So today I would like to discuss something concerning the Mishkan, because we're learning in the Parshiyos about the building of the Mishkan. So there is so much to speak about the Mishkan, so many details about the Mishkan. So I would like to speak about a one certain aspect of the Mishkan, and that is concerning the material the Mishkan was made out of. And also, we'll touch upon at what period, when the Jews were in the Midbar, in the wilderness, were they commanded to make the Mishkan, and they made the Mishkan. Now, we'll start with the materials. Now, we know in the beginning of Parshas Terumah, Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, speak to the Jews and let them give donations, and He mentions thirteen different objects that He would like them to donate. Actually, it's not clear exactly the number. There's a whole list of materials. Rashi refers to it as thirteen. The other commentaries refer to it as fifteen. Depends how you count it. But whatever it is, we're not going to talk about all of them, we're just going to talk about the metal. There were three types of metal that Hashem said, \"I want you to donate to the Mishkan.\" And that is זהב, כסף, ונחשת, which is gold, silver, and copper, because they used all three in the Mishkan. Certain things were made of gold, certain things were made of silver, and certain things were made of copper. And the question that comes up is, why was not everything made of gold? The Mishkan was made in a very, very rich fashion. It says in the Gemara, in the Talmud, concerning the Beis Hamikdash, and the Beis Hamikdash and the Mishkan really have a lot in common. Not only a lot in common, they're basically the same thing, just a different type of structure, but the idea is the same. And the Gemara actually says in different places, משכן איקרי מקדש, ומקדש איקרי משכן, that sometimes when we refer to the Beis Hamikdash, we call it Mishkan, and sometimes when we refer to the Mishkan, we call it Mikdash, because it's really the same thing. By the Mikdash, by the Beis Hamikdash, we find that when they were able to, everything was in the most richest fashion. Give an example: It says that before they would slaughter a Korban, before they would slaughter an animal as a sacrifice, and you would have to give the animal to drink. That's the the order of things, because then, different reasons, but one of two reasons, one of the reasons is because if the animal drinks before it's slaughtered, it's much easier to take off the skin. Another reason is because if it drinks water before you shachat it, then there are no סירכות. סירכות are little pieces of skin that grow on the lungs, which make a sheilah on the kashrus of the animal. To avoid that, they would give the animal to drink. And nowadays also, sometimes they do that. So when they would give the animal to drink before the shechitah, the vessel they used was made of gold. And the Gemara says, \"Why did they use gold?\" And the Gemara explains, because אין עניות במקום עשירות, there is no poverty in the place of riches. And since the Beis Hamikdash was a place of asirus, a place of riches, because it was the house of Hashem, so it deserved to be in a rich way, there was no poverty, so everything was made in a rich way. So if this happened in the Beis Hamikdash, in the Mishkan, which is the same as the Beis Hamikdash, why wasn't it there too in such a way that everything should made, be made of gold? You see, here we're talking about a vessel that was not even part of the Beis Hamikdash, a vessel that was not even part of the sacrifice. It was only an introduction that when you will use the sacrifice to make it easier to take the skins off, or to have not not to have the skin, the סירכות, so they still used a vessel made of gold because it served the purpose of the בית המקדש. Imagine the בית המקדש itself. So it says in Shulchan Aruch, the Rambam says clearly that when they build the בית המקדש, there were certain things that you were allowed to make of any type of material. Nevertheless, the Rambam says, if they were only able to afford it, they would make it of silver. Then when they would get richer and they were able to afford more, they would make it of gold, because the ultimate is to have everything made of gold. So when Hashem commanded them to make the Mishkan in the desert, He should have told them to make everything of gold. Why was it made of gold, silver, and copper? So the question really is on the silver, too. Silver is not as expensive, as important, as good as gold. So why wouldn't everything be gold? But certainly the kushya, the question is on the copper. Why was it made of copper? Why wasn't it all made made of gold, at least of silver, but certainly it should have been really gold! There must be a special reason why Hashem wanted that the בית המקדש, the Mishkan should have parts of it gold, parts of it silver, and parts of it copper.

