“Take for me terumah…and make for Me a Mikdash, so that I will dwell amongst them (Shemos 25:tk). The Jewish People are asked to take mundane objects and sanctify them. We typically call this hekdesh – making something holy. Significantly, the Torah here chooses a different term: terumah, which means raising up a portion from a larger quantity. Thus, the portion of produce we give to a kohen is called terumah, not hekdesh. Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop, the talmid-chaver of Rav Kook explains.

You cannot make all of something terumah. To be legally effective, you must leave over part of the original that remains unchanged. There must be a shirayim, a residual. Should a person designate all of his gathered crop as terumah, none of it becomes terumah! On the other hand, a person can choose to make all of his possessions hekdesh.

Hekdesh is localized. It takes effect only in what you isolate and invest with kedushah. Terumah does more than that. It elevates the portion that you designate, of course, but elevates all that remains as well. More accurately, it acts upon a kedushah that exists within the shirayim. Typically, we are not sensitive to this inherent kedushah at all. All we see is chol. Klal Yisrael acting in concert as they did in building the Mishkan has the capacity to bring out the latent kedushah in the ordinary. In other words, when they donated gold and silver for its construction, they potentiated the kedushah in the rest of the valuables in their possession, securing them for Klal Yisrael in the future. 

Analogous to this is a tallis. We think of only the tzitzis, not the garment, as possessing kedushah. In fact, the tzitzis, draw kedushah from the garment! Because we cannot appreciate or process the kedushah of the garment, we treat it as non-sacred.  

Tzadikim can sense a bit of this kedushah in the ordinary. Because they are meticulous in their business dealings, their property is not contaminated in the slightest by theft and impropriety. Only completely legal owners are capable of uncovering the kedushah of the shirayim. The tzaddik values his property because of this kedushah. Thus, Chazal tell us (Shemos 25:1,8) that his property is more dear to him than his body. For the same reason, Yaakov went back for the “small vessels,” not willing to abandon sacred objects. Because of the enormous power of terumah to create the kedushah of the shirayim, the Torah emphasizes “take for Me,” i.e., take it entirely lishmah. Restore it to its real nature as being fully connected to Hashem. Any disconnect between the taking and HKB”H will diminish its potency.

Disconnect – separation – is the cause of so much that is evil and tragic. The disconnect between people – the essence of sinas chinam – destroyed our Beis Hamikdash. Separating between nes and teva – between the miraculous and the ordinary – means opening a space between the Four Letter Name and the Name Elokim. In truth, there is no separation between them.

Amalek creates separation where there should be nothing but unity. With our triumph over Amalek at the time of Purim, “For the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor (Esther 8:16). The Gemara (Megillah 16B) identifies each of these with a different mitzvah. Light is Torah; gladness is Yom Tov; joy is bris milah; honor is tefillin. We may think that the two parts of the matched pairs are only related to each other. We think that there is no real light without Torah and that Torah inexorably leads to more light. It is incorrect, however, to regard these pairs as different concepts that are simply linked. 

Chazal are teaching us that they form identities. When Amalek’s power ceases, separation and division disappear. With that, Jews realize that Torah is light. They experience Yom Tov as the ultimate simchah. They know of no joy that parallels bris milah. And they find no greater honor than wearing the tefillin that announces to the world that “the Name of Hashem is called upon you (Devarim 28:10).

This, then, is part of what the Torah declares with the instructions to prepare for the Mishkan’s construction. Take the sundry materials you need to create an abode for the Shechinah on earth. Take them for Me. Take them as if I were taking them Myself! Yisrael v’orayso v’Kudsha Brich Hu are one, without any distance between them.

This article is based on Mei Marom, Terumah, Maamar 65.