A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshat Terumah. In the beginning of Parshat Terumah the Torah says that the Aibershter told Moshe Rabbeinu to tell the Yidden, ויקחו לי תרומה, they should take for Me תרומה, which means a donation. And then he goes on to say what they have to give. Rashi says on the word ויקחו לי, it says they should take for Me, that means לשמי, that they should take the donations lishmah, l'shem Shamayim, they should take for My sake. The kavanah should be that it should be for My sake, for the sake of the Aibershter. But the Rebbe asks a question: it seems from this that when people gave the donations for the Mishkan, it had to be with the kavanah lishmah, for the sake of the mitzvah. But there's a Mishnah in Masechet Shekalim where it says ממשכנין על השקלים, that when they had to give מחצית השקל every year, every Yid had to give half a shekel for the בית המקדש to buy the קרבנות ציבור, to buy the public sacrifices, you could force him. If a Yid didn't want to give, בית דין would force him. Now, when you force someone to give, obviously he's not doing it l'shem Shamayim, he's not doing lishmah, he doesn't even want to do it, you're forcing him to do it. How does it fit? Here it says ויקחו לי, לשמי. Here it says that when they took the donations it was lishmah, that means you have to give it lishmah for the sake of the mitzvah of giving the donations to the בית המקדש, which also includes the מחצית השקל at that time. But how does that fit to the din that you could force somebody to give the donation, the מחצית השקל, and then it's for sure not lishmah?

So the Rebbe says that if you medayek in the words of the pasuk, it doesn't say ויתנו לי תרומה, let them give Me the donations, ויקחו לי תרומה, they should take the donations. Who's the pasuk talking to? Not talking to the Yidden who give the donations. He's talking to the ones who are in charge, the treasurers who took the donations, that they have to take it lishmah. That means that the din of lishmah is not a din on the giver, it's a din on the taker. And that answers the question. When the Mishnah says you could force someone to give, and the question was that obviously it's not lishmah, how does it fit to here where Rashi says they should be lishmah, because there it's talking about the givers. The givers don't have to give lishmah. Here in the pasuk where it says ויקחו לי, it's ויקחו, the treasurers should take it lishmah. Now what's the difference? Why is it that the givers don't have to give it lishmah for the sake of the mitzvah, they don't have to have that kavanah, while the takers do have to have that kavanah?

So the Rebbe says, because we learn in chasidut there's a difference between two things, between סור מרע ועשה טוב. In serving Hashem there are two things: סור מרע, stay away from the evil, and עשה טוב, do good. These are two parts. And one of the differences between these two parts is, it says in chasidut, that to stay away from bad you don't need a kavanah. Doesn't have to be lishmah. As long as you don't do the bad thing that you thought to do and you do not do it, that's good enough. When it comes to do good things, to do mitzvah, do good things, that's where you need to have kavanah. Same thing here. When the people took some of their possessions and set it aside for a donation to the Mishkan, and it meant that they took away their own ownership of it, because their own ownership, if it would stay with it, it would interfere with it being able to become hekdesh, to be able to become holy and part of the Beit HaMikdash. So this is similar to סור מרע, staying away from something that could be bad, could be wrong. And therefore the giving, which is the concept of סור מרע, didn't have it to have a kavanah, so didn't have to have the kavanah lishmah. But the takers, when the person, the treasurer takes it, what happens then? It becomes holy. That's something positive, that's something good. There you have to have a kavanah. That's why the pasuk says ויקחו לי, the takers, they should take it לי, Rashi says לשמי for lishmah, because when it comes to עשה טוב to do something positive, you should have the proper kavanah. And the Rebbe says this is not only concerning the donation to the Mishkan, the Beit HaMikdash also, it's also concerning צדקה בכלל, that the person who takes the tzedakah, the poor man who takes the tzedakah has to take it lishmah. Because we know that any money that a rich man gives a poor man, be'emet that money belonged to the poor man to begin with. It was given to the rich man as a pikadon, he should watch it, should keep it for him, and when he gives it, he's giving it to him because he's giving him back his money. But then the question is, Chasidus asks, so why did Hashem do that? If it's lechatchilah belongs to the עני, Hashem should have given it to the עני. Why did He give it to the rich man and then have the rich man give it to the עני? And the answer is Hashem wants that chesed should be done in the world, kindness should be done. So specially the Eibershter made it so that it's not given to the person who who it belongs to, give it to somebody else so he should do chesed. So it was for the purpose of, the kavanah of creating the world is that kindness should be done in the world, which is part of all the mitzvot, etc. And that's why the Eibershter made it in such a way. So when the poor man takes it, he has to have that in mind. He has to have in mind, lishmah, that why is this happening, why is he getting the tzedakah? Because through that, chesed is happening in the world. So just like over here by the Mishkan it says ויקחו לי that the takers should have it in mind lishmah, so too by tzedakah, the people who receive the tzedakah, obviously it's not only the poor people, but the institutions for instance that take the tzedakah have to have in mind that be'emet the money belongs to them to begin with, but the Eibershter made it that it should be given by somebody else, he should keep it and give it to them, so chesed should happen in the world. So when they take it, they also have to take it with that kavanah.