The building of the mishkon begins with the mitzvah of “veyik’chu Li”—taking for Me. Who is taking? Klal Yisroel. But who is giving the money? Also Klal Yisroel!

The idea of Mi’shenichnas Adar Mar’bim Be’simchoh is well known to everyone. The Sfas Emes says that this was true even before the Purim story took place— even in Bayis Rishon. What is the reason for the simchoh? Rosh Chodesh Adar was when they started to gather the money that would be used to buy the korbonos tzibbur. The zechus to get a portion in the korbonos through giving the half-shekel was a tremendous celebration for Klal Yisroel at the beginning of Adar.

The Rambam says the greatest simchoh one should experience on Purim is when you spend more money on matonos le’evyonim to gladden the hearts of the poor and downtrodden then what you spend on your own seudoh (which includes the alcohol) and mishloach monos combined. People should think about this when they go out and get the most expensive wines and spirits and splurge on fancy mishloach monos that no-one eats. This idea of the Rambam is another expression of the idea of the S’fas emes.

Chazal say you can gain an insight into people’s core identity by how they spend their money. By seeing what his spending priorities are, where he invests his savings, and which types of tzedoko he gives to. Spending money on Purim is no exception. When there are so many needy people in your community and in the Jewish world generally, and you choose to put your physical indulgence first, it says a lot about who the person is.

When Klal Yisroel completed the period of Kabbolas HaTorah, they made the Golden Calf and they donated their gold to a wasted cause. When the Luchos Shniyos were brought, Moshe gives them a message. They have to build a mishkon. Benei Yisroel are in the midbor and there is a tremendous gilui schechinoh that they experienced at Har Sinai. Klal Yisroel are aware that they are headed towards Eretz Yisroel and with it, normal every-day life will commence. Klal Yisroel want to know: will this hashroas haschechinoh become a permanent part of their lives? Or will it fade soon when they enter Eretz Yisroel?

The idea of a Mishkon as the Ramban explains, is make the hashroas haschechinoh of kabbolas haTorah continue into the future wherever they will travel. Klal Yisroel are told at this point, you can participate in constructing this portable kabbolas haTorah experience. You can contribute to make it a permanent reality in Klal Yisroel.

The chachmei lev participated in the actual physical construction. But how did each member of Klal Yisroel feel connected to the mishkon, how did they come to feel it was their own? When they gave money to the Mishkon, they took something very valuable in return. Ve’yikchu Li Terumoh. As the Sfas Emes describes, when you are giving your money to allow the avodas korbonos to occur and bring down the schechinoh which will be a permanent part of Klal Yisroel’s existence, that is the great simchoh of Adar. That is the taking when they gave to the Mishkon.

On the day the Mishkon was completed, Hashem and Klal Yisroel were like a chosson and kalloh. At Har Sinai as well, Hashem and Klal Yisroel were like a chosson and kalloh. But there is a difference. With the Mishkon, they are living together permanently. It’s not just a honeymoon that quickly fades. Hashem will dwell within the heart of each and every one of us.

The Ibn Ezra asks the question. In Parshas Terumoh we have the Aron, the Shulchon ,the Menorah, and then we move to the structure of the mishkon and the courtyard and the mizbeach outside. Then we move on in Parshas Tetzaveh to the bigdei kehunoh. At the very end of Parshas Tetzaveh, we fill in the fact that inside the Mishkon there was also a mizbeach haketores. Why was it left out of the seder that included all the keilim inside the heichal?

The Ibn Ezra answers that each of the keilim in the mishkan had a functional purpose. You needed a menorah for hadlokas neiros, a shulchan for the lechem haponim etc. But the true function of the mishkon was hashroas haschechinoh—for Hashem and Klal Yisroel to meet and be available. Like a king who designates a place to meet his subjects. Not that Hashem has His presence there. But that He will have a presence within Klal Yisroel’s lives.

The Ibn Ezra says most of the keilim reflected the basic furniture that we find in a person’s house. The Mishkon symbolized the fact that the table of each Jew is like the table that is before Hashem in the Mishkon.

Light, a place to sit and rest were all in the Mishkon. So too, when you sit in a chair or lay in your bed in your house, the schechinoh has to be present. So too, when you view the world, you view it through the prism of the wisdom of the Torah. In all of our activities, the schehcinoh must be present.

