Notes from a shiur given on 1 Adar I, 5765, in which HaRav Moshe explained the fundamental relationship of a person's attitude towards Shabbos and the Mishkan/Mikdash. Includes a very interesting commentary and explanation of Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbos (psalm 92) and a parallel psalm about the Beis Hamikdash (73).
The Mishkan is given as the mitzvah, "Ve'osu Li Mikdash veShochanti besochom." This is a mitzvah like any other. It falls upon all Israel.
Why is this mitzvah dependent on nidvas leiv? We do not find this in any other mitzvah. Generally what we have to do does not have the additional requirement of being benidvas leiv. Rashi explains that the concept of nidvas lev is "loshon nedovoh vehu rotzon tov." Where else do we find a mitzvah that requires good will? We have to do the mitzvas, according to our obligation. This mitzvah is dependent on good will, and if someone does not have it, he need not fulfill this mitzvah.
Why this special requirement in this specific mitzvah?
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There is something here that is critical and essential.
The commandment to make the Mishkan, as it says in Rashi and most of the Rishonim (though not the opinion of the Rambam) is that the commandment to make the Mishkan is a consequence of the Cheit Ho'Eigel. Without that great sin, there would be no need to designate a specific place for avodoh. The entire world would be considered the locus of hashro'as haShechinah.
The main idea of the Mishkan (it says in the Ramban and this is apparently the consensus) is to preserve and carry forward the ma'amad Har Sinai. This is said explicitly in the Ramban at the beginning of parshas Terumah.
At Har Sinai, the Borei Olom gave Torah and there Kevodo Yisborach was revealed. This situation of revelation should really be the constant, permanent status of Klal Yisroel: we go together with the gilui Shechinah and with the source from which the Torah comes out. From between the Keruvim, from the Mishkan, from the Beis Hamikdosh, Torah comes forth. This should be our permanent situation. That is what should have been.
The mitzvah of making a Mikdash veShochanti besochom is itself a continuation of Ma'amad Har Sinai. The Kovod that was revealed at Sinai is the same Kovod that was revealed in the Mishkan and later in the Beis Hamikdash. This Kovod is what we are commanded to preserve and to take it with us all the time. It should be with us, we should be with It.
If we had not left Ma'amad Har Sinai (with our sin) it would have stayed with us constantly and eternally. We would not have any need of a special, limited place for gilui Shechinah and giving Torah. Sinai would have accompanied us all the time (and in all places).
Now we are commanded that our eyes and hearts be there all the time. It requires an effort on our part. When Beis Hamikdash exists, it is much easier. But if we had not removed ourselves from Sinai, if we had fully accepted the First Luchos, then Sinai would be permanently fixed with us forever. Those Dibros would be our constant accompaniment. After we sinned, we need the Beis Hamikdash to preserve Sinai.
(The Ramban is not like this. He holds that the Mishkan was commanded earlier. He always explains the pesukim to have taken place in the order that they are written, without having to invoke the halacha that there is no earlier and later in the Torah. The Ramban holds that this latter principle is correct in the approach of drush. However in pshat he holds that this is not the case. Since he wants to explain the Torah in the approach of pshat as well, so he does not use that principle. However the opinion of all the other Rishonim is not like this.)
The commandment to build a Mishkan was only given as a result of the sin, the day after Yom Kippur when the sin was forgiven.
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The building of the Mishkan is different from all other mitzvos. Brochos (55): Betzalel (who made the Mishkan) knew how combine the letters with which the Shomayim and the Eretz were created. Also at the beginning of parshas Terumah, Chazal find that whatever there is in the Creation has a counterpart in the Mishkan.
That is, the Mishkan is a review of the Creation of the world. It is the world recreated in a way that excludes sin.
We are commanded not to violate Shabbos because the Borei Olom rested after his labor in creating the world. Therefore we have to rest as well. Vayonach bayom hashevi'i. Kedushas Shabbos is because the Borei Olom rested on Shabbos after ma'asei Bereishis.
But we do not create the Creation, so we do not immediately know what we have to rest from doing on Shabbos.
