Donkeys and Tzedaka – Vayakhel-Pekudei
וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ אֹתוֹ הֵבִיאוּ אֶת תְּרוּמַת ה' לִמְלֶאכֶת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וּלְכָל עֲבֹדָתוֹ וּלְבִגְדֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ. וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל הַנָּשִׁים כֹּל נְדִיב לֵב הֵבִיאוּ חָח וָנֶזֶם וְטַבַּעַת וְכוּמָז כָּל כְּלִי זָהָב וְכָל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיף תְּנוּפַת זָהָב לַה'. (שמות לה, כא-כב).
Vayakhel and Pekudei seem like a repeat of Truma and Tezaveh – the same parts of the Mishkan, the same keilim - almost word for word. Hierarchically speaking Truma and Tetzaveh are the pre-project “plan”, while Vayakhel and Pekudei are the execution and the post-project “synopsis”. This week’s parsha may seem like a rehash of the “same old thing”, however, it fills in a lot of gaps in the previous parshiyot, about the building of the Mishkan.
Before we get to that, however, I would like to talk about donkeys, Libyan donkeys to be precise. The Gemara (Bechorot 5b) tells us that each person who left Egypt took with them 90 Libyan donkeys (famed for their ability to carry heavy loads), laden with the wealth of Egypt – gold, silver, copper, money, fabrics, clothing, etc. The Torah describes 600,000 people leaving Egypt, but that was only men over the age of 20. The total number, including women and children, was probably around 6 million. The Mefarshim say that 90 donkeys was the minimum, those who were "energetic" had even more than 90.
Going with the lower estimate of 90 donkeys per person, that is 90 X 5 million (excluding the small babies who couldn’t lead a donkey) = 450 million donkeys! Where Am Yisrael found such an astronomical number of donkeys in Egypt, is a question for another shiur. Each person old enough to walk marched out of Egypt leading a trail of 90 donkeys behind them, each donkey laden to the hilt with loot. When you think about it, there were more donkeys that left Egypt than people! (by a factor of 90). In our minds when we picture יציאת מצרים, we imagine the people, but in reality the people were swallowed up amongst the multitude of donkeys. It is a wonder that anyone could even hear שירת הים over the cacophonic braying of donkeys.
At קריעת ים סוף Am Yisrael added a few extra layers to these donkeys, after the sea spat out the Egyptians and all their additional treasures. Chazal say that the loot gathered at the Red Sea far outweighed that they left Egypt with. Poor donkeys, straining under all that weight …… (even if they were from Libya!). Why did HKB”H want us to leave with such huge volumes of material wealth? This is discussed in the shiur on Beshalach.
Let’s try to imagine the scene. Donkeys are not known to be cooperative animals. Each person has to run after all the slow-poke donkeys with a stick to get them to keep pace. One person’s donkeys are colliding with another person’s donkeys, treading on peoples’ toes. All these donkeys need to be fed and given water to drink! Each time they stop off on the way, they need to allow the donkeys to rest. They need to unload the tons of loot from their backs and reload them when they begin moving again!
And for what purpose was all this loot and bother? That they would be rich when they reached Eretz Yisrael? The Midrash in Kohelet Rabba (2, 8) describes how, after 40 years in the desert, when Am Yisrael conquered Eretz Yisrael, they discovered all the wealth of the former inhabitants hidden in the walls of the houses, wealth beyond compare that exceeded even that on their 90 donkeys.
Did they need it to build the Mishkan? If you do a calculation of exactly how much gold, silver, copper, techelet, etc. was needed in the entire Mishkan, it could have all be donated by just one person and the loot on his 90 donkeys. There was enough wealth in the desert to build 5 million Mishkans!
What could they do with all this gold, silver, copper, etc. in the desert? The answer is …… nothing! It was worthless! There was nothing to buy in the desert. They did not need money. They were getting free food, water, laundry, clothing, shoes, air conditioning …. They did not have to pay any taxes, no medical insurance, no tuition fees, no va’ad bayit, no utilities, no repairs, no maintenance, no plumbing, no cable TV, no petrol, no savings schemes, no vacations, no wedding halls and caterers …..
It was HKB”H’s original intention to “shlep” them through the desert with all these donkeys for only two years. However, because of the sin of the מרגלים, they got another 38 years added on. Forty years of lugging all this useless dead weight with them through the desert. Forty years of never ending labor and טרחה tending for the donkeys, giving them food and water, bandaging injuries from colliding (or being bitten) by other donkeys. Incessantly unloading and reloading the tons of useless dead weight every time they moved to another stop on the way!
It is incredible that Am Yisrael found any time to do anything non-donkey related, like studying Torah. And all this - for what??? Why did HKB”H want them to have to invest such a disproportionate amount of their time and energy on these donkeys?
In the shiur on Beshalach (above) I brought the principle that HKB”H wanted to instill in Am Yisrael a love of money (אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף), that they would later transfer and apply to studying Torah – that same “fire” and endless pursuit of money, channeled to a burning desire to study Torah.
