Parshas Vayakhel
1. In Parshas Vayakhel the Torah relates how all Jews, men and women, and also small children,1 brought donations for the Mishkan — and even more than was required.
In the donation of the half-shekel there were limitations: both in the amount of the donation — it had to be exactly half a shekel ("העשיר לא ירבה והדל לא ימעיט" — "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less") — and in the donors: women did not take part in the half-shekel (the contribution for the sockets),2 only men, and specifically those who were "מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה" ("from twenty years old and upward"), twenty years of age and older. (So too the obligation of the half-shekel for the offerings, and likewise the obligation of the half-shekel in our own time, rests only on adults. The half-shekel that is given on behalf of minors is not a giving by the minors themselves; rather "שוקל על ידו" ("he weighs out on his behalf") — the adults give for the minors.)3
It is different with the donations for the Mishkan: in the donations themselves there was no limitation (they were not a fixed item or a fixed amount that each person had to give; rather, each one gave according to the generosity of his heart). Nor was there any limitation even on the overall total of the donations — the proof being that they gave more than was needed for the Mishkan, as the Torah testifies that the donations were more than enough, "והותר" ("and there was extra"). So too there was no restriction as to who the donors would be: both adults and children gave, and not only men but women as well (on the contrary: "ויבואו האנשים על הנשים" ("the men came along with the women") — subordinate to the women, who were the first;4 and indeed "הנשים — טוו את העזים" ("the women … spun the goats' hair"),5 the women spun the wool on the goats themselves, even before it was shorn,6 and gave it for the Mishkan. Thus the women brought something "living" to the Mishkan as well).
2. The inner reason why all Jews took part in the donation for the Mishkan:
The making of the Mishkan was an atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf,7 and this sin was a general sin, which affected the entire Jewish people,8 even small children. For all other transgressions minors are not punished, except for the sin of idolatry. In the case of the "עיר הנדחת" (the city led astray), whose sin is idolatry, the punishment falls on all the inhabitants of the city, including the little children.9 And since the sin of the Golden Calf affected all Jews, therefore all Jews, including the little children, had to take part in its rectification as well.10
But this is not understood: the half-shekel was also an atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf.11 Why, then, did only men "from twenty years old and upward" take part in the half-shekel, while in the donations for the Mishkan all Jews took part?
We must therefore say that the rectification of the sin of the Golden Calf had two parts: one part of the rectification was accomplished through the service of the adults, and the second part — through the service of all Jews.
3. The sin of idolatry does not necessarily mean a complete denial, G‑d forbid, of the Almighty;12 it also includes the idea that there exist independent forces apart from the Almighty. In a more refined sense, the matter of idolatry is not only thinking that there are forces apart from Him, but even that there is any existence at all apart from Him.
The opposite of idolatry is the Oneness of G‑d: perceiving and feeling that "אין עוד מלבדו" ("there is nothing else besides Him"), as it is written "א־ל עולם" ("G‑d, World"): not "א־ל העולם" ("G‑d of the world"), which would mean that the world is an existence and the Almighty is a master over it, but "G‑d, World" — the entire existence of the world is nothing but a radiance, a power, of G‑dliness.13
This feeling demands of a Jew the service of "וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים" ("Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven").14 Since it is settled in his mind that the Almighty is not merely a master over the entire world — meaning that the world is an existence in its own right and He is master over it — but rather that the entire existence of the world itself is nothing but a radiance and power of G‑dliness, consequently his conduct is such that all his deeds are for the sake of Heaven. It is not only that a Jew will refrain from his various personal matters because of G‑d's command (such conduct can also stem from the feeling of "G‑d of the world," that the Almighty is a master over him with all his affairs); rather, from the outset he has no personal matters of his own at all — everything is for the sake of Heaven.
To this is added a further point. As the Alter Rebbe emphasizes:15 "אין עוד" ("there is nothing else") — the entire world is "אין ואפס ממש" (nothing and truly naught), and it is not called even by the name "עוד" ("else"), which indicates something subordinate (as our Sages say: "יהודה ועוד לקרא" ("Yehudah, and the rest, to the reading")).16 Such a perception demands of a Jew the service of "בכל דרכיך דעהו" ("In all your ways, know Him"): that even his permissible, mundane matters themselves become a service for him, that within them itself there be "know Him." Not only should his deeds be for the sake of Heaven, for the Almighty's sake (like a subordinate thing, which in itself is nothing, its whole existence being entirely for the sake of the principal — yet in any event it is still a subordinate thing), but the permissible matters themselves become holiness.17
And therefore the Mishkan was an atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. The concept of the Mishkan is "ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם, בתוך כל אחד ואחד" ("They shall make Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within them — within each and every one"),18 that the Almighty rests within every Jew through his making a sanctuary out of his permissible matters. That is why the making of the Mishkan was an atonement for the sin of idolatry, for in it is expressed the true Oneness, and the utmost negation and opposite of idolatry.
