Exodus, 25:1-27:19

Portion Summary

The portion, Teruma (Donation), deals primarily with the building of the tabernacle. The Creator instructs Moses to tell the children of Israel, “And they shall take for Me a donation from every man whose heart moves him you shall take My donation” (Exodus, 25:2). The donations were intended for the building of the tabernacle and its tools—the ark of the covenant, the ark cover, the showbread table, the Menorah (lamp), the boards of the tabernacle, the sockets, the veil, the copper altar, and the hangings of the court. The Creator also tells Moses how to build the tabernacle. The portion is called Teruma (donation) because of the commandment to donate.

Commentary

All we have is the building of the tabernacle. This is where the Creator is revealed, and this is where He resides. We must build it through a donation, and raising the importance of the quality of bestowal and love of others (in Hebrew, the word Teruma (donation) also pertains to Harama (raising), as in, “raising the Hey”¹). The more we extol the quality of bestowal and use it properly, the more we correct our Kelim (vessels), namely our desires, which we currently use for ourselves, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination...”²

The building of the tabernacle explains the process of our correction from the easiest to the hardest, as we gradually build the tabernacle from our lightest to our heaviest, greatest, and most egoistic desires.

Our donation to the tabernacle must come from the heart, which contains all desires. Only those who are driven by impulse in the heart are permitted to offer a donation, and from this “investment” they will build their Kelim. The Kelim are the connections between us that establish the tabernacle. In the tabernacle appears the upper force, the Creator, according to our equivalence of form. That is, we discover the Creator to the extent of our similarity to Him.

The Creator is a hidden force, and we are not inherently born with tools to discover Him because we do not possess qualities similar to His. For example, we hear sounds because our eardrums react to certain frequencies. Likewise, we can tell different smells because we have olfactory neurons that detect them. These are our Kelim (in Hebrew, Kelim means both “vessels” and “tools”). However, we are devoid of tools to detect the upper force, the Creator, the source of energy.

Yet, everything moves and exists by this force. Its source, however, is hidden from us, as is the direction of its movement, its “vector,” goal, and why it moves and operates everything.

This knowledge is revealed in the tabernacle as we correct and construct ourselves according to the influence of the upper force, in equivalence of form with it. Equivalence of form means that if He is good and does good, if He loves the bad, as well as the good,³ we must also achieve the state of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”⁴ We build the tabernacle according to the gradual correction of our desires from egoism to bestowal and love.

The Torah and the Talmud teach us that the tabernacle, with all its details, symbolizes the correction of the soul. It is neither about the construction of a beautiful building in Jerusalem, nor about physical tools. Rather, it is about man’s heart and his internal correction.

It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice,”⁵ because “the light in it reforms.”⁶ This is why it is written that only a person with a good heart should donate, for by that, one truly wishes to correct one’s heart.

The “donation” is a gradual removal of egoistic desires that can be corrected, moving from a state of separation and hatred of others to bestowal and love of others.

This portion seemingly relates primarily to those who wish to sanctify themselves, to build themselves in such a way that that source of energy, that superior quality, appears in them. This enables them to know where life and all of our energy come from and why, as well as help them determine where they are headed.

Because of the comprehensive crisis we are in, we need information about this process. Without it, we will not know what to do. Those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah discover how they should proceed in life.

In the past, if we encountered problems, we knew how to overcome them. The world had not yet become round, global. But today, as the world has become round, global, a general law is appearing, which we can only understand if we ourselves become round.

That is, now we are required to come out of ourselves, of our personal, individualistic mindset, and begin to connect with others. According to the common force appearing between us, namely the Creator—who appears between us as the dweller of the tabernacle—we will discover how to resolve this comprehensive crisis.

This is what makes this portion so pertinent. As soon as we begin to follow the requirement of the Torah to build a tabernacle from our hearts, even if only slightly, we will begin to understand what is required of us in order to restore balance. When we understand the Law of Balance, the general law of reality, we will know how to resolve the crisis. Today, we are bewildered over what we must do with ourselves in the future. This is why we are being shown escalating destruction that cannot be resolved, not even through war or other tragic events.

Therefore, we need to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah to reveal the solution to all problems. This is the reason why Kabbalah is appearing here and now, so we may use the tools given to us properly. All we need is to fix them a little, and to gradually understand the Creator, reveal Him, and advance toward the correction of the crisis, toward a happy life.

Questions and Answers

It seems that the more we try to put order in the world, the more disorder we create.

This is true only if we act on our own reason instead of on the reason of the Creator.

This is the situation today; everyone is trying to put things in order because no one wants disorder.

True. Nature is drawn toward balance. We can see that if one place is hotter than another, eventually the temperatures balance out. Likewise, if there is high air pressure in one place and low air pressure in another, the wind will equalize the pressure. This is how the whole of Nature operates. Nature’s movement always aims toward balance—from atoms through molecules, and to every part of Nature.

There are elements in Nature where it seems as though there is no need to add energy. Electrons, for example, endlessly rotate at a high speed. And yet, there must be energy propelling this constant movement. We have no idea where the electrons receive their energy, but that is only because the energy lies beneath the threshold of our senses.

