Parshas Vayakhel Pekudei: Forget Likes and Followers — Did You Get Hashem’s Sticker Today?

0:00 It's a five-word phrase repeated eighteen times that reminds us what life is all about. Those words repeated eighteen times in Parashas Pekuday are Kaasher Tsivo Hashem Es Moshe. That the Jews built the Mishgun just as God commanded Moshe. Over and over we find this phrase throughout this double Parsha.

0:42 Along with Parsha's Hakodesh. Along with it being my Bar Mitzvah Parsha 15 years ago. I'm a twin. So my brother laned Vayakel. Me being the younger twin. I laned Pikude the second Parsha. It also was Parsha's Achodesh. I did the Haftora that year. It was a long davening, needless to say. It's 2 p.m. before people got to their herring and scotch. But Parsha's Vayakub Bakude always has a warm place in my heart. I still can subconsciously read along with the Balkhore every year.

1:27 Because it's so drilled into my head. This Girso Di Yankisa, this Torah that I learned when I was but a young chap, just 12 and a half, preparing for my bar mitzvah. But either way, Parsha Spakude specifically, Parsha's Pakude alone, has this phrase Kasher Tziva Hashem Esmosha over and over again. It sticks out not like a sore thumb, but sticks out like a beautiful thumb. For every time the Jewish people conclude an action properly, they built the big day kahuna satisfactorily, Parsha Spakude reiterates, that they built the Big De Kehuna Kaasher Tzivo Hashem Esmoshe.

2:20 And the Jewish people, they built the the Aranak Khidesh, Kaasher Tzivo Hashem Esmosha. And they continue to build the Mizbayach and do the Kitoras and build the Khrushchev. Kasher Tzivo Hashem Esmosha. Over and over this phrase, this pentad, which means a five-word phrase, is repeated. You want specific sources so you can look it up. Parak Lamid Tess. You'll find it seven times.

3:02 Parak Lamid Tess, Posak Aleph, Posak He, Pasak Zion, Pasakh Aleph, Posakhav, Pasakh Tess, and Pasik Lamid Aleph, you'll find Kashir Tsivo Hashem Esmoshe. And Perak Mem. Pash's Bakude. In the setting up of the Mishkan. The pentad, the phrase appears again another eleven times. Kasher Tzivo Hashem Esmosha in Posak Yudtes, Chaf Aleph, Chaf Gimel, Chaf He, Chaf Zion, Chaftes, Lamed Baez, over and over. Kasher Tsivo Hashem Es Moshe, the Jewish people, they fulfilled and built and constructed and erected the Mishgan and its Kalim, its furniture, all precisely as God commanded Moshe.

3:56 And our question S in parentheses is as follows. It's a key question because it will springboard us to our yesod or yesodos. When the Torah tells us Kashivo Hashem Smosha, what does the Torah mean to tell us? What deeper message is being conveyed? And why would it not have been sufficient to simply say at once that the Jewish people built the Mishgun and its furniture?

4:36 All of it. And more so. We know the Torah does not mince words, does not waste words, God forbid. But Parsha's Pekute is really kind of reiterating many of the obligations and instructions that the Jewish people had and they learned in Parsha's Titsava and Parsha's Truma. And here is a repeating of the con the instructions of the construction, the blueprints.

5:16 It repeats it. And the only thing added is that they did it Kashir Tsivo Ashemas Moshe. So almost the whole safe mos or the these final parsios that all deal with the Mishgun, they seem to find their climax and to be repeated for nothing more other than to just say these 18 times over that they did this Kashir Tsivo Hashem Smosha. It's like the whole Parshas Pikude is here only so that it can tell us all of these instructions were done Kashir Tsivo Hashem Smosha. Why?

5:57 Was there really any other way to build something? Can you build something in a mishgun and somehow be included in the final copy in the published edition of the Torah? And have possibly not done it Kash Tsiba Hashemas Moshe? If it makes it into the final copy and it was given on Mount Sinai? Well, of course it's given Kashir. The Mishkan was built Kashir Tsiba Hashem as Moshe. And it doesn't need to be said. It doesn't need to be reiterated, not 18 times over. And why? Dimension number one.

6:39 Mahalik number one. It says Kashur Tsiva Hashem as Moshe says the Orachaimakadosh. Because it wants to tell us that Kalyisrael built the Mishkan in total execution, in perfect fashion, in both the revealed aspects of the commandments and the hidden aspects of the Torah. The subtle elements that were given over, that was also perfectly done.

