Thursday, February 27, 2014
Parshas Pekudei: Our Service to G-d never Ends
10:21 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"All the work of the Mishkan, the Tent of Meeting, was completed, and the Children of Israel had done everything that Hashem commanded Moshe so did they do" (Exodus 39:32)
After finishing everything in the Mishkan why was it necessary to say that they did everything the G-d had commanded? Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita in Chochmah V'Da'as explains that sometimes rich people think to themselves that after they give charity they have done a tremendous thing. At the same time, though they don't think to be so careful in mitzvah observance since they think G-d will look the other way because of the charity they have just given. The Torah here comes to teach us that after donating to the building of the Mishkan and doing everything that G-d commanded, they continued to do G-d's will.
Rav Sternbuch then continues and tells us a story that occurred during World War 2. There was an ultra orthodox man from England that was drafted in the English army and daily he flew to bomb different places in Germany. On one of his free days, he went to visit Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky z"l.
Rav Abramsky asked the man how he was doing religiously with everything this man had to do. The man answered him that he kept kosher but he admitted that he smoke on shabbos. He reasoned that because he was doing such a great mitzvah by putting himself in danger every day to bomb the Germans and destroy a great enemy of the Jewish people that G-d would forgive him for smoking on Shabbos.
The rav answered him and said that after 120 years you will have to give an accounting of your actions to G-d and you will find two books there. One book it will be written the great mitzvah you did by putting yourself in danger every day to bomb the Germans. In the second book it will be written that you desecrated shabbos by smoking in a case where it is not permitted, which is a tremendous transgression.
You will not be able to bribe G-d with the great mitzvah that you did to overlook the serious infraction of desecrating shabbos. Rather each action a person will be judged by itself. This means that you will get great reward for the mitzvah that you did but you will be punished severely as well for desecrating shabbos if you do not do proper teshuvah.
This is what the verse here is teaching us. Even though everything in the Mishkan was finished and the great mitzvah the people did by donating to it was finished, nonetheless they continued their strong mitzvah observance as our pasuk testifies to.
This is a lesson for all of us. Even if we do great things, it does not mean that our job is over. We have to keep striving working on ourselves and our mitzvah observance.
Shabbat Shalom
After finishing everything in the Mishkan why was it necessary to say that they did everything the G-d had commanded? Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita in Chochmah V'Da'as explains that sometimes rich people think to themselves that after they give charity they have done a tremendous thing. At the same time, though they don't think to be so careful in mitzvah observance since they think G-d will look the other way because of the charity they have just given. The Torah here comes to teach us that after donating to the building of the Mishkan and doing everything that G-d commanded, they continued to do G-d's will.
Rav Sternbuch then continues and tells us a story that occurred during World War 2. There was an ultra orthodox man from England that was drafted in the English army and daily he flew to bomb different places in Germany. On one of his free days, he went to visit Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky z"l.
Rav Abramsky asked the man how he was doing religiously with everything this man had to do. The man answered him that he kept kosher but he admitted that he smoke on shabbos. He reasoned that because he was doing such a great mitzvah by putting himself in danger every day to bomb the Germans and destroy a great enemy of the Jewish people that G-d would forgive him for smoking on Shabbos.
The rav answered him and said that after 120 years you will have to give an accounting of your actions to G-d and you will find two books there. One book it will be written the great mitzvah you did by putting yourself in danger every day to bomb the Germans. In the second book it will be written that you desecrated shabbos by smoking in a case where it is not permitted, which is a tremendous transgression.
You will not be able to bribe G-d with the great mitzvah that you did to overlook the serious infraction of desecrating shabbos. Rather each action a person will be judged by itself. This means that you will get great reward for the mitzvah that you did but you will be punished severely as well for desecrating shabbos if you do not do proper teshuvah.
This is what the verse here is teaching us. Even though everything in the Mishkan was finished and the great mitzvah the people did by donating to it was finished, nonetheless they continued their strong mitzvah observance as our pasuk testifies to.
This is a lesson for all of us. Even if we do great things, it does not mean that our job is over. We have to keep striving working on ourselves and our mitzvah observance.
Shabbat Shalom
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