13. Terumah 5779: Charity: Taking What G-d is Giving

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLighthouseProjectMiami/videos/1997707683857880/ Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/94snwwvs8o22lpi/13.%20Terumah%205779.%20Charity%20-Receiving%20What%20G-d%20is%20Giving.pdf?dl=0 Handout: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rdsgimk5ldy3uc6/13.%20Handout%20for%20Terumah%205779.pdf?dl=0 ------- I want to begin with a brief story that took place with the Reichmann brothers of the Olympia and York company. Once at a family Sheva Brochoit celebration (-Link), someone was nudging one of the Reichmann brothers to tell him the secret of how to become so financially successful. Reichmann just remained quiet. At some point, another of the Reichmann brothers couldn’t stand it anymore, and blurted out, “Its 97% mazal, and 3% brains!” To which the first Reichmann brother now spoke up and said, “And our prayers are that the 3% brains doesn’t get in the way of the 97% mazal…” I believe that the Reichmann brother was actually paraphrasing Psalms (-127:1), “A song of ascents about Solomon. If the Lord will not build a house, its builders have toiled at it in vain; if the Lord will not guard a city, [its] watcher keeps his vigil in vain.” Man, on his own, is a finite mortal, with finite potential, of which Rabbeinu Bechaya (-Genesis 1:28) explains that an infant, from the moment of birth begins to dry up [decompose]. Therefore, man, on his own, cannot truly accomplish any infinite and eternal accomplishments. In Kabbalah and Chassidus this even applies to Torah-study and Mitzvah-observances. This is why we are taught that while in the womb of the mother, one is taught the entire Torah, after which, just prior to birth, the fetus receives a flick on the upper lip, which causes the fetus to forget all that it learned. The reason for being taught the entire Torah as a fetus is because were it not given to the human from Above, on his own, the human could never perceive the infinite wisdom of G-d. So too, with every Mitzvah. Were there not to be first a gift of empowerment from Above, mankind would never be able to perform an infinite and eternal action, and the union of G-d and human through Mitzvah-observance is infinite and eternal. Therefore, King Solomon says that any true accomplishment can never be accomplished without G-d, for man, on his own, cannot give or accomplish that which he himself does not have. This lecture is going to explore how one is to receive what G-d is giving him, in order that he may go one and accomplish what he is meant to accomplish. This lecture is based on a maamor the Rebbe delivered in 1965, which the Rebbe based on a maamor of his processor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch delivered 175 years ago (5605 [1844]), exploring the Jewish people in the desert donating to the building of the Tabernacle