Terumah 5775 – Colors

Speak to the Children of Yisrael and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to give generously, you shall take My offering (Shemos 25:2)

Rashi mentions that there are 13 materials mentioned regarding the construction of the Mishkan and each had a separate color. When the tribes of Menashe, Ephraim, and Levi are all counted separately, there are a total of 13 tribes of Yisrael. The reason there were 13 materials used in the Mishkan is because each represented one of the tribes. Every tribe had a different function, but when all of the tribes work together to serve Hashem, like the different colored materials in the Mishkan, then it is a holy place where Hashem wants to rest His Presence.

Let’s take this a step further. If you open a Microsoft document and want to choose a color for the font or an Excel cell, you can choose from over 16 million colors. There are approximately 14 million Jews in the world today. Therefore, there is approximately a color for each Jew. Each person has a different reason for being here and function in the world. Just like many shades of color are very similar, many Jews have very similar functions, but if you look closely, you will see they are slightly different, just like the Microsoft colors. Everyone has a special role in this world.

The most beautiful sight is when the colors come together to create a picture. Imagine if the whole world was in only one color. Imagine if the whole world only had 10 colors. Imagine if the whole world only had 100 or 1,000 colors. All of these would be incomplete. We would be missing something.

The same is with people. Every person is needed. Not only that, though, every person needs to work with others and respect others. That is what makes a beautiful pictures. If green and orange never came next to each other or red and brown didn’t get along, the world would be a mess. But just as all colors perfectly go together to make this beautiful world, so too, every person needs to get along with all other people.

Good Shabbos!
-y.e.s.
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