How is everybody doing? Good to be back. In the parasha this week, it says—we call it Terumah (uplifting). “Take for me a Terumah.” Now, it would seem that Hashem is commanding the Jewish people to build the Mishkan—English word, tabernacle. It’s one of those words that you never use in the English language. We just know it because it means Mishkan, basically a portable Beit HaMikdash. There are nuances, so many different halakhot (laws) to it. A tremendous amount of money, time, and expertise went into building it. But the way Hashem starts off is by telling the Jewish people, “Take for me.” In essence, what is an uplifting? Really, our Rabbis translate it as “Take for me”: get money from the people. The question everybody asks is: the word means “take for me.” That’s not the way it works. I should tell the Jewish people, v'yitnu li, “give me.” I mean, why “take”? You know, I heard a great story from an old, old Syrian man about a guy who’s on a boat with a rabbi. The man falls off the boat and is drowning, and the rabbi screams to him, “Give me a hand, give me a hand, give me a hand.” The man just drowns and dies, then comes to the rabbi in a dream and says, “Rabbi, you killed me.” The rabbi says, “What do you mean? I held out my hand.” The man says, “Rabbi, you’re always asking me for money, always asking me for money—give, give, give. I don’t want to give anymore. Had you said, ‘Take my hand,’ I would have put out my hand to take your hand.” That’s the whole idea: “Take for me,” rather than “you give.”
But there’s a deeper explanation to it. The Chafetz Chaim says—and Rav Shach used to quote this a lot—that, in actuality, we think that when you’re confronted with the ability to give tzedakah (charity), some of us have the reaction, “Oh, they called me again; they asked me again”—as natural. You get calls all the time. You’re sitting at home, and then what was on the phone rings. It’s an important business matter. You pick it up: “Hi, I’m collecting for yeshiva such-and-such. Could you help us out like you helped us last year?” Then they’ll call you four or five times, and sometimes you roll your eyes at it. We know the feeling. I don’t need to explain it to you. But only certain people, says the Chafetz Chaim, have the zechut, have the merit to give. It’s a concept that we know, but don’t really say. It doesn’t really hit us in a good spot sometimes when we’re asked for money. Unfortunately, I have to go—maybe fortunately, I have to ask people for money a lot. Some people have the right attitude: “Yes, anything, right? Why? Why? But I can’t help you now.” And some people don’t: “I can’t really help you. I don’t know what you’re doing,” like that.
The overall idea is that in order to give, in order to be put in that position, that’s Hashem communicating to you that I’m giving you an opportunity to do something big. If you look at it that way, if Hashem had come to you right before that call came in from that yeshiva in Cleveland asking you if you wanted to be in their raffle, and had called you up first and said, “Look, look, look, look, look, look, I have an opportunity for you. It’s coming soon. Do what you can,” automatically, it’s a different story. There’s a big opportunity from God. There’s a big situation. This is serious. But we don’t look at it like that. Not a lot of people get that call. Meaning, not a lot of people are put in the position to do that mitzvah (commandment). When I’m confronted with a mitzvah, that’s Hashem communicating to me that He thinks I’m able to do this mitzvah. He thinks I can do this mitzvah. He wants me to do this mitzvah. He wants to give me a big merit. That’s why the pasuk (verse) here says, “Take for me.” What do you mean, “Take for me”? What am I taking? I mean, “Give me.” What do you mean, “Take”? Hashem is saying, “You take this opportunity. This is a chance of a lifetime for you to go ahead and give tzedakah.” We have to have the right approach and the right mindset when we’re confronted with a mitzvah.
The last piece on this deals not only with tzedakah but with other mitzvot as well. Moshe Rabbeinu got to the burning bush on that fateful day, the first time he met Hashem. Mount in Har Sinai, he gets to the burning bush, and it says Moshe Rabbeinu turned his head because he was afraid to look at God. Hashem said, “You’re afraid to look at me?” Later on, Moshe Rabbeinu told Hashem, “Hashem, show me your face. I want to see you.” And Hashem said, “It’s too late. You had your opportunity then.” What an amazing lesson. The first time Moshe Rabbeinu saw Hashem, Hashem was showing him His face, and Moshe Rabbeinu turned. He didn’t think he was worthy. He thought it was too much. He was scared. He didn’t know what the repercussions were. Then, when he got his feet wet in the position, learned who he was, and learned more about Hashem, he said, “Hashem, now show me your face.” And Hashem said, “Sorry. You had the opportunity then. I gave you the week. Oh, I gave you a chance to take.”
My rabbi used to always say the same thing when it comes to learning Torah. He said, “When you have an opportunity to learn and you don’t learn, when you want to learn, they won’t let you learn. When you have an opportunity to pray and you don’t pray, when you want to pray, they won’t let you pray.” You have to take your opportunities when they come. And with opportunities for tzedakah, unfortunately, we do not have the proper attitude toward them. V'yikchu li terumah (And they shall take for me a contribution), Hashem says, take this opportunity.