If Not One Place At One Time, Then At Least One Heart and One Cause

 Towards the beginning of Parshat Vayakhel the Torah states:

“Every man whose heart inspired him came, and everyone whose spirit motivated him (brought donations for the Mishkan building campaign).

This is the only place in the Parsha that these two descriptive terms are mentioned together: an inspiration from the heart as well as a motivation of spirit. The heart is associated with thought and emotion. The spirit is associated with spirituality and religion. People were getting involved in the project at this time both out of a sense of religious duty as well as an emotional pull to be part of this great campaign. Why were they so inspired and why specifically at this point?

Perhaps the verse right before can shed light on this matter.

“The entire assembly of Israel left Moshe’s presence.” The beginning of the Parsha describes how Moshe had gathered “the entire assembly of the Children of Israel.” This gathering of all the Jews was not just a practical step, it was an inspirational moment. Seeing the diversity of the people, and yet all gathered together by Moshe with common purpose and at one time was an incredibly inspiring scene. Moshe’s words helped the people understand the importance of the Mishkan project. But the show of unity demonstrated by all of the people inspired their hearts and motivated their spirits in a way that no speech could have ever done.

A quick search in the shul database shows that our congregation currently comprises 3090 individuals; men, women, and children. I have this recurring dream of gathering together in person all 3090 community members somehow and some way. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could create a moment in time during which every man, woman and child associated with Young Israel of Hollywood – Ft. Lauderdale would join together at one time on our shul campus? It would be a powerful moment of inspiration and unity. (It would probably be a great moment to launch our building campaign. At that moment everyone would agree that we need to expand our physical space.) I know that such a dream is far-fetched. First, not everyone is ever in town at the same time. Some people will always have conflicts or other obligations. Second, we are a diverse community with different interests and different priorities. It’s hard to practically imagine what event we could possibly orchestrate that would be appealing enough to bring everyone together at one time. If anyone is interested in exploring the possibilities of bringing my dream into reality, please be in touch. Even if we can’t all be together in one place at one time, we can still find ways to celebrate and put on display our Jewish unity, K’Ish Echad B’Lev Echad.

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