commentary.

He separates between the men whose heart were elevated,

heart were inspired,

and those whose spirit was dedicated.

Again, the towers didn't use words without precision, of course.

The verse describes the people that came,

people whose heart were inspired,

people whose spirit was generous.

Storban tells us that these two different types of volunteers,

they volunteered in two different areas.

There were people who made donations of mouth gold,

of silver, of copper, et cetera, of all these types of wool,

of the linen, of their goat hair, of the wood, and so on.

And those are the people whose spirit was generous,

but the people, regarding whom it says,

their heart was elevated.

That was a reference, not to those who gave material donations.

It is a reference to those who worked with Pizzala.

The builders, the artisans, the craftsmen,

who joined Pizzala in constructing the Mishdhan and all its vessels.

They were not ones who were, who, whose spirit was generous,

no, they had an elevated heart.

Their heart ascended.

Now, what does that mean?

So listen to this Ramban.

These people, their heart was ascended

to approach the work,

because they had no one who taught them.

They were never trained.

They received no apprenticeship,

but they discovered, in their nature,

that they knew how to do it.

Their heart was ascended.

They came to Moshe, and they said,

I will do whatever you need me to do.

Whatever my master says, I will do.

This Ramban, telling us something unbelievable.

How did the artisans know how to do all the fine,

you should go work, the metal, and the wood,

and the fine embroidery?

How did it sell's army of helpers, of lieutenants?

How did they know how to do all this work?

Their hearts ascended. That's what the verse says.

Their heart was elevated.

This ability to do work when you're not trained,

and you don't have the qualifications, the classic credentials.

They didn't learn the trade in a typical way,

as a journeyman,

as someone who watches YouTube videos,

as someone who went to school.

There's a whole different way that they studied.

Their heart ascended.

Now, if you notice,

both but Salah and the other artisans,

they both didn't have what we were called classical training.

Both were recently released slaves,

who were unaccustomed to the fine,

to the intricate work of the tabernacle vessels.

But the verse says that that's something to marvel at.

Ray, see, behold, he's the outlier.

He's someone that got in doubt with supernatural,

printer-natural abilities.

The Raman tells us that the volunteers,

who answered Moshe's call,

and volunteered to build a mission,

they weren't necessarily endowed

with some sort of supernatural ability from God.

They weren't in the book of Adam,

that it was preordained that they're going to do this.

They didn't have any qualification,

and he's still any training,

anything special about them,

aside from the fact that their heart ascended.

And they discovered natural abilities.

But Salah, he's a complete anomaly.

It was to do all the work,

and it's so rare,

it's maybe impossible to find someone

with world-class abilities in so many areas.

Yes, you can find in one area,

but to find in so many areas,

that's supernatural,

the time it's to admire,

and to marvel at.

Ray, behold!

God called,

but Salah bin Umrahur,

for the time of Judah, by name.

These volunteers,

there was nothing special about them.

And they were regular ordinary Joes,

but they made a decision,

and their decision was to elevate their heart.

And to do something,

that they really had no business knowing how to do.

So there's a difference here.

Both but Salah volunteers,

they never wove,

they never spawn,

they never hew,

they never etched,

carved, or fashioned.

They didn't have the typical training.

Now that were apprentices by some master.

But there's a difference.

But Salah,

he's a marvel.

Since times of Adam,

he was designated for this role.

And everyone else,

they volunteered.

And they were able to do it,

if their heart ascended,

if their heart was inspired,

if their heart was elevated.

And if they did that,

they would discover

that they knew how to do the work,

without any trained.

If you map this out,

it seems like there are three ways

to do this type of work.

This type of world-class excellence

in this form of work.

There's one way where

what we were called,

the classic path.

You get your training,

and you become an apprentice,

and you're a journeyman,

and you put it in your hours,

and you learn.

And hopefully,

if you have some sort of knack for it,

and you pick it up,

you'll be able to do it.

That's path number one.

And path number two,

that's the pit Salah path.

You're in the book of Adam.

You were designated to have all these deals.

And nothing else matters.

You're just endowed by God

in a way that no one else ever was.

And you know everything,

and all the secrets.

You know how heaven and earth

were created,

the Tama tells us.

And he's 13.

Doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

You were just given this gift from Hashem.

Something to marvel at.

And then there's a third path.

We call it the path of the volunteer.

That is open to all.

It's another way to bypass

the classical training.

The classical process

of being an apprentice of a journeyman,

and doing it the right way,

or the slow way.

And it's for people that are not the pit Salah.

And that's the process of,

or the path of the ascension of the heart.

Now these volunteers,

they appear many times in our parasha.

Chapter 35 verse 10.

The nation is told,

any person whose heart is intelligent,

khamleif.

What does that mean?

I don't know.

We'll talk more about that.

Chapter 35-21.

36-1.

And so on.

Many times it's mentioned

that there were people

who weren't trained,

and who are not pit Salah,

they're not in the book of Adam.

And they knew how to do this highly specialized,

this highly intricate work for the tapenacle.