Along the same lines, there's another subject, as I said before, that we'll discuss, and really the two connect. That's why we're going to talk about these two. When did Hashem command the Jews to make the Mishkan? There are three opinions. Now we know one thing: that it was not very long after the Jews left Egypt. What happened was, let's go a little bit through the history of what took place in the desert. The Jews left Egypt on the 15th day of the month of Nisan. 50 days later, which was Shavuos, they stood at Har Sinai, they received the Torah. 40 days after that, unfortunately, they made the עגל, they made the golden calf. They made the golden calf on שבעה עשר בתמוז, on the 17th day of Tammuz. After that, Moshe Rabbeinu went up to heaven twice for 40 days. First, he made after Matan Torah, after Shavuos, he went up to heaven for 40 days, came down, that's when he broke the לוחות, and that's when the Jews made the עגל. Then he went up again for 40 days, came down, went up again the next day for 40 days, came down again on Yom Kippur. What was he doing for all these times? So the first time he went up, he went up to study. He went up, Hashem was going to give him the Torah, because on Shavuos, by Har Sinai, Hashem just said the עשרת הדיברות, the Ten Commandments. And Hashem had said to Moshe, \"Come up to me and I will teach you the rest of the Torah.\" So he went up for 40 days. Then when he came down and he saw they made the golden calf, he broke the לוחות, he went up to Hashem to daven that Hashem should forgive forgive them. So he went up for 40 days, and Hashem was very upset those 40 days. He went up again for 40 days, and finally at the end of the 40 days, Hashem said, \"סלחתי כדבריך.\" On Yom Kippur, Hashem said, \"I forgive them as you requested.\" And it's because of that that every year, on that same day, which is the 10th day of the month of Tishrei, Hashem says, \"This is the day that I forgive the Jews for their sins.\" It's called Yom Kippur or Yom HaKippurim הכיפורים, the day of forgiveness. On Yom Kippur, Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the second לוחות. Because after he broke the first לוחות on שבעה עשר בתמוז, השם told him later, \"Make it make another set of לוחות, and I'm going to write the same words on them. Bring it up to me.\" Moshe Rabbeinu came down on Yom Kippur with the second לוחות. This is the history of the first half a year after the Jews left Egypt. Now, there are three opinions exactly when Hashem commanded them to make the משכן. One opinion brought down in the Zohar is that Hashem commanded them to make the משכן after מתן תורה, before they made the עגל. That's when Hashem spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu to tell the Jews to make the משכן, and then Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jews and to make the משכן. That means the commandment and the actual commandment to Moshe, and the actual giving this over to the Jews, took all place before the עגל was made yet. Exactly when, it's not so clear. Was it the day of מתן תורה, or a few whatever, but it was all done before they made the עגל. Hashem already had requested them to make the משכן, and the Jews were already told that they have to make the משכן. And the gathering and the the giving of the donations for the משכן took place then. That mean that the Jews gave the donations for the משכן before the golden calf was made. And the Zohar explains an interesting פסוק based on this opinion. When Aharon, when they when Moshe they they were waiting for Moshe, and Moshe didn't come, and they came to Aharon, and they said to Aharon, \"What's going to happen here? We think Moshe died.\" So Aharon said to them, \"You know what? Give me gold as much as possible.\" And they gave him. The פסוק says they took off the gold off their ears, their earrings, their jewelry, and they gave it to him. And Moshe Rabbeinu wrapped it I mean, Aharon wrapped it, threw it into the furnace, and out came a golden calf. So the Zohar asks, the Jews had so much gold, Why did they have to take off their own jewelry, off their bodies? Why didn't they bring gold from their homes to make the עגל? And the Zohar says because they gave away most of it. Since this opinion holds that they already had given the donations before the עגל was made, so they gave it all away, or a lot of it, so the ones that they gave now was they took it off themselves. That's one opinion which is brought down in the Zohar. So again, the opinion is that Moshe Rabbeinu was told about the משכן, the Jews were told about the Mishkan, and they actually gave the donations for the Mishkan, and all of that was done before the חטא העגל, before the gold they made the golden calf. Then there is another opinion, which says in Midrash and Rashi in Chumash brings it in a few places, that the whole purpose of making the Mishkan was to show the Jews that Hashem forgave them for the חטא העגל. So when Hashem spoke to Moshe and told him to tell the Jews about the Mishkan, and then Moshe came and told the Jews about it, and then the Jews gave the donations, all that took place after the Mishkan, after the עגל. And it took place all after Yom Kippur. When Moshe Rabbeinu came down on Yom Kippur and brought the Luchot, the second Luchot, that's when Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jews that Hashem wants you to make a Mishkan. And then first started that they brought the donations to Moshe Rabbeinu for the Mishkan. That's the second opinion. Then there is a third opinion brought in the Zohar, also in the Zohar, that Moshe Rabbeinu was told by Hashem about the Mishkan before the עגל, but Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jews after the עגל, after Yom Kippur. If you want to call it like a compromise opinion. So again the first opinion is that the whole concept of the Mishkan up to giving of the donations all came took place before the עגל. The second opinion is that everything, even the Hashem's commandment to Moshe came after the עגל. And the other one is that the commandment of Hashem to Moshe came before the עגל, the Jews were told about it, and they gave the donations after the עגל. If we start thinking about it, it's not just a question in time, because when we talk about the actual time when it was made, it only happened one of the three. It didn't happen all three ways. But we know that אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, any opinion that we find in Torah is true. And if we find an argument and different opinions about something that took place at a certain amount certain time, they're all true. Now how could they all be true? How is it possible that it happened this way and it happened that way? So the truth is that physically it happened only one of the three ways, but spiritually, the meaning that is behind each opinion, they're all true. They all teach us something in connection to the Mishkan. So these three opinions teach us something special in connection to the Mishkan. And as we will see later, these three opinions are parallel to the three concepts the three types of metal that were used in the Mishkan: the gold, silver, and copper. And just like we have these three opinions and they're all true, for that same reason Hashem wanted that you should have gold, silver, and copper in the משכן, because all three are true and we need all three.

