A vort of the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת ויקהל. In the beginning of פרשת ויקהל, the Torah tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu came down from הר סיני and gave over to the Yidden that Hashem commanded them to donate things for the משכן and to build the משכן. Now, concerning the timeline of this, there are three opinions. Rashi's opinion, the way he writes in many places in חומש, is that Hashem commanded Moshe to make the משכן after חטא העגל. And then, certainly, the donations were given and the משכן was made after the עגל. That means even the ציווי, the commandment of Hashem, was after the עגל, and the משכן was to forgive for the עגל, so the Eibershter told them to make a משכן after they did the עגל. There's another opinion, which is the opinion of Zohar in one place, that the commandment of Hashem to make the משכן and the actual giving of the donations to make the משכן, all of it was before the חטא העגל. And then there's a third opinion, which is also in a different place in the Zohar, and this is the opinion of the Ramban, that the commandment to make the משכן was said to Moshe Rabbeinu before the חטא העגל, before the Yidden sinned with the עגל, but the actual Moshe telling the Yidden and the donations they gave and the making of the משכן, that happened after the חטא העגל. Now, we know all three opinions, because they're opinions in Torah, are all true in different ways, because אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, they're all words of Hashem. And therefore, from each of these opinions, we have to learn out a lesson. And then the Rebbe explains the lesson that we have to take from the שיטה of the Ramban, that the commandment was said to make a Mishkan before the עגל, but Moshe Rabbeinu managed to tell them about it and the actual giving of the donations and the actual building happened later.

So the Rebbe says we take a very special lesson from this שיטה. According to the Ramban, it comes out that when Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to make a Mishkan, this was before the עגל. Then they made the עגל. So one would think that the moment they made the עגל, Hashem should take back his ציווי, tell him, \"What, these people I'm going to work with? I'm going to ask them to make a מקדש? They're sinning with the עגל.\" That's not so. That commandment continued. It stayed. The Aibershter didn't revoke it. The Aibershter didn't take it back. That means that while the Yidden were sinning with the עגל, there was still a commandment to them, which they didn't hear yet, but it's still a commandment to them to make a Mishkan.

So the Rebbe says this is a very important lesson. We know that the inyan of making the מקדש in our avodat Hashem represents the inyan that an Yid is able to take a גשמיותדיקע thing and make it holy. Just like the Yidden brought physical things and built a physical building, and that became holy, that became the dwelling place of the Shechinah, every Yid could do that. Every Yid, when he does a mitzvah, puts on a pair of tefillin, or takes a גשמיותדיקע thing and makes a berachah, anything that you do to a גשמיותדיקע thing according to the Torah, this makes it holy, this becomes a מקדש, so every Yid makes a מקדש. So one might think that the ability to make a מקדש out of גשמיותדיקע things by an Yid is only if you're not a בעל עבירה, if you didn't sin. If, chas veshalom, a person sinned, then the only way you have the capability of making your גשמיות into a מקדש for the Eibershter is only if you do teshuvah first. First you've got to do teshuvah, and when you do teshuvah, then you're able to you have the koach and you're able to make the mikdash in your עבודת השם. But if you're a בעל עבירה, you have no capability to do that. And actually, it would even seem that, because the pasuk says in תהלים, ולרשע אמר מה לך לספר חקי, the Eibershter says to a rasha, \"Why are you learning Torah? I don't want you to learn Torah,\" as if saying, \"I don't want you to do mitzvot.\" So one might think so. Comes the lesson from the shitah of the Ramban, that while the Yidden were sinning with the egel, the commandment was still there that they have to make a mikdash. That shows that even if you're, chas v'shalom, a sinner, you didn't do teshuvah yet, you have the capability to make a mikdash. You have to do teshuvah, obviously you have to do teshuvah, but it doesn't take away from the ability of an Yid to take food and make a berachah on it, and bentsh on it, and make this into a mikdash of the Eibershter. As actually the halachah is actually in הלכות תלמוד תורה of the Alter Rebbe, that even though the pasuk says a rasha should not learn Torah, the halachah is that he should learn Torah. Even a rasha should learn Torah because מאור שבה מחזירו למוטב, it says in Yerushalmi, the light of Torah will bring him back to to goodness, to doing teshuvah. But this is the lesson that we take from the shitah of the Ramban, that the tzivui, the mitzvah, the commandment of the Eibershter to make a מקדש still existed while the Yidden were חוטאים, the Yidden were s- sinners, חוטאים, the Yidden were sinners, and they were worshiping the עגל.

And this is also seen in the fact that in the ארון was lying the לוחות, but also the שברי לוחות. The לוחות were there and also the broken לוחות. The broken לוחות represent the Yidden in a מצב that they're doing עבירות. That's why he broke the לוחות. And that was also in the ארון. Because the ארון, which is the place of the שכינה, represents by us the fact that we're able to bring the שכינה down in our ענינים, as we said before, that is even if you didn't do תשובה yet, you still have the capability. So the שברי לוחות is in the ארון where the שכינה is. And that's a very powerful lesson for us, that a person for sure has to do תשובה, and that's no question about it, but he can't wait till he does תשובה, and then I will have the ability to make a מקדש. A Yid has the ability to make the מקדש and is commanded to make the מקדש even before he does תשובה. And he has to work on doing תשובה, but that's not a מניעה, does not hold back his power of making a מקדש for the Eibershter.