פרשת ויקהל וענייני פורים
This week’s Parsha contains the command to the Jewish people to begin the construction of the Mishkan. The Seforim bring down that the construction of the Mishkan was analogous to the construction of the heavens and earth at the beginning of creation. They mean to say that since the purpose of the creation of the world was to allow God’s glory to shine forth upon the earth, the Mishkan furthered this purpose by creating a physical resting place for God’s presence on this earth. The Vilna Gaon in his masterpiece “Aderes Eliyahu” points out that the Torah repeats the details of the Mishkan no less then seven times. He asserts that each time the Torah did this, it brought God, who dwells in the “seventh heaven”, one step closer to this earth, until with the last mention of the Mishkan, it actually brought God down to the physical Mishkan here on earth.
Similarly, the verse says that the Jewish people donated the necessary materials for the Mishkan with such enthusiasm that Moshe had to personally stop them from bringing anything else. Rabenu Bachya brings a Midrash which points out that the exact same language is used in describing the creation of the world. When the world was created, it began to expand at such a rapid rate that it threatened to extend beyond its bounds. At that point Hashem Himself had to instruct it to stop its expanding process and it complied. R’ Gedalya Sher explains this interesting Chazal by saying that the world in Hebrew is called “Olam.” The root of the word “Olam” is “עלם” which means to be hidden. The physical universe hides God’s existence because it runs within a system which seems to work logically and provides people with the possibility of denying God’s hand in that system. Hashem therefore had to stop the creation from becoming so elaborate that it would be nearly impossible to see the hand of the creator in it. Conversely, the Mishkan’s purpose was to make God’s presence known in the face of a very physical universe. However, this process too needed to cease prematurely so that God’s presence on this earth would not have become so obvious as to deny people the ability to utilize their free will. It comes out that Hashem desired there to be a perfect equilibrium in which His part in the natural order of the universe would neither be readily apparent, nor impossible to see, but rather just under the surface such that if one sincerely wants to, he will easily be able to find the truth.
The famous Tzadik, R’ Eliya Lopian used to quote the words of the Prophet Isaiah (1), “The ox knows its master and the donkey knows its feeding trough, and the Jews don’t know.” Isaiah meant to give rebuke to the Jewish people by telling them that if even dumb animals are able to know who their master is and where to find their food, then certainly the intelligent Jewish people should be able to figure out who their master is and where their food comes from. However, asks R’ Eliya, this comparison is not valid. The animals are imbued with instincts to be able to answer these fundamental questions, whereas human beings to not seem to be endowed with instinctual knowledge of God. If so, what is the claim against them?
R’ Eliya answers that we see from these words of the prophet that belief in God’s existence and in His omnipotence is such a primal understanding, that it is actually instinctual in a person, and a person lacking this instinct is not well. He illustrates this with a beautiful analogy. He says that when one looks around the world, one sees that all of man’s needs are met. For example, oxygen is the most needed substance by every living organism on this earth, and behold, there is air everywhere. Next is water. A person needs water to live, and there is practically no place on this earth that is not within walking distance of a source of fresh running water. And finally food is also needed, but slightly less frequently, and “coincidentally,” although a person has to toil harder for it, there is no inhabited place which is devoid of food. R’ Eliya explains that we see from these three examples that Hashem put the exact amount of each element necessary for survival within our grasp. If this is so, then Emunah in Hashem, which is a primal spiritual need of every human being, must be found just as abundantly as air on this earth. For just as air is necessary for the body to survive at any given moment, and Hashem ensured that air would always be readily available, faith in God, which is also necessary for spiritual survival, must be available in every area of our existence. With this explanation, we can now understand why Isaiah was so upset with the Jewish people for not fostering a stronger faith in their creator and learning from the animals. Just as it is instinctual for the animals to know their own master, so should it be self evident to us the existence and benevolence of our creator whose presence is felt personally by every inhabitant of this earth.
R’ Moshe Wolfson once said that a Jew who doesn’t believe in God is called a “כופר”. He pointed out that there is another place in Judaism where the identical term is used. When a plaintive claims that he is owed money from someone, and the borrower completely denies the claim, the Mishnah calls him a “כופר”. R’ Moshe pointed out that just as this defendant was aware of his debt, but denied it in order to further his goals, similarly one who denies the existence of Hashem is actually aware of the truth, but finds it convenient to ignore that truth for the time being in order to satisfy his desires.
Truthfully, when one looks around at the world, one cannot help but see the hand of God in every aspect of his life. Just as a suit testifies about the existence of the tailor who manufactured it, every creature and creation of this earth testifies about the existence and magnificence of its creator. Furthermore, when one contemplates the kindnesses that have been bestowed upon him during his lifetime, he would be remiss to deny the hand of his Creator in them. From his birth, to his childhood, to his adulthood, every success that he has had, every breath that he has taken, every bite of food that he has received, during each and every one of these splendid moments, God’s presence and benevolence have been shouting their existence and only a person who is completely delusional could deny it and assume that all these endowments are mere coincidences and that all the difficulties that he no longer has have “magically” gone away on their own. Yet we find that many people have the audacity to deny God’s existence, even while ironically, the very breath that they are taking to do this is given only by the grace of God.
As the holiday of Purim approaches, it behooves us to consider this important attribute of faith in God and to recognize God in all that we do. The Vilana Gaon says that the word “מגילה” comes from the word “גילוי” which means to reveal. All the events in the Megillah seem to be random and could be written off as a series of coincidences as there are no open miracles in the Megillah. Yet it is our job to look slightly beyond the surface and to make the world aware of the obviousness of God’s hand in those events, and in every event that we experience.
May we merit to foster an awareness of the love and kindness of our creator in every aspect of our lives!