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וכל אשר נדבה רוחו
And everyone whose spirit moved him
In one distinguished community, they wanted to enlarge their building, and so they made a large appeal. In order to encourage people to donate to their cause, they announced that whoever donates a nice amount will be invited to nice catered dinner in a hall. When the day arrived, all those who donated arrived at a beautiful hall and entered one after the other with their invitations in hand. Outside, a group of boys stood who of course was not allowed to enter the impressive dinner. Just then one of the wealthy men of the city was passing by and when he saw the commotion, he was curious as to what was happening. The boys explained to him that there was a formal dinner in the hall ‘for wealthy people only’. The man thought to himself, ‘I am rich, so I should go in and see what this important dinner is all about.’
The wealthy man approached the door, and the guards asked him to show them his entry ticket. Since he did not have an entry ticket, they did not let him in. In the meantime, a plain young man passed by who was certainly not one of the wealthy ones of the city, took out an entry ticket, and entered the hall with much honor. The wealthy man was very surprised, “I am one of the wealthiest in the city and they did not let me in, but this poor young man went in with much honor, what is really happening here?!”
They explained to the man that entry to the hall was not measured by the wealth he had in the bank or holdings, rather, it was based on the size of his donation, and only those who donated a sizeable amount could go in. As for him, since he had not donated – he was not invited to enter.
'ויבואו כל איש אשר נשאו לבו וכל אשר נדבה רוחו אותו, הביאו את תרומת ד' למלאכת אהל מועד' – Every man whose heart inspired him came, and everyone whose spirit moved him brought the portion of Hashem for the work of the Ohel Moed’ ((35:21). In this posuk the Torah points out to us that donors are not measured by their wealth, rather according to their inspired heart and moved spirit.
We see this even nowadays, mainly in the mitzvah of tzedakah but also with many other mitzvos, there are people who are not at all rich, but they donate as much as they can, and there are people who are physically weak but insist on helping others, and there are even people who are sick and they walk around the hospital making other sick people happy. This is what the Torah says, ‘Every man whose heart inspired him came, and everyone whose spirit moved him’, for keeping the mitzvos is not dependent on mundane physical conditions, rather on the will of the heart.
-Tiv HaTorah - Vayakhel
