Friday, 28 February 2020

Miller's MusingsParshas Terumah: Crazy Rich

BS'D

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This week’s Miller’s Musings is sponsored
לעילוי נשמת
לאה בת אברהם
Quote of the Week:
Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.”

Miller’s Musings
 תרומהפרשת 
Crazy Rich
If there’s one thing the Jewish people have always excelled at, it is giving.  Throughout history, individuals and organisations have been there to provide for the destitute and support those in need.  The donations for the materials to construct the Mishkon and its utensils was something that every Jew was asked to participate in.  Rather curiously though, our Sages tell us that Moshe was instructed to ask the Jewish people in a manner meant to appease the loss of money that would be incurred.  This would beg the question why this would be necessary.  After their plundering of Egypt and the spoils they amassed at the Red Sea, they certainly had enough riches. Would it really require appeasement for them to contribute towards one of the greatest endeavors they would ever embark upon? To bring G-d into this world to ‘live’ amongst us.

Hashem asking them to be a part of this magnificent enterprise was perhaps a way of ensuring that they were personally and profoundly invested in this Sanctuary.  Giving of themselves towards its creation meant that each individual felt directly connected to the resting place of Hashem.  Every Jew must have seen this and understand its significance and yet they seemingly still needed placating.  This enigma, says the Saba MiKelm, is one more example of the power of the Yetzer Horah, our Evil Inclination and his ability to not only convince us to do that which we anyway desire, but even to bring us to the point of madness and lose all rational thought.  It is able to blind the eyes of the most sagacious of people and confuse even the most judicious, in particular when things we value, such as money, are threatened.  It was this realm of insanity from which the Jewish people had to be extracted through the careful words chosen by Moshe.  It is from within this folly of the jurisdiction of the Yetzer Horah that we must escape by whatever means are necessary, whenever we fall prey to his deceits.

Knowing the tremendous power of our own Evil Inclination is incredibly important on two levels.  It firstly allows us to understand ourselves and the foolishness that we are capable of, no matter how astute or learned we might think we are.  Nobody is unsusceptible to the stupidity and complete lack of integrity that it has the ability to wreak in our lives, especially when it comes to defending that which we hold dear, such as our family, friends or anything we have invested time into.  This is something we must be aware of, alert to, and look for, so that we can seek means to overcome it.  But secondly it may give us some insight into the behaviour of others that seem to scream at us as misplaced, blatantly improper, or emphatically immoral.  It may help us to somehow understand when we are let down or mistreated so cruelly by another.  For when it is something that means so much to them, the Yetzer Horah can grab hold of a person and drag them to a place that reason may not enter.  We may see it more clearly in others, but we must be vigilant to see it in ourselves too.

*May this Shabbos open our eyes to who we are and who others are too*
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