It’s so odd! Betzalel’s task was to construct the Mishkan with meticulous faithfulness to its Divine design.[1] I understand the need for him to be a talented multi-medium craftsman, which he was. But why was it also necessary for him to be so ultra-creative that he was able to conceive of ideas and designs that had never before been seen?[2] I’ll answer that question at the end of this essay.
New parents whose hearts are overflowing with the desire that their newborn will grow into an authentic Oveid Hashem (Servant of G-d), are granted an almost prophetic insight when they choose a name for their baby. The name so often identifies a key character trait of the child. “See!,” Moshe tells the Benei Yisrael, “it is G-d who called him by the name, Betzalel etc.”[3] G-d chose that name for Betzalel (through the vehicle of his parents).
G-d’s involvement in the choice of Betzalel’s name is not some kind of Kabalistic idea that we are meant to believe. Rather it is an empirical truth able to be substantiated by fact: Re’u (see!), Moshe says, not “hear” or “know” or “believe”, but “see!”. It is clearly evident for all to see that his name Betzalel was divinely chosen! But what is that proof? How can you see for sure that his name was divinely chosen? Because, explains Moshe, he has been granted all the talents and wisdom needed to build the Mishkan,[4] a task suggested in the meaning of his name (in the shade of G-d) – a term for the Mishkan.[5] So, by observing (Re’u) his unique set of talents, you will see that his name defines his purpose: a man engineered by his Creator to build the Mishkan. This is the reason for which he was given such an impressive portfolio of talents. His wisdom and talents were the tools he needed to fulfill his purpose.
The Chovat Halevavot uses a similar principle to guide people in their choice of profession or career.[6] He suggests that you choose to work in a field for which you have a passion and natural tendency, because passions and natural tendencies are G-d-given gifts. G-d gives each person the skills and talents he or she needs to make a contribution and earn a living in a particular field. By analyzing your talents and passions you can easily determine in what area you should be working. You will exert less energy, Rabeinu Bechayasays, and achieve greater success in an area in which you are passionate and for which you have a natural talent. Animals too are given the skills and instincts they require to find their nourishment in the ways G-d intends for them: the beaks of birds, the claws of cats, the hunting instincts of dogs, and so on.
How much of our talents are gifts of G-d and to what extent are they the outcome of our own investment and toil? The Midrash Tanchuma[7] notes the use of the word “va’yimaleh” (and He filled him up with a spirit of G-d, with wisdom, with understanding etc.).[8]Filling him up clearly implies that there was something there to start with. G-d gives wisdom to the wise, there needs to be wisdom present before G-d bestows His gift of extra wisdom.[9] G-d gives His gifts to those who demonstrate that they value that gift and know how to apply it constructively.
The process, then, is that every individual is born with certain natural talents and potential gifts that are closely aligned to the purpose for which he or she was created. In some cases there may be hints of that purpose and those talents in the person’s name. By analyzing those talents and passions, people can work out in what fields they should apply themselves, what the purpose is in their creation. Then, by applying themselves to that purpose with passion, commitment and faith, they will develop intuitive wisdom, knowledge and understanding that extends beyond anything they could rationally achieve using their own skills. Those are the moments of inspiration and creative genius that people experience when they have toiled for a long time in the fields of their natural gifts. That is the gift ofVayemaleh, G-d filling up a vessel which has been created by the partnership between the human being and his or her Creator.
Creativity itself is part of that gift. Only the Creator can give the gift of creativity. And He has dispensed that gift with abundant generosity. True, not all of us will become Shakespeares or Einsteins, Rambamsor Rashis. But each of us has creative flair. When we apply ourselves to an activity with commitment, with a belief that we are doing what Hashem ordained for us and with passion, when we put something of ourselves into our tasks, we create. We produce an outcome that has a dimension of uniqueness and originality. It may be in the content of what we produce, in the style with which we produce it, or in the service with which we offer it to those we serve. A hundred women baking challah from the same recipe will produce a hundred different challah experiences for those who enjoy their product. Ten different musicians who each authentically play the same work of a single composer, will, if they invest something of themselves into the work, produce ten different interpretations.
If this is true in the building of the Mishkan, how much more so is it true in every other area of life and of Avodat Hashem. Everything we do should have something of our unique selves invested in it. Every act we perform should involve some small measure of creativity. Every thought we develop should have a unique angle of interpretation to it. Every Devar Torah we share should include a perspective predicated on our own unique life experience. Whatever we do should have our own fingerprint embedded in it in a way that differentiates it from a similar act by another person. This principle applies to our businesses just as much as it applies to our personal and religious lives.[12]
Even if you download a Devar Torah on the Parsha to share at your Shabbat table, don’t just repeat it by rote. Give yourself the time to reflect on Devar Torah, absorb it, integrate it into your own experience, develop your own insights, examples, views, and then present a version of the Devar Torah which, authentic and faithful to the original, includes a dimension that differentiates the way you present it from the way anyone else would present the same thought.
The same applies to Tefilah. Each day we say the same words, we same the same prayers that everyone else in Klal Ysrael is saying. Still, it is possible to bring our own tone and passion into ourdavening to make it our own, to make it unique. So in every mitzvah, in every action, use all of the gifts G-d has given you: your energy, your knowledge, your wisdom, your understanding and your own capacity to conceive of ideas or aspects and dimensions of ideas that no other person has ever before conceived of. For this is the wonder of humankind, each one created in the image of their Creator.
[1] Shemot 38:22 and Rashi
[2] Ibn Ezra 35:32
[3] Shemot 35:30
[4] R.Feinstein, Moshe z”tzl; Derash Moshe, 72
[5] Kelei Yakar, 35:30
[6] Sha’ar Habitachon, Ch. 3.
[7] Vayakhel, 2.
[8] Shemot 35:31
[9] Daniel 2:21
[10] Rashi Shemot 38:2
[11] ibid. 35:32
[12] For this approach in business, see my consulting site,www.sbe.us
