28 February, 2025 09:13
At the time the Torah was given – none of the suddenly freed slaves had earned any of the wealth they had – according to the Torah, the hebrews [and Erev Rav] had emptied out Egypt. So that answers one of the most obvious questions one should ask – where did all the gold / silver come from that was used to build the miskan. — the gold /silver was from Egypt….. By the way, MY own working theory is we [the hebrews / erev rav] were never that far from people / civilizations and gold is in the Sinai [not silver ]… and we had the gold/silver from Egypt
Anyway — about giving.
#1 — the entire known Universe, "heaven and earth" is given to us humans every moment we are alive.
#2] therefore we truly own nothing. Our perception of ownership is… well, "manmade" so to speak. Obviously there are millions of lines of mishna / talmud dealing with owning things / people, damages, theft etc — ain sof
, so we all agree PRACTICALLY there is ownership. —-
2A] God wills EVERYTHING, which means if I currently am a slave serving a master for 7 years due to not having the money to pay back debts / or worse, I stole, and cannot pay, that is real, and it is also within the Torah.
2AA] Gods Will is a tough [very] pill to wrap our minds around. That means that the absolute worst things imagable … God Willed to Happen. Also means the best things /actions are ALSO Gods Will.
3A] so, having what to give and actually "having the heart" to give, is Gods Will
Even though the Torah seems to make it personal choice!!
4] God wants [so to speak, because, Truthfully, God has no wants], God Wants us mere humans, mere flesh and blood to get around to having compassion.
5] however since the average person is "what is mine is mine, what is yours is yours" — inclined to NOT give, the Torah tells us to give.
6] so how is a pious [righteous] person the one that has and gives?
Because God wants the giving to come from the heart, from the side of compassion, and not from the side of of "well, God told me"…. but even if someone gives because "God told" to give, it is STILL better than not giving at all
Finally, we are not meant to give so much that we make ourselves poor!!! RamBam calls such a person a righteous idiot.
A tenth. Just do the bare minimum, and work on giving from your [my] heart
This is the Torah