However, there was another purpose. It was to teach Am Yisrael a lesson for ever more. That, in the larger scheme of things, material wealth is dead weight! It is useless. It is not simply a constant burden and טרחה, it is more like a constant nightmare! The amount and time and energy you have to invest in first acquiring it and then maintaining it can easily take over your life.
In the desert Am Yisrael were given a free ride! An all-expenses-paid trip! The thing they wanted to do more than anything else was to ditch these 90 donkeys, so they would have more time to spend on the more important things, but HKB”H said no! You have to drag these donkeys around with you wherever you go, like a noose around your neck, until you almost choke from it!
Later, when they entered Eretz Yisrael, after the free ride was over and they would have to begin working and paying their way, this lesson would remain emblazoned in their consciousness that they would never lose sight of what was really important and what was not (וַיִּשְׁמַן יְשֻׁרוּן וַיִּבְעָט). Even though their lives in Eretz Yisrael were blessed with Heavenly abundance and by today’s standards it was still pretty much a “free ride” (the Mefarshim say that people only needed to work 2 hours a day to make a parnasa), when it comes to money and material wealth it is a double edged sword.
On the one hand HKB”H wanted to instill in them a love for money which would then be transferred to a love for the Torah. At the same time HKB”H wanted to instill in them a hate for money and all the damage it can wreak if not compartmentalized in the appropriate priority.
After that introduction, we can begin the shiur.
In parshat Truma, HKB”H asks Am Yisrael to donate for the building of the Mishkan. זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּנְחֹשֶׁת. In איגרת הטיול (חלק הרמז אות ז), written by the brother of the Maharal, he says there are three types of donations.
The first type is called זָהָב, which is rashei teivot for זה הנותן בריא. This is the highest form of donation where a person gives simply out of the goodness of their heart. Everything in his life is going well and he just wants to thank HKB”H.
The second type is called כֶסֶף, rashei teivot for כשיש סכנת פחד. A person notices a lump chas vechalila. His doctor believes that it is nothing serious, but sends him for an MRI just to make sure. All of a sudden this person doesn’t sleep so soundly at night, so just to “put in a good word”, he calls his favorite charity and makes a nice donation. Just in case.
The third and lowest form is called נְחֹשֶׁת, rashei teivot for נתינת חולה שאמר תנו. This is already after the MRI which found a not-so-good result and the doctor advises him to start getting his affairs in order. Chazal say צדקה תציל ממות, so he donates as a last ditch effort.
In this week’s parsha, it sums up and elaborates further who donated to the Mishkan.
On the passuk כָּל אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ, the Malbim asks “What is the difference between נְשָׂאוֹ לִבּוֹ and נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ? The Malbim goes on to explain that the רוח is more elevated than the לב. The רוח draws inspiration directly from the neshama and transfers it to the לב which is the instrument of choice and action. Some people have a generous רוח, an elevated inner sense of generosity, but when it gets to the level of the לב, their generosity is not translated into action because greed and a love of money hinder it. Other people do not have an inner sense of generosity in their רוח, but their לב is generous and they dish out money left right and center, because money is not important to them. The Malbim says that the passuk comes to include both types of generosity and to teach us that true generosity, the type required for donating to the Mishkan is when the רוח and the לב are in sync.
The Malbim then brings a chiddush, that there were poor people in Am Yisrael, who did not have anything to donate, which seemingly contradicts the 90 donkey per person theory above (perhaps they did leave with 90 donkeys, but something happened to them on the way and all was lost?). The Malbim says these people could not donate with their לב, only with their רוח. They did not have the physical money to donate, but they had the inner will to donate. They imagined that if they had the actual money, they would donate it. HKB”H, who sees inside a person’s neshama, considered it as if they had donated actual money and this donation was a more elevated donation than if they would have donated actual money.
And if you think it was just the men who donated וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל אִישׁ, the next passuk וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל הַנָּשִׁים comes to teach us that this was not the case. It was first the women who donated and only afterwards did the men tag along. The Malbim continues to contrast donating to the Mishkan with חטא העגל. With the עגל, the women were unwilling to part with their jewelry, so much so that their husbands had to rip it out of their ears in their misguided enthusiasm to create the עגל. However the women were the first to part with their valuables when it was for a holy cause, like the Mishkan. Rabbeinu Bachyei says that this is what Shlomo meant in Kohelet when he said אדם אחד מאלף מצאתי ואשה בכל אלה לא מצאתי, that not a woman was to be found in חטא העגל. This is why only the men died in the desert, not the women.
Hundreds of sefarim and shiurim have been written on the subject of Tzedaka, each with its own unique insight into this important mitzva. At the heart of Tzedaka, however, is the fundamental lesson described above. People mistakenly think that the money is theirs to give or not.
The word חמור in the Torah is an allegory. It is not only referring to the physical animal, but primarily to the concept of חומריות, materialism. This is relevant to Avraham’s חמור, when he left the נערים, Yishmael and Eliezer, with the חומריות and only took Yitzchak to the Akeida. It is relevant to Bilam’s חמור, his craving for material possessions. It is similarly relevant to the 90 Libyan חמורים that Am Yisrael each left Egypt with and that HKB”H used to teach us a lesson with in the Midbar.
