דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה
“Speak to the Children of Yisroel, that they bring Me a portion.” (Shemos 25:2)
Chazal teach that the relationship between Hashem and Klal Yisroel is a marriage, with Hashem as the chosan and the Jewish people as the kallah. For a marriage to take effect, an act of kiddushin must take place. The Mishnah (Kiddushin 2a) teaches that kiddushin can take place in one of three ways: through kesef (the giving of money), shtar (a document), or biah (relations). Where was the kiddushin between Hashem and the Jewish people?
The Baal HaTurim (Shemos 19:4) explains that Hashem betrothed us as His kallah using all three methods. The kesef was the ביזת הים, the spoils that the Jewish people received at the Yam Suf after the Egyptians drowned. The shtar was the Luchos that Hashem gave Moshe at Mount Sinai. The biah was through entering the Mishkan, where Hashem’s Shechinah dwelled, as we find that the Beis HaMikdash is described (Melochim 2 11:2) as חדר המיטות - the bedroom, the place for the actualization of the relationship between Hashem and Klal Yisroel. In addition to all three forms of kiddushin, there was also a chuppah (marriage canopy) at Har Sinai, where Hashem raised up the mountain over our heads as we accepted the Torah (Shabbos 88a).
In the introduction to his sefer HaMakneh, Rav Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz, better known as the Hafla’ah (the name of his work on Kesubos), notes that Rashi writes (Devorim 34:12) that Hashem praised Moshe for breaking the Luchos, but he does not explain what precisely was commendable about his actions. The Hafla’ah explains that when the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf, their legal status was that of a married woman who was unfaithful to her husband, an action that is punishable by death. To save them, Moshe shattered the Luchos to dissolve the kiddushin they represented, so that Klal Yisroel would once again be considered unmarried, and the magnitude of their sin would be lessened.
Although Moshe’s action terminated the kiddushin that was performed through the Luchos, there nevertheless remained the kiddushin of kesef that took place at the Yam Suf, in which case Moshe’s attempt to assist the Jewish people would seem to be inadequate. The Hafla’ah suggests that the kiddushin via kesef was conditional on the Jewish people agreeing to accept and obey the Torah, so when Moshe broke the Luchos, he retroactively nullified the conditional kiddushin of the ביזת הים, since the attached stipulation was not fulfilled. However, Rav Moshe Aharon Friedman notes that this explanation raises a different question: If the original kiddushin between Hashem and the Jewish people was conditional and became annulled, how did we regain what we lost, in order to cement a permanent relationship with Hashem?
Divrei Torah for the Shabbos Table
Rav Yonason Eibeshutz explains that the new kiddushin was executed when Hashem told Moshe to command the Jewish people: ויקחו לי תרומה - “take for me a portion”, and the money and possessions that the Jewish people donated to the Mishkan constituted a new and enduring kiddushin. Even though Jewish law normally requires the chosan to give the money to the kallah and not vice-versa, as would seem to be the case here where the kallah (Klal Yisroel) gave money to the chosan (Hashem), there is one exception to this rule. The Gemara (Kiddushin 7a) teaches that if the chosan is an importance and respected man who does not normally accept gifts, his willingness to take a present from the kallah gives her the same pleasure as if she had received it from him, and in such a case, the kiddushin is legally valid. In our case, giving a gift to Hashem certainly qualifies for this exception, and therefore the contributions of the Jewish people for the Mishkan constituted a legitimate form of kiddushin.
Extending this concept, Rav Friedman notes that when being mekadesh a woman, a man says to her: הרי את מקדושת לי – “behold you are betrothed to me”. The Arizal points out that the first and last letters of the word, לשראי, can be rearranged to spell לי, alluding to the bond of kiddushin that exists between Hashem and Klal Yisroel. For this reason, just before the giving of the Torah (Shemos 19:6), Hashem told the Jewish people: ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש לי ואתם תהיו – “you shall be to Me a kingdom of ministers and a holy nation”, emphasizing the word, לי, to hint to this special relationship between us. After the sin of the golden calf, Hashem told Moshe (32:10): לי ועתה הניחה – “And now, leave Me to take away the לי, the kiddushin that bound Me to Klal Yisroel”. As explained by Rav Yonason Eibeshutz, this split was only rectified when the Jewish people contributed to the building of the Mishkan, which Hashem alluded to by telling them: ויקחו לי תרומה – “give your donations to the Mishkan to restore the kiddushin represented by the word לי.” (R’ Ozer Alport)