And how?

What's their secret?

Their heart was inspired.

Their heart was wise.

Their heart ascended.

This is path number three.

The path of the volunteer.

There's a way to get the transcendental greatness,

if you just understand the secret of the heart ascending.

Now what does that mean?

This is a question we've talked about in the past.

And in the past we suggested

that it means to just believe in yourself

and to take initiative

and to go for an outlandish objective

and to undertake outrageous missions.

And that will unlock

hitherto unknown powers.

And maybe that's the ascension of the heart.

But today I want to share a different perspective

based upon a concept that I heard

from my grandfather or blessing memory.

What does it mean to be wise-hearted

or to have an ascension of the heart?

The organ involved in this path,

the path of the volunteer, is the heart.

Now what does it mean?

So there's a midrush

that differentiates between doing something

half-heartedly versus wholeheartedly.

And to do it with a happy heart or a sad heart.

It tells us that when Joseph was thrown into the pit

by his brothers,

Ruvan intervened

and he saved Joseph.

But the midrush says he didn't have heartedly.

And the reason why he didn't have heartedly

is because he did not realize

that the Torah would talk about it.

He featured in the Torah forever.

And had he known that this would be the Torah forever,

he would have taken Joseph and put him on his shoulders

and said, you want to take Joseph?

You got to shoot me first.

He got to kill me first.

And he would have marched him back

to his father, to Jacob.

But because Ruvan did it half-heartedly,

he didn't realize that his entire legacy

and his permanent future hinges upon it.

He did it half-heartedly,

and he didn't save Joseph the entire way.

When you realize that there is something

that everything depends upon,

that you are created to do,

something that will determine your standing

and your status forever,

something that will speak etch your name

into eternity.

And you say, I'm going to do that.

When you realize that the Torah will speak about you,

and you act upon that knowledge,

that is the definition of a full heart,

of a happy heart.

This is a deep idea.

If a person realizes that what you're about to do,

that's your eternity.

That's your destiny.

That's your legacy.

That's why you were created.

That's an entirely different universe

of an act than something that you're just doing,

because you're just doing it.

This attitude will clear any path

from any resistance.

We have people that are being told here.

God wants a physical home to dwell in.

Let's just think about that.

God wants to leave the heaven, so to speak,

and to come with us in our journeys,

it's an outrageous proposal.

That's what God wants.

And He's asking all these people who wants to help.

Now, you know nothing about embroidery.

You've never lifted a needle in your life.

You know nothing.

Your training is only in Brits and Mortar.

That's it.

You don't know that God is asking for volunteers.

And you realize you have a recognition

that this is an opportunity for eternity.

This is something that really,

this is what we're created to do.

When you have that realization, your heart ascends.

It goes from half-hearted to full-hearted.

And when you do something full-heartedly,

it stands in your way.

A wholesome, happy heart, a full heart,

a wise heart, an elevated heart.

That is an example of someone doing something

that will reverberate for all eternity.

And they'll discover abilities that they always had, maybe.

But abilities that were reserved

for these types of circumstances.

Just as an analogy,

we're all familiar with the phenomenon

of God forbid someone, you know,

being trapped underneath something very heavy

or something like that, a car, a airplane,

a boulder.

And then this small lady comes and pushes the car

old 25 hundred pounds of it,

out of the way.

There's a phenomenon like that.

That's this idea.

We have reservoirs of ability within ourselves

that only in case of emergency

do we break the glass.

Only in case where everything matters upon this,

only then are those abilities mobilized.

Only then are those abilities brought to the surface.

They're always within you.

It's natural.

You don't need training.

But it'll only come to the surface

when it's somebody doing wholeheartedly

with a full heart, with a happy heart,

with a wise heart,

with an elevated and inspired heart.

In the parish, I talked about these volunteers

who ever wanted to do it, could do it.

What if someone does know how to do it?

Well, none of them know how to do it.

They did it because they were natural.

That's what the Raban tells us.

What does that mean?

They weren't at.

How could it be that whoever wanted to be

is an actual?

If your life depends upon it.

If you realize that this is why you exist.

If this is the only thing that matters,

then you will discover that you are an actual.

You think about babies.

They're born utterly ignorant.

They don't know anything.

They can't even talk or babble.

They lack knowledge in the most perfect way.

They're perfectly ignorant.

So how come babies don't need to be trained to breathe?

Why don't they need to train to suckle?

Why don't they have to go to school?

To train?

To be an apprentice?

To learn how to digest?

That's a very complex activity.

But we're all naturals.

Well, I'm not speaking for you.

Most of us are naturals.

There's a principle.

Anything you need for your life.

Anything your life depends upon you have the ability to do it.

And you have it naturally.

The theme that we realize that we need for our life.

That is the process of elevating the heart.

They become like digestion.

Someone who never held a needle can become a master craftsman via this process.

We know that our objective in life may be different than someone else's.

We all have a Torah.

We all have the Citroen Thirteen Minces.

But each one of us has a special mission.

