Vayakhel. Heart Wisdom in times of War

The other day I was opening Parashat Vayakhel to let my eyes wander in it like in a beautiful garden. This is the way I like to read torah. I don’t come to the text looking for anything in particular.

I let it come to me.

I see what strikes me, what surprises me, which flower makes me want to smell it, which path among the meadows makes me want to follow it.

This week, the field of our text brings us back to the building of the mishkan, after the instructions to keep the shabbat- which we talked about last week, are completed.

And this is what I saw.

This week I want to let Torah speak for itself.

Here are the verses, almost one after the other: קְחוּ מֵאִתְּכֶם תְּרוּמָה לַיהוָה כֹּל נְדִיב לִבּוֹ יְבִיאֶהָ אֵת תְּרוּמַת יְהוָה זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּנְחֹשֶׁת׃

Take from among you an offering to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart shall bring it, an offering of the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze.(Shemot 35:10) וְכָל חֲכַם־לֵב בָּכֶם יָבֹאוּ וְיַעֲשׂוּ אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה׃

And every wise-hearted among you shall come and make all that the LORD has commanded. (Shemot 35:21) וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ אֹתוֹ...

And everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the LORD’s offering. (Shemot 35:22)

וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל־הַנָּשִׁים כֹּל נְדִיב לֵב הֵבִיאוּ...

And they came, both men and women, all who were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets, rings, and ornaments of gold. (Shemot 35:25) וְכָל־אִשָּׁה חַכְמַת־לֵב בְּיָדֶיהָ טָווּ.

.. And every woman who was wise-hearted spun with her hands.

(Shemot 35:26) וְכָל־הַנָּשִׁים אֲשֶׁר נָשָׂא לִבָּן אֹתָנָה בְּחָכְמָה טָווּ אֶת־הָעִזִּים׃ And all the women whose hearts stirred them in wisdom spun the goats’ hair. (Shemot 35:29) כָּל־אִישׁ וְאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָדַב לִבָּם אֹתָם...

The Israelites, all the men and women whose hearts moved them, brought a freewill offering. (Shemot 35:34)

וּלְהוֹרֹת נָתַן בְּלִבּוֹ הוּא וְאָהֳלִיאָב...

And He has put it in his heart to teach, both he and Oholiab. (Shemot 35:35)

מִלֵּא אֹתָם חָכְמַת־לֵב לַעֲשׂוֹת כָּל־מְלֶאכֶת..

. He has filled them with wisdom of heart to do every kind of work. (Shemot 36:1)

וְכָל־אִישׁ חֲכַם־לֵב אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְהוָה חָכְמָה בְּלִבּוֹ.

.. Every wise-hearted person in whom the LORD had put wisdom and understanding. (Shemot 36:2)

כָּל־אֲשֶׁר נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ לְקָרְבָה אֶל־הַמְּלָאכָה...

Everyone whose heart stirred him to come tothe work.

(Shemot 36:8) וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כָּל־חֲכַם־לֵב בְּעֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה...

All the wise-hearted among those doing the work made the tabernacle.(Shemot 36:8)

So much heart in this parasha!

It is said that the term heart is repeated fourteen times here.

And it is not just the ones who were in charge of building the mishkan were chokmei lev- wise of heart, but also each person who was contributing, each of us. In fact they contributed too much.

So much that Moshe had to tell them to stop.

For the Kedushat Levi, this excess is not a coincidence.

It is actually a gift for us: us, you and me, the potential “tsadikim of each generation.”

אך והותר, שהותירו להצדיקים והחכמים שכל דור והם יגמרו הבנין ויוסיפו מדעתם מה שישיג שכלם:

“And there was extra” — they left something remaining for the righteous and sages of every generation (...) they will complete the building and add from their own understanding whatever their intellect can attain."

Today there is no mishkan to build, but we are all called to “complete the building.”

And anything beautiful we build together as humans be it communities or books, a song circle or a dance, a shabbat meal or a help network, is a mishkan: a dwelling place for the divine presence.

And it all comes from keeping our heart wisdom alive.

Today my country is at war with the Iranian regime, and on both sides of the conflict, as entire populations are living under missile attacks day and night, I see so much heart between us.

So much mutual support. are waiting for the same thing: islamic totalitarian regim who has held them from the inside, and us, through its proxies in so much suffering, to fall.

I also see throughout the middle east and all accross the world, Arabs and Jews anf christians from the Middle East and in their own diasporas,- peoples who fled Gaza’s, Syria’s, Lebanon’s or Iran’s oppressive regimes for just the same goal as ours: the right to be themselves, to live their lives peacefully, freely, and creatively.

We all have work to do with the extremists in our governments and in our religious institutions.

But if people with wisdom of heart connect through and beyond the dividing walls that our own radicals keep trying to build, then there is so much hope;

Today, as we are about to enter shabbat ha chodesh, the shabbat in which we will bless the upcoming month of Nissan as our roch hodashim, “the head of the months”, the biblical new year, this is my deepest prayer:

May we keep cultivating wisdom of heart and build a new mishkan in the Middle East, together. A mishkan so much more diverse, colorful and resilient, that I could ever dream of.

And it starts with a tiny step: opening our hearts rather than closing it, and connecting with any one, no matter who they are, no matter where they come from, who is willing to meet us right there, on the heart level.