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MISHKAN; DO NOT TRY IT ON YOUR OWN!

The Beis Halevi asks the question which every thinking Jew asks when learning Parshas Ki Sisa; how did the people who left Egypt, who experienced the ten plagues, who experienced the splitting of the Red Sea, who experienced HaShem Himself talking to them from the Heavens, who were explicitly told by HaShem at Mount Sinai not to create graven images, create and serve a Golden idol!?

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THEIR PURE INSIDES

The Torah requires every Jew, including every 13 year old boy and 12 year old girl, to judge every other Jew favorably. This means that when we see someone doing something questionable we must give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did nothing wrong or at least they were not aware of what they did. For a bar mitzvah child or, for that matter, anybody who is not trained in mussar and other forms of Torah greatness, it seems almost impossible. There must be an approach or a perspective that can offer us a grasp on this mitzvah.

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SMALL BUT PURE WINS THE RACE

Excerpted from the writings of my dear brother in-law, Rav Michoel Bodenheimer zt’l

There is a famous story which was told by Rav Shimon Schwab zt’l about his encounter with the great Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim, who was a Kohein, asked Rav Schwab if he was a Kohein or Levi, to which Rav Schwab answered that he was neither. The Chofetz Chaim proceeded to tell him why he and his ancestors were Koheinim and were chosen to serve in the Beis HaMikdosh and why Rav Schwab and his ancestors were not chosen. ”Moshe solicited the nation calling ‘All who are for HaShem come to me’ it was my grandfather who responded and not yours. The response to Moshe Rabbeinu’s call for action separated those who were to serve in the Beis HaMikdosh and those who would not serve.”

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PLACING THE THRONE

This week’s Parsha, Ki Sisa, opens with HaShem instructing Moshe to count the Jewish people. However, instead of counting each person directly, he is instructed to collect a half shekel from each member and then count the shekalim, thereby indicating the number of people. The reason for this unique method is “that there should be no plague when the people are counted.” The implication is that there would be a plague if the people were counted directly. Why? If there is a mitzvah to be counted why should they be subject to a plague?

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DON’T STAND ALONE

Dovid Hamelech (King David) held a census using a headcount to get the tally of the number of people in our nation. Shortly afterwards a plague befell the people in which many died. Our Sages teach us that Dovid Hamelech failed to learn the lesson from this week’s Parsha, Ki Sisa, in which the Torah teaches us not to use a headcount to count the people, lest they suffer the consequences. Rather, we must take a coin from each individual and then count the coins, thereby reaching the tally. After these coins were collected they were used for the national cause of building a foundation for the Mishkan.