When discussing Parshat Terumah, which deals with the building of the Tabernacle—the Mishkan—and there are a couple of serious questions we have to ask.
Right after Har Sinai, B’nai Yisrael built the Eigel, the Golden Calf—a golden idol. We know that act caused tremendous destruction within the nation.
Just so you know, their initial mistake wasn’t that they suddenly decided to worship idols. Moshe was on top of Har Sinai, and the people believed he was dead. B’nai Yisrael thought they needed some kind of communication tool—an intermediary. They believed they needed something tangible to connect them to God. So they built this Golden Calf originally as a means of communication.
That act led to the breaking of the Luchot. Moshe broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments, and God affirmed that Moshe did a good thing by breaking them.
But then, immediately after that episode, the Torah commands B’nai Yisrael to build the Mishkan—using gold, silver, and copper—the very materials involved in the Golden Calf.
This raises serious questions about the tabernacle.
Does God Really Care?
The parsha says, “They should take a donation for Me.”
Hashem says you can take a donation.
The question people always ask—when we make blessings on food or whatnot—is: does God really care what we do? When Shabbat comes along, we don’t use electricity, we don’t do work. Does God really care about that?
I once was on a flight, and the person sitting next to me saw I was Jewish from the kippah and the tzitzit and asked me, “Does God really care if I close the light on Shabbat?”
I explained that Shabbat is about bringing the world back to the time of creation—before man put his hand on the world. That pure creation energy of God. Once a week, we restore the world to that state, before man interfered with it.
Similarly, here we ask: does God really need sacrifices? Does He need animals? Does He need gold, silver, and copper? It’s jewelry. What does God need it for?
“Take” My Donation
The Torah says, “Every man according to his heart, take My donation.”
That language is striking. When someone’s heart is in it, they give. They don’t “take.”
So why does the Torah say “take”?
And it is not enough that God says take it. He specifies exactly what to take: gold, silver, copper; techelet and argaman, colored materials; tola’at shani v’shesh, izim; v’orot eilim me’odamim, v’orot techashim, type of leather; etzei shittim, woord; shemen ha’ma’or; besamim, oils and fragrances; ketoret hasamim; avnei shoham; avnei milu’im for the efod and the choshen, the stones on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol.
Then the Torah says: “Make for Me a Mikdash, and I will dwell among them.”
This leads to three questions:
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After the failure of the Golden Calf, why are we commanded to use the same materials to build the Mishkan?
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Why does the Torah say “take for me a donation” instead of “give”?
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Why does God need man to build a house in order for Him to dwell in it? After all, the Talmud says that in the end of days, the Temple will come down from the sky in fire. Just have a miracle build the Tabernacle.
Sanctifying the Mundane
There is an important lesson here.
Some people think that to be religious you must separate from the world—sleep in caves, detach from physical reality, don’t marry, don’t eat. They believe holiness means withdrawal.
But Judaism does not teach that.
We say we are “mekadesh et ha’chol”—we sanctify the mundane. We elevate the physical world. There is nothing inherently evil in creation. We are given the ability to raise it up.
People ask: where was God in the Holocaust? My grandmother used to respond: where was man?
God gave us the vessels of this world. We can use them to build and sanctify, or to destroy and corrupt. The choice is ours.
This addresses the first question.
The Same Materials
Gold, silver, copper—material things, money, physical objects—can be sanctified.
God does not need these materials. The point is that we can use them to sanctify the world.
B’nai Yisrael used gold to build a Golden Calf. That was idol worship.
But if gold is used according to God’s direction, it becomes a vehicle for holiness.
The difference between the Golden Calf and the Mishkan is simple: one was commanded by God, and one was not.
The materials did not change. The instruction did.
God wants to teach us a lesson that is exactly those materials – don’t scream at them or blame the materials. Don’t say the gold is bad. The gold is not bad at all. It depends on what you do with gold. Money is not bad at all. It depends on how much importance you give to money, or how much relevance you give to money.
That is why we use the same materials. The problem was never the gold.
Free Will and Relationship
Now to the third question: why must man be involved at all?
The world was not created with God’s presence obvious and overwhelming. It was created so that we can choose between good and bad.
For choice to exist, the possibility of evil must exist.
In Judaism, we do not view Satan as an independent being opposing God. We speak about the yetzer hara—the evil inclination.
Evil exists so that we can choose good.
The purpose of creation is for God to give goodness to us. But in order for that goodness to truly be ours, we must choose it.
In order for us to have a relationship, we have to choose it. And therefore there actually has to be an ability to choose evil in the world, and therefore evil does exist.
If someone forces another person to say, “I love you,” that is not a relationship. A relationship requires choice.
In the same way, for a Temple to be built and for God to dwell in that Temple—God obviously dwells everywhere—but in terms of our world, in our world, in order for God to be there, we have to choose good.
The Mishkan represents that choice.
The Menorah and Unity
One of the most difficult vessels in the Mishkan was the golden menorah. It was made out of one solid block of gold. It had intricate designs—flowers, cups—but it was hammered from a single piece.
That was the only vessel Moshe Rabbeinu did not know how to build.
The menorah symbolizes Am Yisrael. Today it is the symbol of the State of Israel.
Its being formed from one piece reflects unity. Without unity, nothing lasting can be built for the nation of Israel.
The Importance of Detail
The parsha devotes extensive space to measurements and instructions.
But the focus is not the physical objects themselves. The focus is that every detail must follow the exact instructions given by God.
Because the difference between two actions—one holy and one destructive—is whether it follows God’s command.
You can have the same gold, the same tools, the same materials. If it is not done according to God’s direction, it becomes something else, it becomes idol worship.
That is the difference between the Golden Calf and the Mishkan.
The distinction is not in the material. It is following God’s plan.
That is why the details matter.
Iron and the Knife
The stones of the Temple were not to be cut with iron. Iron is used to make weapons. The Temple, meant to bring peace, cannot be made from stones cut by tools associated with killing.
That raises the question: what about the gold used for the Golden Calf? Why is it then OK to use the gold.
There is a related halachic practice. When making a bracha on the challah on Shabbat, a small mark is made with the knife before the blessing, but then, the knife must be put down before the blessing is recited, and only afterwards do you pick it up again to finish cutting the bread.
We are not blessing the bread itself. We are making a statement acknowledging that everything—including the bread—comes from God. Therefore, when making that acknowledgement, the knife is put down.
We have to cut the stones to make them, but we shouldn’t use the same vessels or materials that are used to kill, to shape the stones for the Temple.
Conclusion
In Parshat Terumah, the message is clear.
Everything in this world can be used either to sanctify or to destroy. The difference lies in whether it is directed by God’s command and whether we choose good.
The question in tragedy is not “Where was God?” but “Where was man?”
We’re here to bring light into the world, to sanctify the world, at the end of the day it’s our responsibility and it’s our choice.
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.
Shabbat Shalom from Judea, Israel. Take care, everyone.