7:22 They built it, says the Orha Chaim, Od Nira, Le Fima Shakadamano, ki ain licha mitzvahskalo. There's no mitzvah that doesn't have many aspects. It doesn't have aspects of kabbalistic, hidden, mystical secrets in it. You're to fill in maybe dry leather phylacteries, but there are secrets of creation stuffed into those black painted phylacteries. But velon nichtavba Torah elemot, says the Orachaim. We only get the basic information. We get what is needed, kind of the exoskeleton of Torah, the bones.

8:04 You get what you really, really need, the cliff notes. And that's what was given, and that's what we have in Parsha's Trumatzava, Bayakel Pakude. We have the basic terms, the basic commandments. Just like this is stated, says the Urachaim Kemaimer Rabyochiran Bahana Zakit. Rabycharun talks about this in Misach the Gitun. And every single part of the Mishkan continues the Uruchaim. The Upnimius Hadzvarim has secrets, has sodos, has heavenly like magical characteristics. And the Jewish people, they did the Mishkan Kashir Tiba Hashem Bismoshe.

8:47 What does that mean? Not only with intention with Kavonas Alev, but Uvasiklius Hanealam. They also understood, and they were Mekhavan to that deeper aspect. And they also understood the Kabbalistic, the hidden concepts of the Mishkan and the Kitaras. And they built it and constructed it and erected it as such. To those who understand Kabbalistic parlance and theory and wisdom, you'll know that they built each thing according to its proper building, both on the hidden levels and the more pragmatic levels.

9:44 And that's what the Torah means to tell us. That just like Hashem told Moshe at Sinai, with all of the hidden secrets, not just what is mentioned in the Torah, but even more the hidden parts that only Moshe got on Mount Sinai, that also was part of how the Jewish people built the Mishgan. And that's Mahalach number one. A deeper commentary, a deeper dimension, a second answer to why we have this phrase reiterated 18 times of Kasha R tsivo ashem is moshe is because it's not here to tell us that they built the Mishkan properly.

10:35 But the Possak is here to tell us a unique aspect over and over again that the Jewish people built it with intention, with kavana, with nothing other than a Kasher Tsivo Hashem Esmoshe on their mind at the time of building. They performed the mitzvah at the highest level. And therefore it was included each time these words to tell us that this Mishgan, this guitarist, this aphod, this misbeach, was built neither for honor nor for personal gain, but rather purely Kasher tsivo Hashem as Moshe for the sake of the commandment itself.

11:31 Kasher tsivo Hashem implies not just action, but action driven by intention of only that which Hashem told Moshe. And that perfect kavana needs to be told over and over in every instance. It's a halakha like this. And yours and mine are lives, intention. It can be hard to always have, but it's required in many of the actions that the Torah requires from us.

12:12 Simon Samech and Urichaim, Paskin Zamachaber, Rabyosev Cairo and Sifkatan Dalad Yesh Omrim, some say when you do mitzvos, Sha'in mitzvos shrichas kavanoh, then a mitzvah doesn't need to have intention. You could pick up the lemon and the stick on the 15th of Tishrei by accident or without specific proper intentions and fulfill the mitzvah. But the yesh omrim say others, you need intention in a mitzvah. And which type of intention? Kavana lotsyas oys mitzvah.

12:52 You need specific intention to fulfill the doing of that mitzvah, and concludes the machaber often is required in your actions. And the Torah comes here to tell us over and over that intention was had. Because that needs to be included. Because that's part of what God requires in the building of the Mishgan. And in this same Orachaim, when he's developing this second approach, listen to what he says about the Kashar Tsivo Hashem Es Moshe.

13:34 Ode Yirtsa. Further, I'd like to suggest Hamalacha, that with the Jews in the desert were building the Mishgun and it was done Kashar Tsivo Hashem Es Moshe. What does that mean? They would say at the time of the building, Hare Anu Osim Devar Zhe Kasher Seiva Hashem Esmoshe. We are doing this action just like Hashem created it. Just like Hashem commanded Moshe. They were saying this Hinani Muchan.

14:15 Have you ever seen someone do a mitzvah before he does a mitzvah? Where he says, before, here I stand, behold, ready to do this mitzvah for nothing other than it was commanded by God. That's what the tzadikim arishhainim, those that were building the mishkan, were saying while they were weaving the twill in the begodim of the Kohen. They were saying, Kasher tzivo ashemas mosha, harai onu oysim dovarze, kasher tzivo ashem. This is what my Tati used to say, I remember, when he would unravel the schach on the sukkah. He would say, intention needs to be had in Torah and Mitzvos.