All the material wealth in the world does not “belong” to us, it belongs to HKB”H, we are simply its temporary custodians. Every shekel has an address. The fact that you have a certain “collection” of these shekels in your bank account is because HKB”H wants them to be there. If they arrived there בזכות, they have a higher chance of remaining there. If not, then their continued presence there is tenuous at best. HKB”H ultimately decides where every shekel (dollar, euro, yen, etc.) is best allocated, and for how long. מקרני ראמים עד ביצי כינים every creature in this world gets exactly their right “dose” of parnasa from HKB”H, at every point in time. HKB”H knows exactly what we need at every specific point in time and makes sure we have it. It is pointless to compare ourselves to others. Every person needs something different at a specific point. Some need to be rich, some need to be poor, some need to be in the middle. HKB”H orchestrates it so that at every specific point in time, we have exactly what we need to allow us to most effectively fix what needs fixing in our neshama.
This is not to nullify השתדלות. HKB”H never left us in the desert, in the “free ride” cocoon that we enjoyed after leaving Egypt, which the spies wanted to perpetuate. HKB”H brought us to Eretz Yisrael where we would have to work for our parnasa, but preserve the same set of priorities we acquired in the desert regarding material wealth.
HKB”H wanted to prevent the avoda zara of כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי עָשָׂה לִי אֶת הַחַיִל הַזֶּה. When someone works for their parnasa, the danger exists that they will correlate their parnasa with the level of their השתדלות. A person may mistakenly think “If I work harder I will get more money, it is all dependent on me!” They remove HKB”H from the equation. This is a form of idol worship.
“But”, you may say, “Many people who work harder do earn more money!” This does not mean that HKB”H is necessarily happy with them. He gave the נחש all the riches in the world, all the food he could possibly want without ever having to ask HKB”H for anything – because HKB”H did not want any relationship with the נחש at all. Increased revenue, on its own, is not a litmus test for HKB”H’s satisfaction with us or lack thereof. Often davka the opposite, sometimes HKB”H challenges us financially because He loves us more and wants us to merit more זכויות in Olam Habah, and less in this world.
HKB”H says to us in no uncertain terms, this is My money not yours, you just happen to be in temporary possession of it. I want you to use this money to fulfill your intended purpose in life, but also to help others (sometimes helping others is your intended purpose).
However, the Torah gives us a “measure”, it does not encourage excess, not in a positive way nor in a negative way. HKB”H does not want us to be פזרנים, dishing our money out recklessly like water and as a result ending up in financial crisis. Neither does HKB”H want us to be קמצנים, unwilling to “part with our brass”. This is why the Torah set a measure, מעשר, a tenth of our profits should be given to Tzedaka.
HKB”H does not want us to despise material possessions. Anything earned honestly must be valued. Yaakov Avinu, before returning home from Lavan, went back to retrieve פכים קטנים, some inexpensive pots, because if HKB”H gave them to him, then they were to be valued, despite their insignificant monetary value.
Similarly, when we give Tzedaka, it must be done wisely. There are priorities to whom to give Tzedaka.
The passuk says כִּי תִרְאֶה חֲמוֹר שֹׂנַאֲךָ רֹבֵץ תַּחַת מַשָּׂאוֹ וְחָדַלְתָּ מֵעֲזֹב לוֹ עָזֹב תַּעֲזֹב עִמּוֹ. When we see our enemy’s donkey straining under its load, HKB”H commands us to help him to reduce the load. If “donkey” is an allegory then this passuk is teaching us in equal measure what to do when we see someone whose financial situation is “straining under the load”. We are commanded to help them reduce the load – by giving financial assistance, a loan, Tzedaka, etc. The passuk is very specific. We have to help even our worst enemy (this is referring to a fellow Jew, not to an Arab terrorist), not only those people we like and have a good relationship with. In fact if we have the choice of giving the help to our best friend or our worst enemy, we are obliged to first give it to our enemy (Bava Metziah 32b). And it has to be עִמּוֹ. The person we are helping has to also pitch in, they cannot stand idly by while we do all the work.
We need to check, to the best of our ability, whom to give Tzedaka. I say “to the best of our ability”, because our human logic is limited and while we may think that one person is more deserving than another, maybe HKB”H has other considerations. However, we must make the minimum effort, with our limited שכל, and leave the rest up to HKB”H. Every shekel has an address and HKB”H ensures that every shekel will end up where it is meant to be, regardless of our intentions.
Finally, not all Tzedaka is monetary. רֹבֵץ תַּחַת מַשָּׂאוֹ straining under the load, also means someone whose “moral” bank account is deficient. If we see a fellow Jew who is lacking in Torah, even if that person is our worst enemy, we are davka obligated to help him first, to reduce the “burden” and give moral “Tzedaka”, to shower love on them and through that, help them find their way back to the path of the Torah. Money is not really ours, neither is Torah, it all belongs to HKB”H and we are commanded to be generous with it, both in our רוח and in our לב, even toward those we do not feel are fitting to receive it. We are obliged to take the first step and then hopefully it will be עִמּוֹ, a mutual and reciprocated effort.
I do not think that any words are more appropriate for the troubled times we are living in. We can either act like donkeys, or learn from them.
