We have a double parsha this week! We have 54 parshiyot (or selections) in the Torah, but only about 50-51 weeks in a non-leap Hebrew year, as well as some other extenuating circumstances where we miss a Shabbat of Torah reading because it’s a holiday. So in order to fit all these 54 parshiyot in the Hebrew year, we double up at least 2 Shabbats! This week is one of them!
Our first parsha opens with the laws of keeping Shabbat and then we go right into hearing about the contributions that B’nei Yisrael (the Children of Israel) were instructed to make toward the Mishkan. In previous parshiyot we learned about the very precise pieces and ingredients for the Mishkan, but of course, even though G-d probably could have dropped the Mishkan from the sky, that’s not what happened, the Mishkan still had to be built.
So Moshe (Moses) relays that everyone who is of generous, willing, giving of heart (נְדִ֣יב לֵ֗ב) should give. Ovadia ben Yaakov Sforno, an Italian Torah commentator, explains that this means no one should give grudgingly or be forced to give.
The Or HaChaim, Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, North African Torah commentator, clarifies that there was an intangible “donation” that G-d gave, the תרומת השם, the G-dly Contribution, that held all the tangible pieces of the Mishkan together — like Divine superglue. So when the tangible pieces were donated, they must be given by people who were able to elevate their contribution to be worthy of meshing with the Divine Mortar (if you will).
So we have people of generous, giving hearts who are the only ones allowed to donate and then we also have other characterized hearts, wise hearts.
When referring to the skilled men and women who would build the Mishkan or create the various materials, the Torah uses the phrase “Wise of heart”- “חֲכַם־לֵ֖ב”
Lovely idea, right? Generous hearts and wise hearts! But what does that really mean? And why does that have anything to do with ability in building?
And there’s a big difference between people who are “wise hearted” and wise in regard to specialized skills. Maybe in their years of slavery in Egypt, B’nei Yisrael picked up a few tips on building, but what are the chances they became the kinds of artisans required for building the Mishkan?
There are a few interpretations. The Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, Eastern European rabbi, wrote that wise-hearted didn’t just mean scholars, but that anyone (even people without specialized skills) who were G-d or Heaven-fearing, could participate. The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Nachmanides, a Spanish Torah commentator) interprets that the people who were wise of heart discovered they had the beginnings of naturally endowed skills, but were “raised up” or elevated through this service.
This of course reminded me of the final scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy runs to Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and asks for her help in getting back to Kansas. But of course Glinda says her famous line, “You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas!”
All she has to do is click her heels three times and she’s home. To paraphrase — it was always inside you! You just had to be in a situation that brought the ability out!!
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opening theme: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed
To watch Three Days of Rain till March 21: https://www.playbill.com/article/patricia-clarkson-john-slattery-bradley-whitford-reunite-for-three-days-of-rain-march-11