15:04 And intention is what is made very clear when it says Kasher tzivo ashemes mosha. We know they did it. But they did it not in a secret, hidden way, like we said before, that they did all the aspects that were hidden that God commanded Moshe. But here we're saying that they did it with the intentions of Kasher Tzivo Hashem S Moshe. It is a point that deserves its own rant because it's been brought to our attention by Rabbi Daniel Garfinkel, who authored a book, a 500-page book, a safer published by Feldheim and Adir Press that is called Katz Kaasher Tziva Hashem Esmoshe.

15:51 And he develops this idea. He explores how mitzvos tzrichos kavana, that intention is required when performing the commandments of Hashem. You need to have intent when acting. He elaborates in this book and he shows how conscious thought will change your mundane and meh and blah and boring actions into magnificent, purposeful, and rewarding Kodershdiga actions. And the only thing that stands in the way is your intent, your kavana.

16:32 And the Kashir Tsivo Hashem Smosha, Kavana rant or understanding. It awoke me this week. And I wanted to make the podcast all about this topic. Because I was thinking about this episode. I tried to prepare on Sunday the basic Mara Makomos, the overview of the Parsha, and then try to see where my heart goes with which part in the Parsha that would be meaningful for me to prepare and maybe meaningful to you to listen to. And it was thinking early on in the week about this Kashyard Seivo Hashem Esmosha intention rant.

17:18 And on Monday, it was Tuesday, I was wrapping up my tefillin after Shachris, and I saw this business card on the table in front of me that said in big letters, brandished in gold, Kasher Tzivo Hashem Esmoshe. Check out the book by Rabbi Garfinkel. And it said the following Check out this episode, this little story that really sheds light on this concept. It was a business card that was promoting the book. It said on there a quick story that there was a certain instance that the great Ribb Eliyohu Lapian once saw workers in Erit Israel who were working, toiling in the sun, digging ditches in the sun.

18:10 And the Mashkiach, the God Ali said Rib Eliolapian, they are doing so many mitzvos right now. They're earning a livelihood. They're acting acts of kindness. And they're Osak of the mitzvah of settling Erityisrael. But he said one thing is missing. It's missing the kavana for the mitzvah. The kavanna lotses is la ikuva. And I have written here, I looked up the chovas ala vavas. In the fourth treatise, chapter three is when he talks about the fourth treatise, talking about how you should have real faith in your life and real faith in your Parnasa.

19:03 Paragraph three in this fourth treatise. Chapter three in this fourth treatise of the essay on faith, Sharhabitochon, the Khovas Allah elaborates on this concept. That yes, having an osake in Parnassa is a mitzvah. I was looking this up to make sure that I didn't stutter or just assume. But digging a ditch in Erity Srail, your Osak in three mitzvahs, and every day that you get on the train to go to work, you open up your laptop to check your emails in a way that you are responding to clients, you're a lawyer, or you're a doctor and you're cleaning your hands to begin the surgery.

19:56 It's a mitzvah to be osake in Parnassa. These are the words. I would read you in Hebrew, but I'll spare you, and I'll tell you when he should have intention when his mind and body is occupied with one of his means of earning a livelihood, to fulfill the commandment of the creator to pursue the means of the world, such as working the land, plowing, sowing, as is written, God took man, placed him in the Ghana Aden to work and to garden. The Khovas Alavos or Rishan understands that Parnasa is a mitzvah. That selling real estate and haggling and farming for clients is a mitzvah.

20:38 Negotiating is a mitzvah. But if you're Kasher Tzivo HMS Moshe, if you have intentions for the mitzvah, it is. Forget your intentions, forget that mitzvah stricha's kavana. Fail to build the mishgun with proper intention. And your Parnasa is nothing but a futile striving. Or earthly striving, but not futile, but it's definitely not eternal. And forget to have kavana and your intentions and building the Mishgan, and it's an empty shell, it seems. Devoid of Shina. But Kasher, Tzibo, Hashem, Ismosha over and over.

21:23 That comes to reiterate that they had intention each and every time. No matter which aspect or which item. And ultimately the basic intention. It does transform and needs to be known. And this mini rant here that it transforms our mundane actions into holy ones. And these people, they performed it specifically. Their actions were driven by nothing other than Hashem's directive to Moshe. There is a third. Dimension before our real rant.

