Crowd-Funding Torah Style

There seems to be an extraneous verse in this past week's Torah portion, Vayakhel. 

"So the whole Israelite community (i.e. elite) left Moshe's presence (Shemot 35:21)." 

They had just been instructed about what needed to be brought for the building of the Mishkan - from gold to silver, copper, the finest linen and a myriad of skins, oils, precious stones and incense. 

And then, the verse teaches that they left Moshe's presence, but it was not they, who returned. 

It wasn't the wealthy, or prestigious, the benefactors and the philanthropists. It was the simple folk. 

Men and women, all whose hearts moved them, all who would make an elevation offering of gold to Hashem, came bringing brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants—gold objects of all kinds. 

Family heirlooms were brought, engagement rings, keepsakes, anything of value, anything that one saw as being of value. And it was so overwhelmingly so, that the elite were taken off guard. 

They watched complacently, one-upped by the masses, who - so eagerly had contributed to the golden calf, now rectified their ways by using whatever they had for God's temple in their midst, the holy Mishkan. 

Left with nothing, no recourse, they - the princes - brought the precious stones, those that were to be on the Cohen's breastplate. 

But, most certainly, a salient lesson was learned here. For those who rested on their laurels, and waited to see what their neighbor would bring, lost out, because come morning, there was nothing else to bring. 

May we always be among those who can give, and not those who need to receive, like we say in the third blessing of Birkat Hamazon. "Please, make us not needful, Hashem, our God, of the gifts of human hands.." 

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