18 Mar PARSHAS VAYAKHEL: A TZADIK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BACK

Why Didn’t the
Mishkan Have a
Spare Parts
Warehouse?
The Torah says
that after Moshe
told the people to donate to the Mishkan,
the voluntary donations surpassed the
amount of material required. Moshe
Rabbeinu had to tell them to stop
bringing material, and they were left
with more material than needed. (See
Shemos 36:4-7).
The Sforno comments: Hashem stated
the exact amount of materials needed to
build the Mishkan. X amount of gold, Y
amount of silver, Z amount of copper,
and so forth. He gave a precise measure
for every item in the Mishkan, specifying
no more and no less than the exact
amount required for the structure and the
keilim of the Mishkan. The Sforno points
out that this was not the case with either
Shlomo’s construction of the First Beis

HaMikdash or Herod’s (re-)construction
of the Second Beis HaMikdash. In both
those cases, they initially sought out and
collected more than enough funds and
raw materials, however, in the Mishkan,
it was the exact amount necessary that
was sought – no more and no less.
The Talmud Yerushalmi says that they
had duplicates and triplicates of all the
keilim in the Beis HaMikdash. This was
not unreasonable. Keilim break, wear
out, and become impure (Tameh). Any
serious enterprise must maintain an
inventory of spare parts. Take, for
example, a caterer. He does not keep
only X numbers of sets of china for the
maximum number of servings he expects
to prepare. He always must be prepared
for breakage, loss, or theft. The Beis
HaMikdash also needed to have “back
up” to be prepared for foreseen or
unforeseen occurrences.
The question must be asked – did the
same problem not exist in the Mishkan?

Was there no breakage in the Mishkan?
Why not maintain an inventory of
“backup parts” for the structure and the
keilim of the Mishkan? Why didn’t
they make extra?
Listen to the following very interesting
Daas Zekeinim m’Baalei HaTosfos (in
Parshas Teruma): The Aron HaKodesh,
in which they kept the Luchos HaBris
(Tablets of Stone containing the Ten
Commandments), was gold on the
outside but wood on the inside. The Daas
Zekeinim says it would have been fitting
for the Aron to be made completely from
gold. However, since it needed to be
made portable and be transported by the
Leviim on their shoulders, the Aron was
made to weigh less. Pure gold would
make it much heavier to carry. And even
though, the Daas Zekeinim writes,
Chazal say that “the Aron lifted up those
who were supposedly carrying it”, that
was not always the case. In other words,
there was a period of time when it was
that way, but it was not like that forever.
The same, he writes, regarding the
Golden Mizbaeach (on which the
incense was burnt). It was made of
lighter Shitim wood and only overlaid
with gold on the outside, to make it
lighter to carry.
So, the reason they did not have spares
– duplicates and triplicates in the
Mishkan– was because “someone has
to schlep all this.” The Jews moved
from place to place during the forty
years of wandering in the wilderness.
When someone needs to schlep, you
make it as light as possible.
Herein lays a very important principle
in Yiddishkeit, which says, in effect,
“Do not be a Tzadik on someone else’s
back!” In other words, if someone
needs to carry this – we are going to
make it as light as possible. It is like
packing. I do not know how it is in
most houses, but my assumption is that
men travel lighter than women. But
who schleps the suitcases?
This is akin to the famous incident they
say about Rav Yisrael Salanter (1809-
1883). He came to someone’s house for
a Shabbos meal. He had to wash for
Netilas Yadayim. Based on the
Gemarah (Chullin 106), the halacha

(Orach Chaim 161:4) is that ideally
(l’chatchilah) a person should wash
Netilas Yadayim up until the wrists. In
special circumstances (b’dieved), a
person fulfills his obligation for washing
his hands by only washing until the
knuckles. Rav Yisrael did not wash his
entire hands. He relied on the opinion
that he only needed to wash to the point
where his fingers bend.
The observers asked him why he was
being so lenient with his handwashing.
After all, they told him, the Shulchan
Aruch ideally requires that water comes
up to where the hand meets the arm.
Those were the days before running
water. The answer was that there was a
well down the hill and Rav Yisrael knew
someone had to schlep the water up from
the well to the kitchen. He saw that the
hired help was a poor girl who would be
the one schlepping the water, and he was
not going to be a “Tzadik” at her
expense! Better, too, to make the Aron
HaKodesh out of wood rather than gold,
because someone needs to schlep it.
There is another famous story with Rav
Yisrael. When he was older, he no longer
went to bake his own matzah before
Pesach, but rather he asked his students
to bake his matzas mitzvah for him. The
students asked their teacher, “What are
the ‘Chumras‘(stringencies) the Rebbe
practices during the time he bakes
matzah?” All sorts of different
stringencies are practiced by righteous
individuals while baking their Seder
Matzahs. They asked Rav Yisrael
Salanter which Chumrah he was
particular about. He told them “Be
careful not to yell at the woman who
cleans up between every batch of matzah
baking. She is a widow. Please do not
yell at her. That is my ‘chumrah‘!”
This is why there were no duplicates or
triplicates in the Mishkan.