Parshas Terumah

The Love you Take

(Insights from this week’s Portion: Terumah)

By Jon Erlbaum

· This Week’s RRR (Relevant Religious Reference): “Speak to the Jewish people and have them take for Me (G-d) an offering” – Exodus, 25:2

· This Week’s SSC (Suitable Secular Citation): “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” – The Beatles (in what was essentially their closing sentiment in their collective career as a Band*)

BATTLE OF THE BRITS

What a dilemma! I almost went another route in deciding which “suitable secular citation” would occupy the headline spot above. But in the end, it was hard to Beat the Beatles,so I decided to give them center stage. Nevertheless, the runner-up quote – also articulated by a prominent British chap – is worth mentioning here as well, as it eloquently echoes an essential theme in this week’s Portion: the great Winston Churchill said that “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

TZEDAKA & BOLSTERING OUR BANK ACCOUNTS

Both of these ideas mirror a fundamental principle regarding Tzedaka gleaned from our Torah Portion. G-d instructs the Jews to take a donation for the building of the Tabernacle. Since it is clear that He is directing the Jews to give a donation, why use the strange language “take” a donation? By using this language, the Torah is offering us a profound insight: when we give to someone else, we are also “taking” on behalf of ourselves. In fact, givers gain more from giving than their recipients gain from receiving! True, we are ideally supposed to give out of pure and altruistic motivations. But for the times that we can’t seem to summon up the purest intentions, it’s helpful to be aware of the rewards so that we’ll continue doing the right thing (in keeping with the Torah principle “Lo Lishmah, Bo Lishmah”: do the right thing even when you’re “not purely motivated”, and eventually the “pure motivations will come”).

Jewish sources tell us that some of the personal benefits of giving accrue in the here and now! Aside from the good feelings that come along with generous actions, we are even told that charity can help increase our bank account (which is why Jewish wisdom teaches that when we are having financial difficulties, one of the remedies may very well be to give MORE Tzedaka)! In other words, to build off of Churchill’s quote above, we can even help ourselves to make a LIVING by what we give! How? Because some of the money we are given is supposed to be channeled through us and passed on to others as Tzedaka. So when we keep that money – effectively clogging the pipeline – we are blocking new funds from entering into our jurisdiction. But each time we give Tzedaka, we allow the passage of new resources to flow again through the other end**.

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU???

Have you ever heard the phrase “you can’t take it with you”? Is it true? Let’s briefly examine this idea wearing our Jew lenses: is it possible to have money and valuables buried with us in our graves? Sure! Will they be of any use to us on our next leg of the journey***? Surely not! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we can’t send a wire transfer to the next world, and it won’t help to write ourselves a check to cash (in hopes of depositing it on the other side). Our currency simply has no value in the next world.

But fortunately, an awesome transformation takes place when we give Tzedaka: because it’s a Mitzvah, Tzedaka effectively converts our dollars into spiritual currency that has everlasting value in the world to come. The same is true for other Mitzvahs and acts of giving that we perform here: they are redeemable as priceless eternal rewards (which go infinitely further than frequent flyer miles). So is it true that “you can’t take it with you”? That all depends on what the “it” is. Ironically, the only money we really CAN take with is the money we give away (or use for Mitzvahs/acts of kindness). One woman – who obviously knew this concept well – requested in her Will to be buried not with her money, but with her charitable receipts****. Giving provides the ultimate win-win-win scenario: it allows us to help those in need, to bolster our bank accounts, and to “take it with us” in the process. …Which leads us right back to the words of our legendary Fab Four: “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

Have a Wonderful Shabbos! Love, Jon & The Chevra

*As an aside, I highly recommend viewing the spectacular video of juggling sensation Chris Bliss, as he expressively juggles to the very Beatles medley that our quote is taken from. The clip is 4-plus minutes, and it starts getting unbelievable about 1 or 2 minutes into it. Make sure your volume is up: http://www.sonnyradio.com/chrisbliss.html.

** Rabbi Aaron from Isralight

*** The concept of our future journey – i.e. the Next World – is an under- publicized yet essential principle of Jewish belief

**** As told by Rabbi Avi Geller, from Aish.com

Jon Erlbaum The Chevra

Text Copyright © 2009 by Jon Erlbaum and Torah.org