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The Voice of Torah: Terumah: Appreciating Your Colors |
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Written by Rabbi Chaim Goldberger
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 One of the gifts solicited during the building campaign for the Mishkan was Shittim wood – a variety of cedar. Rashi explains how the people came into the possession of cedar:
Where did they get cedar wood in the desert? Rabbi Tanchuma explained: Our forefather Yaakov foresaw through Divine inspiration that the Israelites were destined to build a Mishkan in the desert and he therefore brought cedars to Egypt and planted them and directed his children to take them along when they would leave Egypt.
[Rashi, Shemot 25:5]
And why did Shittim wood need to be used in the construction? The Midrash explains that it was a protection for when the Israelites would later succumb to immorality with the daughters of Moav and Midian in a place called Shittim. While the people would find God infuriated enough at that moment to wipe out the entire nation, He would recall the Shittim wood of the Mishkan and curb His anger over the disloyalty at Shittim.
My question is: Why did Yaakov have to bring cedar saplings to Egypt? Even if they were not native to Egyptian soil, they were evidently capable of growing there, as we see they did grow there after Yaakov brought them down! Techeilet – wool died a certain shade of blue – was one of the ingredients needed for the Mishkan. Techeilet dye is made only from the chilazon snail. The chilazon snail is not native to Egypt either, but we don’t find that Yaakov had to bring chilazon snails with him to Egypt in anticipation of the future need! Evidently, imported chilazon was freely available in Egypt, and the Israelites brought some with them when they departed. In fact, chilazon is native to Tyre and Sidon, on the coast of Lebanon. Cedars also come from Lebanon! If chilazon could be imported to Egypt, why not cedars?
Furthermore, how do we understand this whole idea that God stops Himself from destroying the people at Shittim because they once used wood called Shittim? The two things have the same name. So what?
We’ve missed the point. Cedar wood was unavailable in Egypt not because it was a non-native plant and not because it could not be imported. Cedar wood was unavailable in Egypt because the Egyptians did not want it there.
The cedar tree, with all its subspecies, is defined by one characteristic. It does not bear fruit. Nurturing a cedar tree would give its owner no immediate benefit. It might have great value someday, but that would be only after it was no longer alive. To an instant gratification-oriented society like Egypt, that was anathema. The cedar tree was disdained in Egypt because its message was contrary to everything Egyptian society stood for.
What occurred in Shittim was a brief reversion to the philosophy of instant gratification. As they were poised to enter a land promised to be flowing with earthly, physical delights, the anticipation stirred up old passions, and the people became vulnerable. This reversion, had it taken root, indeed would have justified a complete destruction of the nation, for what is a holy people that cannot control its passions? But God knew that we already had the antidote built into our national character – the message of the cedar wood, a message of temperance, patience, and the value of allowing a good thing to mature. Just as Yaakov himself in bringing the cedars exerted efforts that would not yield fruit until long after his lifetime, the Jewish people would have a place to learn the important lesson that not every stimulus must be acted upon and that some far-sighted goals are worth the investment.
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