But let's analyze and what do these three opinions mean? Let's see. Before the Jews made the עגל, when they went out of Mitzrayim and they stood by Matan Torah, all the Jews were in the level of tzadikim. And even though we know the Jews in Mitzrayim were not such a high level, we know that Hashem pulled them out the last second because if they would stay there a little longer, they would be completely absorbed in the tumah, in the impurity of Mitzrayim, so they were in a very low level. Actually, it says when the Jews came to cross the sea and Hashem told the sea, the מלאך of the sea to split, the sea turned around to Hashem and he said, \"Why should I split for them and drown these? הללו עובדי עבודה זרה והללו עובדי עבודה זרה, that these worshipped idols and these worshipped idols.\" The Jews actually worshipped idols. Hashem said, \"I don't care. I want you to split for them and drown the others.\" But we see here that the Jews were not such great people when they were in Mitzrayim. Nevertheless, it says when they stood by Matan Torah, Matan Torah was like a geirus, was like conversion. When a person converts, the Gemara says קטן ש- גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי, a גוי who converts is like a child that's born, like a new being. Whatever happened before does not count whatsoever, it was not this person. Even the relatives don't count. The father is not a father, and the mother is not a mother, and the brothers are not brothers. Physically they are, but in halacha, according to the Torah, in truth they're not. There are certain halachot that still apply, only miderabbanan, that people shouldn't say, \"Look, this guy converted, now he doesn't have to give kavod to his father.\" That's why the chachamim said, \"You still have to give kavod to your father.\" But not because essentially he's still a father. So when you're a ger, you're a complete new person, like a child that's born. Every baby that's born is a tzadik, no question about it. Didn't get a chance to do aveirot. Even when the child grows up a little bit before he becomes bar mitzvah, the Gemara says that the words that come out of a child, the Torah that come of a child, is הבל שאין בו חטא. These are words that have no sin, because the children don't sin, because they're not obligated and they have no sin. But certainly a child that's born. So a ger that's mitgayer is a tzadik, a complete tzadik. So I'll tell you personally, if I ever attend a geirut, I make it my business to ask the person, the potential ger, that the second you walk out of the mikveh, please give me a berachah. Because at that second, you're a tzadik. See, five minutes later, I don't know already. Five minutes later, I don't know what went through your mind, what you thought, I'm not so sure. But the second you walked out, anything you did before that minute doesn't count. It's different, you're a different person. Now you're a complete tzadik. So the Yidden after Matan Torah were tzadikim. And for a while they were tzadikim. Till they made the עגל, they were tzadikim, so they were at the level of tzadikim. As a matter of fact, not only did they get rid of the impurity that they had in Mitzrayim because they were new people, there is a certain impurity that the whole world got at the time of the חטא עץ הדעת. It says in the Gemara, when Adam HaRishon and Chava, when she ate from the עץ הדעת together with the נחש then, ירדה טומאה לעולם, there was a certain tumah, impurity that came into the world. And it says that when the Jews stood by Har Sinai, that impurity left, and they became as clean as Adam HaRishon and Chava were before they sinned. Imagine how they were when they were in Gan Eden, that's how clean they became. Unfortunately, the Gemara says, when they worshipped the עגל, חזרה זוהמתם, the tumah came back. But before, between the time of מתן תורה and the חטא העגל, they were so clean and so pure, they were m mamash the greatest tzadikim. Later on, when they made the עגל, they became resha'im. Unfortunately, they worshipped an idol and they became resha'im. And it wasn't just they did an aveirah, a sin, a terrible sin. The sin of avodah zarah, worshipping idols, is just the biggest sin. It's worse than that. When they worshipped the עגל, this is the source of all evil in the world. Now, I'll explain what I mean. If not for Adam HaRishon sinning with the עץ הדעת, there would not been any evil in the world. The fact that he ate from the עץ הדעת, that brought evil into the world. When מתן תורה came, that evil left. Had the Jews not sinned with the עגל, as far as the Jews are concerned at least, not the rest of the world, as far as the Jews are concerned, there would be no evil anymore by them. When they worshipped the עגל, what they did was they did the exact same thing that Adam HaRishon did, that they brought another evil into the world, and that is the source of all evil, all sins. All the sins that we, a Yid does, God forbid, that is possible to do, stems from that חטא העגל. And that's the reason why when Hashem said eventually that, \"I forgive them,\" He added one statement, \"I will forgive them, but וביום פקדי ופקדתי, but any time I punish them for any other sin, I'm going to add a little punishment for the חטא העגל.