Vayakhel - Growth Isn't a Straight Line

The commandment to build the Mishkan with all its components had already been given in parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh. Now, in this week’s parsha, the Torah describes the implementation of that command. The verses relate Moshe’s instruction to the people, how they began to bring all the donations necessary for the construction, and the appointment of Betzalel to lead the project together with his assistant Ahaliav and a team of skilled individuals.
(It is noteworthy to mention the famous words of the Ramban on 35:21 describing the initial approach of the various people who volunteered to perform the work of building the Mishkan — and seemingly the same ones mentioned in 36:1 — that this skill was not something they had learned or seen before, but they sensed within themselves the innate ability to perform the task, and they “raised their hearts in the pathways of Hashem to come before Moshe and say: I am prepared to do whatever my master commands.”
A tremendous lesson for life: the road to success lies in (1) recognizing one’s innate talents, (2) not being ashamed or bashful to acknowledge them, and (3) lifting our thoughts to Hashem’s path — not our own self-serving one — and trusting that Hashem will allow the realization of those innate talents.)
Then, from 36:3, the verses describe how Betzalel and his men, upon receiving all the necessary materials, saw that the people did not stop donating. The gifts kept coming each morning. At that point the craftsmen approached Moshe to tell him what was happening. Moshe thereupon instructed that a loud announcement be proclaimed to stop the contributions — not something we typically find in fundraisers! — and so it was done. The donations stopped, but there was a surplus of materials.
The Midrash (51:2) addresses what was done with that surplus. It says that when Moshe went to Betzalel to assess it, he called to Hashem for guidance, and Hashem told him to apply the surplus to the Mishkan HaEdus. And so he did, and when he later made a reckoning of everything that had been used and shared that with the people, he alluded to that Mishkan HaEdus in the opening words of parshas Pekudei: These are the reckonings of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony.
The Midrash begs a major question: what in the world is this Mishkan HaEdus, separate and apart from the Mishkan of our regular familiarity?
Several commentaries deal with the question. Taking the word edus as a reference to the Torah, the Etz Yosef says that Moshe made an additional tent-like structure to go around the Ark containing the Torah inside the Holy of Holies. The Maharzu, quoting the Yalkut Shimoni, says that it refers to an additional tent outside the Mishkan that was dedicated to learning Torah within.
Rav Shimon Schwab suggests that it does not refer to an actual structure that Moshe made, but rather that he should save these extra donations as a symbolic “sanctuary” for the recognition of the centrality and eternal nature of Torah, which the Mishkan was built for the sake of. In other words, the entire purpose of the Mishkan was to serve the Torah, as the Midrash says that Hashem instructed the making of the Mishkan as a special chamber wherein He could remain close to His “daughter,” the Torah. The enthusiasm of the people in contributing toward the Mishkan was a testament to that recognition, and therefore the surplus donations should be kept in posterity for that purpose.
Notwithstanding the clarification of the application of the surplus donations, a question remains lurking in the background: why did the Torah devote so many words to this episode? The verses could have stopped before verse 6 after describing the surplus. Instead, the Torah goes on to describe how Moshe told them to stop bringing, with a public announcement, that they did stop bringing, and then concludes with the statement that there was enough and more than enough. Verses 6 and 7 seem unnecessary.
The Sfas Emes turns his attention to this and sees in it a major personal-development insight.
There is a verse in Yechezkel (1:14) describing the angels as running and returning (ratzo v’shav), which is used as a picture of the dynamic of human growth — that it is not always linear. Rather, it is a process of moving forward, taking a step back, moving forward again, and so on. Not that the step backward necessarily means falling and doing wrong (although that too can be a form of growth, as it says, “because I fell, I rose”), but rather that growth often comes in bursts of energy followed by pause, energy followed by pause.
Why is this so? Pragmatically, a person sometimes loses steam and needs rest, but there are deeper dimensions as well.
For instance, the Tzafnas Paneach, quoting the Baal Shem Tov, says that the soul’s craving is to become attached to Hashem in His infinite identity. Yet if it were allowed to become totally attached, it would be completely absorbed and life would end. Therefore, the soul is given a certain physicality to which it must “return” in order to maintain the person’s ongoing existence.
Similarly, the Ohev Yisroel (parshas Shekalim) says that spiritual fervor and deveikus to Hashem is like fire, whose flames dance and flicker up and down; the movement is not constant.
But the Sfas Emes, applying this to our verses, says that sometimes when a person begins a lofty endeavor with pure motivation, that purity can become compromised as arrogance and pride creep in. This is especially true with donations to a cause. People get into it, and it can become a source of pride, with a person patting himself on the back as he gives. Thus, in order to sustain purity of thought and motivation, a person sometimes needs to pause, reflect on why he is doing this, and regroup before continuing. The yetzer hara is always lurking in the background. As we say in Ma’ariv, remove the Satan from before us and behind us. Before us — before we start a mitzvah — that the yetzer hara should not dissuade us by saying, “What is the value of this in the first place?” And behind us — after we have begun or completed the mitzvah — that pride should not spoil it.
This is the message of the Torah elaborating on Moshe’s instruction to tell the people to pause. Once he saw that they were so enthusiastic and giving more than required, he and the wise men were concerned that too much self and ego might be creeping in, and it was time to pause so that even if they would continue, it would be with renewed purity of intention. This also explains the enigmatic final statement in verse 7 that the work was enough, yet extra — because the enoughness was the condition that made the surplus virtuous.
The life lesson from this is not only that we should not be discouraged when our personal growth and development do not proceed in a smooth, linear way, but that sometimes we must deliberately pause in order to regroup our intention and motivation. Of course, this does not mean to pause from obligatory mitzvos, nor, chas v’shalom, to permit aveiros, but rather to pause within voluntary acts, in order to preserve the purity of kavana in the process.

​Have a Good Shabbos