Parshas Vayakheil/Pekudei - Looking Back a Year

By Reb Eliezer Bulka
Posted on 03/13/21

Monday, 2 Nissan, marks the 15th yahrtzeit of my Bubbie. This week's shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasah, Yehudis bas Reuven Pinchas.

 

Wednesday, 4 Nissan, marks the 3rd yahrtzeit of my wife's grandmother, Rebbetzin Faigie Frankel. This week’s shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasah, Leah Feiga bas Aharon Tzvi.


The Weekly Shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmas my Oma, Chaya Sara bas Zecharia Chaim, a"h.

 

This week's shtikle is dedicated for a refuah sheleimah for my father.

Please include Reuven Pinchas ben Yehudis in your tefillos.


I had some other plans for this week's shtikle but discovered an unfinished draft from last year which I felt would be apropos as a flashback, considering we have now come full circle with a full year since Coronavirus took full hold. I felt it's a nice way to look back, take stock and examine if we have realized the goals we have set out to accomplish:

For this week’s shtikle, amid all of the worldwide turmoil due to the Corona virus, I feel the most appropriate thought is one I heard from Rabbi Yisroel Motzen of Ner Tamid here in Baltimore as he closed his shul this Sunday morning. (Video available here.) 

This week’s parshios, which most of us will unfortunately not hear in a shul, detail the building of the mishkan, the instructions for which began with parshas Terumah. The famous introductory pasuk reads (25:8) "ve’asu li mikdash, veshachanti besocham." The famous observation, of course, is that HaShem does not declare that He will dwell in it, namely the mishkan. Rather, he will dwell amongst them¸ the people. The proper dedication of the mikdash will cause the Shechinah to dwell among all of us.
This week, and the weeks that will follow, it seems, will present a... [that's where I left off]


Have a good Shabbos and chodesh tov.