Shabbat Ki Tisa, 2025

“Let’s try to minimize the times when we say, Call me if you need me, and instead focus on I am going to reach out and check in on you and then actually do it. No one is 100% their best self the whole time, but if when we ourselves are doing reasonably well we pay special attention to how others are doing, then we may find that collectively, there are many more solutions than problems, and we can all benefit from this care of one another.

So perhaps one of the greatest lessons of the second half of Sefer Shemot is the collective nature of the building of the Mishkan – everyone was invited to have a role in creating this concrete symbol of God dwelling among us. Each person was valuable enough to be a part of constructing the Holy of Holies, and each person was held responsible when there was a vacuum in leadership during Moses’s 40 days away in. Today, too, each of us is responsible for one another as we follow the dictum in Pirkei Avot that in a place where there is no mensch, zeyn a mensch – be a mensch.”

Rabbi Klein gave this drashah on Friday, March 13, 2025 / 14 Adar 5785. Watch the full talk above.

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