ברכת הרי"ח – 35:21 “ויבאו כל איש אשר נשאו לבו, וכל אשר נדבה רוחו אתו הביאו את תרומת ד' למלאכת אהל מועד ולכל עבודתו ולבגדי הקודש” – “Every man whose heart inspired him came; and everyone who is generous of spirit moved him – brought the portion of Hashem for the work of the Ohel Moed, for all its labor and for the garments of the holy.” The word, “כל” refers to at least two. How does the Posuk say, “כל איש” – when the כל implies at least two, and איש is one?
The Posuk here should have either said, “ויבואו כל האנשים” – and all the men came, or “ויבואו כל איש ואיש” – every single man came. It is true that one body appears to be one man, however, we find in the Pesukim that each and every limb of a person is considered as one person. The Gemara in Nedarim 32b says on the Posuk in Koheles 9:14 “עיר קטנה ואנשים בה מעט” that עיר קטנה refers to the body, and “אנשים בה מעט” refers to the 248 limbs of a person. Thus, we see that איש refers to a limb. One body is made up of many people, for each limb is called an individual person. The reason that each limb is called a person is because each limb dresses itself with a portion from the Neshama, as the Gemara in Brochos 10a says that just as Hakodosh Boruch Hu’s Kovod fills the entire world, so too the Neshama fills the entire body, and does not miss even one limb – thus each limb is considered its own person. It says in the Sefer Yetzirah and in the Zohar Hakodosh that the heart is the king over all of the other limbs of the body. We need to understand how is it that the heart is the king over the other limbs, and what does it have more than the other limbs that it should have the Din of a king over them? If one were to say that intellect and intentions are of utmost importance, then that should make the מוח, the brains, the king, for that is where the בינה, the intellect, and the כוונה, the intent are. There may be a part in it that the heart has but the מוח certainly has a part in it, and the מוח is at the top of the person, while the heart is in the middle of the person – thus, if anything, the מוח should be the king over the limbs and not the heart. Whenever a limb is doing any work, it has the desire to do that work, and thus it does it. However, it does not necessarily mean that every limb of the person agrees to what the other limb is doing. For example: the legs have the desire to go to certain places and it goes. However, when the legs want to go somewhere, does not mean that other limbs want to go, such as the hands, etc... That where the body goes is dependent upon the legs, and if it wants to go, it goes. The same applies to that which the hands do, and that which the mouth does and speaks, and all of the other limbs. What one is doing is not necessarily the desire of the other limbs. However, there is one limb that does not operate like this, and that is the heart. Hakodosh Boruch Hu placed in the heart a special Koach, that if the heart has a desire to do something, that desire goes into all of the limbs of the Guf, and they all have the same desire – the desire of the heart. This is why the heart has a Din of Melech, of king, over the limbs of the body, for they all follow it, just as when there is a king over people, the people follow the desires of the king. This is why we attribute בינה and כוונה to the heart, for it is what the rest of the Guf has to do, and it is in the middle, for it is protected on all sides, like a king. It says in Devorim 17:16 “מקרב אחיך תשים עליך מלך” – “From amongst your brethren you shall place upon you a king.” This is why Yehudah was appropriate to be king, as he was a middle brother (from his mother), as there were six brothers, and Levi is not counted for Levi was separated from Klal Yisroel, and they did not receive land. Thus, there were five brothers, and Yehuda was the third brother, the middle brother. When the hands gave the donation to the Mishkan, it was not necessarily so that the other limbs of the Guf agreed to it, for each limb is on its own. Thus, one could have said that when the donations for the Mishkan were given, it was not given with the person’s entire Guf, but only a part of it. The legs took the person there, and the hands gave it, but who says other limbs wanted to have a part in it? However, if the heart had the desire to give that donation, that means that each and every limb has that same desire to give that donation, for the heart is the king over all the limbs, and if it has the desire, all the limbs have that same desire. This is what the Posuk is telling us here, “ויבואו כל איש אשר נשאו לבו” – that it wasn’t the legs and the arms which were giving the donation to the Mishkan, but rather, “כל איש” – it was the entire person, each and every limb, because it was, “נשאו לבו” – it was a desire of the heart, and thus it was each and every limb that gave donations for the Mishkan.