4. In order to attain the service of "In all your ways, know Him," one must first begin with the service of "Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven," proceeding from the easier to the harder; from that one can later attain the true Oneness — "In all your ways, know Him" — and through this "I will dwell within them — within each and every one" is accomplished.
Just as in the individual service of every Jew there must be an order in the matters of the Mishkan (the service of "Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven" before "In all your ways, know Him"), so it is also in the general Mishkan: the sockets were a foundation and a beginning in the building of the Mishkan.
And because the sockets are only a foundation and a beginning in the building of the Mishkan (in man's service, the level of accepting the yoke of Heaven of "Modeh Ani," even before davening (service), and from this one comes to the beginning of the service), the true depth of understanding of G‑d's Oneness is not yet expressed in them; consequently they are not yet a complete rectification of the sin of the Golden Calf, since through them one has not yet entirely negated the "else" and the subordinate in relation to G‑dliness.
Before both of the above services ("for the sake of Heaven" and "In all your ways, know Him") there is yet an earlier service: to prepare oneself, all one's powers, for the service of G‑d in both of the above ways, up to the essence and completion of the rectification, that there come about "ושכנתי" ("I will dwell") (the Essence above, so to speak) "בתוכם" ("within them") (in the innermost core — the essence — below). Therefore the preparation must come from the essence (of the soul) below, in which all are equal.
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Notes
1) אדר"ג [OCR unclear], beginning of ch. 1. See also Ohr HaChaim, beginning of Parshas Vayakhel.
2) Shemos 30:14; ibid. 38:25–26.
3) Shekalim 1:3. Tur and Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, sec. 694.
4) Ramban, Vayakhel 35:22.
5) Shemos 35:26.
6) Shabbos 74b; 99a. Cited in Rashi, Shemos there.
7) See Shelah, section Torah Shebiksav, Parshas Vayakhel–Pekudei (334b).
8) Even the tribe of Levi, who did not actually sin, [was affected], since it caused a descent even in Moshe Rabbeinu (Berachos 34a [as printed in the source]), even though he was then on the mountain (and accordingly one cannot even say that he was in the category of one who could have protested, etc.). See also Likkutei Sichos, vol. 1, Parshas Terumah.
9) Rambam, Laws of Idolatry 4:6. See also Minchas Chinuch, mitzvah 464.
10) Likewise, the sin of "bowing to the image" brought about Haman's decree "to destroy … from young to old, children and women."
11) Shekalim 2:3. Tanchuma, Tisa 10.
12) See Rambam, Laws of Idolatry, at the beginning.
13) Likkutei Torah, Savo 42d: "like the power of growth … the fruit that grows." Ibid. 43c.
14) Avos 2:12. See also above, Parshas Terumah.
15) Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, ch. 6.
16) Kiddushin 6a.
17) The service of "for the sake of Heaven" comes from the recognition of the unity of Havayah and Elokim — that the entire matter of tzimtzum (contraction) is for the sake of revelation. The service of "In all your ways, know Him" comes from the recognition that in the tzimtzum itself His perfection is revealed: that He is not limited, G‑d forbid, to the unlimited alone, but has the power to be in limitation as well (from the maamar beginning "Vehayah She'eris Yaakov," 5718). The advantage of "In all your ways, know Him" over the service of "for the sake of Heaven" is explained at length above, Parshas Terumah.
18) Shemos 25:8. See also above, Parshas Terumah, note 33.
Key Lesson
The half-shekel, given only by adults in a fixed measure, is the foundation of serving G‑d, while the unlimited gifts of every Jew to the Mishkan express the true Oneness of G‑d that undoes idolatry: not only doing everything "for the sake of Heaven," but making even one's everyday matters into a dwelling place for G‑d. That begins from the essence of the soul, where every Jew is equal, which is why all Jews, even small children, took part.