First of all, The proper term for this is a Divar Torah, my Rabbi hated it when people call it a speech, it is sharing your thoughts on that day's Torah portion. Ok, here it is.
Our Torah portion today is called Terumah. In our portion, God asks for gifts. We would use these gifts to create the ark and the Mishkan where the Ten Commandments would be held.
God asked for gifts of gold and silver and copper and purple and crimson and red. All of these together would make the one Mishkan. Why, most would ask, would God, who created all things in the world, need gifts?
The truth is, God doesn’t need gifts. God is acting as a teacher. Sometimes God’s lessons are obvious. Sometimes they aren’t, and we need to go looking for them in God’s words.
The gifts that God asks for are the kind that would go to a king or a queen. God is trying to teach us that God is holy and that we need to show God a special type of respect. It wouldn’t be proper to bring God just any old gift.
The problem is that not everyone has gold or silver. That’s why God asks for all kinds of things from precious metals to beautiful threads. Since gold and silver and threads of beautiful colors were each needed to make the Mishkan, God is trying to teach us that everyone can have a part in making it, and no one needed to be left out. In fact, the Mishkan would not be as beautiful as it was meant to be without the threads and the metals. It also shows us how, if we work together, all of us, big and small, we can become one big, beautiful people.
God also asked that those who bring gifts must be moved to do so. In other words, we had to give full heartedly. Now here is a really big question. Why? Again, God is trying to teach us something.
Once when we were slaves in Egypt, we had no choice to give. When Pharaoh said “Give”, we had to give. When we were told to make bricks, we could not just say no. We would be punished for not working.
God was trying to show us that we were free now. We didn’t have to do something if we didn’t want to. God was trying to tell us that there was a difference between giving because we had to and giving with a full heart.
When we give full heartedly, it will feel good. We will feel like we have made a difference in another’s life and that is what life is all about, to make a difference.
Once we had collected all of the items, God asked that we cover the ark with gold, inside and out. And once again, we can’t get away from that nagging question. Why? If people would be able to see the inside of the ark, that would be one thing. But no one would be allowed to actually look inside. So why put gold in there?
I believe that this is not only because the Ten Commandments would be held there and we wouldn’t want to lay them inside a beat-up interior, but also in order to teach us something about ourselves. Just like the ark, no one can see us on the inside. But something very precious is kept there- our soul.
A lot of us spend a lot of time making our outsides look really good, and that’s okay since we want to respect what hold’s God’s image. But it’s what we keep on the inside that’s really important and that’s why we want to make sure that it is as full of love and friendship and basically as golden as we can make it. That’s why we say, “Its what’s on the inside that counts.
On this special Shabbat, I would like to thank a lot of people whose insides are full of gold.
First of all, my friends for staying by my side especially when I needed them. My relatives, for being here, most of your flying in from all over the country for this one event.
My brother Brandon, for cheering me up and dealing with my short temper.
Of course, Rabbi David, Cantor Lorie and my wonderful tutor Lori: they all helped teach me and encouraged me to study for this day, and now thanks to them, I am here.
Most of all, a big thanks to my parents for teaching me, loving me, dealing with the fact that I am a teenager, driving me to the Temple and to lessons, and most of all, for never giving up on me.