22:05 But we'll just touch it for a couple seconds for the sake of time. And for the sake of. I'm not crystal clear on what the Orachaim wants in this third dimension. But the reiteration of the what do we say that five word phrases called the pentad of Kashyar Tzivo Hashem Esmoshe? It's because the Torah wants to say, Tam Umru Kane, Bachol Prat Viprat, Alphashikosavnu Bapar Shas Titsava, Kihalak Hashem Lim Moshe, Khilak Bachomalachos. Hashem made Moshe have a special portion in each one of the actions.

23:04 That it all seemed to come through Moshe. So it seems each and every time the Torah felt the need to go back and to reiterate that Moshe's involved here. We don't care as much in this third dimension about the intention, nor do we care about the doing it in all of its depth, even the hiddenness. But we care more about the word Moshe here. That they did it Kasher Tsi V Hashem is Moshe. Remember, Moshe was the one who heard. Remember, Moshe's the one who gets a lot of the credit here. And the Archheim elaborates, but we'll leave it at that for you to explore. There's also another aspect that I don't know what to do with here, but just so you should have the information, that the Medranchuma and the Vyikra Rabbah Aleph Ches tells us that each one of these Kasher tiva hashem es moshe lines, pentads, it ended up corresponding to one of the birchos of sh brachos of Shmona Esray.

24:07 That weekly Amidah prayer that you say. Eighteen utterances, eighteen brachos, eighteen kashirtsiva shem esmosha, z, eighteen brachos and shmona esray. There's some deep connection here that seems to be linked. These two items are synthesized, and the Balhaturim makes note of this famously here. And I'm not sure how to connect the depth there in the spiritual realm and what the pasht just the basic understanding is here as to how these kasher, tsiva, hashem, esmoshe phrases are somehow interconnected to the 18 blessings of Shemona Esray.

24:52 But what I do want to say is our final mahalik. I want to advance the idea, not as a great Torah giant's mahalikh, but it's my mahalik. It's what came to my head when I was thinking about the concept. So you can listen, you don't have to. You can argue, you don't have to. You can accept it, you don't have to. You can bring up proof to it, you don't have to. But it's where my head went. When I thought, why does Hashem honestly tell us over and over, Kash Art Zivo Hashem Smosha? And more than a mahalikh, more than an insight, it's just more of a hargusha, a feeling. A feeling that I feel like preaching to myself and to anyone else who will listen to me.

25:38 It's that each repetition. I wrote it down for myself. Each Kash Er tsivo Hashem Esmosha serves a unique purpose. It highlights every single mice, every single obedient act of the Jewish people. Though similar in wording, every Kash Ertzivo Hashem Esmoshe provides a very distinct example of the Jewish people following Hashem's will that culminates in one great Torah lesson in that the Jewish people got the job done, and getting the job done is what the Torah is here to tell us.

26:22 That the Jewish people got the job done. And getting the job done is not an easy thing. So getting the job done needs to be told about each specific thing. Getting the job done in devotion, in action, in depth, similar to our first dimension here. Getting the job done did the Jewish people from their kavana to their kabbalah to their mice to their very handiwork. They got the job done. See, the entire safer Shemos, as they're in Bond, his very opening essay to Sefer Shamos.

27:08 He tells us that the whole Seifer Shamos comes after the book of creation, the book of Yetzirah. This is the book about the exile, the book about the bondage, the book about how Hashem took us out and how we're trying to get back to that original Hashra's Hashinah when God was hanging out with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the holy prophets. We want this close connection that we kind of lost in Saver Shemoz. So it's for this reason, we nay Gullus Enenu Neshlam. But gullus exile being dispersed isn't concluded. And it doesn't finally end until Adyam Shuvam El Makomam El Malas Avosam Yashuvu, until we get back to our place, to the spot and the spiritual stature of our fathers.

28:00 Even though we left from slavery, we still did not become home people. We didn't become a nation with a spot. We didn't become the Jewish nation. We're still Golem. We're still exiled. We didn't have a standing or a place. We were still wandering. Navukimba Midbar. Ukolo al Harsinai? Vasu a Mishgan, but only once we got the Torah and we built the Mishgan, Vishav Hakarish Boraku, and then God came back to dwell with us.

28:42 Then us, then and only then, Khazra Malasavosim, do we get back to our original glory? Shahaya Sayyidala Kai Allaya, Markava, and the Ramban talks a little bit esoteric. But the whole state for Shemosh, the reason the Ramban says it ends with this whole Mishkah narrative and doesn't just end. The Exodus, the book of Yetzias Mitzhaim, doesn't end after that the waters crash down upon the miksram, is because the goal is Hashra's Hashinah. And that doesn't happen until Besis Roel, until at the very end of Saver Shemos, Parsh's Pakude, when the Mishkun is built, Kashirtzivo Hashem Asmosha, and ultimately we win by having Hasra Hashhina that God says job well done.

