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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A patient comes to the dentist and opens his mouth.

“What’s this?!” the dentist exclaims, “You don’t have any natural teeth at all, you only have gold teeth!”

“That’s right,” the man replies, “I wanted you to install an alarm system for me.”

DECKED OUT IN GOLD

In this week’s parsha, Parshas Tetzaveh, the Torah commands us regarding the making of the priestly garments for the kohanim. Four garments for the regular kohen, and eight garments for the kohen gadol. Making the garments was difficult work that required great wisdom and enormous skill, and it was not for nothing that only the “wise-hearted” like Betzalel and Oholiav were able to precisely prepare these garments according to the Torah’s requirements.

This week we’ll focus on a simple question with a Kabbalistic flavor. The eight garments of the kohen gadol were made primarily of gold, and the Sages refer to them as the “bigdei zahav” [golden garments] But why specifically gold? Why not silver or any other metal?

This question is intensified all the more in light of the Kabbalistic significance and the spiritual difference between the metals, gold and silver. The spiritual level associated with the metal called ‘silver’ (kesef) is the sefira of Chesed, which also represents the emotion of love and longing for G-d. The word “kesef” also serves as the root for the word “kisuf,” which indicates a strong yearning and the soul’s longing to return and connect to its Father in Heaven. The kohen is also called in Kabbalistic terminology: ish ha’chesed – “man of chesed,” and if an ordinary kohen is called “man of chesed,” then the kohen gadol is the man of chesed in capital letters, as mentioned in the verse: “Your Tumim and Urim for ish chasidecha [Your pious man].” So if silver symbolizes the sefira of Chesed, and the kohen symbolizes the sefira of Chesed, then it would be fitting for the kohen (gadol) to wear silver garments – garments of chesed, and not golden garments!

This question was already asked in the Zohar (Part 1, 217a) and the substance of the explanation there (according to the Zohar’s commentators) is that due to the honor of the priesthood, and especially due to the honor of the kohen gadol (who is compared there to G-d Himself), it is not appropriate to use secondary/cheap metals like silver or copper. For the honor of the priesthood, as well as for the honor of G-d, it is fitting to use the very best, and therefore the kohen (gadol) must wear golden garments.

In the following lines we will try to give a summary of a deep and wonderful explanation by the Tzemach Tzedek (Ohr HaTorah Shemos chelek 5), which also reveals the connection between making the priestly garments from gold and the true and complete Geula.

We explained above that the root of silver is from the sefira of Chesed, and therefore silver also symbolizes love and longing for G-d (kesef from the language of kisuf) because the inner essence of chesed is love. What is the root of gold? And what does it symbolize in spirituality?

The root of gold is from the sefira of Binah, which belongs to the world of intellect and understanding, while silver (Chesed) belongs to the world of emotions and feelings. In Chassidus it is explained that the existence of the world comes specifically through G-d’s attributes. Therefore, the world was created in six days as a symbol of the six attributes that were partners in its creation. Each day represents a different attribute: Sunday – Chesed, Monday – Gevura, Tuesday – Tiferes, and so on.

In contrast, the world of intellect, the understanding and comprehension of G-d, are above relation to the world. G-d’s intellect, the sefiros of ChaBaD, were given to us in the Torah, which is above the world and also preceded the world, as is known from the words of our Sages. This is how the Tzemach Tzedek explains the words of the Medrash, that “the world was not worthy to use gold, and why was it created? For the sake of the Beis HaMikdash!” The world is not worthy to use gold, because the root of gold comes from the sefira of Binah, which is above the root of the world. The only reason there is gold in the world is for purposes of holiness, whose spiritual root reaches above the root of the world, and therefore it was possible, fitting, and necessary to use gold for building the Mishkan, the Mikdash, and making the priestly garments.

GOLD TICKET HOME

In light of the above, the Tzemach Tzedek quotes the wonderful words of the Arizal regarding the future Geula. The Arizal (Pri Etz Chaim, Shaar Chag HaMatzos) explains the words of the Navi Yeshaya regarding the Geula: “For you were sold for nothing, and you shall not be redeemed with silver/money” (Yeshaya 52:3). The future Geula will not be a Geula of silver and it will not come through silver. Everyone understands that the future Geula cannot be bought with money, because if it were possible, we would probably already have found some wealthy people who could pour out a few hundred million (or billions) and we would bring the Geula by force. But what is a silver-type Geula that the prophet has to negate? And what’s so bad about Geula from silver – the main thing is Geula, no?!