\" And what it says in sefarim it doesn't just mean He'll punish them for the other aveirot and then He'll add a little punishment so He's going to punish them for the עגל slowly. What it means is every sin that a Jew does has a little bit of the עגל in it, because if not for the עגל, he wouldn't sin. So when the Jews did the עגל, they became resha'im, because they did such a terrible thing, they made the עגל. Then, between the time of when they did the עגל and Yom Kippur, when Moshe Rabbeinu came down and said to the Yidden that Hashem says סלחתי כדברך, \"I forgive you,\" the Yid were work-, the Yidden were working on doing teshuvah. And on Yom Kippur, They became baalei teshuvah. So here we have three times, three stages in those few months, a small amount of per- a small period, we have three stages in the status of the Yidden, in their level. Between Matan Torah and the עגל, they were tzadikim. Between the עגל and Yom Kippur, they were resha'im. And then from after Yom Kippur, they became baalei teshuvah. They did teshuvah, so they were not tzadikim anymore, they were the level of baalei teshuvah, they did teshuvah for their aveirot.

These three opinions that we said before about the Mishkan come out like this. According to the first opinion that everything, Hashem speaking to Moshe, Moshe to the Yidden, and the Yid- Yidden giving the donations for the Mishkan, all took place before the עגל. In other words, who made the Mishkan? Tzadikim. If they were a level of tzadikim, it seems from here that the Mishkan is connected to צדיקים, Hashem gave the- the Mishkan to tzadikim. According to the second opinion that it all took place after Yom Kippur, after Hashem forgave them, that means that the Mishkan has to do with baalei teshuvah. Hashem, before that he didn't give them the Mishkan, according to this opinion he gave the Mishkan to baalei teshuvah. According to the third opinion, what happened? Hashem told them before the egel, and then Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jews after Yom Kippur, so it comes out an interesting thing here, that the commandment that Hashem gave them to make the Mishkan was told to them before the egel, but it continued throughout the whole period when they were resha'im. That tzivui, that commandment, was not nitbatel, did not go away. It doesn't say that Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu before the egel they should make a Mishkan, and then he had to re-tell him again after Yom Kippur, \"You know, now that you did teshuvah.\" In other words, that same commandment stayed. That means that the commandment of making the Mishkan applies to resha'im, too, according to the third opinion. See, according to the first opinion we don't know because everything was done already before the egel. According to the third opinion- second opinion, everything came after the Yom Kippur, so we have no way of saying that the Mishkan is connected to resha'im. But according to the third opinion that they were told before the egel, and when they did the עגל Hashem didn't take away, didn't retract from that of from making the Mishkan, he said it still stayed. In other words, the Mishkan would have been for them anyway, even before they did teshuvah. The commandment still was there, so the Mishkan is connected to resha'im, too. So what do we see from here? Physically, the Mishkan was made and this whole thing took place at one of the three times, but spiritually there is a lot that we have to take from this these three opinions, and I'll explain what it is, and then I'll get to the gold, silver, and copper. This tells us that a tzadik has to make a Mishkan, a baal teshuvah has to make a Mishkan, and a rasha could make a Mishkan. Now what does it mean to make a Mishkan? Make a Mishkan means like this. What was the Mishkan? The Mishkan was a physical home. It was a physical building made of physical material, and that became holy, that became a dwelling place for Hashem. So making a Mishkan means transforming, working with physical objects to transform them into spiritual things, to make them holy. That's what making a Mishkan is. What we see here is that Hashem wants that. Hashem could have said, \"I am Hashem, I am God. I am not physical, so I have no connection to a physical building.