29:31 So the Kashar tsivo Hashem Esmosha is putting the finishing touch, touches on everything. Getting the job done needs to be reiterated because this is the whole buildup of safer Shamos. We're trying to get back to finish what God told us to build so that He could dwell with us. And of course it needs to say the Jewish people. Wall, the Western Wall, the Eastern Wall, the Peroches, the intricate mitznefes, all of it, the Toras, the anointing oil, the wicks in the menorah, it all was done as a job well done.

30:19 This is the climax of the story. The goal in life, the rant, is that the question of Kash Ertsivo Hashem Esmoshe comes because we don't understand the gravity and the significance and the gratification that comes from the plain and the simple job well done. It's what the whole safer Shmos is climaxing with. That the Jewish people, they they did it, they got it done. Can you believe it? On all levels, as a nation, they built a heavenly Hashra Hashina-like Mishgun.

31:03 You can't just simply write it that Kasher tsiva, oh yeah, they got it all done. You know, the whole Mishgan, Azukash Art Tiv Hashem Smosha, you're missing each and every example is another mind-blowing accomplishment. It's where everything comes together over and over, a job well done. But that's in life. We really fail to understand this concept of the importance and the gratification of a job well done. We would all be happy if we understood how good it feels to just achieve the job well done.

31:45 To say to yourself late at night, when you're finally falling asleep, that God asked me to do a million things. And I did it. There's no feeling like that. Even on a very mundane level. Your wife asked you to stop at the grocery store, your boss asked you to sell this deal, negotiate this contract. Your father told you to deliver the case of water, whatever it is, but you can finally say to yourself and lay down, and you did it, a job well done. There's something deeply rewarding about that. We kind of forget about that.

32:27 We kind of seek in happiness in life. Too many of us seek happiness in life by the extras. That we look for the enjoyment and we look for the gratification and we look for the hannah, the deep internal satisfaction that should finally quell our souls' wants and desires by extravagant trips and vacations. But the only thing that truly calms and sustains and gratifies is when you actually can say that I acted today. Can you actually say that today I woke up and I acted?

33:09 I tied my shoes. Kashir Tsivo Hashem Esmosha. The Torah educates us in every aspect of our lives, that there's a way to get the job done. And it's our job to get it done. There's laws about this. If the teacher's male or female, when you should pick up on time, how? There's laws about how you should pick up your Lulav, your Eslerg, like your Minogra, how you should clean yourself with your left hand in the bathroom, how you should engage in intimacy at certain times and certain places. You should refrain from these types of actions in certain times and certain places.

33:50 You're taught how to get the job done when you learn Torah, when you eat, when you pray, when you sleep. Don't sleep on your back. There's laws about this. How to say Shema at nighttime, what to say when you wake up. Everything is there, and it's our job to get the deep satisfaction that we so badly need by simply earning Hashem's gold star of my little Yankel, my little Michal Schmuel, a job well done. When you get that sticker, and when you forget that all the other likes, that all the other followers, what everybody else wants you to say, what everybody else really thinks is cool, and you're trying to act for them, that will give you zero gratification.

34:40 The only thing that matters, the only thing that ever did matter, and the only thing that ever will matter, is that nothing else matters, other than Kasher, Tziva, Hashem, Esmosha, that you're working and you're striving and you're achieving and you're earning and you're working. All of it. It only matters. The only like and subscribe that matters is from the Boyre Olam. And that he should tell you, good job. Good job. You did it. You did it, Kash Yertsivo Hashem S Moshe. And for that reason, I would conclude that it tells us over and over a job well done.

35:23 Because a job well done in all of its glory is not easy. The mice with the intention. Doing it with fervor, doing it happy, doing it with sharing it, doing it in all of its glory in every giant tittle. That's what matters. These are our approaches. These three dimensions from the Orachaiim. An important Jewish mindset that we're trying to rant about and instill. These fundamental lessons that you should strive for really nothing else.

36:07 Other than to brandish every single action that you do in your day, with nothing else, other than a good job sticker from Hashem, with a like and subscribe from Hashem, that will give you the happiness you're looking for. And that's why the Torah tells us over and over about this incredible glory of the Jewish people that they acted 18 times over and over again with nothing else other than the beautiful, brandished action of Kasher Tziva Hashem Esmoshe.