Parashas Teruma - Did I try my hardest?

This weeks Dvar Torah has been sponsored for:
Aliyah Neshama: Devora bas Yisroel Melech and Aliza bas Moshe HaLevi
(If you would like to sponsor a Dvar Torah, feel free to email me: SharingTorah@gmail.com)
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Tonight (2 Adar) is my son's one year old birthday and already he's running around the house (bli ayin hara.) When he started crawling and then walking over a month ago, it was amazing to see how hard he tried and never gave up. Whenever he fell, he picked himself up, and tried again (and again). Chazal say when you try really hard to accomplish something then Hashem takes care of the rest.

In Parashas Teruma, Hashem commanded Moshe to build several things: A mishkan (a dwelling place for Hashem's presence), an altar, a menorah (candelabrum,) etc... The mishkan was made in a way which could be dismantled and transferred from place to place. The Jews were given defined instructions of how to construct it. Anyone was allowed to donate material for this project; however, it needed to be given with good intentions - for the sake of Hashem.

Everything was hand-made except for the menorah, which was made by Hashem (there's an opinion it was made by Bezalel, which isn't the opinion I'm going with for now.) Moshe had a hard time designing and constructing the menorah. He tried many times, but couldn't figure it out. After trying, Hashem showed him a vision of the menorah made of fire. Still, he wasn't able to duplicate the image he saw. Hashem told him to just throw a block of gold into the fire, and a menorah will form itself. [1]

Throughout the whole parasha from beginning to end, the Torah continues to give detailed information about how things should be built, with which specific material, specific measurements, and specific colors. People ask me, "Oh boy, how are you going to write a dvar Torah with this type of parasha? There's nothing to talk about." Well, the truth is, there are lots of things to write about in this weeks parasha. People get bored and tired by it because it's an "architectural" parasha. From seeing how detailed the parasha is in different aspects alone, shows us how defined and calculated out the Torah is. We see it all over: By Sukkos there are measurements to how high or low the sukkah should be; by the Chanukah menorah, putting it in a place too high isn't good; or even eating a certain measurement gives you the opportunity to make a bracha achrona (after blessings).

Measurements aren't the focus of my Dvar Torah, though. We see that Moshe tried really hard to construct the menorah several times, but couldn't. Hashem then told him, "Simply throw into the fire a block of gold and I will take care of the rest." Moshe did, and out came a beautiful menorah, perfectly engraved and shaped. There's a lesson which should be held on to forever, which can give us the encouragement to fulfill our goals whether they are easy or hard. As long a person does all the hishtadlus (effort) they can, they may rely on Hashem to do the rest. People seem to give up after trying, but they need to ask themselves, "Did I try my hardest?" If they did, they would experience the heavenly help of Hashem.

May we have the siyata dishmaya (heavenly help) to fulfill Hashem's Will and to always have in mind that He is with us at all times.

Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso

[1] Rashi 25: 31&40