The Mishkon was designed to be the place on Earth where people can palpably feel the schechinoh. But the ultimate purpose was to bring the schechinoh home and be present in our daily life. But the mizbach haketoras did not serve as this kind of symbol for human living with the schehcinoh. It only served a function of bringing ketores. It doesn’t reflect any human activity—so it was put last in the parsha.

The schechinoh has to be present in everything a person does. Shlomo Hamelech realized that no Beis Hamikdosh can contain Hashem and limit Him in this world. But the point was to have a place where we could have an experience of schechinoh and draw it back into our daily lives. That is what the Mishkon was all about.

When Moshe Rabbeinu departs from this world and Yehoshuah takes over the leadership role, the level wasn’t the same. Our connection to Hashem inevitably got weakened. What are we supposed to do to compensate for this loss? We read in the haftoroh that the remedy for loss of manifest hashroas haschechinoh is limud haTorah night and day. When we lost nevuoh, the Novi Malachi says Zichru Toras Moshe Avdi. When the Mikdosh is destroyed, the response of Eichoh is kumi roni balailoh…shifchi kamayim libeich which is limud haTorah.

The purpose of of all hashroas haschechinoh in this world is not some abstract, otherworldly experience. It is a very practical thing. For us to connect to Hashem who is beyond this world and distinct from this world yet controls every aspect of this world is very difficult. So Hashem has given us various tools and vehicles to make that connection: Nevuoh, avodas korbonos, Beis Hamikdosh, etc. But as history goes on, we lose these specific tools and methods. They are not always available. So there has to be a continual thing that we can always use to connect to Hashem regardless of time and place.

Tha Ra’avad writes in his sefer Ba’alei Nefesh that Hashem designed the Torah in a way that gives us mitzvos and aveiros which accompany every mundane, everyday human activity. We need clothes, so we have to worry about shatnez and daled kanfos. We eat and we need to make brochos and keep hilchos kashrus. We make a business transaction, we have to keep mishpotim and Choshen Mishpot. All these mitzvos and aveiros are designed to keep Hashem constantly in our consciousness with every small thing we do.

But there is another method for keeping Hashem in our consciousness at all times - that is through preoccupying our minds with limud haTorah. At every stage in our history when we lost a level of schechinoh, the response again and again is limud haTorah. It means we establish priorities in this world about what I do with our money and with our time.

Kevias itim leTorah means even though you are busy, you take of time for whatever is essential for living. Everyone knows you take a lunch break from work otherwise you will collapse. You take off time to sleep because you need sleep to live. No-one things taking off time for these essential needs is compromising their career and their ambitions, because without them, you simply can’t live! So too with learning Torah. A Jew has to know that he needs Torah to live. Without connecting to Hashem on a daily basis without exceptions, my life is not a life worth living. If you feel that giving time up to Hashem is an intrusion on your goals and ambitions, then you don’t really know what life’s about.

Hashem gives everyone of us money and the question is what we do with that money. Do we recognize that it is a gift from Hashem? Or that its mine, I made it, I worked hard for it. If you recognize that it is a gift from Hashem, then it’s easy and natural to want to give back. Ve’yikchu Li Terumoh. Hashem says He wants to give us hashroas haschechinoh. He wants us to know what the money is for. We are taking when we give to the Mishkon.

When the Rambam says that giving to matonos le’evyonim is the number one, most important mitzvah on Purim, he doesn’t say you need to be moser nefesh to do it. He says it is the greatest simcha in the world-- knowing you’ve lifted up the hearts of those who are less fortunate. There is no other simchas Purim that compares to it. A person who feels that he can’t do that doesn’t understand what the Torah has told him about life and what is valuable in life.

If a person doesn’t feel that his neshomo needs a constant, daily connection to Hashem-- no less than the body needs food and sleep, if he doesn’t understand that donating to the Mishkon is for creating a hashroas haschechinoh in our very lives, he doesn’t understand what Adar is about and what life is all about. When you are giving, you are taking.

This is what a person has to think about when he makes decisions about what he does with his time and with his money. What is he achieving with his time and money? What is he accomplishing?

Anyone who has thought through what Purim is all about, realizes that acting silly and stupid is totally counterproductive to the spirit of simchoh that the Torah had in mind and that Chazal had in mind. We have to understand what we are rejoicing about and why we are someach.