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It seems to this author that each Parsha in Torah carries with it a major theme, attribute or mido.
The two previous Parshiyot; Yithro and Mishpatim speak about related attributes; intent and honesty and our Parsha, Terumah addresses motivation.
In previous years, this Parsha sheet for Parsha Terumah dealt with man’s motivations equating them with what drives the athlete in the beginning, or as we baseball fans say, in the “Big Inning”. And as has been done regarding other Parshiyot, once again this year another revisit of the motivation of men seems appropriate.
What drives the high-priced athlete — for instance a Matsuzaka or a Johan Santana? The big and ever-increasing paycheck? The “Team effort?” Increased or enhanced fame and influence? Love and study of the game? What drives them?
Is the motivation of these athletes money-driven? For they all chase after each other for the kavod of being the highest paid. Are they driven by that Big, per-player portion paycheck for winning the BIG game? Was their motivation driven by lust for personal fame, for their personal impact on history, on the annals of their sport?
Or can we say that their money-driven motivation is truly altruistic, to be part of a unified unit possessing one goal — Victory over their opponent and providing thrills and happiness for the hometown fans and for their representative city?
And closer to home, similar questions could be asked regarding so-called “economic forces”, “supply and demand” and not being a frier for being fair to one’s Jewish brother and thus getting left behind while nearly everyone else gouges for every last dollar or shekel based on what the “market will bear.”
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, in “Growth Through Torah” (pages 201-202), brings a Rashi (Sh’mos 25:2) which says “…that the donations given for the Tabernacle (Mishkan) should be given for the sake of the Almighty.”
There is the story expressing the perception that the milkman who delivers fresh milk to each person’s home, regardless of the weather, early each morning is an “outstanding example of the most elevated levels of kindness.” That is, until one realizes that it is his job to do so, that it is his parnossa to see that his customers are satisfied and receiving fresh milk daily. How do we gauge what truly motivates the milkman to properly service his customers.
Rabbi Pliskin then brings a story attributed to the Chazon Ish. In the story, a father-in-law and his son-in-law visited the Rabbi of their town because the father-in-law wants his son-in-law to become involved in the family business. The son-in-law has been learning Torah for 10 years and wants to continue. The father-in-law is concerned about whether his son-in-law’s Torah study is guided by the proper motivations. Rabbi Pliskin does not indicate by either story how one detects whether or not the individuals mentioned are being driven by the proper motivations, nor does he define these pure or proper motivations.
What are these stories inside? What makes us draw conclusions from these two stories about whether the milkman, the son-in-law, or, for that matter, the father-in-law were motivated by pure intentions? For it seems that we are not provided with sufficient information regarding their motivations, chemistries or how their individual personalities manifest or exhibit pure motivations.
What truly are the factors manifesting the motivation of either the milkman, the father-in-law or his son-in-law or any other deliverer of other essential services depended upon, come rain or snow? Or for that matter, what motivates the rookie Japanese pitcher or veterans like Carlos Zambrano, Johan Santana or Curt Schilling?
And so, what motivated/motivates Arik Sharon, or his successor Ehud Olmert to embark upon the precedent-setting expulsion from Gush Katif, expulsions from Shalhevet neighborhood of Hevron, the possible future expulsion from Shalom House, the resultant negation of a legal contracts and purchase documents or the unforgiven and unforgotten Yassamnikim-perpetrated violence and brutality at Amona and more?
Chas v’chalila that the seeming nefarious motivations of the current regime would be repeated again and again until Medinat Yisrael is confined to some tiny, coastal Auschwitz Israeli Ghetto awaiting final liquidation either by the Islamikazis, Iran, Egypt, Syria or by these very Yudenrot among us, or by all of the above. In all fairness to Rav Pliskin and to other Talmudai Chachamim, it seems near to impossible for others to nail down, in most cases, the true motivation which drives an individual or his actions.
When all is said and done, Olmert’s motivations (and Sharon’s before him) seem uncloaked, indisguisable. Their motivations seem driven purely by anti-Torah agenda; to divest Israelis of their Yiddishkeit — as David Wilder of Chevon wrote in an article last year;
‘Israeli Apartheid’ — “defined at dictionary.com as ‘any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.’ In our case, the ‘etc.’ relates to where people live and what they believe.”
What motivates the athlete, to get it done, to come through with the game on the line, as they say, “in the clutch”; Everyman’s Terumah to complete the Mishkan?
This author repeats, yet a third time as it seems that motivation is closely related to intent and honesty; the Ibn Ezra said on Parsha Yithro regarding the appointment of a judicial system, and the application of that lesson to all of us, “the Torah did not mention ‘G’d-fearing men’ because only Hashem knows what is in man’s heart.” (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, Parsha Yithro, page 131)
How closely Ibn Ezra’s point relates to L’lmod U’Lamed’s Parsha Mishpatim’s story about Rabbi Ben Shetach’s returning a found diamond to it’s rightful owner — an Arab saying; “I did not earn the diamond and so it is not mine” and to the Rabbi Pliskin’s rendering of the Bais Halevi; Tzedakah given by someone who cheats others is not considered tzedakah. (Growth Through Torah, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, Parsha Trumah, page 200)
May we be zocha in this year that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the 3 captive Chayalim and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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