Parashat Vayakhel Golden Calf Tikkun

0:04now, this entire parashah is talking about building the Mishkan, all of the things we talked about in the last couple of parashiot, all of the construction of the Mishkan, the Menorah, the Aron HaKodesh, all of the different amazing things that were there. And the whole parashah talks about the details. But yet, In the beginning of the parsha, Hashem inserts a couple of sentences that seem like they don't fit, where it says Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the children of Israel and he said to them: "These are the things that Hashem commanded to do them." Now we're thinking, oh yeah, we're going to continue what we have already been doing for the last couple of weeks—building the Mishkan. No. Six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy for you, a day of complete cessation before Hashem. Anyone who does work on it shall be executed. You shall not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Shabbat day. And then it goes back to the Mishkan. That's it, so we have one of the twelve times in the Torah.

1:33Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us and warns us about Shabbat and how a Jew must observe every Shabbat without exception. Those who violated it at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu or during the time of the Sanhedrin would be executed. Today, it's a spiritual death penalty. What's the spiritual death penalty? Tragedies you don't want to know of... The person would die young, before the age of 50, or would live to see his own children die. All types of horrible things, in essence, are the way that HaKadosh Baruch Hu fulfills the death penalty. As the Gemara tells us, even though the Sanhedrin is no longer here to implement the four different types of death penalties. According to the Torah, that does not mean that the death penalty is no longer valid; it just means that Hashem took over, and He implements it in different ways. He doesn't kill right away, just like the Beit Din, which has a strategy for how they do certain things. There has to be a warning, there has to be an explanation, the person has to know what they're doing and what the ramifications are, and there have to be witnesses.

3:03Same thing with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, where He also has a system of when He decides to execute somebody. But the question still remains: what is it doing here? These couple of sentences about Shabbat seem like they don't fit. If you told me about this in next week's parasha, the week after, fine. But why is it here? And especially, it's only a couple of sentences. You have to keep Shabbat. We've heard already. We have to keep Shabbat. We've been hearing about Shabbat for the entire book of Shemot. Why do we need to be reminded of it again? That's because, Rabotai Yekarim, in last week's parasha, we learned about the terrible sin that Am Yisrael committed, making the mistake of following the Erev Rav with the golden calf. The sin of the golden calf is something that Am Yisrael is still suffering from until today. This idolatry was something awful that Am Yisrael had to be punished for in different ways. Those who truly (mamash) worshiped the idol were killed when Moshe Rabbeinu made them drink the water.

4:30Those that sinned a little bit, the Gemara says, Moshe Rabbeinu and the Levite tribe killed them with the sword. Those that thought about sinning—they didn't quite sin, but they thought it was a good idea and were on the way to go do it—HaKadosh Baruch Hu killed them with the plague. plague that followed. But then there were those who didn't sin but watched their brothers and sisters, their fellow Jews, sin, and they didn't say anything—they didn't rebuke them. They are being punished until today for that, as the Gemara says that if a Jew sees another Jew committing a biblical sin, he must rebuke him, and if he doesn't, he will get the same punishment as him. In so many words, he's considered as if he sinned himself. So, after this Golden Calf incident, Hashem forgave us but with a condition: we need a tikkun, we need a rectification. It reminds us that the rectification for avodah zarah is observing Shabbat.

5:55when you observe Shabbat, as you're supposed to, you know the laws, you know what to do, you're celebrating Shabbat, it’s not a burden on you. You learn Torah on Shabbat, and you’re not talking business on Shabbat. That’s a tikkun for Avodah Zarah. And why is it mentioned here? Because we need a tikkun for the mistake we made in Parashat Ki Tisa, and therefore, Before we get into building the Mishkan, we have to know observing Shabbat is required in order for you to turn your own house into a house of Hashem. This is why rule 101, for all people that want to be in love with Hashem and for Hashem to be in love with them, for them to have a share in the world to come, for their teshuva to even begin, they must observe Shabbat. into a house of Hashem. You want it to be a house of Hashem? It begins with Shabbat. It begins with Shabbat. You want to do teshuva? It begins with Shabbat. You don't keep Shabbat? No teshuva. Now, is teshuva, is Shabbat enough? It's a big mitzvah. But it's not enough to remove a person from the klipah. That's why the parasha continues with more details.

7:193,000 years later into a house of Hashem. You want it to be a house of Hashem? It begins with Shabbat. It begins with Shabbat. You want to do teshuva? It begins with Shabbat. You don't keep Shabbat? No teshuva. Now, is teshuva, is Shabbat enough? It's a big mitzvah. But it's not enough to remove a person from the klipah. That's why the parasha continues with more details. We must reach such a high level of Kedusha through Torah learning and good deeds that we finally realize everything comes from Hashem. The decree didn't come from Haman, and the salvation didn't come from Mordechai. Everything is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. All your problems are not caused by others. It's Hashem talking to you, trying to get your attention.