Not All That Glitters is... Godly & The Rooster Within! (Parshas Pikudei)The great wealth (gold, silver, copper, etc) used to construct Hashems Mishkan in the desert was miniscule in comparison to the abundant riches King Solomon appropriated constructing the First Beis Hamikdash. Nevertheless Hashems presence (The Shchina) was manifest in the simple tent-like structure of the Mishkan, far more than it was in the magnificent structure that Shlomo Hamelech built! Moreover, even though the second Beis HaMikdash was lavishly adorned by King Herod, with an unimaginable wealth of gold, silver, etc, dwarfing King Solomons Beis HaMikdash, yet astonishingly, the presence of the Shechina was never manifest in the second Beis Hamikdash! What lessons can we garner from this phenomenon? An additional oddity is: the Mishkan was designed as a portable construct, assembled and disassembled during Klal Yisroels travels in the desert. Yet, we find that only once was there a difficulty in erecting the Mishkan, here, at its inaugural assembling at the hand of Moshe! Why was it never a challenge again? What does this have to do with The Rooster Within? Each morning we thank Hashem for the roosters crow at dawn. But, why did our sages single out Hashems gift to the rooster more than any other animals natural instinct? Didnt the Al-mighty endow each creature with its own instinctive traits, which our sages tell us we can learn from to develop positive character traits in ourselves? Additionally, why is this blessing positioned as the opening blessing, a lead-in to thanking Hashem for His spiritual gifts (not creating me as a goy, a servant, etc) ? Would it not be more appropriately placed later, grouped with thanks for physical gifts i.e. giving sight to the blind, clothing the naked etc? What connection could there be between the roosters instinct to establish dawn and a Jews spiritual development? Please click on the link below for this weeks Hashkafa Shiur given by Rabbi Avrohom M. Alter
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:18:57 +0000