The current exile is called “for nothing” (chinam), as cited above from the verse in Yeshaya. The reason for this is that the kelipa and impurity are called by the name “chinam” (free), they are ready to give immediate gratification to anyone who asks, as long as the person sins (G-d forbid). The impurity and kelipa present themselves as the person’s best friend, like one who is willing to give him everything immediately and for free, but afterward comes the time when you have to pay, and dearly…

[Like an easy and immediate loan, but with high interest, that ultimately will destroy the person…]

And since our exile is “free,” along with the pretense that the kelipa and impurity are doing “chesed” with the person, therefore “you shall not be redeemed with silver” – it is impossible to be redeemed from this exile through silver – Chesed, we need gold – Binah.

We cannot be redeemed by G-d doing us a “free” chesed, a gesture, or favor; we need to purify ourselves, refine our soul attributes, and thereby merit a Geula of gold, a Geula that we truly and genuinely deserve!

The Tzemach Tzedek brings support for this from an interesting Gemara. In the verse it states: “Listen to me, you stalwart of heart, who are far from tzedaka [which can mean charity or righteousness]” (Yeshaya 46:12). Why would the Navi want to speak to people who are far from righteousness – considering that it is a despicable trait?

The Gemara (Brachos 17b) explains that the Navi’s intention is “the entire world is sustained by charity – tzedaka, and they are sustained by strength.” That is, the entire world is sustained by G-d’s charity and not because they truly deserve it, not because they truly have merit. But the “stalwart of heart,” the true righteous ones (the Gemara there gives an example of Rabi Chanina ben Dosa, who was famous for his righteousness) are “far from charity” – they are far from G-d’s charity, because they are sustained by their own merits, they truly deserve it, and how they deserve it!

A Geula of silver is a Geula without merit, a Geula of the poor, a Geula they don’t truly deserve. This is a Geula where G-d does us “free chesed (silver).” We don’t want such a Geula! We want a Geula of gold, a Geula in which we are “far from charity,” a Geula that we truly deserve, as a result of our work throughout the duration of the exile.

The Tzemach Tzedek promises that then, in the era of Geula, after all the refinements and elevations, all of Israel will be at such a high spiritual level, like the greatest righteous ones in previous generations.

This is the reason that the garments of the kohen gadol were made of gold, because they are a hint to the future Geula which is a Geula of gold, a Geula of a higher spiritual level, and the Geula in which the people of Israel receive what they truly and genuinely deserve!

The Rebbe explained many times in his sichos that after everything the Jewish people went through in recent generations, the decrees and slaughters, each one of us is “a brand plucked from the fire,” and therefore every deed, word, or thought of fulfilling Torah and mitzvos is considered by G-d as of enormous value. And after so many years of exile, “the work of refinements – birurim – has been completed and finished” and therefore all of Israel is already at the level of “gold,” and therefore we deserve a Geula of gold!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

And we’ll end with a story of how every Jew is gold. R’ Dovid Schurder from England, a businessman in the textile industry, travels the world on business trips, and his beloved practice is to locate Jews in the places he visits. He had extensive business in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, with about thirty million residents, all Muslims.

He arrived at an ancient shul in the city. While searching for a way to enter the building, a woman came out of a nearby house and asked if he wanted her to open the place for him. The big surprise awaited him in a side room: to his amazement, hanging on the wall were a picture of the Rebbe and a picture of 770!

The woman who opened the place for him, Hannah was her name, told him that in Surabaya there are about ten half-Jewish families, meaning: where only one parent is Jewish. Her parents’ home is the one and only in the city where both spouses are Jewish. She herself is married to a Muslim and has two children: Rachel, age 15, and David, age 12. She also said that in the last twenty years, a minyan had not been held in the shul. She invited R’ Dovid to her home to meet her mother and children.

“I didn’t know how to start a conversation with a 12-year-old Indonesian boy,” Schurder recounts. The first words that came to my mind were: “Can you guess why I came here?”

The boy’s answer was immediate: “Because of my bar mitzva…”

R’ Dovid promised to keep in touch with the family via email. Before his next visit to Indonesia, David inquired about the price of a pair of tefillin. Mr. Schurder assumed that in a country where the average monthly salary stands at fifty dollars, a young boy would not be able to raise the required amount. He told him approximately what the amount was, and promised that he would complete for him the difference between the amount he would collect and the price of a pair of tefillin.

When he arrived at the family’s home in Surabaya, the boy greeted him with an envelope in his hand containing the full amount required to purchase a pair of tefillin! He raised as much as possible from his father and uncle, and also emptied his personal savings!

R’ Dovid taught him how to put on tefillin and his bar mitzva celebration was held in Bangkok, Thailand, a distance of four and a half hours flight from Indonesia. And following this, David went to study at Chabad yeshiva in Manchester, while his sister Rachel studied at Machon Chana in Crown Heights. Indeed, every Jew is gold!

Good Shabbos!

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