Reply To: Short & Sweet

Vayakhel: Foundations

The Torah repeatedly emphasizes that the foundations of the Mishkan itself were made out of silver, while the foundations of the חצר around the Mishkan were made out of copper. Why were they different?

R’ Aron Lopiansky explains that the word כסף is synonymous with desire through Tanach – for example, נכספה וגם כלתה נפשי. The foundation of all of the Avodah of the Mishkan was the desire to build a relationship with Hashem. And in our lives, the foundation of our Avodah must be that desire to come close to Hashem.

But the foundations of the חצר around the Mishkan were copper. Copper is a tough and impenetrable metal, and therefore used in Tanach as a metaphor for brazenness and stubbornness.

Around the Mishkan that we are to build in our hearts, there needs to be a protective חצר. The foundation of this protection must be being impenetrable to outside influences. We cannot allow the values of the society around us to seep in to our hearts and water down our ideals. We should not care what the outside world cares about, or we will quickly stop caring about what we should really care about – ס֥וֹף דָּבָ֖ר הַכֹּ֣ל נִשְׁמָ֑ע אֶת־הָאֱלֹקים יְרָא֙ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתָ֣יו שְׁמ֔וֹר כִּי־זֶ֖ה כׇּל־הָאָדָֽם:

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום