by Rabbi Avi Billet
In his comments on the Menorah, Kli Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Efraim Luntzchitz) goes into great detail about the 3 indoor Mishkan vessels instructed consecutively in our Parsha: the Aron (Ark), Shulchan (Table for Showbread), and the Menorah. [The small Mizbeach is instructed at the end of Parshat Tetzaveh.]
“These include [a reference to] all successes of a person in this world and the next world.
“The Ark is the guide for a person to achieve one’s potential… which is through the Torah which provides for lengthened days on its right, and wealth and honor on its left. (אורך ימים בימינה לעולם שכולו ארוך ועושר וכבוד בשמאלה). The section on the Ark simply focuses on its design and how to build it without referencing the benefit the person gets from it. In truth it has its own benefit in that when one studies the Torah it is its own rewards…
“The Shulchan is the source of sustenance and abundance. Noting a parallel between the Shulchan and the Mizbeach (altar), and a verse in Yechezkel (41:22) - הַמִּזְבֵּ֡חַ עֵ֣ץ שָׁלוֹשׁ֩ אַמּ֨וֹת גָּבֹ֜הַּ וְאָרְכּ֣וֹ שְׁתַּֽיִם־אַמּ֗וֹת וּמִקְצֹֽעוֹתָיו֙ ל֔וֹ וְאָרְכּ֥וֹ וְקִֽירֹתָ֖יו עֵ֑ץ וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֵלַ֔י זֶ֚ה הַשֻּׁלְחָ֔ן אֲשֶׁ֖ר לִפְנֵ֥י יְקֹוָֽק, the obvious point is that the Mizbeach is God’s table. The Talmud (Brachos 55a) teaches that the table upon which one feeds the poor brings atonement in the same manner as the Mizbeach. Everyone eats in the merit of the Showbread that was distributed to Kohanim in a charitable fashion. This may be why the Showbread was divided into two piles of six loaves each as the Talmud (Baba Basra 9b) notes that someone who gives a penny to the poor is blessed with six blessings.
“Then we hear of the Menorah, which is the source of spiritual merit for the World to Come. The rabbis taught (Tanchuma B’haaloskha 3) that the Menorah was made on its own through some un-understandable means. Even when it is lit, it is meant to be in a fashion in which the flame rises on its own. Really, the goal is to invoke the message of the verse נר א-לקים נשמת אדם, that the candle of God is the soul of a human being. God essentially ordains that if ‘you preserve My candles that are in your hands, those of the Menorah, then I will watch over the candle that is in My hands, giving an elevation to a soul.’
“The six branches of the Menorah – 3 on each side of the middle stem – face towards the middle. Vayikra Rabba 30:2 references a Pasuk in Tehillim (16:11) from which it is learned that there are seven categories of righteous people who are compared to various forms of light which emanate from the heavens, such as the sun, moon, sky, stars, lightning, while the “Menorah HaTehorah” is an allusion to the Almighty Himself. The righteous are illuminated through the light emanating from the Divine, which is why they (the branches, and thus the righteous) all turn to the middle stem of the Menorah [which is actually the Menorah, while the branches are the “kanei HaMenorah!”].
“Moshe may have had difficulty with making the Menorah because the spiritual reward of the World to Come is difficult for a human being to comprehend, simply because we have no frame of reference. God therefore showed him with a “finger” – “This is the way of making the Menorah” – through showing Moshe an image of the Menorah, God showed him a sign/hint to what the final reward is – a rising flame that grows and rises on its own. Even the decorative cups, spheres and flowers on the Menorah are all hints to aspects of the reward that is to come in the spiritual world, the World to Come.”
While all of the above is either a direct translation or a summary of the comment of Kli Yakar, he opens the door to an important aspect of how we are to perceive our roles in this world.
For a Jew, it is undeniable that our existence hinges upon the combination of the body and the soul. Without the soul our bodies would be lifeless and inanimate. Without the body, our soul would not be able to have a physical presence in this world. That leads us to wonder and to contemplate how each of us can utilize our soul to enhance the body and the body to enhance the soul. In Mussar language, this is referred to as חובות הלבבות and חובות האברים, the obligations of the heart (one’s insides) and the obligations of one’s limbs (the externalities).
The Talmud in Brachos 10a notes that there are five ways that God is like the soul.
• God fills the world, the soul fills the body
• God sees all but isn’t seen, the soul sees all but isn’t seen
• God sustains the world, the soul sustains the existence of the body
• God is pure, the soul is pure
• God can be found in the innermost sanctum (חדרי חדרים), and the soul is there as well
Rav Shlomo Wolbe learned from this that the soul is uniquely designed to praise God (כל הנשמה תהלל ק-ה), and indeed the most pure form of “serving God” is through the prayers emanating from the soul. This is what gives the body its spiritual sustenance, and is a key ingredient in achieving the highest level that a human can reach. But there are no shortcuts and no quick fixes. Rav Wolbe describes the ultimate success in combining body and soul in the service of God as a figure that must be built. One must take specific steps in one’s body choices and soul choices to build one’s essence into being that which it can be.
The first success comes from turning physical pursuits into means of enhancing one’s spiritual relationship with God. Quoting the Ibn Ezra on Ki Sisa, he notes that there are unintelligent people who are bothered by the question of “'What did Moshe DO when he was on Sinai for 40 days? How did he spend his time?' They don’t understand that what God wants is the heart. And so Moshe clinging to the Divine in any fashion for that period of time was sufficient.” The heart is limitless in its capacity to love – ask any parent who finds room to love every child, and every grandparent who expands the heart even more to include every grandchild (etc.). One example he gives in the realm of Mitzvah and serving God. A person accepts to keep the Shabbos because the Torah mentions it. Then the person wants to learn Meseches Shabbos, and then expand on the 39 categories of labor, the rabbinic prohibitions of Shabbos, etc. more and more and more until it has all been consumed and become part of the person. There is no limit to what one can achieve in one's expansion of studying Hilkhos Shabbos.
The first lesson of Parshat Terumah is that these are the ingredients of building a house for God. There is a physical structure, but there is what is done in that physical structure that makes or breaks whether the structure is pursing Godliness or pursuing something else. Certainly that applies to a Mishkan, to a shul, and to a Jewish home. But it is also quite applicable to our own bodies as well. What are our pursuits? Do we use our bodies to enhance our souls – run to shul, run to fulfull mitzvos, run to pursue Torah learning opportunities? Do we live to eat, or do we eat so that our bodies can have the strength to assist the Neshama in its pursuits? Do we close the door on the yetzer hara when he comes calling and go in a different direction because we know if he just gets us to give in a little he can get us to give in a whole lot? Does the Neshama control the body? Or do we let the body control the outcome as it pursues its own vision of what is best for it, irrespective of what the Neshama knows is truly the best for it?
We say daily in our prayers – אלקי – נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא – My God, the soul You have put in me is pure. The soul knows what is best! It screams at us – “Don’t do this! Don’t do that! Don’t eat this, don’t look at that! Pursue actions and deeds that are my purpose in this world! I need you because without you I am just an angel who can’t fulfill mitzvos. But in this world I can fulfill mitzvos. Let us partner in making our partnership of body/soul into something extraordinary!"
May we be so blessed to elevate our pursuits in life, turning our bodies into the vehicles through which we get closest to God, as we say in the Shema – בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך. Then we will also maximize our fulfillment of Kli Yakar’s aims for us, making our experience in this world incredible, leading us in the best way to our eternal life in the World to Come.
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