\" It is a wondrous thing that Hashem, who is God, which is spiritual, could dwell in a physical house. How is it possible? But Hashem wanted that the physicality of this world should become a dwelling place for Hashem, that's what the Mishkan is. Actually, that's why he created the world. If Hashem would not want that we should change the physicality, get involved in physical things and change it to spirituality, he would have never created the world. He has spiritual worlds, there's plenty of angels who are spiritual, he could have stayed with them. He created a physical world because he wants that we should work with the physical world to elevate it. But a צדיק is able to come and say that, \"You know me, I don't have to get involved in physical things to make it into a holy place.\" And he would say like this, \"Other people, maybe they have to, people who are afraid that getting involved, being part of this physical world, might pull them down and they might get torn away from Hashem, they have to constantly be on the lookout of working with the physical world to make it spiritual, so the physical world will not bring them down. But I'm a צדיק. A צדיק is a person who is great. I could I could involve myself in spiritual matters, I don't have to lower myself to work with physical things to elevate it. Comes that first opinion and says, who did Hashem say to make the Mishkan? צדיקים. They have to make it. A צדיק also has to know that he has to make a Mishkan. Why? Because as much as the צדיק feels that he is a person that's so great, and especially according to Tanya, a צדיק is a person who has no יצר הרע, but you never know. It says in גמרא, אל תאמן בעצמך, פרקי אבות, עד יום מותך, don't believe in yourself, don't trust yourself till the day you die. After all, a צדיק, as great as he is, has a physical body and has to be involved in physical things. He has to eat and sleep and drink and do things which you need for the physical body. And sometimes things might go wrong and it'll pull you down. So therefore, the צדיק has to know that he has to make a Mishkan. He also has to look be on the lookout that anything physical that he has, he has to see look at it not as a means in itself, but it's a it's a means the goal and for a means to a not a goal in itself, but it's a means to a goal. It's in order to bring up the physical part of the world to spiritual thing. But then, a בעל תשובה might think, I certainly don't have to be on the lookout, I don't have to be involved in working with the physical world to bring it up, because since I'm a בעל תשובה, my whole lifestyle is tearing myself away from the physical world. What's a בעל תשובה? A person who was involved in the physical world and now is a person that's pulling himself away and a person that's trying to get closer to Hashem. A person like that, what am I afraid of? The physical world will pull me down? I'm constantly working on getting away from it. As a matter of fact, the Gemara says that a person shall not say, אי אפשי בבשר חזיר. A person should not say, \"I hate pig, pork.\" No, you should rather say, \"I love pork, but Hashem told me not to eat it.\" But the Rambam says in the the, was it המגיד? that this is only for a צדיק, a בעל תשובה should not do that. Actually, a בעל תשובה is the only one that could say, he tasted it, he knows. But a בעל תשובה should not say it. Because since a בעל תשובה tasted it and knows, we're afraid if he's going to say to himself, \"Yes, yes, it's very good,\" you never know what's going to happen. It'll bring out the the taste again, and it'll give the person the desire to eat pork or whatever, the example the Gemara gives is pork. So therefore, a בעל תשובה should not do that. A בעל תשובה should try to convince himself, \"I hate it.\" So a בעל תשובה is a person that stays away from the desires of גשמיות. So a בעל תשובה might say, \"I don't have to be on the lookout and always be in such a frame of mind to always look that every גשמיותדיקע thing is in order to make it into a Mishkan.\" Comes the second opinion and says, who was the Mishkan made for? For בעלי תשובה. The Mishkan was completely started when the Yidden were baalei teshuvah. Then comes a רשע, and a רשע could come and say, you know, for me certainly there is no Mishkan. Because since I am a person who does things wrong and I didn't do teshuvah yet, so for sure it is impossible for me to make a Mishkan for Hashem. I don't have the strength, the power to transform gashmiyut into ruchniyut as long as I don't do complete teshuvah. And you know what some people might do? \"When I will do teshuvah, I will start working on it.\" And sometimes it takes too long till you do teshuvah. So a person who you stop and you say, \"Well, I want you to do this mitzvah.\" So he says, \"This mitzvah? What's the mitzvah? You take a pair of tefillin, and you elevate the tefillin, the physical part of the tefillin, into a spiritual matter.\" Says, \"I can't do that, I don't have. A tzadik could do it, a person who's a baal teshuvah, but I, if I'll ever do teshuvah, when I'll do teshuvah, then it's going to happen.