Parshas Terumah 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Mar 1
- 3 min read
דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו תקחו את תרומתי ... (כה-ב)
The Baal Shem Tov zt”l notes that Parshas Terumah, containing the mitzvah of donating towards the building of the Mishkan, immediately follows Parshas Mishpatim, which concludes with receiving the Torah. The command to build the Mishkan was Hashem’s way of telling Klal Yisroel to actualize their acceptance of the Torah. It wasn’t enough to proclaim, “We will do and we will hear,” and then return to their normal lives as if nothing had transpired. One who is spiritually inspired, but doesn’t continue grow in his Avodas Hashem will unfortunately remain spiritually stagnant. The effort one expends in immortalizing his moments of spiritual elevation will be reflected in his personal growth and development.
In May 1948, Jordan’s Arab Legion overran the eastern part of Jerusalem and occupied the Old City and its holy places. Following the 1948 War, Jordan continued to occupy East Jerusalem and what is now commonly referred to as the West Bank. This included the area the UN partition decision had allotted for an Arab state.
During the nineteen years of Jordanian occupation, Jordan refused to honor its undertaking in the armistice agreement to accord free access to the holy places, to cultural institutions, and use of the Jewish cemetery on Har Hazeisim, the Mount of Olives. Jews were barred from the Old City and denied access to the Kosel Hamaaravi and other holy places. The Jewish Quarter in the Old City was destroyed; fifty-eight synagogues were also destroyed or desecrated. Thousands of tombstones in the Jewish cemetery on Har Hazeisim were destroyed to pave a road and build fences and latrines in Jordanian army camps.
During the Jordanian occupation, Jerusalem was bisected by barbed wire, concrete barriers and walls. On a number of occasions Jordanian soldiers opened fire on the Jewish sections of Jerusalem.
A wedding was planned for Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5714 (1954). Many people were gathering in the Bnos Yerushalayim hall, as it was then known, in Jerusalem near the Jordanian border. Among the guests were R’ Yechezkel Levenstein zt”l and R’ Aharon Kotler zt”l - who arrived from New York to serve as mesader kiddushin for his student, the groom.
Suddenly, a great noise could be heard. Artillery boomed from the direction of the Old City. The Jordanians were shaking up the entire area. All the guests fell flat on the floor, and the lights were doused. From the street, strangers poured into the building. Tables were overturned, food and drink fell and spilled. There was noise and terror, both inside and out. “We could hear the explosions clearly,” R’ Sholom Schwadron zt”l, another guest, related. “Everybody was lying on the ground. The man next to me asked fearfully, ‘What do we do now?’ “’We say viduy,’ I answered.”
Those were very difficult moments. One man scanned the crowd with his eyes, trying to locate his father; another shouted that he had lost his wife. The element of surprise had caused a terrible panic. There were no Jewish soldiers patrolling that area. The feeling of danger and peril was palpable. Every new sound aroused further fear.
“R’ Aharon Kotler was also lying on the ground,” R’ Sholom continued to relate. “And what did R’ Aharon Kotler say? What was the leader of the generation, the Gadol Hador, thinking about during the pandemonium and the terror?
“Ahhh, R’ Aharon ... R’ Aharon was pleading with Hakadosh Baruch Hu to spare his life. ‘Ribbono Shel Olam, I want to learn your holy Torah!’” One of his students was lying on the floor beside him; in fact, he was the one to later lift up R’ Aharon. R’ Sholom and others went to this student’s house to ask what he had heard during those moments of prayer.
“After a long lull in the shooting,” said the talmid, “I bent down to the Rosh Yeshivah, R’ Aharon, to help him to his feet. I heard him say, ‘Tatteh, I want to serve You and work for You.’ Then I heard a few more snatches, in which he seemed to be talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and saying that there was still work for him to do in this world.”
About an hour after the shooting had commenced, the all clear sounded. The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief. Then, R’ Sholom stepped into the picture. In his deep voice, he recited, “Lamenatzeach mizmor l’Dovid yancha Hashem b`yom tzarah ....” The others echoed him, word for word - and their prayers flew straight up to Heaven. (Heroes of Courage, Israel Bookshop)