FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 | 49

SPIRIT

Value of Spirituality
M

oses not only 
served as the 
rabbi of the 
Israelites, but he also did 
the fundraising, collecting 
the gold, silver, copper 
… for the construction 
and upkeep of the 
Sanctuary. 
There is, however, 
one difficult phrase 
in our biblical 
portion. God 
commands Moses 
to tell the children 
of Israel to “take” 
gift offerings for the 
Sanctuary; ought not 
the proper verb be to 
“give” gift offerings 
for the Sanctuary?
The expected 
verbal usage is that 
the donor “gives” gifts and 
the recipient “takes.”
I once heard that the 
individual donor must first 
give his gift to the gizbar or 
treasurer of the Sanctuary; 
the treasurer represents 
the entire Knesset Yisrael 
(congregation of Israel), 
accepting the gift-offering 
on their behalf. The donor 
then takes the gift which 
no longer belongs to him 
but rather to communal 
Israel and presents it to 
the Sanctuary on behalf of 
“Israel entire.” 
What made Moses such a 
successful fundraiser? Rabbi 
Yosef Yoizl of Navardok 
founded 180 yeshivot in 
Eastern Europe between the 
two World Wars. He had a 
student who fell short of his 
yeshivah’s standards, and he 
gently insisted that he leave. 
Another rosh yeshivah 
accepted the student to his 
institution. This time, he 

barely made the grade, but 
not long afterwards, left 
the yeshivah and went on 
to become a very wealthy 
businessman. Rav Yosef 
Yoizl visited with his former 
student and received a gift 
of 1 million rubles to 
open another yeshivah. 
When the rosh 
yeshiva who had 
taken in the failed 
student came to visit 
his former pupil, he 
had extremely high 
expectations of the 
gift he would receive, 
but he only got 18 
rubles. He bitterly 
complained, to which 
he received the 
following reply: “When 
Rav Yosef Yoizl visited 
me, he showed disdain for 
my fine furniture, and he 
spoke of Torah learning as 
the highest value. Through 
his presence, my money 
lost all value for me; I 
gladly gave him a million 
rubles. But when you 
entered my home, I saw 
how your eyes glowed in 
amazement at my expensive 
furniture. You called me by 
the honorific title “reb” —
certainly not because of my 
Torah knowledge. In your 
presence, my money gained 
in value, and so I could 
barely part with 18 rubles!” 
Moses had no interest in 
the gold, silver or precious 
stones. He understood that 
the material objects were 
only a means to inspire 
to ultimate values of 
spirituality. 

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor 

of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of 

Efrat, Israel.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Shlomo 
Riskin

Parshat 

Terumah: 

Exodus

25:127:19;

I Kings

5:26-6:13.

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