Rabbi Simon A. Dolgin


"And all the wisehearted among you shall come and make what the Lord has commanded."
(-Shmot 35.10)

Our sages tell us: "That there is knowledge among the nations, you should believe; that there is Torah among the nations, do not believe." How are knowledge and Torah different? What is knowledge that it may be found among the gentile nations, and what is Torah that is not found among them?

There is no doubt that our world is full of brilliant and gifted people who create great beauty and make awesome discoveries. Still with all of the immeasurable brilliance, we see before us a sad and self-destructing world.

War, famine, oppression, and social injustice still prevail in unspeakable proportions across the globe. With all of the immense wisdom, mankind still has not learned. heart world

The answer is that the leaders and thinkers of a secular world, and even some among our own people, lack a criitical ingredient for which the Torah calls. For the design and building of the Mishkan, a great deal of knowledge and skill was needed, and only the most brilliant and talented craftsmen could carry out this task.

Yet the Torah adds another characteristic in describing those who would be suited to build the Mishkan. They were the 'wisehearted.' Beyond knowledge, practical skill  and wisdom of the mind, they had to have wisdom of the heart. Logic and pure calculations alone are not sufficient to provide the answers for man's most fundamental questions, those that determine his existence.

The wisdom of the Torah, however, provides the crictical ingredient of wiseheartedness. And only with the combination of mind and heart is mankind able to find solutions to the world's true dilemmas.

For the construction of God's sanctuary, mere professionalism was not enough. "And all the wisehearted among you shall come and make what the Lord has commanded." We are told (Psalms 111.10): "The beginning of wisdom is the awe of the Lord." What is meant by "awe of the Lord"? This is wiseheartedness. And therefore only they, the wise of the heart "...shall come and make what the Lord has commanded."