"Bigdei Kahuna" Parsha page by Rabbi Yehuda Katz

This Torah thought is being dedicated to my beloved father, Nachman Shimon ben Yehuda Meir Hakohan, Z"L.

TERUMA

"Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for me (G_D) an offering........"(25:2)

G-d is commanding the Jewish people to donate materials for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). The language used in this verse is "Take for me". In Hebrew "taking" is a word denoting acquisition of ownership. Why is the language of "taking" being used instead of "giving"? I would like to propose the following original answer , Bezrat Hashem. G-d is in essence making every single Jew into his own personal emissary regarding the donations for the Mishkan. There is a principal in Talmudic law that maintains that an emissary has the same status as the sender. (In Hebrew this is called, "SHILUCHO SHEL ADAM KOMOSO".) Therefore, G-d is actually making every Jew that donates to the Mishkan G-d-like. But, how? When a Jew donated a material object to the Mishkan, he in essence actually took something of nominal "value " and transformed it into an object of "Spiritual" value. We all know that when G-d created the universe, He made something from nothing, known in Hebrew as "Yash miEyin. This is precisely what these donations were. The Torah is teaching us a very important lesson. Every person has the ability to transform "mundane" objects into "spiritual" objects by dedicating them to G-d. We have the ability to donate our time, energy,and money in the pursuit of spirituality. This makes us "G-dlike", namely with the ability to create "something from nothing". Have a good Shabbos