The fact that gold is described as good reminds us of a great principle from the Medieval sages, including the Maharsha and the Maharal, that there are three levels in the psyche known as, “good, pleasant, and useful” (ילעומברעבוט). Their initials spell the word “taste,” or “reason” (םעט). These three levels of connection that we have to things in the world correspond to the intellect, the emotions, and the habits.
The good (בוטו) corresponds to our intellect, and since we have associated gold with the good, it corresponds with gold as well. The acronym for the intellectual powers is chabad and so someone who is connected to Chabad is golden. In fact, the acronym Chabad (חב"ד) also has the same value as “gold” (בהז).
Since gold corresponds to the good and to the intellectual powers, we can continue the parallel and state that someone who has an overflowing heart is associated with silver. In Hebrew, “silver” (ףסכּ) means longing, love, and attraction (יםפוסיכּ). Since the inner experiences of the emotional faculties—love, awe, and compassion—correspond to silver, they also correspond with that which is pleasant (בערע), which tells us that attraction in the heart is an attraction and longing to that which is pleasant.
Useful (ילעומו) means something that is beneficial or pragmatic. Once again, continuing the parallel, we find that that which is “useful” corresponds with copper. Copper thus corresponds to the habitual faculties—victory, acknowledgment, and foundation. As we have seen, something that is useful (used in some sense) needs to be explicitly described as “useful for what....” It does not stand independently of the goal of its usefulness. Clearly then, the use of the copper brought for the Tabernacle needed to be accounted for. Otherwise, there is no justification for bringing copper to the Tabernacle and the Temple.
This is also true for silver which is “pleasant.” Being pleasant is not an intrinsic trait. Rather, we must indicate what is it pleasant to? To the tongue for instance, to our eyes, etc. Hence, silver too needed to be accounted for. But gold, from which the vessels in the inner Sanctuary were made—the Ark, the Table of Showbread, the Menorah—gold need not be mentioned at all. It is intrinsically good; it is the essence of the intellectual faculties.
The pleasant and the useful, which correspond to the emotional and habitual faculties, parallel the six days of Creation. Everything that God created, He also created “for His glory.” Until we reveal His glory in the world, however, much work is needed, a lot of world repair. But there is something that does not need repair. The Torah preceded the world by thousands of years. It is gold, “There is no good but Torah,” “For I have given you a good teaching.” Those thousands of years that the Torah, the intellectual faculties, preceded the world, need no detailed explanation their purpose. This is what it means to learn Torah for its own sake, the understanding that the Torah is for itself.
Certainly, we need to learn Torah to be able to fulfill the commandments. But learning Torah is, at its core, for its own sake. Torah is intrinsically good and needs nothing besides itself. This is the gold.