The Torah tells us that our resting is from building the Mishkan. Whatever was done in building the Mishkan, we must refrain from doing on Shabbos. That is, the construction of the Mishkan for us parallels the Creation of the world for the Borei Olom. Therefore we do not do the things that were involved in constructing the Mishkan for these are the activities that are in essence the same things from which the Borei Olom rested after creating the world. These 39 melochos are what the Borei Olom rested from. They are actions of creation, of meleches HaMishkan.
The making of the Mishkan is considered a second, corrected edition of the Creation.
The reason for this, it is clear, is that the Borei Olom revealed in the ma'asei Bereishis that the world is dependent on Yisroel accepting the Torah. If Yisroel accepts the Torah the world will exist but if they do not accept the Torah then the world does not fulfill the purpose for which it was created.
Yisroel's accepting the Torah is a necessary condition for the Creation.
It was the sin (of the Eigel) that was an utter expression of Yisroel not accepting the Torah. Therefore Moshe Rabbenu broke the Luchos.
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Essentially the world should have returned to tohu vovohu. We did not fulfill the essential condition for the world. Therefore the world should have collapsed into tohu vovohu.
We never returned to that original status, to the status of Yisroel accepting the Torah. The Luchos remained shattered. We did not accept the Torah through the First Luchos.
That original Yom Hashishi in ma'asei Bereishis referring to the Sixth of Sivan was not fulfilled. In the sixth day it says Yom Hashishi and the other five days do not have the definite article (Hei). Its presence on the Sixth day indicates an allusion or a reference to a specific sixth day at another time, and Chazal say that is the sixth of Sivan, the day of Mattan Torah, when Klal Yisroel had to accept the Torah. Only with the acceptance of Torah was there a completion of Shomayim Vo'oretz vechol tzevo'om.
This did not happen.
The First Luchos were to have been given to our acceptance but we did not accept them.
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Instead we got the Second Luchos, and immediately we were commanded to make the Mishkan. The intent is that if the Creation were made only in the tzurat olom that includes cheit, that is, a status in which that original condition was not fulfilled, then the world could not have continued.
However since through the Second Luchos it was possible to establish a world metukan, a world that is free of sin, even if this did not embrace the entire world, nonetheless it was still possible to establish a small corner within the world that is pure and clean. A world which, when we enter it we enter a world that is of the nature that the Borei Olom intended when He created the world.
This was the boundary at which the answer was received, that we did teshuva and we received the Second Luchos, even though we did not receive the First Luchos. With the Second Luchos we received the possibility of entering a world without sin, that we can still have a relationship to a world without sin.
Even within the framework of the world that we have, there is a possibility albeit within limited, defined dimensions that the world the Borei Olom intended, still exists. This we did merit.
Therefore, construction of the Mishkan is essentially a recreation of the world. Building the Mishkan is essentially building the world anew. Were it not for this possibility, were it not for this mitzvah, the world would have returned to tohu vovohu. Because to a world like this that does not conform to the condition of Yom Hashishi, HaKodosh Boruch Hu did not intend when He created the world.
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What is new is that the world that HaKodosh Boruch Hu intended, does exist within the Mishkan.
Therefore that is the location of kaporoh from sin, that is the place from which they drew ruach hakodesh. The Torah was revealed there and Kevodo yisborach — both were revealed in their fulsome existence.
No one ever went to sleep in Yerushalayim with a sin; everyone went out of Yerushalayim clean. Whoever is connected, whoever has a relationship to the Mishkan or Mikdash (the gemora says that Mishkan and Mikdash are one, the same).
Within the Mikdash is the world the does conform to the condition of Yom Hashishi. That is the world that Borei Olom intended. The same Kovod that was on Sinai is found there.
In the Cheit Ho'Eigel we removed that Kovod, but in the Mishkan it was restored. In the Mishkan is fulfilled the condition of Yom Hashishi. Therefore the Mishkan is a review of the creation of the world. Betzalel knew how to combine the letters through which the shomayim and eretz were created. This was a second creation of the Shomayim and eretz. This Shomayim Vo'oretz was not spoiled.
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We must return to the main idea, that what rabboseinu revealed to us that the main and unique reason for the creation of the world. The world was created — as they revealed to us.
