In the last aliyah of Parashat Terumah, the Torah concludes that after you build the Mishkan, you also need a chatzer, a courtyard: וְעָשִׂיתָ אֵת חֲצַר הַמִּשְׁכָּן (Shemot 27:9). The Torah gives its measurements, and they are much broader and larger than those of the Mishkan itself. The chatzer is a much wider place, and many more people come into it. It is no longer only the Kohen Gadol who goes lifnai velifnim, into the Kodesh Hakodashim, or the Kohanim who do the avodah in the Azarah; now we are talking about the entire chatzer.
Coming Out to the Courtyard
What is the message? The Torah tells us that after you build a family, a house, a good relationship between husband and wife, and children who shine, you need to know that you must also do for others. You have to involve others; you have to shine for others; you have to come out to the chatzer. Make sure to be involved in chesed, in helping others, in doing for others.
That is important not only for the others. It is important for us as well, and it is important for the building of the family itself. When you invite a guest into the house, you are giving much more to yourself than you are giving to the guest. When your children see that you do for others, when your wife or your husband sees that you do for others, they become better people, people of more quality, and the family becomes a family of more quality. The chatzer is not only for the others; it is part of the building of the Mishkan itself, of the relationship itself, of the house itself.
Based on Rabbi Shay Tahan’s class “Parshat Terumah – When You Do for Others, You’re the One Who Gains the Most” (Parashat Terumah): watch the class.
