Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Terumah - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Speak to the children of Israel and they shall take to Me a portion, from every man

  whose heart will motivate him you shall take My portion. [Shemot 25:2]

Nearly all givings for holy purposes are commandments. Some are sacrifices, whether for atonement such as a guilt offering, or whether for a holiday such as the Pesach. Some are non-sacrifical offerings, such as the taking of challah, giving tzedakah or bringing of first fruits. For most of them, the one who brings it gets benefit, for a few there is no personal benefit to the bringer. Our verse tells us of a "portion", and makes clear it should be completely voluntary. Who benefits from it, what is the purpose of this portion and why is it given at all if it is not a requirement?

The verse uses two specific words that we must look at. The first is yidvenu, which is a difficult word to parse. It is spelled yod-dalet-beit-nun-vov. But there is a dagesh (a dot) in the dalet, indicating that there is supposed to be a nun before the dalet. The root then is nun-dalet-beit, which is to donate generously, to volunteer, to be willing. In context of our verse, his heart makes him willing to donate. The word is related to nedavah, a voluntary offering or gift. The difference in our verse is that the Torah specifies a use for these gifts.

The second word is t'rumah. The word is defined as offering, gift, donation or contribution. It is used to refer to the choicest part of something, as in lofty or noble. It can also mean a removal, such as terumat hadeshen, the removal of ashes from the altar. Rashi defines it as something set aside, hifrashah, which is the same word used for the taking of challah. Malbim explains that this is to teach that t'rumah is to be only a portion, not all of what a person owns.

Our verse is God telling Moshe what to teach the people. The implementation comes in Shemot [35:29] where the expression is nadav libam, a voluntary bringing of the heart. What the Torah seems to be teaching between these two verses is that when dealing with a benefit to the community, in this case the t'rumah for building the Sanctuary, donations are not to be considered for the purpose of personal benefit. If someone does not give, the need will be covered in another way. We are to give to God and the community for altruistic reasons. How much to give is not relevant here, as any such donation counts and there is no lower limit needed to achieve any specific return to us.