Parsha

For the week ending 4 March 2017 / 6 Adar II 5777

Parshat Teruma

by Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair - www.seasonsofthemoon.com
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Overview

G-d commands Moshe to build a Mishkan (Sanctuary) and supplies him with detailed instructions. The Children of Israel are asked to contribute precious metals and stones, fabrics, skins, oil and spices. In the Mishkan's outer courtyard are an altar for the burnt offerings and a laver for washing. The Tent of Meeting is divided by a curtain into two chambers. The outer chamber is accessible only to the kohanim, the descendants of Aharon. This contains the table of showbreads, the menorah, and the golden altar for incense. The innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies, may be entered only by the kohen gadol, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur. Here is the Ark that held the Ten Commandments inscribed on the two tablets of stone that G-d gave to the Jewish nation on Mount Sinai. All of the utensils and vessels, as well as the construction of the Mishkan, are described in great detail.

Insights

Life is a Marathon

“…and let them take for Me a portion… ” (13:17)

About two years after I arrived in Ohr Somayach I’d had enough.

I assumed that after many “mouth-breaking” months of hard work I would have mastered Hebrew and Aramaic, be fluent in both, and be well on my way to becoming a world-class Talmid Chacham.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

I was standing outside the Beit Midrash when Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Mendel Weinbach (zatzal) came over to me and asked how I was.

My sister (a”h) used to say that the definition of a bore is someone who, when you ask them how they are – they tell you.

Ignoring my sister’s dictum, I proceeded to unload my deep dissatisfaction on Reb Mendel.

He heard me out, then just said to me, “Yankev Osher. Sprinters are for the record books. Life is a marathon.”

Torah learning is like a business venture: A storekeeper can never close up the shutters once and for all, because however bad business is, the one sure way to fail is to give up.

Torah can be exasperating, exhausting, and unfathomable. But however difficult and frustrating it may be, someone who perseveres is guaranteed to win his own personal marathon.

  • Source: based on Rabbi Dovid of Kotzk

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