\" We can't wait for that. But he says, \"But I don't have that power, because you have to be, as we say, an איידעלער ייד, you have to be a fine Jew in order to be able to do it.\" The answer is no, here we have a third opinion. Who was the Mishkan made for? While the Jews were רשעים, there was the commandment of the Mishkan, and they were able to make a Mishkan. So this is the lesson that we get from the Mishkan, the three opinions, even though physically it was only according to one, but spiritually, all three are true, that the Mishkan encompasses the צדיקים, רשעים, which is the opposite, and then the baalei teshuvah. Now, here we're talking about talking about three separate opinions that teach us three lessons for the three types of Jews that are all included in the Mishkan. But in truth, since they're all in the same subject, they all have to be found in one aspect that all three are there, that we see that in the Mishkan the connection to tzadikim, and the same thing, in one thing, the connection to tzadikim, the connection to רשעים, and the connection to baalei teshuvah. So we see it in one thing.

The main part of the Mishkan was the aron. The main part was the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies you had the ארון הקדש, the holy ark. What was in the ark? So the accepted opinion is that לוחות ושברי לוחות מונחים בארון. Both sets of luchot were laying in the aron. The first set, the broken ones, and the second set, which were the good ones, the whole ones that were brought down later on. Now, when we start thinking about it, these two pairs of luchot, the way they were in the aron, represent all three levels of Jews. I'll tell you why. The first luchot were given to who? Were given to tzadikim. As we said before, the first set of luchot was by Matan Torah. At the time of Matan Torah, the Jews became gerim, they were tzadikim, and that's when Hashem gave them the first luchot. So the fact that you had the first luchot in the aron shows that the aron was connected to tzadikim. But at the same time, the way the luchot were laying in the aron, they were broken. Why were they broken? Because Moshe Rabbeinu saw them worshipping the עגל, so he broke it. So the fact that they were there broken, that reminds us of the fact that the Jews became reshaim. So the broken luchot have two aspects in it. On one hand, the fact that this was the first luchot given to the Jews as tzadikim represents the Jews as being tzadikim. The fact that the same luchot were there broken reminds us of them being reshaim. Then we had the second luchot there. The second luchot were given to the Jews on Yom Kippur, when they became baalei teshuvah. So it comes out here that within the one aron, which stood in the קדש הקדשים, which was the focal point, the main point of the whole Mishkan, contained the connection to Jews in all three ways: Jews of tzadikim, Jews baalei teshuvah, and Jews who are, God forbid, reshaim. Now, this is one of the things that we see in the Mishkan that the Mishkan contained all three. But then there's the other thing, and that's the thing that we started with: the fact that the Mishkan was made of gold, silver, and copper also represents all three levels, as I will explain in a moment. But this answers the original question we had: why did Hashem want that the Mishkan should also have copper? Really, you could ask, why did He want that it should have silver? Since it was a place of עשירות, of riches, should have been gold only. Why do you need silver? But certainly, why do you need copper? The answer is because gold, silver, and copper represent the three types of Jews: tzadikim, baalei teshuvah, and then the ones who are not yet baalei teshuvah, who are still on the level of reshaim. And those are hinted in the gold, silver, and copper. And let's see how. And here we get a little bit into the kabbalistic interpretations of gold, silver, and copper. In Kabbalah it says that silver gold and silver represent the two middot of chesed and gevurah. Gold represents chesed, silver gold represents gevurah, I'm sorry, and silver represents chesed. Gold represents yirah, fear, and silver represents chesed, ahavah. Actually, as hinted in the word כסף, in Hebrew the word כסף besides meaning silver has another meaning. כסף comes from the word נכסוף נכספתי, which means desire. Desire is love, something that you want. So כסף is chesed, silver is chesed. Gold is gevurah. The difference between gold, between chesed and gevurah, one of the differences, there are many differences between between chesed and gevurah, is gevurah, it says, is compared to fire, chesed is water. Gevurah is like fire going up. Chesed is going down. Actually, gevurah represents separation. Chesed represents connection. You're getting closer, you're coming down. Chassidus, Kabbalah uses the term that chesed is מלמעלה למטה, is from up-down, gevurah is מלמטה למעלה, is from down-up. So gevurah represents the concept of going