Stand up and be counted

There are those that make things happen, there are those who watch things happen and there are those who ask – what happened!

In this weeks Torah portion – Pekuday, the Torah recounts the values of the materials used in the construction of the Mishkan. This despite the fact that we had discussed at length all the details of the construction of the vessels of the Mishkan and the garments of the Kohanim (the Priests). Why are the specific values or weights of the materials so important?

Have you ever seen something that needed change, but you stood by waiting for someone else to make the change happen or someone else to call on you to take action? Or perhaps you closed your eyes hoping that no one else would notice that you noticed so that you could get away without doing anything about it? Or perhaps you played the “what happened” card standing by and when someone actually asked you why you didn’t take action you said “whah?!”.

The counting of the value of the materials used in the Mishkan reminds us that no detail is irrelevant. Every contribution made by every individual was taken into account and became part of the construction of the home for G-d.

Every action that we take in fixing the world is a part of making a home for G-d. Nothing goes unnoticed, nothing is insignificant. Nothing is irrelevant.

We always have a choice to stand and watch, play dumb or be a part of the solution. The question for each of us is, what role do we want to play?

Stand up and be counted!