The Sedra of Teruma: Kabbala Insights

Dovid Eidensohn

The Sedra of Teruma begins with the vessels of the Beis HaMikdash, surely something of the greatest sanctity. The beginning of the passages there contains, “And they shall make for me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst.” This is a mighty statement, that HaShem, who lives in the highest heavens, commands us to prepare a Sanctuary where He may shine His holy light among a Sanctuary created by mortals and served by mortals. We know that people are not like angels who have no sense of evil but who devote all of their time to singing songs of glory to Hashem in the highest heavens. People are always doing sins and these sins are incredibly described in the Talmud. And these descriptions are developed in the holy works by the great rabbis. A very strong book on this subject is Mesilas Yeshorim, from one of the greatest Kabbalists, Reb Moshe Chaim Lutsatto zt”l. Who was he?

The Vilna Gaon lived around the time of Reb Moshe Chaim Lutsatto. He said that although he never merited to actually meet Reb Moshe Chaim Lutsatto, if he had realized who he was in time, he would have walked the great distance to his house to merit to talk to him. Why? The Vilna Gaon is known, perhaps uniquely, not so much as Rav Eliyohu which was his name, but as the Gaon, unlikely others of the very great rabbis who are known by their names or books.  Why is this?

In his youth, the Vilna Gaon was already known as a mighty scholar and Kabbalist. As a very young child his father noticed that on Succose he was very happy. The father asked him why he was so happy. He refused to answer. The father then said, “I decree upon you with the authority of a father to tell me why you are so happy.” The young Eliyoho replied, “I was learning in the Succah and Yaacov came and kissed me.”

When Eliyohu matured and became known as a great Torah scholar, the Gadol HaDor, the Shaagas Aryeh, came to Vilna with a question. He had a tradition that a great scholar was in the world and he sought him out. He came to Vilna and went to the rabbi and told him a difficult question. The rabbi could not answer it. The Shaagas Aryeh was then advised to go to Reb Eliyohu. He did and asked him the question and Reb Eliyohu answered immediately. The Shaagas Aryeh declared, “This is a Gaon!”

Just then, the Rov came and heard the question. He, too, replied, the exact answer said by the Vilna Gaon. He then asked the Shaagas Aryeh, “Am I also a Gaon?” The Shaagas Aryeh replied, “A Gaon darf kennen gleich.” (A Gaon must answer immediately.)

The Vilna Gaon once said, “He and I in the revealed Torah. I and he in Kabbala.” Meaning, the Shaagas Aryeh is greater than me in the revealed law. And I am greater than him in Kabbala.” And the Vilna Gaon also said, if he had realized who Reb Moshe Chaim Lutsatto was in time, he would have walked great distance to merit to speak to him.”

My rebbe in this world and the next, the Kabbala Gaon of Jerusalem, wrote eighteen Kabbala books described by the senior Kabbalist Rav Kaduri as surely one who wrote with Ruach HaKodesh. He is always quoting Reb Moshe Chaim Lutsatto and the Vilna Gaon. Their Kabbala is not designed for plain people like me, unless we want to struggle until we get dizzy. But if we plunge into their works, and attempt to penetrate higher worlds, we are not ignored. Let us attempt now to return to Teruma and the Mikdash and the Aron HaKodesh.

HaShem told Moshe, in the discussion about building the Mikdash, about the Aron HaKodesh. He said, “And you shall place into the Aron the Aduse [the Ten Commandments] that I will give you.” That is, HaShem will prepare the Ten Commandments on stone Himself. “And HaShem said to Moshe, ‘Come to Me on the mountain, and I will give you the tables of stone, and the Torah and the mitsvah which I wrote to teach them.’”

Thus, the Tablets and the Mikdash were heavenly lights. The Cohanim were entrusted with care of the Mikdash. But Cohanim were humans and some of them had evil inclinations. Thus we find that in the history of the Beis HaMikdash people often committed great sins. This eventually led to the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

One of the sins was about the Aron which contained the luchose. It was led by two Cohanim who did serious sins. When these Cohanim the sons of Eli the Cohen Gadol sinned in the Temple itself, HaShem punished them with death, and the Jewish people lost a battle with the Pelishtime who then captured the Aron of HaShem. HaShem then unleashed great suffering on the Pelishtime who eventually returned the Aron. But when they did, the Jews who noticed this made jokes.[1] Thus, we see the problems of human beings dealing with HaShem.

And that is a problem central to us all, may we merit to repent. Because although almost all people, even pious, people sin, HaShem made such a world, for two reasons. One, light from darkness is greater than light from light. Therefore, people who are prone to sin and then repent are greater before HaShem than the angels who never sin and their light is less than that of the Jews.

We live in a time predicted in Sota 49 that just prior to the coming of Moshiach, heads of state will become deniers, family will become battlegrounds, but our eternal hope and faith and success is when we turn to HaShem. Yes, even in such a time, when New York State and major countries have turned away from HaShem and family values, those few people who truly trust in HaShem and serve him with penitence, love and fear, merit the highest light.

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[1] See Shmuel 1.4