Rabbi Simon A. Dolgin

The Test of Strength

"That they may take for me an offering." (Shmot 25.2)

Rav Menachem Zaks  z"l was accustomed to saying that the portion of Terumah was not juxtaposed by coincidence to the description of the Children of Israel at Mt. Sinai accepting God's commandments with the proclamation, "We will do and obey".

God wished to put them to an early test of their commitment and self-sacrifice. The Almighty said (Malachi 3.10): "And try Me now herewith... if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until there be more than suffices."

God is prepared to put Himself to the test and to provide the Children of Israel more than plenty of sustenance and blessing. But He also demands that they be put to the test to see whether they will keep their promise, "We will do, and obey."
The Midrash tells us that when the Almighty commanded Moses, "And let them make me a sanctuary," Moses was shocked. "How can man create a sanctuary for God,"  Moses asked, "when we are told (Divrei Hayamim II, 8.18), 'Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee'"?

To this the Almighty assured Moses, "Not according to my power do I ask, test of strengthbut according to their power; 'twenty planks in the north, twenty in the south and eight in the west.'"

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, demands of each of us according to our own abilities, and not according to any other criteria. As in the words of King Solomon (Kohelet 9.10): "Whatever your hand may attain to do by your strength, that do."

The Almighty puts our commitment and our promise to the test to see whether we indeed offer of ourselves according to our heart and our will, to build his sanctuary. He does not need our gifts for the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. He only demands that we live up to our part, according to our own strength, "twenty planks in the north, twenty in the south, and eight in the west."