A vort of the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Terumah. In Parshas Terumah we learn that Hashem commanded the Yidden to donate for the building of the Mishkan. And when it came to the metals, to the precious metals, Hashem said they should give זהב, כסף, and נחשת: gold, silver, and copper. And they used these things for building the Mishkan. And the Rebbe asks the question: Why would they have to use copper? Why didn't they make everything of gold, or maybe even silver, but why copper? We know the Gemara says that in the בית המקדש, אין עניות במקום עשירות. There's no poverty when it comes to a place of richness, which is the Beis Hamikdash. That's why even small things like giving the animal to drink before they shechted it, they would use a vessel of gold, because when you're in the Beis Hamikdash, everything should be special and precious. So why did they use נחשת, also copper, in building the Mishkan? And the Rebbe says, let's look at it in the ברוחניות ענינים. So let's analyze these three metals. Gold is the most precious metal. On the other hand, gold has a chesaron that it can't, it's not usually used as currency. You use it to buy it, but it's not used as currency, a way of the commerce. Silver, silver is not as precious as gold. On the other hand, there's a maalah that that's what's used as currency. Copper doesn't have either maalah. It's not such a precious, as precious as the other two, and also it's not used as currency, usually. So the Rebbe says, ברוחניות,

these three represent three types of Yidden. Gold represents the highest level. Who's the highest level? So we know that a baal teshuvah is the highest, higher than a tzaddik. The Gemara says, and the Rambam paskens, במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים, צדיקים גמורים אינם עומדים, אינם... אין יכולין לעמוד. The level of a baal teshuvah, tzaddikim can't stand. So gold, which is the highest, highest of the precious metals, represents baalei teshuvah. Silver represents tzaddikim. It's not the highest, because tzaddikim are not the highest, baalei teshuvah the highest, so it's not as precious, as high as gold, but it's also something special. And also, that is usually used as currency. That's used to do business. Because that's what the normal thing is. In other words, the most common used is silver, because that's why it represents tzaddikim, that's the way a Yid is supposed to be. See, gold is even greater, but gold is not used as currency, because gold represents a baal teshuvah. Baal teshuvah is not something which is normal. We don't want that to happen. If a person does an aveirah, then he does teshuvah, he becomes to the higher madregah, but that's not the general way is supposed to be. So mimela, that's not the commerce. It's not used normally as currency, but it shows a higher madregah. So gold shows baalei teshuvah, silver shows tzaddikim, and copper shows reshaim, it represents reshaim. Because copper is the lowest, and also we know the word נחשת comes from the root word of נחש, snake, which reminds us right away of the נחש הקדמוני, the first snake who brought evil into the world. So that's reshaim.

And that's what the Aibershter said, you should use to build the Mishkan kesef, zahav, kesef, and נחשת, because this is for everybody. Building the Mishkan, which means doing things to elevate the gashmiyus. The בית המקדש was made of physical things and it was elevated to become a holy place. So it represents doing mitzvos where we take gashmiyusdike things, like we take leather to make it into tefillin, wool to tzitzis, matzah to to elevate all these things to mitzvos. So that's what is represented by the building of the Mishkan. So the Aibershter said, this idea is shayach to everybody: tzadikim, baalei teshuvah, and even reshaim, which means a person who did aveiros, and he didn't do teshuvah yet. We still tell him, continue doing mitzvos and elevate the gashmiyus to ruchniyus. Aye, he didn't do teshuvah yet, so we want him to do teshuvah, that's going to happen afterwards. And also we know that if a person learns Torah and does the right thing, this will bring him to the teshuvah. The Alter Rebbe paskens in Hilchos Talmud Torah that even a rasha has to learn Torah. And it says in Yerushalmi: המאור שבה מחזירו למוטב. If a person is a rasha, but he learns Torah, the light of Torah will make him turn to good, and he will become good. And that's the reason why the Mishkan was made of all three, to represent that all three categories of Yidden are shayeich to to the Mishkan.