Rabboseinu told us that the main reason of the world, the thing that sustains he world. The mishna at the end of Ovos says: Everything that HaKodosh Boruch Hu created in His world he created only for His kovod, as it says, "All that is created . . . I formed and made. "
That is, all the Creation, all its parts from beginning to end, (Berosiv, yetzartiv af osisi) was created lichevodi.
The deep idea is, as revealed by Rabboseinu, the Borei Olom wanted to do good, that is to give existence, to created entities. Since existence, to be, is the greatest good in the world. Whoever is, the mere fact of being, is the highest, incomparable good. When the Borei Olom gives true existence to created beings, he gives them the best thing that is possible to imagine. There is nothing better than true existence. That is, a true, established existence.
Every creature, if he realizes and feels that he truly exists, not that his existence is dependent on the goodwill of something else, but that he truly exists on his own, there is nothing better than that, and it is impossible to even imagine anything better than that.
There are many who, in the course of their lives, it happens at least once that if he wants to imagine or to remember in the instant that his life was saved. A second earlier it was clear to him that he would die, and it became clear to him in the blink of an eye that is life was saved.
This feeling is one of happiness, of good, that is incomparable. This is human nature: it only lasts for an instant. Right away he goes on, perhaps recalling that instant from time to time, but again back to normal.
To imagine the great good is to imagine that that instant, in its full power, continues forever. In Olam Habo things are not forgotten, Things persist and continue with the same intensity as the original second in which they happen.
If one wants to image what is the great goodness, it is to imagine a true goodness, to live a truly happy life. It is a life in which throughout its length there is a full feeling that my essential existence is given to me now, at this second, by the Borei Olom.
This thing,is what the Borei Olom wanted to give to created beings.
But there is something that resists this, that makes it even impossible. There is no possibility of a true existence aside from His existence. We say: "Emes Malkeinu effess zuloso."
The idea is that everything else aside from Him is sheker. What do we add by saying effess zuloso? When we say Emes Malkeinu we say that He is the sole truth and there is no other truth besides Him, that every creature is essentially sheker. What have we added by saying effess zuloso?
The meaning of effess: the Ramban in Shelach on the posuk effess ki az ho'om, says that the meaning of effess is that it is impossible. It is not the statement that it is not, but that it is impossible. It cannot be.
When we say Emes Malkeinu we say that everything else is not emes, that it is sheker, But when we add effess zuloso we add that anything else is impossible. It cannot be.
The Borei Olom in His great goodness, intended to give a true existence to all the things that exist. That is the true goodness, the great goodness.
We can live in great happiness in this life that is finite. Even with this we have an incomparable happiness if we find that we have real gains.
In the Olam Habo there is a complete goodness, that is not just existence but true existence. An existence that is joined as it were to His existence yisborach.
This is possible only in one way and there is no other. We have the possibility that the Borei Olom gave us, in his great goodness, that through us is revealed something of His existence that would not otherwise be revealed.
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The Borei Olom, in his great chesed, gave us an existence that ke'ilu, that in any event, we can live within a reality in which we are necessary. We are truly essential within this framework. This middah through which we are necessary and without us something is missing, is called malchus.
Malchus in the consciousness that we have today, as far as we can grasp, we understand that malchus requires subjects. It is impossible to be a King over nothing. The concept of malchus and kovod are coincident, and are essentially one.
When we see a king of Israel or of the nations of the world, the brochoh is shecholak or shenosan of His Kovod to those who fear Him or to flesh and blood. He has given of His own Kovod, as it were.
Kovod is always given by an Other. Malchus needs an Other to accept the kingship. Without the subject there is no Malchus.
Thus the Borei Olom created a reality in which we are necessary; without us something is lacking.
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This is the literal meaning of what we say in the Yotzer daily: Tov yotzvar kovod liShemo. Kevayochol, the Borei Olom, who is Tov, using his middah of Tov, created a reality that is called Kovod, and He created this Kovod for Himself. Therefore, once there is such a reality, we are now necessary and now we therefore have a real existence.