away, going away from the world, being in a higher level, being beyond the world, and chesed represents מלמעלה למטה, from up-down, meaning connecting yourself to the world. And we do find that in gold. Gold, if you compare gold to silver, as far as a commodity is concerned, but I'm not saying it from that perspective because I have no idea what goes on there, but I'm talking from the Gemara's perspective, in Gemara there is a whole פרק, הזהב, in Gemara Bava Metzia, that discusses the difference between gold and silver. And there it says that gold is more חשוב than silver. Gold is more expensive, more important than silver. Nevertheless, silver has something else that gold doesn't have. It's עובר לסוחר, it's currency that's used. Currency is always silver, all the years, in the time of the Gemara, always. Gold was a commodity. Gold was something that you owned and it was very valuable, more than silver. But silver was the commodity, the currency that you used to trade. That's called, the Gemara says, עובר לסוחר. That goes from from to to the merchants, they would use silver. So, on one hand, gold has is more important, it's in a higher level, it's more important, it's greater. On the other hand, silver has something that gold doesn't have, that it's able to be used. What does that mean spiritually? Gold is not something that is used. That's something that's beyond. Used means that it's something that's within the use of the world. Gold is something beyond. You know what the Midrash says? The Midrash says that gold is so important, so great, לא היה העולם ראוי להשתמש בזהב. Gold is such a precious thing that the world did not deserve to have gold. ולא נברא זהב אלא בשביל בית המקדש. Why did Hashem create gold? For the Beit Hamikdash, otherwise he wouldn't create gold, because gold is too precious, too too much beyond the world. On silver, it doesn't say it. Silver is something that's within the world. Silver is עובר לסוחר, it's used as as for commerce. That's what it's used for. So silver is part of the world, gold is something that's beyond. And that fits to what it says in Kabbalah and Chassidus, that gold is gevurah, gevurah is beyond, something that goes up, away, and כסף, silver, is something that's מלמטה מלמעלה למטה, that goes down from higher to lower, it comes into this lower part of this world. And that's why it says in chasidut that the difference between gold and silver is the difference between tzadikim and baalei teshuva. Baalei teshuva are referred to as gold. Tzadikim are referred to as silver. Baalei teshuva are gold, why? Because במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד, where the level of a baal teshuva a tzadik can't stand. So when we're talking about that level, baalei teshuva are greater. Besides that, as we said before, a baal teshuva is a person who tries to go away from the physicality of the world. His whole problem was that he was too much immersed in the physical part of the world. When he becomes a baal teshuva, he's tearing himself away from the world, he's going to a level beyond the world, while a tzadik doesn't go away. A tzadik, on the contrary, he's here and he does everything right and he knows that Hashem wants him to do the mitzvot and Hashem wants him to bring Godliness into the world, that's his job, to bring Godliness into the world. And that's why it says that tzadikim are compared to silver. Actually, there's a Gemara, the Gemara in Sanhedrin says, כסף אלו צדיקים, tzadikim are silver. Baalei teshuva are compared to gold. They're as in a higher level, they are people who are beyond the world. Now, if we start thinking, what is copper? Well, copper is the least of it. Copper is not gold, doesn't have that preciousness of gold. Copper doesn't have that level of silver. which is also a precious metal. And copper is not like that, and it's also not used as currency as much as silver. It is used, we know there are copper coins, now and even in the time of the Gemara there were copper coins, but they all were measured according to the silver. Silver was the base, and then you would say, well how many copper coins in one this and this of silver? They would give you the amount. So, copper is not the real commodity, not the real commerce, not the real currency. The real currency is silver. So, silver has the ma'alah of a baal teshuva. What does copper represent? Copper represents people who are lower, very low. That represents the רשעים. So it comes out that gold, silver and copper: gold is baalei teshuva, silver is tzadikim, and copper are רשעים. And actually it fits to the name of copper in Hebrew, which is נחשת. נחשת comes from the word נחש. נחש is the snake, the snake which reminds us of the נחש הקדמוני, the first snake, who is the source of all evil. He was the source of the חטא עץ הדעת, that's what made them sin with עץ הדעת. So נחשת represents the נחש, because נחשת represents the רשעים. And