Vayakhel-2016

· In this week’s Parshah, the Jewish people in the Midbar contribute to the building of the Mishkan and to the making of the clothing of the Kohane Godol.

· As we finish and look back on the book of Shemos, we notice that the narrative alternates between drama and details. 

· The dramatic events include:

o The 10 plagues, the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt, and splitting of the Red Sea.

o The giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, perhaps the most dramatic event in the history of the world.

o The sin of the egel and its being forgiven.

· The sections of details include:

o How the Mishkan is built

o How the clothes of the Kohane Godol are made.

o The laws about compensation for damages.

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· There is a very important lesson in this alternating between drama and details.

· Hashem is telling us that religion – and really everything – requires attention to both the vision and the specifics. 

· We need to look at both the forest and the trees.

· We need to exercise our right brain to maintain our vision of the big picture.

· We must also exercise our left brain to be constantly aware of the many details.

· Businessmen will tell you that a successful business requires focus on both aspects.

· It’s crucial for a business to maintain sight of the big picture - of the purpose and goals of the business – so that it keeps its direction and its energy.

· At the same time a business needs to focus on the thousands of details that require constant fixing and maintenance.

· Musicians know that good music needs the overall feeling and spirit that gives the music energy and life.

· Good music also needs that each note be played correctly and with skill, requiring constant practice.

· This is also true for relationships, between husband and wife, parents and children, and between friends.

· And it is also true about religion, the relationship between people and their Creator.

· Religion requires maintaining the feeling of inspiration - of being connected to the Divine, to the One Above Who created the universe and everything in it, and Who cares about us infinitely.

· At the same time we must attend to the many details of religious life, to maintain the day to day relationship between us and Hashem.

· There is an interesting word in English – Quotidian.  It refers to things that happen every day.

· Judaism is filled with quotidian activities.

· We daven three times a day – Shachris, Minchah, and Maariv.

· The Shulchan Aruch and the Mishna Brurah describe the details of hallachah to an amazing specificity, and all the details are crucial.

· Hallachah means walking – step by step, right foot, left foot.

· They say that a journey of a 1000 miles begins with but a single step

· And the details can be incredibly fascinating if we infuse the left brain details with right brain inspiration.

· This can give rise to a glorious completeness in maintaining our relationships - Bain Adam ke Makon, Bain Adam le Chavero, and Bain Adam le Atzmo – between us and Hashem, other people, and ourselves.

· There is an interesting word in the field of music – Contrapuntal.  It means that the music has independent melodic lines that intertwine, weaving in and out of each other.

· Judaism is Contrapuntal – both the inspiration and attention to details are essential.

· Religion without inspirational is dry and lifeless.

· Religion without attention to details has no form or substance.

· Let’s go through the book of Shemos and review some of the Contrapuntal instances of drama and details.

· DRAMA

· 3:7 – Hashem said, I have seen the suffering of My people that are in Egypt.  …  I have descended to free them from the land of Egypt and to bring them up …to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

· 19:4 –If you listen to My voice and preserve My covenant; you shall be My special treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.  You will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

· 20:6 – I do acts of loving kindness for thousands of generations to those who love Me and preserve My commandments.

· 24:9 –They saw a vision of Hashem and under His feet there was something like a brickwork of sapphire and it was like the essence of Heaven in purity.

· 33:19 – Hashem said to Moshe, I will cause all My goodness to pass before your presence, …. When My Glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My Hand until I pass by.  Then I will remove My Hand, and you will see My Back, but My Face shall not be seen.

· DETAILS

· 12:15 – You must eat matzos for seven days, but before the first day you must remove all leaven from your homes.

· 21:27 – If a man knocks out the tooth of his slave…he shall set the slave free as compensation for the tooth.

· 25:23 – You shall make a table out of acacia wood, 2 amohs long, 1 amoh wide, and 1 ½  amos high. Overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold crown-like rim around it.

· 26:1  You shall make 10 drapes for the Mishkan, consisting of fine twined linen, greenish blue, dark red and crimson wool. Each drape shall be 20 amohs long and 4 amohs wide.   Make loops of greenish blue wool on the edge of the drape, 50 loops on the edge of the drape.

· 29:1 – Take one young bull and two unblemished rams, and unleavened bread mixed with olive oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil.  You must take them with fine wheat flour.  Place them in one basket.

· This culminates in the details and drama of this week’s Parshah:

· 39:5 – Detail: The eiphod’s belt was woven with gold, greenish-blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool, and twined fine linen, just as Hashem commanded.

· 40:34 – Drama: The Glory of Hashem filled the Mishkan.  For the cloud of Hashem was upon the Mishkan by day, and there was a fire in it by night, before the eyes of the entire Bais Yisrael in all their travels.

· Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz writes about this in a Dvar Torah about Ki Sisa:

· The Mechilta says, “Even a maidservant was able, at the splitting of the Red Sea, to perceive of the Divine what Yecheskel ben Buzi was unable to grasp.” If indeed a maidservant was capable of such lofty understanding, why is she still referred to as a maidservant and not a prophetess?  The answer is that revelations and unique events on their own do not create prophets.  A person may experience a lofty awareness, a lucid perception of the Divine, yet remain the same person.  …The maidservant, after her experience at the sea, returned to the same humble stature that she possessed before the event.  The genuine prophets, on the other hand, reached prophecy after a long and arduous process of character development and self-perfection. 

· To build and maintain our relationship with Hashem, we need the big picture, right brain vision and inspiration of the goal of devakus with the Divine.

· But this has to be grounded in the left brain quotidian day-to-day details of making ourselves straight by means of hallachah that Hashem and the Chachamim have laid out for us like a completely set table, a Shulchan Aruch.

· We need to be grounded in the details to concretize our relationship with the Divine.

· We need both – the drama and the details – intertwined with each other.

· Then each aspect of Judaism –the inspirational vision and the details of Hallachah - gives each other meaning, to form a complete and integrated and meaningful whole.