A word from the Rebbe in this week's parsha, Parashat Pekudei. In Parashat Pekudei, after the פסוק אלה פקודי המשכן, the next פסוק says, ובצלאל בן אורי בן חור למטה יהודה עשה את כל אשר צוה ה' את משה, and that Bezalel did everything that Hashem' commanded Moses. The next פסוק says, ואתו אהליאב בן אחיסמך למטה דן, and together with him was אהליאב בן אחיסמך from שבט דן. Bezalel was from שבט יהודה and he was from שבט דן. It says in Yerushalmi that from the פסוק ואתו אהליאב in this parsha there are 18 times where it says the words כאשר צוה ה', as Hashem' commanded. And that is the reason why we have 18 brachot in Shemoneh Esrei. Actually nowadays we have 19, because later on they added another one, but originally were 18 brachot, that's why it's called Shemoneh Esrei, 18 brachot, כנגד the 18 times that it says כאשר צוה ה' that Hashem' commanded, starting from the פסוק ואתו אהליאב. And the Yerushalmi says באמת there are 19, because if you count the אשר צוה ה' את משה in פסוק כ\"ב, which is בנוגע Bezalel, you would have 19. But the Yerushalmi says we only count the ones that also have Oholiab, we don't count the first one, which is only talking about Bezalel.

And the Rebbe asks, number one, what's the connection between davenen and the words אשר צוה ה' it says בנוגע the Mishkan? Also, in Yerushalmi it refers to this parsha about the Mishkan as משכן שני. The way the משכן is described in Parashat Terumah and Tetzaveh, he calls משכן ראשון, the first משכן, and from Vayakhel-Pekudei it's called משכן שני. And he says the 18 times that it says כאשר צוה ה' in משכן שני, the second משכן, that's why there are 18 tefilot, 18 berachot I mean in Shemoneh Esrei. So the question is, number one, what's the connection between tefillah and the משכן? And also why is it davka connection connected to משכן שני, to the משכן the way it's written in פרשת ויקהל-פקודי, and not the way it's written in the parashah of תרומה-תצוה, which is משכן ראשון? And also, why is it davka only if Oholiav is mentioned, and if Oholiav is not mentioned, it doesn't go into the חשבון? And the Rebbe explains that the inyan of משכן, the inyan of tefillah have a lot in common. The inyan of משכן is that they took physical objects, gashmiyusdike things, and made a holy place out of it, made it into a מקדש. That's the elevation of the gashmiyut. Generally it's called dirah betachtonim, you make a dirah, a dwelling place for Hashem' in this low world, but in the משכן that was actually, physically, you took a physical thing, physical objects, and you turned it into a holy thing. So the inyan of משכן is elevating the lower מדרגה, the lower ענינים, the גשמיות'דיקע ענינים. Tefillah also represents the same thing. Tefillah is מלשון הטופל or נפתולי אלקים נפתלתי, the word tefillah means connection. By tefillah, we who are down here connect all our low things to the Eibershter. That's why it says in Zohar on the פסוק סלם מוצב ארצה, by the dream of Yaakov that he had a dream that there was a ladder standing there, so the Zohar says what is the ladder? The ladder represents tefillah. Why? Because tefillah is, using the expression of Chassidus, it's ממטה למעלה, that you take the things from down here and you go up. The סלם מוצב ארצה, it's standing on the ground down here, the bottom of it is ground down here, and not just ארץ, but ארצה with a ה', very deep down in the ground, but וראשו מגיע השמימה, by climbing the ladder, you go up and you bring up all those low things to the very high מדרגה. So the ענין of tefillah is similar to the ענין of Mishkan. Mishkan is taking the low physical things and elevating it, bringing it closer to Hashem' and connecting it to Hashem', that's what tefillah is. And that is the reason why we say that the amount of ברכות in Shemoneh Esrei, in tefillah, is connected to the 18 times it says כאשר צוה ה' here.

But, it's only those פסוקים that also mention Oholiav, because as Rashi says, Betzalel was from שבט יהודה, from the highest שבטים. Oholiav is from שבט דן, דן is the lowest שבטים. So the whole idea is that we take the lowest and we include the lowest into elevating to the highest. That's why the פסוק that doesn't have Oholiav, only Betzalel, is not included into this חשבון of what the connection to tefillah, because tefillah is taking the lowest, so only from the פסוקים that בנוגע אהליאב. And that's why it's only from the משכן שני, not from the משכן ראשון. משכן ראשון is a spiritual thing, the way the Eibershter showed Moshe Rabbeinu the Beit HaMikdash. That's what's written in Parashat Terumah-Tetzaveh. The Eibershter showed Moshe the Mishkan, it's a רוחניות'דיקע משכן and He showed him everything. But that's all ruchniyut. The whole idea we're talking about is The physical Beit HaMikdash, Mishkan in this case, that you elevate the physical things, and that's hinted in משכן שני. משכן שני is when it talks about the actual making of the Mishkan physically. That's what we're talking about here. So the משכן שני is connected to tefillah, and that's only if you also include Oholiav. And that's the pshat, pshat in Yerushalmi, that we the amount of berachot in Shemoneh Esreh is connected to the Mishkan, and it's only from משכן שני, and only where Oholiav is mentioned.