In the heart of the desert, there is a huge group of freed slaves who escaped from the Egyptian empire not too long ago. This group doesn’t have their own source of food, and relies only on the Mana that HaShem sends them every day. The Mana doesn’t last more than one day. So every morning they have to go out and collect food for that day. The leader of this group goes up to heaven and gets a list of rules and commandments for the people. The Jewish people accepted them, and said, “Naaseh V'Nishmah,” “We will listen and we will do.”
Out of nowhere, HaShem announces that He’s requesting contributions from each person who wishes to give. There is no need to imagine what’s going through the Jewish people’s minds, and what the reaction of many of them was. Of course they said, “HaShem now wants money? This is why he took us out of Egypt? Why does He need it? Where is the money going?”
The answer is, “ועשו לי. מקדש, ושכנתי בתוכם,” “They shall make me a Mikdash, and I will dwell amongst them.” Not only do we need a place to live, but HaShem also wants a place to live. We would understand if the Pasuk would say that we need a place to pray, but the Pasuk says that HaShem needs a place to live. HaShem doesn’t need a physical home as He has no physical body and is everywhere and owns everything. What is the meaning behind this? It seems that the Pasuk is coming to teach us something very important. The Pasuk doesn’t say “ושכנתי בתוכו,” I will dwell in the building,” but rather “בתוכם,” amongst them, meaning in all of us, in our hearts. Of course, HaShem doesn’t need a place to live, but rather we need him to dwell amongst us.
As former slaves, accepting the Torah and Mitzvot at Har Sinai wasn’t so hard, as we were used to taking instructions and commandments. But now, HaShem wants us to reach the higher level of doing something not because we have to or were commanded to, but rather because that’s what our hearts tell us to do. No institution can rely solely on the good hearts of the people. This is why we have many mandatory requirements. But, a society cannot survive only by compelling people to action. Society also needs people to willingly do what is right out of the goodness of their own hearts.
Anyone who has been involved in any organization or institution knows that organizations and institutions are built upon both the mandatory obligations demanded of their members, and upon the kindness of acts done voluntarily with good hearts. The Netziv says that if Am Yisrael wouldn’t have donated willingly, the authorities would have to compel them to give donations. But this compelling would bring the nation back down to the lower level of servitude. And forced servitude is not what HaShem wanted.
Every year, I like to say that in our shul, we have the Pasuk beautifully inscribed on the wall for all to see, “ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם.” The Pasuk teaches the importance of free will and of making decisions to do things out of the goodness of our hearts. Baruch HaShem, in our shul, everyone has a great heart to help out and to willingly do things for the shul. Our Congregants are on the higher level of doing what’s right of their own free wills.