Sacrifice in Avodas Hashem

Instead of one perspective on the halacha that the binyan Hamishkan, asiyas Hamishkan was not doche Shabbos, the perspective emerges by by juxtaposing a major yesod in avodas Hashem with a major yesod in kedushas Shabbos. The Rambam writes in perek gimmel of hilchos talmud Torah:

מי שנשאו לבו לקיים מצוה זו כראוי לה ולהיות מוכתר בכתרה של תורה לא יסיח דעתו לדברים אחרים ולא ישים על לבו שיקנה תורה עם העושר והכבוד כאחד כך הוא דרכה של תורה פת במלח תאכל ועל הארץ תישן וחיי צער תחיה ובתורה אתה עמל.

So there's a major, major yesod, again for purposes of illustration we're looking at talmud Torah but it's not limited to talmud Torah, as prominent as it is within talmud Torah, it's not limited to talmud Torah. It's true of avodas Hashem in general. To be oveid Hashem karo'i lah, a person has to sacrifice for avodas Hashem. A person can be, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu betuvo hagadol vechasdo accepts avoda on this level as well, a person can be oveid not karo'i lah and the element of sacrifice is minimal. But karo'i lah, karo'i lah means that a person sacrifices for avodas Hashem. Means he's giving up, he's being mevater on other things for avodas Hashem.

ולא ישים על לבו שיקנה תורה עם העושר והכבוד כאחד.

Later in the perek the Rambam returns to this theme:

אין דברי תורה מתקיימין במי שמרפה עצמו עליהן ולא באלו שלומדין מתוך עידון ומתוך אכילה ושתיה אלא במי שממית עצמו עליהן ומצער גופו תמיד ולא יתן שינה לעיניו ולאפפיו תנומה.

Mitoch idun, mitoch achilah ushesiyah doesn't represent the sacrifice. The real kiyum of divrei Torah will only come about if a person is moseir nefesh. That's what it means to be oveid. It means to sacrifice. And perhaps the most sweeping formulation that the Rambam gives, very famously in the final halacha in hilchos teshuvah:

דבר ידוע וברור שאין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי.

He has to be immersed in it, again karo'i.

ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנה כמו שציווה ואמר בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך.

The essence of Shabbos, essence of Shabbos, and Rav Pinkus writes about this in the very beginning of his sefer Shabbos Malkesa, is what the Torah... formulates v'yom hashvi'i is Shabbos l'Hashem Elokecha. All week long, we're not only given license, but we're told, as necessary, to take care of our mundane needs. יצא אדם לפעלו ולעבודתו עדי ערב. To worry about our, to make hishtadlus for our mezonos. But Shabbos, ביום השביעי שבת לא יהיה בו. Shabbos is that combination of also also devoting some of your time for your own needs. That that that's not Shabbos. Shabbos is l'Hashem Elokecha. Shabbos is l'Hashem Elokecha. Ad kedei kach that the Torah even transforms the the achila, the shtiya, the sheina on Shabbos that it's a way of m'aneg es hashabbos. It's not stam. So Shabbos is sheishes yemei ma'aseh as it were is our time. Shabbos is Hakadosh Baruch Hu's time. So comes the Torah and tells us a gevaldige yesod. You build a Mikdash for Hakadosh Baruch Hu on your time, not not on his time. Avodas Hashem, again, it means that a person is לא ישים על לבו that he's gonna not in the sense that Koheles intended it, אחוז בזה וגם מזה אל תנח ידך. That's not how kara'u'i. Again, Hakadosh Baruch Hu betuvo ubechasdo accepts that madreiga as well. But kara'u'i is לא ישים על לבו. You want to build a Mikdash for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you have to build it on your time. You have to give up your time. Not you don't do it on the Ribbono Shel Olam's, on the Ribbono Shel Olam's time. The world we live in, the world that surrounds us, presumably due to its superficiality, holds up as an ideal having everything. The best of everything. But lemaise, lemaise, the vision that the Torah articulates for us is a very different one.

אין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנה.