We are really and truly necessary. We are not something that happened by chance. We are necessary. We are essential and by our presence we add something to the real Existence.
Of course, with regard to the Borei Olom, in truth it cannot be said that He really needs us, but nonetheless He created a reality in which we live, in which we are necessary.
In the space in which we exist, our existence is thus a true and real existence. In this space, without us something would be lacking.
We are such that only through us is Kovod revealed, not through the entire gigantic creation. And this is because in the entire Creation we are the only ones who have Free Will. We may choose to do what we want. We can accept or reject. We can want or not want.
This is the sod of betzelem Elokim osoh es ho'odom. He gave us, kevayochol, of His own existence. Just as He has a Will and does as He Wills, so He has given us the possibility to do as we will. The minute that we accept upon ourselves His Malchus, that is something that we ourselves did.
When the mal'ochim accept ol Malchus Shomayim they are just acting according to their nature. They have no other possibility. They cannot do otherwise. They do not have free will and cannot do evil.
When they accept ol Malchus Shomayim they are just doing His will. They are just actualizing what he put into their natures.
When we do this, we are the agents, we are the actors. We are doing it. When we accept ol Malchuso it is our deed. Kovod cannot come from robots who follow someone in the street and programs them to cry Long Live the King, as he passes through the streets. It is really just him crying to himself.
Not only is that not kovod, it is the opposite.
Everyone knows what the value is of kovod that is paid for. It has no real value; on the contrary it is degrading.
Kovod comes only from someone who can rebel, who can decide otherwise. If and when such a one chooses to give kovod, that is true honor.
Here we reach our starting point.
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If we understand that setting up the Mishkan is repeating the Creation of the world in a clean way, that is not tainted by sin, that fulfills the condition of Yom Hashishi, that within this framework Klal Yisroel does accept the Torah in the proper way. As we said, since we are dealing with the Creation of the world, we cannot make it an obligation.
Thus people must be created anew. They are created so that through them, what is wanted will be revealed.
This creation is not one of new people. It is those same people who sinned. They are being recreated anew.
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Of the Mishkan it says, Veno'adeti shomoh livnei Yisroel, venikdash beChevodi.
The mitzvah of setting up a Mishkan is a mitzvah that is permanent.
Setting up the Mishkan was a new creation. A re-creation of whatever He created that was only created for His Kovod. And Kovod must come from free will. Kovod that comes from kefiyya contradicts its purpose. Therefore it requires nedivus leiv. It must be the result of a free choice.
The entire creation of the Mishkan requires the freely given nedivus leiv as its foundation.
Here this Creation is created solely through nedivus leiv. Everything was brought freely.
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There is another similar mitzvah, that is perhaps closer to us.
Shabbos is kedosha by itself, but we are nonetheless commanded to sanctify it.
Rambam chapter 30 of Hilchos Shabbos: Four things were said about Shabbos: two from the Torah and two from the rabbonim (nevi'im). The Torah two are Zochor veshomor. In the nevi'im the two are kovod ve'oneg.
Vekoroso laShabbos oneg, velekedosh Hashem mechubad.
What is kovod? Chachamim said that we must wash our hands, feet and faces for the kovod of Shabbos. And one wraps himself in tzitzis and sit in seriousness and waits for Shabbos to come like going out to greet a king.
The term used for waiting for Shabbos is meyacheil. This means to wait for something that one intensely desires.
There are several examples, like kol hameyachalim laHashem.
One should not just want Shabbos to come, he should desire it intensely and wait in anticipation, like going out to greet a king.
This again incorporates the idea we have been developing. There is no malchus without desire or will. There is kovod for the kind if the people want him.
When we talk about a malkah we do not mean the wife of the king. We mean a feminine king. A woman who is also a king, or in other words a queen. We do not find any wife of a king referred to as a malkah except Esther hamalkah. So Shabbos hamalkah means that the idea of kingship is there.
As Chazal say, Let us go out to greet Shabbos hamalkah. We greet the Shabbos king. (Since Shabbos is feminine so we call her malkah, but the meaning is "king.") The kovod of a king is the willing acceptance of his subjects. The Rambam in fact writes, Let us go out to greet Shabbos Hamelech.