We all have a different soul.

And the different soul manifests itself with a different mission.

And we have different qualities, different flaws, different shortcomings.

Because we have an individualized mission.

That's unique to us.

We could say that this is Batala.

Batala someone who his mission life was to build a tabernacle.

That was his mission.

In the book of Adam, the Quantals of Adam had said Batala's name.

It did not say the name of anyone else.

All of the people, it wasn't a mission.

It wasn't that they had a particular aptitude towards.

They had some sort of natural.

I know I always wanted to be a weaver.

I always wanted to hue the gold.

I always wanted to fashion these very intricate designs.

No, they weren't necessarily predisposed to that.

There's a third path here.

And that's the path of someone saying,

going over to motion and saying,

what do you need?

What does a shem need?

What do you want?

Whatever that is, I'm in.

I'm loyal to the cause.

And if the cause means you have to learn how to sew, I'll do it.

My life depends upon it.

That's the third process.

And that's the third path of the volunteer.

And this is truthfully the path of the Levites.

I think there's an idea we've talked about in the past.

All the other tribes are given a particular parcel of land in the land of Israel,

but not Levi.

Levi is in cities scattered throughout the land.

And the reason is because every tribe is given a portion of the land of the biblical land

that is particularly suited for their unique aptitude and their unique mission

of the collective mission of the Jewish people.

And therefore their position to fulfill their life objectives.

Levi is someone who's loyal to God.

Whatever God needs, I'm going to do.

I'm going to discover the ability to do whatever needs to get done

in any given circumstance.

Historically, the tribe of Yisachar, they were the scholars.

But at the end of the Torah, Moshe assigns the scholarship to both Yisachar and to Levi.

And the answer is that Levi and Yisachar are both scholars,

but they got to it with different paths.

Yisachar, he's like a Salah.

He was in doubt with his special ability and talent and capabilities to be a scholar.

And that's why he's a scholar.

Levi is not necessarily predisposed towards that quality or that ability to him,

whatever needs to get done, whatever shem needs, that's what I'm going to do.

I still don't have a land because their mission is to do whatever needs to get done.

Whatever there's a call, they will answer.

We in life, we all have a vexed dilemma.

We don't know what our mission is.

We don't know what our particular skills are.

Well, what does it say in the chronicle of Adam about us?

We don't know.

In antiquity, we step prophets.

The prophets would reveal to us what our mission is.

Here we discover that there's a third mission.

It's the Levi mission.

It's the mission of these artisans.

It's the mission of the volunteers.

And that is whatever the nation needs, whatever God needs.

Whatever there's a calling.

And I want to do it because I want to fulfill the will of Hashem.

And that matters to me so much.

It's my hardest.

Tell me, do this.

This one needs to get done.

That's a way to uncover reservoirs of ability.

That are only discoverable at that time.

We're not necessarily born with any particular talent so

or to do anything.

But if you realize in a circumstance in a scenario where there's a need,

motion says, I need volunteers.

And you don't have the particular aptu or maybe you don't.

There is a path to say there's a need.

And I could play a role that will reverberate forever.

And this is a circumstance that gives me the possibility to have

some sort of eternal accomplishment.

Your heart gets mobilized.

And abilities that were within you are now

a locked for you to do.

That's the process.

That's the idea of this process of essential of the heart.

I think it's a very powerful idea, very, very deep idea.

It's the path of the Levite.

It's the path of the volunteer.

But Sal, he's up to Marvelette.

He had supernatural, supernatural ability, but that came to him naturally.

And he was designated to do that.

We've other people who are not necessarily designated for anything.

In relation to the mistrun.

And they said, I want to do it.

And they were inspired.

And their heart ascended.

And they understood that this is what they need to do.

And they discovered this ability that was there

but can only be accessed with that level of commitment.

And this, I think, this concept could be used in many different ways in our lives.

The Levites, that's what they stand for as a tribe.

But anyone who wants to say, I want to do whatever Hashem needs,

whatever needs to get done, that's my responsibility.

Wherever there's a need for the Almighty in the world, I will do it.

No matter what it takes, no matter whether or not I have a natural predisposition towards that.

They become like a Levite.

They become like these volunteers.

Their heart is ascended and they will be able to do it.

I appreciate your time.

I thank you for listening.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Or even 10% as much as I did.

My email address is rabbywallbitchima.com.

I'm really looking forward to next week.

Please don't.

We're going to have our fundraiser.

Of course, we're going to have a partnership podcast.

Please don't.

Next week as well.

But we hope that everyone could contribute towards this annual fundraiser.

You do for gift.

You do what you can.

You support the great work of towards the great work of the partnership podcast.

And all the other incredible programs coming out of the towards entities in Texas.

Have a wonderful day.

Have a terrific rest of your week.

A sensational uplifting.

Elevating.

Elevating.

Elevation of the heart.

Shoppers have come in.

And please God, we'll talk again next week.

And we'll also have the fundraiser.

Please God, next week.

And again, the email address is rabbywallbitchima.com.