Ze'ev Wolf of Zhitomir, Parashat Terumah

Hebrew text and provisional English translation of Parashat Terumah. This is work in progress.

"And HaShem spoke to Moses, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel and they will take for Me a portion (Terumah), from every man whose heart incites him, you will take my portion (Terumah)'" [Exodus 25:1-2]. And Rashi's commentary [has here]: "for Me" [means] "for My Name", and it is [to be] understood according to what is in the Zohar, as the Old Man explained the verse: "Go out and look, o daughters of Sion, at king Solomon, at the crown that his mother crowned him with" [Song of Songs 3:11] [Zohar II.100b, in the part called Saba d'Mishpatim ("The Old Man of Mishpatim")]. And the proper analogy [would be] to say "[look] at king Solomon and at the crown that [his mother] crowned [him with]..." [where king Solomon and his crown are two separate objects to look at; but the actual verse from Song of Songs does not have the "and", thus must refer to looking at two aspects of the same object], when the aspect of the crown would be an entity separate from king Solomon, and [would be] the essence rising [even further] upwards than the entities of His holiness, because truly who [is] the man who can rise to the place of His holiness, to look and to gaze at king Solomon[שלמה], with whom is peace [שלום; paraphrase of Zohar II.100b, same passage as above]. And surely there is no thought that can grasp Him at all, and He, blesssed be He, God, hides Himself and is concealed from all imagination.

And it is impossible to come to this aspect of perception and to see [with] sight of reason the Supreme King, except by means of the clothing of the Shechinah as will be explained to us further down, God willing. And this is "Go out and look, o daughters of Sion, at king Solomon...", only in what is suitable and what is designed for him, for bodily man, to see with reason what is hidden from all imagination. To this continues Scripture

"at the crown which his mother crowned him with", another name for the Shechinah, who is called "crown", and by means of the clothing of the lights that are clear and high in the Shechinah of our Strength [also in Tanya, Igeret HaKodesh, XXI], who is the resemblance in whom all likenesses show themselves [paraphrase of Tikkunei Zohar 121a:4], and from this it will be arranged for him [= man] to see and to grasp just a bit as if "peering through the lattices" [Song of Songs 2:9], and from now on you will surely understand the words of Rashi "and they will take for Me a portion/Terumah...", "for Me" means "for My Name", as if to say: it is impossible for them [to] "and they will take for Me", except by means of My Name as being spoken. And consider and you will understand. And Scripture alludes:

“And this is the portion/Terumah that you will take from them” [Exodus 25:3], as if to say according to the words that have been said: “… and they will take for Me..” [Exodus 25:2] [means] “for My Name”, and this truly holds in the past and in the future, this is the worship of the children of Israel and the perfection of their coming into this world: to know its Creator [in Aramaic, allusion to Zohar Chadash 6c], as the words of the Zohar Chadash to which we have referred above in Parashat Mishpatim (see there), and to this, with a forewarning to the Tsaddik, the Holy One, Blessed be He, has come, “And HaShem said to Moses” [Exodus 25:1] to teach them the manner of their service, which he [= Moses/the Tsaddik] will always teach, in every age and in every time, both before the Temple and after the Temple. And the principle [is] to build the structure of the Shechinah, and therefore the students of the Sages are called “builders” because they are always busy

in the building of the world, which is the Shechinah who is called “world” from the word "youth" [this part in Aramaic, probably a citation from the Zohar]. And the limbs of the Shechinah are, as it were, in all the degrees, they are all both in the spiritual and in the material, they are the letters of the Torah, "in which" the Holy One, blessed be He, "looked and created the world" [Zohar II:161a], and in any case the letters of the Torah are in every entity that comprises creation, and this obligation is placed on every individual of Israel: to exert the strength of one's recognition and understanding

on the structure of the Shechinah and [on] the letters of the Torah. There is no one who does not have understanding of them, and accordingly, [obligation] is placed on him to build Her [=the Shechinah's] structure, and this corresponds to raising

the limbs of the Shechinah and the letters of the Torah up to their place and to their root.

And after this clarity will be complete by everyone and everything and the structure of the Other Side will be emptied, when the children of Israel "...will bring forward a precious one from a lavish one..." [Jeremiah 15:9], these ["precious ones" are] the holy sparks clothed in them. Then the days of purifications will come to us from the "Watchman of Israel" [Psalms 121:4].

Truly until this clarity will be complete, it is not possible for us, children of Israel, to allow our souls, it appears, to be lazy in the Torah and the [Divine] Service even for a short moment, God forbid! And there is never an excuse to say that there are many idle moments, by occasion

or temporary troubles or from the numerous necessities of the people of Israel. And I have already elaborated on them in the previous parashot, that this is no argument against the gratitude that we must show and to praise His Name, blessed be He always. But on the contrary, from them and with them the wise one can give advices and quietude to his soul in/with the aspect of his service, service of the Creator as is written above.

Explanation of the verse: "...and nothing is reduced from your work..." [Exodus 5:11] (see there).

And this is an important principle in the Torah and [in] serving God, that in everything in the world there is a "hint of Wisdom" [Zohar, Vayechi 23:183; Zohar, Sh'lach 6:36} which can stir up the heart of the intelligent person inside him to the worship of his Creator, even while eating and drinking and involved in business.

And this is what is alluded to in the previous verse: “from every man whose heart incites him, you will take My portion (Terumah)”, as if to say: not only then, at the time of the commandment of putting aside the Terumah for the construction of the Tabernacle, as verily the Torah is constant and ancient in all times, and this is “from every man whose heart incites him” to the worship of his Creator, [since the verse from Exodus uses a future tense, and it is said "from every man"] from now until forever, until the coming of our Messiah, speedily in our days, “you will take My portion (Terumah)”, [that is] you can take the aspect of “My portion (Terumah)”, as the matters of the worship of the people of Israel are distinguishing and continuing, and this "this [is] the portion (Terumah)" [Exodus 25:3], wants [to indicate that] the aspect of the Terumah that has been explained, which is distinguishing and continuing from generation to generation until the final redemption, "that you will take from them" even "gold and silver and copper" [Exodus 25:3], also these are matters of their bringing

and their giving with the people, also there [in them, in gold, silver and copper] is the aspect of worship of the Creator, blessed be He.

"...and nothing has been subtracted from your worship/work..." [Exodus 5:11], and when it will become clear to us, when it pleases HaShem further, the explanation is to think thoughts to make with gold and in silver, as if to say: even when they are busy with making in gold and silver, when they are going to their "worship" for reason of earning their subsistence, also then it is necessary to think holy thoughts, to cleave one's thought to the majesty of His Blessed Divinity, and to raise from there the holy sparks and the letters of the Torah.

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