Therefore the kovod of Shabbos is to wait for it with anticipation. Leyacheil.
There is a piyut written for Shabbos which is said throughout Klal Yisroel. All communities say it. But there is something strange about it. It is written about Shabbos, but only a small part of it, a third, is explicitly about Shabbos. The refrain is, Let us go my beloved to greet Shabbos.
But only the first two verses and the last verse refer to Shabbos explicitly, out of a total of nine. The intervening verses refer to the Mikdash Melech, of the royal city. It all refers to general heavenly kingship, but not to Shabbos. They are addressed to the city but not to Shabbos, yet the refrain is about Shabbos.
The idea is that if we are commanded to want Shabbos, it means that we generally want the kingship of Hashem. One who goes to greet Shabbos, goes to greet Hashem the king. If someone wants Shabbos in order to eat snacks, is totally off base.
One has to pine for Shabbos like one goes to greet the king. The Shabbos includes the final goal of the world. The world approaches its goal, and the goal is the revelation of Hashem's Malchus in the entire world. That is what we anticipate and pine for.
Thus the core idea of Shabbos is fully found in the other verses of Lecho Dodi that talk about the rule of Hashem. That is the appropriate way to greet Shabbos.
Shabbos is the fulfillment of the revelation of the sovereignty of Hashem. Since we are commanded to hanker for Shabbos, this is the purpose of heaven and earth. This is what we hope for when we anticipate Shabbos: Come get up from the overturned state, enough living in the valley of tears, You light has come, get up, wear again the garments of royalty, break out to the right and to the left, through the actions of the man who is a descendant of Peretz (i.e. Moshiach) and so on. These are the content of Shabbos. This is what we are waiting for when we wait for Shabbos.
Thus is Shabbos welcomed with love and desire. This is kovod of Shabbos. This is reaching the goal and purpose of heaven and earth.
These are the two mitzvos: Shabbos and Mikdash. Both are essentially one idea.
Beis Hamikdash is in space and the Beis Hamikdash of time is Shabbos.
There are two chapters in Tehillim that speak of tzaddik vera lo, that is, a world that seems to be corrupted. It seems to be wrong. In psalm 92 it says: An ignorant person (ba'ar) will not know, and a fool will not understand. When the evil blossom like grass and those who do bad things flower.
Shabbos resolves this difficulty, this bad feeling. In the psalm that talks about Shabbos we find the explanation of why the world looks the way it does: to ultimately destroy them forever.
Similarly in psalm 73. David Hamelech (Asaf) says: I saw the evildoers of the world at peace, the world-class reshoim have comfort and a good life. The wicked prosper. How can it be?
It is such a troublesome thing "that my feet were almost gone." I almost stumbled and fell because of this difficulty. This theme is elaborated: "Until I entered the Beis Hamikdash, and considered their end." Now I understood. I lived in another world. A world that is cleaner and more pure.
Before, "I was ignorant (ba'ar) and I did not know. I was as a beheimah before You."
Shabbos and Beis Hamikdash and the two locations, the one in time and the other in space, that are clean and pure. There everything is clear. There are no questions.
These two worlds were created, and we participate in them if we have nedivus leiv. If we have good will we merit them.
These are the pure worlds that are acquired through nedivus leiv. These worlds exist based on our nedivus leiv. If we do not have the proper desires, these worlds do not exist.
But we today are not nedivei leiv. We are very far from these worlds. Therefore the world appears to us corrupt, not good, not correct. We do not live in the world that Hashem originally created. We live in a world that we dirtied. We corrupted it and brought it to the state in which it is today.
This is not the world of which it was said, "And Hashem saw every thing that He had made, and it was very good," because this world is not connected to the world of yom Hashishi. It is very far from very good. This world is not connected to the world of the sixth of Sivan.
If we want to live in that world, the world in which there are no puzzles, the world of the Beis Hamikdash and of Shabbos, we can come only if we desire it. We can go there only if we hanker for it. Whoever is not meyacheil for that, will not get it.
This is what we wanted to explain.
May Hashem let us taste even a morsel of those wonderful worlds.
