The Torah portion we read this Shabbat is from Parashat Terumah and is about the building of the first sanctuary: the Tabernacle. It is called Terumah because at the beginning of the chapter God talks to Moses and instructs him to ask the children of Israel to bring the terumah and take it from each person whose heart so moves him.

The word terumah is used three times in the first three verses; this is significant for those who believe there are no superfluous words in the Torah. Rashi tells us there are three different kinds of terumah offerings. We are interested in the one that is used in our portion today, namely the one for individuals. The word means “contribution”, or “an offering for sacred uses.”

So, God asked the people to make a special donation, an offering for the sacred uses of the Tabernacle, the first sanctuary in the history of the Jewish people. The second verse continues:

ויקחו לי תרומה מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו תקחו את תרומתי

“And take for me a contribution from every person whose heart so moves him” (Exod. 25:2).

A question arises from this verse: when we give something, is it reflected on our face when our heart is moved? And is our face “a give-away” when our heart is not moved? I will put this to one side for now, but we learn from the verse that Moses was instructed to accept a contribution for the Sanctuary only from people whose heart so moved them.

All the words in this verse are understandable, but it is still a question whether the meaning is fully comprehensible. Why is it important that terumah should be accepted from every person asher yidvenu libo – “whose heart so moves him”? And what does it this phrase actually mean?

Rashi is laconic as always: it means ratzon tov – “good will”. The dictionary gives two possible translations for the verb yidvenu which the JPS translates as “move”: incite and impel. It is quite interesting as these two verbs are used in English with fairly negative connotations: causing trouble through action. We might assume that here it is used in the sense that a person’s heart incites, impels him strongly, one might say “from all his heart”, to make a donation for the building of the Sanctuary. So, perhaps it is not just when a person is disposed to doing something that he should give, but when his heart incites him and rouses him really to do so.

This statement sounds natural to us, from our human perception. Who wants help when it is made through clenched teeth? I guess charitable organizations can enlighten us on the topic “people who give money, people who don’t give money, and people who give money in such a way that it would be better if they did not give it at all”. Although sometimes situations are so desperate and any source of funding will seem to do.