Parshas VaYakhel
“He
made the wash basin of copper and it base of copper, from
the mirrors of the women who gathered at the entrance to the
Ohel Moed.” — Shemos 38:8
The mirrors are the most
precious of gifts
The Torah specifies that the wash basin
in the Mishkan was made of copper taken from the
mirrors that the women brought as donations. Rashi explains
that by telling us where the copper came from the
Torah is teaching a significant lesson.
Moshe Rabbeinu was appalled by the
idea of using the mirrors in the Mishkan because they
were used to enhance a woman’s beauty, which is a source of
yetzer ha’rah. Yet HASHEM said that not only should
they be used, they were the most precious of all the items
that were donated. In fact, the very reason HASHEM wanted
them to be used in the Mishkan was that the women
used them to beautify themselves and attract their husbands.
How could Moshe Rabbeinu
have been so mistaken?
This Rashi leaves us
to wonder: how could Moshe Rabbeinu have been so mistaken?
Chazal tell us he was the greatest human who ever existed.
For forty days, he lived like a moloch – without
food, drink, or sleep – and he learned the entire Torah. Yet
he looked at these mirrors with disgust until HASHEM told
him that they were actually the most precious gift given.
How is it possible that Moshe was so off in his
understanding?
Boys and girls are
different
The answer to this question can be found
by watching little children at play in the local public
schoolyard. The girls will be off on one side playing jump
rope or hopscotch while the boys will be off to the other
side playing tag or touch football. Even though the classes
are mixed, it is rare to find boys and girls together in
play.
The reason for this is that boys and
girls are different. They have different interests, desires,
and value systems. They are different in the way that they
behave, relate to each other, and communicate. In fact, boys
and girls are so different that you would almost assume they
come from different cultures, maybe even different planets.
It isn’t that they are socialized or trained differently; it
is that their inner makeup is fundamentally
different.
As an example, studies show that when
asked “Who is your best friend?,” three-year-old boys are as
likely to name a girl as they are a boy. At that age, mixed
gender friendships are quite common. Yet by the time this
same group of children is five years old, only 20% will have
a best friend from the opposite gender. By the time that
they are seven, it is almost nonexistent for a boy to have a
best friend who is girl, or for a girl to have a best friend
who is a boy – because by then they have almost nothing in
common.
This separation and disinterest
continues until puberty when something remarkable happens:
the boys become very interested in the girls, and the girls
become very interested in the boys. It isn’t that their
differences have disappeared. Quite the opposite, they are
even stronger now, but there are powerful forces developing
within them that pull them to each other – attraction
and infatuation.
Why did HASHEM create
this state of infatuation?
HASHEM created these entities so that man
and woman could marry. If it weren’t for these forces, a
successful marriage would never exist. To ask two
individuals, vastly different in nature, outlook, and
temperament to live as one would never happen – it would be
impossible.
To allow man and woman to create a
successful union, HASHEM put various forces into the person,
and attraction and infatuation are two of them. They are
very powerful, so powerful that they can pull together
opposites and bring them together in harmony, peace, and
love. However, as powerful tools, they can also easily be
misdirected and misused.
Answer to Moshe Rabbeinu
The
answer to the question on Moshe Rabbeinu seems to be that he
was fully aware of the powerful force of attraction and the
pull that it exerts. What he wasn’t aware of was the purity
of the women who donated the mirrors. HASHEM told him that
these women were different. They used their beauty only for
its intended purpose – to attract their husbands. These
mirrors had become holy as they had been used to strengthen
the bond of love and devotion between husband and wife. The
children brought forth from such a union were pure and
exalted; therefore, these mirrors were the most precious of
all the donations.
Lack of understanding in
our times
This concept has great relevance in our
times. We live in an age when the very social fabric of
society seems to be tearing apart at the seams. With divorce
rates in the Western world hovering at 50%, the concept of
raising children in a stable home seems to be a relic of the
past.
One of the causes of this breakdown is
the misuse of the very system that HASHEM put into man to
allow him to flourish. Attraction and infatuation are tools
that, when used properly, allow a husband and wife to
achieve harmony, tranquility, and peace. However, when
misused, these forces no longer accomplish their intended
purpose, and the couple suffers — never quite understanding
why their marriage doesn’t work anymore.
Understanding the purpose and proper use
of these forces that HASHEM created is one of the keys to
living a successful life.
Sent by: Joy Haber
joy.pricinggunsworld@gmail.com
on Jan 3, 2012
