Daily Chidush 1 - Make HaShem your Partner

0:00How are you? I hope you're having a great week so far. We're getting ready for the shiur tonight. Just wanted to give you a quick chiddush for today that will give you some perspective on things and also help you with business now and forever. But most importantly, get you even more connected with Hashem. We're still in Parashat Pekudei. It says,

1:15So the question is, why has Hashem just spent and invested three verses to tell us something we technically already knew from the last several parashot, about who is the one that built this Mishkan? It's Moshe, and then we have the Leviim, and then we have, obviously, Betzalel, and we have, you know, all of these people. Most importantly, this was the commandment by Hashem. Why is Hashem reminding us of something we already know? Again, we always talk about how the Torah doesn't have one extra letter, let alone three verses. Here we learn a very big secret, as I think we've mentioned in the past, that the Mishkan of the desert, which we had for nearly 40 years — a little less than 40 years because this parasha says the Mishkan was built two years after we left Egypt, so 38 years. Here we learn something: a big secret is that this Mishkan was holier and much more significant than both the first and the Second Beit HaMikdash and was never destroyed, was never tampered with, was never stolen from; nothing bad ever happened to it. It was completely protected by the sanctity and the holiness of what was done over here, even bigger than the first and second Beit HaMikdash. The secret is...

2:38Chazal says here, why was this Mishkan so holy in comparison to, let's say, the one that was built by Shlomo HaMelech, who was smarter and wiser than any man that ever lived? Hashem gave him a special wisdom at the age of 13 when he became king. Instead of praying for money and for this and for that, he prayed to Hashem: "Please Hashem, give me the wisdom to judge Your nation favorably." Hashem says, "Since you're so careful and so concerned about My nation, not only will I give you this wisdom, a special wisdom that will be known forever, but I'll also give you money and power, which is something that everybody else wants. That's usually what they ask for." So why was Shlomo HaMelech, why was his... Beit Hamikdash not holier than the Mishkan. The Mishkan was much smaller, much simpler, and didn't even have a small percentage of the amount of gold that the Beit Hamikdash had. Chazal says that if someone didn't see the first Beit Hamikdash, they never saw true beauty. What about the second one? The second Beit Hamikdash was built as a thanks to the benevolence of King Cyrus.

4:00King Cyrus is Koresh in Hebrew. The Second Beit Hamikdash, or Holy Temple, was a significant structure, but sadly, it was destroyed. Why did this happen? Here, we learn something very interesting. Chazal, our sages, convey that the Tabernacle, the Mishkan, housed the Luchot HaBrit, the Ten Commandments. This included both sets: the first, broken tablets, and the second, complete ones. It had a kedusha that was much higher than anything has ever had before because of this. On top of that, it was built by Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu who sacrificed his entire life for Klal Yisrael, never even taking a break. Despite all the accusations they had against them, and despite all the complaints they had against them, Moshe Rabbeinu remained steadfast in his commitment to Am Yisrael. Even when Hashem offered him a technically better deal, saying, "Listen, let me destroy this nation after they did the Chet HaEgel. Let me destroy them and start a better nation from you," Moshe Rabbeinu refused. He said, "No. Remove me, you know, kill me first and remove me from your Torah if that's what you're going to do." This was a true sacrifice of his life, putting everything on the line for Bnei Yisrael. And then, on top of that, there was a question—who built this Egel?

5:14The Levites, the Levi tribe, who are these Levi tribe? These are the same Levites that Hashem used in Parashat Ki Tisa when we had the, uh, the Cheit HaEgel. Unfortunately, part of Israel sinned with the Egel HaZahav, and the rest of the nation didn't rebuke them or say anything. This is a reminder to us that until this day, we are suffering because of the sin of the idol. golden calf not because all of am Yisrael worshiped this nonsense, not because kol am Yisrael did avodah zarah, but because we didn't say anything about it. We just sat there quietly, like unfortunately a lot of people are sitting there today, seeing people eat pork, seeing people violate all the holidays, seeing people doing all these things, stealing in their business and not saying anything. No, no, no. You know, let him, you know, I'm a tzaddik; I keep mitzvot, let him take care of himself, let Hashem deal with him. No. This is a biblical commandment that we are supposed to, and actually, are obligated, to tell our friends.

6:32they're making a sin, but it also says, "lo tisa alav chet," meaning don't bring upon him sin. This means don't put him in a situation where he has to sin by getting angry and taking it the wrong way. Additionally, don't put him in a situation where you're insulting him or embarrassing him in public. You have to do it in a certain way. But nonetheless, you have to do something. You have to do something. You can't just let people sin for the rest of their lives and chas v'shalom, lose their Olam Haba and Olam Hazeh. So we have the Levites that fought for Hashem, never, never were involved in chet ha'Egel, and actually, after Moshe Rabbeinu came down and broke the Ten Commandments, they took it upon themselves to kill all of the violators. These are the Levites. Rambam says that the Levites today are the Talmidei Chachamim, those who are learning Torah. The Avreichim, those simple people whom everyone thinks are milking the nation and not working, are actually dedicating 9, 10, or even 12 hours a day to Torah study, earning only about $500 a month. These individuals, whom nobody seems to care about, are actually the ones saving the world, by the way. They are the ones who give Hashem a reason to continue this world. That's the Levite tribe, as Rambam says. That's the Levite tribe.

7:52Last part is the Chochmah and the honesty and integrity of Bezalel. The honesty and integrity of Bezalel. He had, not only himself, but anyone who was with him had to be a distinguished person with ultra-righteousness, ultra-Tzaddik. Not ultra-Orthodox, ultra-Tzaddik. The first Beit HaMikdash unfortunately did not have all of this. Shlomo HaMelech used Arabs to build, many Arabs to build the Beit HaMikdash, and Chazal say that instead of using Jewish people to build the Beit HaMikdash, even though he was wise, he still made mistakes. using Arabs to build it, using the people that are not necessarily aligned with the Torah, people engaging in Avodah Zarah, and those opposing Hashem in various ways to build the Beit Hamikdash, he also inadvertently granted them the power to destroy the Beit Hamikdash. So, even though he had some involvement with Hashem—his intentions were imbued with the holiness of Hashem—he was doing this solely for Hashem, not for personal gain. Furthermore, he also had the Ten Commandments in there.

9:02He also was not a distinguished leader, and he didn't exactly have good, quality people, but unfortunately, not everyone was righteous, so that made it possible for the destruction. The Second Beit HaMikdash was built under even worse circumstances. Not only was it commissioned by King Cyrus, who was obviously not Jewish, but it didn't have the Luchot HaBrit (the Ten Commandments) or the Aron HaKodesh (the Holy Ark). didn't exactly have a distinguished leader or even distinguished righteous people working on it. This teaches us something about business today because, obviously, we're not building the Beit Hamikdash right now. Mashiach hasn't come, but he will come soon when we bring enough people back to Hashem. It will teach us something about business. If you want to succeed in business, in the old days, I used to be a successful businessman, as you know. learned a few things, but I wish I would have learned this verse back then. Why? Because things would have been different, at least while I was still in it. But of course, we're in the essek of the Torah now, yet we can still use the old information and the new information and make it into something special, something that could help anyone that's still in the business world. There are four keys to success as we learned from the holiness of the Mishkan: it had to have Hashem in it.

10:27In it. So, how can we have Hashem in our business? Every time you walk into that door, do you have a mezuzah in your business, or are you embarrassed in front of your friends? Do you have a mezuzah? Is it a kosher mezuzah, or is it the one that you bought for $60 because you didn't want to spend $100 or $150 for a kosher one? Are you giving ma'aser? Are you giving 10% of your net profits to talmidei chachamim or rabbis who are doing kiruv, or people who are dedicating their life to Torah? Or do you use that money for the extra vacation for the year? Hashem said, if you give the 10%, I guarantee that you will become rich. He doesn't specify a time, but He guarantees that you will be rich in your lifetime. Anyone that wants to get rich, this is the tithe. This is the ma'aser. Anyone that knows what's good for them, obviously will listen to Hashem. And Hashem is telling you, you're not allowed to test Me in anything except this. So if we make Hashem a partner, technically He's giving us 100% and He's telling us to give 10% to His children who are dedicating their lives to Torah. He's giving us 100%. Imagine having a partner, and he says, "Listen, I'm going to do all the work. I'm going to do 100% of the work, but I just want 10% of the profits." You tell him, "Listen, just keep doing what you're doing. I'll give you 50." Hashem says, "No, no, I just want 10. I just want 10." But yet we have problems. Why? The Yetzer Harah gets involved. The Yetzer Harah constantly tries to...

11:50us to do otherwise, no, no, no. We need to save for retirement, no, no, no. There's a big deal coming up, no, no, no. Maybe we're not going to make this money next week, maybe we're not going to make this money next month. Maaser is very, very important. This is making Hashem a partner in our life. That's the first one. Second one, Moshe. We don't have Moshe in our generation, but how is Moshe going to help us in our business? Hashem told Aharon and Miriam, his brother and sister. When they said some unintentional, but why is he leaving his wife? Hashem said, you dare talk about my Moshe Rabbeinu? You dare talk about Moshe? Yeah, but he's a prophet and we're prophets. Hashem says, no, no, no. He is not like you. He's not like you. He's the prophet of all prophets. You can't compare him to yourself. This tells us that any successful business, any successful empire, any successful endeavor must have solid leadership, and must lead by example. You can't show up to work at 10:30 and expect everyone else to arrive at 8 and be happy about it. You can't be a thief and expect everyone to be honest. You can't be an angry person and expect everybody to have smiles when the customers come in. You cannot do it.

13:04You have to lead by example. Third, the Levites. We don't have Levites in our day jobs usually. So, who are the Levites? Levites are solid employees. Solid employees, people that you can rely on. People that have integrity. People that are working hard. You're only as good as your employees. If your employees are no good, your business is going to fall apart. If you have bad employees, replace them immediately. I used to be in this club called CEO Club, and they used to have this funny saying, but it’s a very true one. They said, "If you're thinking about firing him, it's already too late. You should have fired him already yesterday." If your employees are no good, your business is going to fall apart. If you have bad employees, replace them immediately. I used to be in this club called the CEO Club, and they used to have this funny saying—but it's a very true one. They said, "If you're thinking about firing him, it's already too late; you should have fired him yesterday." So, you have to have reliable people. And last but not least, Betzalel. What's Betzalel? Betzalel represented not only wisdom, but righteousness. Is your business righteous? Is your business honest? Is your business stealing from people? Or is your business... Just doing the right thing, selling a product, selling a service. Are you an honest person? Is the foundation of your business honesty? Are you robbing banks? Are you stealing from customers? You have to ask yourself this because you cannot have a business that's founded on dishonesty.

14:18and still think that step number one, which is having Hashem in your life, is indeed relevant. You can't give ma'aser from stolen money. Your ma'aser is to'evah. It's disgusting to Hashem. It's not considered ma'aser. So, righteousness is the last part: Hashem, strong leadership, solid employees, and an overall righteous business and environment. Be'ezrat Hashem, we have this in our businesses, and we continue building it and doing the right thing. And most importantly, Be righteous with Hashem. Chazakim u'beruchim. Thank you for learning with me today. And b'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk tomorrow.