Terumah: Build It Yourself

The hammer strikes. 

Again. 

And again. 

Wood splits. 

Shoulders burn. 

The room smells like sweat and sawdust. 

The first cuts are always ugly. 

Hands ache with every move.

But then it's done. 

The same man who braved the splinters begins to measure carefully, slowly. 

He studies the grain. 

The labor that felt brutal becomes craft. 

The craft becomes pride. 

Even if no one will ever buy it.

Only because he built it with his own hands.

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Yetzias Mitzram was the rescue. 

Maimid Har Sinai was the revelation. 

And Terumah… it is construction.

Until now, Hashem did everything. 

The Makkos. Krias Yam Suf. Thunder and fire on the mountain. 

Hashem’s voice split the sky.

And then, wood. Measurements. Threads. Labor. 

With sleeves rolled up, work begins.

I think most people naturally prefer the miracles. 

Terumah feels like work.

The Sfas Emes writes that before the Eigel, Klal Yisroel could exist above nature. it was natural to ‘be holy.'

After the Chet, and we lost it all, Hashem performed a kindness for us. 

He allowed the radiance of Torah to descend into the realm of 'Asiyah,' of action. 

וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם

The Mishkan represents Torah clothed in asiyah. 

He says that now it becomes possible to draw down the illuminations of the Torah into action.

You want light? 

Move your hands.

Do you truly want the Mishkan inside? 

Then take what you heard at Har Sinai and build it.

I know that for myself, I would rather consume Torah than construct.

I would rather feel moved than move. 

You know those services where you can pay them to build the furniture you bought? 

I’m like that. 

I would rather hire someone to assemble the furniture.

Click a button. Someone builds it for you.

That's how I want my Torah and my Tefilah. 

But you cannot outsource your Mishkan.

How often do we tell ourselves, "As long as I’m in the system, I’m stable"? 

But Hashem does not manufacture commercialized souls. 

He demands of us to create bespoke lives.

The Nefesh HaChaim thunders against this small-mindedness. 

A person must never say, “What am I? What power do my small actions have?” 

Every thought, every word, and every deed rises and affects the highest worlds. 

"Do not think the main intention was the external Mikdash. The entire design was to hint to you that you must make yourself worthy for the Shechinah to dwell within you.”

The Mishkan was never about a building.

It was about you.

You can be very comfortable living in other people’s structures.

It's so much easier. 

Other people’s movements. Other people’s mehalech.

We flatten ourselves to fit their preselected styles. 

If it doesn’t fit, we assume something is wrong with us.

But the Torah gives you foundations, not a franchise.

Yes, there is a framework that is the same for everyone. 

We need to stay structured.

The silver sockets were made from the Machtzis Hashekel everyone had to give, equally. 

This is Halacha. Boundaries. Non-negotiables. 

Every Yid keeps Shabbos and guards his mouth.

That is the floor.

But the walls? 

That’s you.

The inner beauty of the curtains? 

That’s you.

The outer coverings that protect from wind and ignorant mockery? 

That’s your bitch.

The moment you let someone else build for you is the moment you die. 

Some of you have never even lived.

So where do you start?

There is a path. 

And it's something you already know but perhaps were never allowed to think. 

Pirkei Avos teaches us, “על שלושה דברים העולם עומד, על התורה על העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים."

If you want to begin building for yourself, begin there.

Torah.

Not the Torah that trends. 

Find something that is yours. 

A sefer that grips you. 

You can’t borrow fire forever.

Avodah.

Learn to speak to Hashem. 

Even if only for five minutes in the car before you walk into the house after a long day. 

Bring the real you. 

Not some performance someone else demanded of you. 

The siddur is a map, but you must walk on your own. 

Talk to Him directly like you would a person you know. 

Just speak.

Gemilus Chassadim.

Do something. 

Show up. 

Carry something. 

Visit someone. 

Help someone who irritates you. 

Get your ego dirty.

Writing a check does not exempt you. 

You cannot pay someone to build this part.

So now you have the first beam.

Just keep building from there and don't stop.

We live in this prepackaged world where it’s easier to control manufactured lives. 

It’s harder to predict the man who built his world by hand.

But it is the artisan that makes the most beautiful things. 

You need to be the artisan of your life. 

This is what Hashem demands of you. 

I worry sometimes that I don’t do this. 

Like so many organizations that start with a spark of fire but cool in the ice of conformity. 

Where ego demands you fall in line with someone else's project instead of you forging your own. 

I worry that this brand, Gibor, will become just another structure you live inside of instead of making it your own.

I am not impervious to this. 

I really want all of Klal Yisroel to go to thegibor.org and get a paid subscription. It's only $9.99 a month. 

God knows I need the money. 

It would be easy for me to demand you follow me and no one else. 

That everyone else is wrong, and only I have the correct way for you. 

But right now when my heart is clear and my ego is still not yet clouded, I want you to know that I only want you to build a Mishkan that is yours. 

Take from me what helps.

Leave what doesn’t. 

Go to the Yam Shel Torah and dive in yourself.

The Shechinah does not dwell in fabricated slogans. 

It dwells in men who build.

So stop waiting for another Har Sinai, Krias Yamsuf, or whatever external thing you think is the source of your motivation.

Pick up the hammer.

And build it yourself.

If you don’t build your own Mishkan, you will always live in someone else’s.

This is the first Parsha essay I am sending with the new platform. Please let me know what you think!

Also, I plan to make two mini books. One on Practical Bitachon, and the other on Shovavim.

The Shovavim material will usually be behind a paywall, as I kind of went off the reservation with that, and most chevra (not you guys) won't be able to handle it, but I will keep both these first two mini books free until I hit 100 subscribers. Then it will be locked away.

Please let me know which one you'd like me to work on first. The Bitachon, or the Shovavim?

Here is the print version of this Dvar again:

Have an incredible Shabbos!