Pikudei

Eternal Dividends

Rabbi Moishy Pruzansky

“T hese are the accountings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of testimony, which were accounted at Moshe’s bidding.” (ShemoS 38:21)

The construction of the Mishkan and all of its holy vessels were completed. Moshe gave the Jewish people a calculation of how he had used every single ounce of gold, silver, and copper that had been contributed. The Ohr HaChaim points out that the verse opens, “These are the accountings…” — which implies that specifically this is considered a meaningful and everlasting counting, as opposed to a different instance of reckoning which is not. What is this reckoning coming to reject?

The Ohr HaChaim offers an answer that can better be understood through the following story:

A powerful king once approached the famous Baron rothschild and candidly asked him what he was worth. The Baron is reputed to have answered that he was worth some fifty million francs. The king felt that the answer somehow understated his true hold- ings and did some investigation. When he discovered that Baron rothschild was really worth 500 million francs, he felt betrayed and confronted the Baron. “Why have you misled me and violated our trusting relationship? I am aware that your assets exceed 500 million francs!” The Baron humbly replied that true, his holdings were some 500 million francs — but the king had asked, “how much are you worth?” To that, the Baron was compelled to tell the truth. “What I gave to charity approaches fifty million francs. only this is actually accounted to my real ‘worth,’ and worthy of accounting. This is what I carry with me and is something that I will never lose. It is locked in a vault of good deeds forever and no world event or calamity can ever diminish it. as to what will happen to the remainder of my wealth, I am always uncertain. Therefore, I do not count it as my personal worth.”

The Ohr HaChaim explains that our verse is teaching us the les- son illustrated by this true story. Only money used for the building of Hashem’s sanctuaries — or for other spiritual goals — is genuinely meaningful and everlasting. Only “these” are considered true “ac- countings,” for only they are truly eternal.*

A final story about the great Baron Rothschild, which further embodies this crucial life lesson:

Before passing away, Baron rothschild handed his children two letters. he instructed them to open one immediately following his death, and the second a month later. They opened the first letter and discovered the following message: “My last request is that I should be buried wearing my socks.” Even though his chil- dren were perplexed by such a request, they still tried to honor it. They fought hard, but the rabbis would not allow it. Their father was buried without his socks. after the month had passed, his children anxiously opened up the second letter to discover another message: “I know that you did not bury me wearing my socks as I had requested, since it is against halachah. You are most probably wondering why, then, did I request it in the first place. My answer to you, my dear children, is to teach you an eternal lesson: a person can spend his life amassing a great amount of possessions and money, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot even take his socks with him to the Next World! his physical possessions are entirely temporary! only the money that he used for Torah and mitzvos will accompany him; those are the only possessions worthy of his full time and attention.”

Recognizing the eternal significance of spiritual “accounting” — and internalizing the fact that our spirituality deserves our primary focus and attention — is vital to leading a successful life. Consider the fol- lowing: anyone who runs a business knows that you must put a lot of effort into accounting for every penny, being on top of all of your numbers, and charting your profits and losses, if you want it to suc- ceed. Doing so ensures that your business is succeeding and staying in line with its full potential. If one fails to be on top of his num- bers and to perform regular accountings, the whole endeavor will be destined for failure! If this is important for something as relatively fleeting as our wealth, how much more so regarding our spirituality? Chazal state that the yetzer hara desperately tries to convince us to do just that and ignore all reckoning when it comes to our spirituality. When asked whether or not it is important to be a good person, vir- tually everyone will nod in the affirmative. Most people would also agree that to be a truly good person one should not be satisfied and complacent with one’s current “level of goodness” — it’s important to continue to grow and improve. yet, one finds very few people actually keeping track or periodically doing any “accounting” of their spiritual growth and character development. We tend to just hope things are going well, instead of setting goals, evaluating our progress and mak- ing sure that we are actually succeeding in our 120-year investment called “life.”

For example: have you ever thought about what spiritual and character improvements you would like to have achieved within the next ten years? If you feel that there is no room to improve and you are happy with your current character traits, then there really is no reason for you to still be alive in this world, is there? (Scary, but true.) After all, the purpose of our lives is to grow.

We can all gain from growing in some area or another. In or- der to do so, it is imperative that we all do a spiritual “accounting” from time to time, and take this Ohr HaChaim, which discusses the eternal value of doing so, to heart. Think deeply and honestly about the character improvements important to you and those that you would like to acquire during this month, year, or decade. Then, take a few moments every week or month to give some thought about how you’re progressing. If you do so, you can be sure that your life will be full of accomplishments and that you’re effectively actualizing your life’s full potential.