Conversely, we know how many calories we must consume in order to function, or how much energy we have to spend in order to operate a machine. We test our energy sources, such as oil and gas, and build power plants and water drills using this energy. In truth, everything is in imbalance between those two levels, between the minus and the plus, and using the tension between them we build various things, such as batteries.

Today we are witnessing a depletion of energy sources; we are “running out of gas.”

Fortunately, we will receive the energy we need from the Creator. He is wearing us out on purpose so we can switch to energy on a higher level and learn how to use it properly.

What, then, is a contemporary tabernacle? Is it the relationships between us that we must establish in this manner?

Yes, we have no choice. If we establish proper connections between us—of love, or at least of mutual guarantee—we will become responsible for one another and understand that we are parts of a single system. Then, we will discover the true power source and its program (software), and will learn how to use it properly.

We are talking about an energy that brings equilibrium to movements between negative and positive. How is this energy, which we called the “tabernacle,” going to make equilibrium happen?

We do not discover the energy in the tabernacle itself. We rather discover its source, the Creator. The energy, the force we receive from Him, is the power of bestowal. This is the power that is missing in the world. There is plenty of matter in the world; all that is missing is the power to activate it, the power of bestowal. These days we are learning how incapable we are of working with the powers that we do have. The problem is, we have no shortage of negative energy, but we need more positive energy.

When we connect “as one man with one heart” (RASHI, Exodus, 19b), according to Moses’ explanation concerning the building of the tabernacle, we will come to the place where the quality of the Creator appears, namely the upper force. This is the source of energy we call “light.” Indeed, even the study of physics regards light as the highest form of energy.

When we are in balance, we are certain to succeed. Moreover, success is not only in this transient life, but also in connection to the upper force, as we flow in the current of eternal life in accord with it.

Following the tabernacle, will we receive the right kind of energy?

We will receive it in the tabernacle. The Creator is revealed in the tabernacle, which contains our corrected desires and the unknown desires we held that were previously hateful and resentful toward each other. The upper force appears when we rise above those desires.

From The Zohar: You Shall Make the Tabernacle with Ten Curtains

The establishing of the tabernacle is from several degrees, for it is written about it, “And the tabernacle was one,” showing that all the organs of the body of the tabernacle are of a single body. It is like a person who has several high and low organs. The internal ones are inside, and the revealed ones are outside. However, all are considered one body, and it is considered one person in one bonding. So is the tabernacle: all the organs are such as above, and when they all unite as one, it is written, “And the tabernacle was one.”

Zohar for All, Teruma (donation), items 664-665

This is how we discover the single force called “the upper force,” which we must experience. Without this, we gradually lose vitality, as is evident in what we are witnessing today.

How will the new order of “feeling as one” be revealed?

Through the deficiency. First, we must understand that we are incompetent; we cannot succeed. By searching for the element by which we can succeed, we will discover the futility of our efforts. This, coupled with the development and circulation of the wisdom of Kabbalah through mutual guarantee, is when we will understand that we have no alternative but to gradually connect to that eternal, complete, omnipotent and omniscient power supply, which is the ultimate source of energy.

By and large, when people give a Teruma (donation), they want to be honored and remembered, and then the donation acquires an additional value. Is this the right direction?

It is not. Teruma relates to the connection of hearts. If a person attempts to use the donation in order to gain respect, notoriety, or appreciation as a great person, even if no one else knows of this ambition, it is still an egoistic fulfillment. That individual is not connecting to others, but rather, is patronizing them.

How can this change so that it truly becomes a donation for the Creator?

Helplessness makes us feel differently, and by disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are adding great power to this transformation. It may seem that we are not doing much, but our activities are inducing many revelations of the Creator in the world. For now, such revelations are on a level where people are headed toward that direction—searching, feeling that the connections between them can save them. We are seeing the riots in the world from a positive perspective, as well as from the (ostensibly) negative one. Through such rebellions, we can see that our only hope is to connect, that only connection will provide us all with the life force.

When that happens, what will the donation be?

The “donation” is the connection. If we appreciate the power of bestowal, it is called “donating.” On the one hand, we extol it, and on the other, we feel how lowly and base we are. The world is round, integral, and can be saved only through unity. Yet, we are aware that we are the opposite of unity. We know we need the upper force to influence and connect us so we are in accord with Nature, with the global world.

From The Zohar: And They Shall Take a Donation for Me

How do we know that the Creator desires him and places His abode within him? When we see that man’s will is to chase and to exert after the Creator with his heart, soul, and will, we know for certain that Divinity is present there. Then we need to buy that man for the full cost, bond with him and learn from him. We learn about that, “And buy yourself a friend.” He should be bought for the full price to be rewarded with the Divinity that is in him. This is how far we must chase a righteous man and buy him.

Zohar for All, Teruma (donation), item 39

People who do not understand the meaning of the term, “donation,” think it is about money. However, donation pertains to a Masach (screen) from which one projects the self, sacrificing oneself.

It is written, “Buy yourself a friend.”⁷ That is, we annul our own egos and connect to another, wanting to break down the partition between us. Our hearts inherently want to be individualistic, egoistic, and removed from others, yet we must be the exact opposite. If we want to connect to someone, we must be more humble than that someone. This is the meaning of connecting, namely the donation. This is not how we are used to thinking about it; the “donor” is one who is willing to donate oneself, one’s heart and all of one’s desires and capabilities. When we donate, we become included in others and thus connect.