Parshas Terumah

The past weeks the Parsha told us how to build a mishkan a dwelling for Hashem. The famous drasha or elucidation of the phrase "build for Me a dwelling and I will dwell in them" teaches that when we build the mishkan with sincerity Hashem dwells in us. I feel that we all want to build such a mishkan the question is how? One way would be to look at the directions in the Parsha but that might be a bit too esoteric for most. Another way would be to look at someone who had built a mishkan. One such person that we could look at is Rabbi Noach Weinberg zt"l founder of Aish haTorah and a pioneer in the world of kiruv or Torah outreach.

With his passing a few weeks ago numerous articles and eulogies have appeared in the Jewish media in general and of course at aish.com. In the Mishpacha magazine tribute to Rav. Noach his students shared lessons that they learned from thie rebbe. Rabbi Alon Tolwin of Detroit said something that made a big impact on me. Rabbi Weinberg once told Rabbi Tolwin that if after doing a mitzva you don't have more energy that you did before the mitzva something was missing in your kavana intent when preforming the mitzva. I found that very striking. Personally after performing some mitzvos I am uplifted but after other I feel drained. I have observed many in our own community take on mitzvos, come to classes or services, do acts of loving kindness and find that they become burdensom. Rav Noach seems to be telling us we are doing it for the wrong reason.
What then is the right reason. The 2nd verse in Parshas Terumah says vyikchu li take for me an offering. Rashi quotes the rabbinic dictum "li - for my names sake". If we are doing it for Hashem we will be energized. Mitzvos for any other reason ultimately the mitzvos become exhausting.

On Thursday nights Jeff Cohen an Atlanta in Monsey New York spends time packing shabbos care packages for needy families. he says that the maariv evening minyan that the workers pray after working is very energetic. After an exhausting evening of doing mitzvos the workers feel energized. According to rabbi Weinberg this would show you that they are doing it for Hashem.
So when we want to build ourselves in to a mishkan but we feel a little tried we need only look to powerful examples of people like Rabbi Weinberg. Rabbi Weinberg was a man of boundless energy and he told us where it all came from.