Again, there's balance in his life, but the balance in his life is the balance which is inherent in Avodas Hashem. There's Torah and there's Avoda and there's Gemilas Chasadim and and there's family, but all of those because those are all values and validated and and mandated within Avodas Hashem. But it's a very misleading illusion, delusion, to think whether it's kinyan Torah in terms of Talmud Torah or whether it's Avodas Hashem in its broader sense that it that it happens without very real sacrifice. On one level, it's very intuitive. It's very intuitive. I think that the Rav has and I think it's in one of the Chumash Drashos, he talks about how just as in devarim gashmiyim, so the Mishna tells us in Kiddushin how metaltelin niknim, how karka'os niknos, so in devarim ruchniyim, there's also a kinyan. And the kinyan in devarim ruchniyim is mesiras nefesh. ויעש בצלאל את הארון, so Rashi says it's not that Bezalel was the only one who was actually who was osek b'meleches ha'aron, but לפי שמסר עצמו עליה, so it's nikris al shemo. ותקח מרים הנביאה אחות אהרן התוף בידה, achos Aharon, אחות אהרן ולא אחות משה? But אבל לפי שמסרה נפשה עליה כשנצטרעה, so she's achos Aharon. And it's intuitive. But the emes is there's also an omek to it. There's also an omek to the fact that again, without dismissing because the Torah doesn't dismiss the eino k'ra'uyi, but there's also an omek to the fact that the avodas Hashem k'ra'uyi has to involve sacrifice. It has to involve forsaking non-avodas Hashem preoccupations and pursuits.

יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון והוא ממציא כל הנמצא וכל הנמצאים משמים וארץ ומה ביניהם לא נמצאו אלא מאמיתת המצאו. ואם יעלה על הדעת שהוא אינו מצוי אין דבר אחר יכול להמצאות. ואם יעלה על הדעת שאין כל הנמצאים מלבדו מצויים הוא לבדו יהיה מצוי ולא יבטל הוא בביטולם שכל הנמצאים צריכים לו והוא ברוך הוא אינו צריך להם ולא לאחד מהם. לפיכך אין אמיתתו כאמיתת אחד מהם. הוא שהנביא אומר וה' אלהים אמת. הוא לבדו האמת ואין לאחר אמת כאמיתתו. והוא שהתורה אומרת אין עוד מלבדו, כלומר אין שם מצוי אמת מלבדו כמוהו.

Avodas Hashem on its most basic level is to acknowledge Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what it means on its most basic level. Correct. Emunah is not only that there's a Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but that ultimately in terms of real genuine existence, that's all there is. Not just that there's a God, but that's all there is. Ein od milvado. Nothing else exists on its own. Everything else exists because of through Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The omek that avoda k'ra'uyi, again, the same word k'ra'uyi though used in Talmud Torah again in teshuva, is that יעזוב כל מה שבעולם חוץ ממנו is because again, avodas Hashem is an acknowledgment. But the real acknowledgment, the correct acknowledgment is not that there... is a Ribono shel Olam. It's that that's all there is. There is nothing else. Kol zman that a person is oveid, but as as we do, but is פוסח על שתי הסעיפים, so again Hakadosh Baruch Hu accepts it, Hakadosh Baruch Hu and and the and it's an important stage and halevai we should at least be holding on that stage. But just to know, just at least we should know how how far beyond that we we need to travel. But but kol zman a person is not is not is not yazov kol is not ozeiv other things. Kol zman it's המשים על לבו שיקנה התורה עם העושר והכבוד כאחת so on a deep level, I don't mean on the simple level, on the simple level being classified as a ma'amin, but on a deeper level is felt in in the emuna v'ein od milvado. And and that's the pshat, that's the pshat that again with a little bit of omek that that avodas Hashem has to entail sacrifice. It has to because the avodas Hashem is supposed is again on its most basic level is an acknowledgment of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the real, correct, genuine acknowledgment of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is within v'ein od milvado. So what else is there to be preoccupied with it? What else is there that that can compete for one's attention, for one's resources, for for one's focus?