Terumah                                                                                 Jason Eisman

Have you ever heard the saying, everything in life has its price, or nothing worthwhile in life comes free? Well, we find the origin of this saying right here in our Parsha. In the very beginning of our Parsha it lists all the things the ישראל בני (Jewish people) would need to construct the משכן (tabernacle). It starts with ונחשת וזהב כסף (gold and silver and brass) and ends with שוהם אבני מלואים אבניו (onyx stones and stones to be set (for the ephod)). It seems funny that it's written in this order, because the last 2 items are greater than the rest. There are a couple of different ways to understand the "switch" in their order of appearance in the passuk. The most simple answer for the given order is that these were the last things brought, and therefor were last to be mentioned. This answer however, is not good enough for me. A better answer in my opinion is that these items were given to ישראל בני (Jewish people) directly from God. They were "handed to them on a silver platter" whereas everything else was taken out of their pockets and effort was put in to attain them. To show the importance of toiling for things, those which were toiled for were mentioned first.

Building on this idea of toiling, there is another passuk in our Parsha that says:

"בתוכם ושכנתי מקדש לי ועשו” (Make for me a sanctuary and I well rest among them).  “בתוכם” (among them) is written in plural to teach us that God will rest among each and every person. It also teaches us that this command to build for him a sanctuary is really referring to us making ourselves holy so that God may rest among us. "We" are the sanctuaries being built. This command is not restricted by time, it is for all the future generations.

Now to tie these two ideas together with the words of the הקדוש החיים אור (in his 18^th century commentary). While we are commanded to make ourselves holy to act as a sanctuary for God, how does one do so? The answer is, when we are working on ourselves, an action which required יגיעה (toiling) and כיס חיסרון (giving up of something), is given a lot more value compared to an action lacking those two things. This is why the passuk found in the beginning of our Parsha is so carefully worded, in order to teach us this powerful and valuable life lesson.