You be busy with your hands!

29 Adar I 5782

“Now they brought the Mishkan to Moshe, the tent and all its furnishings its clasps, its planks, its bars, its pillars and its sockets” (Shemos 39:33)

“Said Moshe before the Holy One, Blessed is He, ‘How can the Mishkan’s erection be accomplished by man?’ Said the Holy One, Blessed is He, ‘You be busy with your hands! It will appear as if you were setting it up, but it will rise upright and stand by itself.’ This is the meaning of what is said, ‘The Mishkan was set up.’ (Shemos 40:17) It was set up on its own.” (Rashi)

This fundamental truth shapes our relationship with G‑d and our relationship with the world. Sometimes we may face a challenge and say, “How can this be done by a mere human like myself?” Says G‑d, “You be busy with your hands! I’ll do the rest. Don’t second guess yourself, go forward, give it your best try and I will make up whatever is missing, no matter how much.”

“Let him further consider how even this world is filled with His glory—and how everything is of no reality whatsoever in His presence.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 33)

At the same time, while taking the initiative, we must always remember who is actually in charge. Hashem runs the world, everything is nothing in His presence, as we read every day in Pesukei Dezimra, “Wealth and honor come from You, and You rule over all; in Your hand are might and power, and it is in Your hand to grant greatness and strength to all.” (I Chronicles 29:10-13)

“Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of strangers, whose mouth speaks deceit and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” (Tehillim 144:11)

By refusing to fall victim to the plots of the yetzer hara “whose mouth speaks deceit,” making us feel like our accomplishments come from our own strength, “and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood,” who tries to make us into his right hand to carry out evil falsehood in the world, we will make a firm separation between good and evil in our heart, withdrawing more and more life-force from the sitra achara, until the final redemption, may it be soon, may it be in our lifetime.