Printed fromChabadElPaso.com
ב"ה

Rabbis' Blog

The first Jewish fundraising campaign in history

One of the first rules in fundraising is to articulate the cause before asking donors to participate. Which makes the opening verses of this week’s parsha quite perplexing. “Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering. And this is the offering that you shall take from them: gold, silver, and copper…”

Only after identifying all the materials being raised in this fundraiser, G-d explains the purpose of it all: “And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell within them.”

Would it not make more sense to begin the divine communication with a command to build a sanctuary and then continue with an appeal for donations?

Our sages teach us that Moshe, the first leader of the Jewish people, was the most perfect human being to ever live, in both physical and spiritual matters. He had tremendous wisdom and sensitivity as well as physical strength and beauty. In addition to all that, he was extremely wealthy.

It was possible, that when G-d instructed the Jews to construct the Sanctuary in the desert Moshe would insist on paying for the entire project on his own. Although it would be a tremendous merit and honor for Moshe to be the sole benefactor of G-d’s Holy Sanctuary, it would miss the entire point of the project. This was meant to be a community effort. G-d wanted every Jew to have a monetary stake in it.

Therefore, even before introducing the cause, G-d said “take a donation from every Jew.” Some will be able to give gold, others silver while others will only manage copper, but everyone must be represented. From then on, whenever the Jewish nation needed to embark on a mission to bring G-d’s presence into the world, everyone’s participation was necessary and encouraged.

Thank G-d, our mini “Holy Sanctuary” in El Paso is truly a community project and we are so grateful to the entire community for supporting Chabad and enabling us to continue pursuing the mission of bringing our glorious heritage to every Jew in the El Paso area.

Children are our future, and children need to play!

For over 20 years children attending Chabad's various programs and activities have been playing on the current playground behind the school area, and - thankfully! - the wear and tear is showing. The time has come to expand the playground area, replace the turf, and purchase and install brand-new play equipment.

Thanks to a group of 8 donors, on Sunday, February 18 at 10:00am we will be launching a special online campaign to raise $120,000 for the brand-new playground.

Every dollar you donate between Sunday, February 18 and Friday, February 23 to this campaign will be matched by this group of eight.

Please consider donating generously and help us provide our children with the perfect outdoor space to develop and grow in a nurturing, safe, fun, and loving environment. (You may also set up a payment plan.) Here is the link to the special Playground Campaign web page: chabadelpaso.com/play

Playground announcement.jpg 

We Must Always Be Happy

It is a Mitzvah to be happy.

That’s right. Just as we are commanded to keep the Kosher diet, light Shabbat candles, wrap Tefillin, and observe many other mitzvot, we are obligated to be happy all the time. Which begs the question, how is that even possible? Happiness is a mood and moods can heavily depend on circumstances that are often out of our control. Are we meant to ignore reality in order to keep our happiness barometer in check?

This Shabbat will be the first day of the month of Adar, the month in which we celebrate the epic holiday of Purim, commemorating our salvation from Haman’s genocidal plot approximately 2,500 years ago. Due to the unique machinations of the Jewish calendar, this year we will have two months of Adar. (Purim is celebrated in the second Adar, this year on March 23-24). In the context of Jewish celebrations and holidays, Purim is placed on the highest pedestal, as evidenced by the fact that the one-day celebration transforms the entire Adar into a joyous month.

In order to appreciate how the joy of Adar works without ignoring reality, we must preface that in Judaism we unfortunately have times of sadness and mourning. Tisha B’Av - the ninth day of the month of Av - is an intense fast day commemorating the destruction of both Holy Temples as well as several other national calamities we have never recovered from yet.

In the Talmudic tractate of Taanit which delineates the laws of communal fasting and supplication in times of drought, plague, or tragedy we find the following instruction: Just as when the month of Av begins one decreases rejoicing, so too when the month of Adar begins, one increases rejoicing.

On the surface this line is puzzling. If the Talmud wished to communicate that the month of Adar must be extra joyous, linking it to the sadness of Av and its tragedies is a real damper. Perhaps the Talmud could have simply written in the tractate Megillah, which deals with the laws of Purim and the story of our salvation from Haman, “When the month of Adar begins, increase in rejoicing.” 

When we appreciate how G-d, the creator of the universe, is in control of everything that happens and has our best interest in mind, it is possible to be truly happy - all the time. Because even the greatest tragedy is somehow integral to a grand master plan that will lead to the best results. Although we often don’t understand how it works, knowing that Divine Providence is at work allows us to keep our spirits high. 

Through the placement of the instruction about increasing joy during Adar and its literary syntax our sages teach us that joy in life is not limited to circumstances that are clearly joyful. They linked the increased joy we should experience in Adar because of our historic salvation to the decreased joy we experience in Av because of our historic tragedies, to express that even the most tragic of circumstances can and will one day be understood in a joyful context. And by investing tremendous effort to “increase in joy during the month of Adar” we set the stage for the month of Av with its historic tragedies and all other sad circumstances in our lives to be transformed into joyful moments, through the arrival of Moshiach, and the blessed era of redemption when peace and tranquility will reign for all.

 

Don’t Get Distracted

“Why doesn’t G-d speak to us nowadays?” I’m asked from time to time. Wouldn’t Torah learning and Mitzvah observance be much easier if we had direct divine communication? While I appreciate the sentiment of the question, the fact is G-d once spoke to us directly and we promptly demanded it never happen again. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn how this specific drama went down.

When the Israelites reached Mount Sinai after the miraculous exodus from Egyptian slavery 3336 years ago, Moshe prepared them for an important known as “Matan Torah - the Gifting of the Torah.” One of the main reasons for this event was to consolidate Moshe’s legitimacy in our eyes as G-d’s prophet. Approximately a year earlier, Moshe had his first divine communication at the burning bush. G-d instructed him to lead the Jews out of Egypt and serve as the conduit for the communication of the Torah and all the Mitzvot. He would perform many miracles to prove he was a real prophet and not a charlatan, but Moshe hesitated.

As Maimonides explains: Moshe, our teacher, knew that one who believes [in another person] because of signs has apprehension in his heart; he has doubts and suspicions. Therefore, he sought to be released from the mission, saying: "They will not believe me" [Exodus 4:1], until the Holy One, blessed be He, informed him that these wonders [were intended only as a temporary measure,] until they left Egypt. After they would leave, they would stand on this mountain (Sinai) and all doubts which they had about him would be removed. 

Realizing they would hear G-d speak to Moshe, the Jews requested G-d speak directly to them and that is what happened. At the appointed time, the Jews gathered around the mountain, and in a dazzling display of thunder, lightning, fire, and smoke G-d’s thundering voice was heard by the masses communicating the Ten Commandments. This is what happened next.

(Exodus 20:15-16) And all the people saw the voices and the torches, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain, and the people saw and trembled; so they stood from afar. They said to Moshe, "You speak with us, and we will hear, but let God not speak with us lest we die."

Hearing G-d directly might sound exciting and exotic but it’s an experience that robs one of any relationship with the material and physical world, a relationship crucial to accomplishing the purpose of creation in the first place. G-d wants humans of flesh and blood, anchored by the inadequacies and deficiencies of materialism forever challenged with moral dilemmas to be the agents to refine and uplift this world. So our lack of direct divine communication is not a bug in the system, it is a major feature of the system. Seeking exotic and otherworldly experiences is a distraction.

Once we’ve confirmed our prophets deliver real divine messages we can continue living in this mundane and lowly world and confidently go about the tremendous task of making it a better place in accordance with Torah's specific and detailed instructions. This is the true gift of the Torah.

 

 

Looking for older posts? See the sidebar for the Archive.