When Rav Meir Shapiro built his magnificent building of Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, someone came over to him and asked, “How can you build this expensive building and ask people for so much money when we are struggling to upkeep our own yeshivas?” Rav Meir Shapiro told him, “If you want to build a new building for your yeshiva, you won’t have any problems raising money, because people are always ready to donate to have their name on a building or some other thing. But once my building will be up and running, I will have the same problem as you because then it will be hard to get money from people”.
Why is it like that?
The pasuk says “V’ata tetzave es bnei Yisroel v’yikchu elecha shemen zayis zach”. Rashi says in Parshas Tzav 6:1 on the pasuk “Tzav es Aharon”, which discusses the korban tamid, that the word “tzav” – command - can only mean to express urging on for the immediate moment and for future generations. The Tana R’ Shimon said that the pasuk must especially urge in a situation where there is a loss of money. We see from here that in a case of loss of money we need to urge more. So, we can say that here, too, the language of “v’ata tetzave” must express an idea of urging. The idea of urging in this parsha is in reference to shemen zayis, the pure olive oil, which also involves a loss of money as it is very expensive. Rashi says here that only the first drops of the olive’s oil are kosher for the menorah and you need the amount of oil that would last the long nights of the month of Teves. According to that calculation, many olives are needed to produce the shemen zayis for the menorah, and that is quite expensive. Therefore, the Torah uses the words “V’ata tetzave” – a lashon of urging.
However, notes Rav Eliyahu Baruch Finkel, we don’t find a lashon of urging in Parshas Teruma, when klal Yisroel donated very expensive materials for building the mishkan. They donated gold, silver, and precious jewels, yet the Torah didn’t need to urge them. Why not?
The Baal Haturim says the reason the Torah urges us by the olive oil for the menorah is because the mitzvah of lighting the menorah is constant so we need an extra push. Says Rav Eliyahu Baruch, the words of the Baal Haturim complete the words of Rashi. The fact that expensive things need urging is specifically by expensive things that are needed constantly. When a mitzvah is expensive but it only comes up once in a while, people have lots of excitement and enthusiasm to fulfill it and don’t need to be urged and encouraged. However, a mitzvah that is constant and expensive does need ongoing encouragement and urging.
Says Rav Eliyahu Baruch, we see this concept clearly when people are ready to donate generously for the building of a new building but find it difficult to donate for the daily upkeep. By Parshas Teruma, klal Yisroel was so excited and eager to donate generously for building the mishkan that the Torah didn’t need to urge them on. They were self-motivated. But when it came to donating olive oil for the daily menorah lighting and animals for the daily korban tamid, motivation was necessary and the Torah needed to urge us.
I think that people are motivated to donate generously for a new building because they feel that their money is going to a concrete cause that they can actually see with their eyes. It feels good to know that your money built a beautiful shul or yeshivah that you can see and feel for yourself. However, money for daily upkeep is less concrete; it doesn’t give a person the same satisfaction. You keep on giving money and you don’t see it going anywhere. That’s why it’s difficult to donate money on a daily basis to a cause that isn’t so tangible. However, if Hashem found it necessary to urge us to donate for the daily expenses of the mishkan, we can rest assured that the s’char of such donations are tremendous. It may not fill us with satisfaction, but such donations are so precious to Hashem.
