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Parshat Vayak'hel-Pekudei
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו 

Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land 

ויעשו כל חכם לב בעשי המלאכה

"Satisfy us with Your goodness, and gladden our hearts with Your salvation...” (Shabbos prayer) Just as HaShem satisfies us with His goodness, so too should we able to satisfy our fellow-Jew with goodness of heart and with the honor and respect becoming of every Jew, and in turn may we be blessed yet again from HaShem's goodness.

One of the striking terms emphasized in this week's parsha is that the artisans that crafted the Mishkan were 'wise of the heart', a matter that shows that these artisans were specifically of high spiritual stature, as the Zohar notes that they had 'ruah hakodesh' (spiritual inspiration). This can be understood in light of our Sages' teaching that blessing, even in seemingly 'material' or 'mundane' matters, comes specifically from the handwork of those of higher spiritual level. So our Sages teach, that if David, considered of even higher spiritual level than Shlomo his son, had built the Bais HaMikdash it could not have been destroyed.

In this way we can gain added meaning into the reason why Torah makes emphasis on preferring the hire of Jewish workers even for mundane tasks. Of course, the main reason posed in halacha for prefence of a Jewish worker is based on the Sifra's interpretation of the verse: “if you sell to your fellow (Jew) or buy from your fellow (Jew).” The Sifra explains that the emphasis on one's fellow Jew in this verse comes to show that one is to prefer to hire one's fellow Jew over his non-Jewish counterpart. This concept is well-accepted by the poskim in halacha, although the exact formulation how one is supposed to exact this preference is under dispute. Some say that if a Jewish worker takes up to a third (some say a sixth) more than his non-Jewish counterpart one is still to prefer the Jew, but otherwise one is not obligated to do so. However, most of the poskim left this matter un-defined, only saying that if the Jew takes a bit more than the non-Jew one is still to prefer him.

We should also add that preferring a Jew as a worker also has an aspect of charity to one's fellow Jew. In the Land of Israel today these laws have extra significance in the reality of the antagonism of foreign nations to Jewish settlement in the Land, who may (and in experience have) take/n advantage of employment by Jews to exact their ill intentions. In this reality, many poskim have taken more stringent positions in regard to the preference of Jewish workers over their counterparts in Israel today. All this said, we should mention that the general hope for the future is that all nations should be elevated spiritually to an extent that they will be befitting to bring blessing in their work, as it says in Isaiah's (61, 5) future prophecy: “those foreign (of other nations) shall be shepherds of your sheep, and their children shall be care-takers of your fields and vineyards.” In turn, Jews will also be elevated and given the opportunity to focus on spiritual pursuits, as is befitting the People of God.

Hebron's past, especially the massacre of 5689 (1929), reminds us of the special care that must be taken in relationship to our foreign neighbors. With that, Hebron also reminds us of the promising future, as our Patriarchs of Hebron are a dominant component of our future redemption - “and He remembers the kindness of our Fathers and brings a redeemer for His Namesake with love.” 

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #111:

“One time our hot-water boiler had been operating on a timer for numbers of hours. I had no idea when the boiler was supposed to stop, so I went to turn off the switch manually. That very second, the boiler 'happened' to turn off alone by the timer...” 

Sources: Pninei Halacha ch. 8, Zohar II 179, Yalkut Shimoni Shmuel II, 145

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