Humanity’s Most Important Goal – Parashat Terumah

February 16, 2015 at 1:25 AM , , ,

“….Speak to Bnei Yisrael and have a contribution taken for Me….” – Shemot 25:2

דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ לִי תְּרוּמָה – שמות כה, ב

According to one opinion in the Zohar (vol. 2 p. 224a), G-d’s command that the Mishkan be built, as well as the collection of materials for its construction, took place immediately after the Giving of the Torah—before Bnei Yisrael sinned with the Golden Calf. At that point, Bnei Yisrael were in their most elevated and perfect state, having been cleansed at the Giving of the Torah from any spiritual filth (see Talmud, Shabbos 146a). The command that Bnei Yisrael now build the Mishkan implies that making a Mishkan, a home for G-d from our physical lives and mundane possessions is, in fact, humanity’s highest objective.

Humanity’s Most Important Goal

Furthermore, support for the opinion that the collection for the Mishkan took place before the sin of the Golden Calf is found in the fact that the Golden Calf was made from molten earrings (Shemos 32:2-3), and not from the plentiful supply of gold that Bnei Yisrael had taken from the Egyptians. The reason for this, explains the Zohar, was because most of the gold they owned had already been donated for the Mishkan. This demonstrates how critical it is for us to elevate all aspects of our physical lives, by transforming them into a means of serving G-d. For as we see from this opinion in the Zohar, the bulk of Bnei Yisrael’s gold was saved from contributing toward the most calamitous sin in history only because it had already been transformed and sanctified for the Mishkan, the home we make for G-d from our material possessions.

—Likkutei Sichos vol. 6, pp. 153-155

 

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