just like we said before, that the Mishkan is something that is for tzadikim, something for baalei teshuva, and something for רשעים, that's why we have the three opinions. That is the reason why Hashem wanted that the Mishkan should be made of all three. The Mishkan should be made of gold for the baalei teshuvah, silver for the tzadikim, and even of נחשת to include the reshaim in the בית המקדש, in the Mishkan too, to know that they could also help build the Mishkan, and this eventually will make them become baalei teshuvah, they should do teshuvah. And the truth is when a rasha gets involved in making a Mishkan and that helps him do teshuvah, he becomes he gets even something gets more than what the others have. Because we know that נחשת is the word comes from the word נחש. But the word נחש has a gematria: Mashiach! Not כסף and not זהב, but נחשת. The word נחש is bagematria the numerical value of Mashiach. Because when a rasha gets involved, and that brings him to do teshuvah, he reaches a high madregah. And when we look in the Mishkan, let's see what did they use the נחשת for? You know copper was used for many things, but the foundation for the walls of the חצר המשכן, of the yard of the Mishkan, you had the Mishkan itself, and then you had the azarah, the courtyard, and then you had the walls, the קלעים, the the canvas that surrounded the courtyard. Basically, if you want to think what part was the part that actually started the Mishkan were those קלעים. See, later on the Mishkan itself was already a higher level within the kedushah, because before the Mishkan there was a lower level of kedushah, the courtyard. But where was this border, this we say in Yiddish the איבערגאנג, the transfer from not kedushah to a holy place? That was from outside the yard to the yard. What was the wall that made the yard into the holy yard? The wall was the קלעים, the the the the canvas around the yard. What was the foundation that held up the canvas? Was the copper. The אדנים, the sockets that held up those עמודים that held up the קלעים were made of copper. Then there's another thing that was made of copper. The Mishkan had no roof. What was the roof, what was the ceiling they had? יריעות, certain skins that covered the the whole Mishkan, and then it hanged down. Now, what made it tight, that it should hang down and the wind shouldn't blow it away and it should be tight? So they had יתדות. Different opinions what these יתדות were, whether they were pegs or they were heavy, heavy pieces of metal that were put down at the edges, but they were made of נחשת. They were made of copper. So we see that what held up the Mishkan was the נחשת, the copper. So not only was it important to have נחשת, this was a fundamental part of the of the Mishkan. Why? Because as we said before that נחשת represents the people who are reshaim. And doesn't mean we're not trying to say that people should be reshaim, God forbid, but it shows that when a rasha gets involved in doing something good, this could turn him. Hashem says, \"I want you to get involved. Don't think that you can't get involved.\" And when he gets involved and does it, what it does is it turns him around and it makes him a foundation of the Mishkan. And this is the reason we have all three. So basically, this is the explanation in both aspects: in the three opinions opinions when this Mishkan took place, when the commandment of the Mishkan took place, and the donations of the Mishkan took place, three opinions, and the three parts of the Mishkan, gold, silver, and copper, it's all for the same reason because Hashem wants the Mishkan should include everybody, should include the tzaddikim, the reshaim, and the baalei teshuva. Which is a little bit similar, not exactly, but similar to we know that tzibur, the community of Klal Yisrael, is made up of three parts: צדיקים, בינונים, and reshaim. The word tzibur is צדיק, בית, ואו, ריש: צדיקים, בינונים, ורשעים. Now here we're saying צדיקים, בעלי תשובה, and reshaim. So if you want, you could say that tzibur means צדיקים, בעלי תשובה, the בית is baalei teshuva, and the reshaim, or beinonim, it also includes basically all three. And this is the whole tzibur, and the whole community of Klal Yisrael is part of the Beis Hamikdash, part of the Mishkan. But we don't have a Mishkan now, we don't have a Beis Hamikdash now, but when we think of it, we think of this Mishkan in the spiritual sense and what it represents, and we all take it to heart to do the inyanim that we have to do spiritually, we will be zoche very soon to see the physical בית המקדש השלישי that will include all the Yidden, but then we won't have any reshaim, it will be all tzaddikim, and we'll all be baalei teshuvah, because it says Mashiach is going to make that the tzaddikim should become baalei teshuvah. So we'll all be tzaddikim and baalei teshuvah, and we hope it's going to be bimheirah b'yameinu mamash. Amen.