Vayakhel: Let's Lift Some Cars

By Zachary Israeli

I’m not exactly sure where I heard the story. Quite frankly, I’m not exactly sure that I heard the story. It very well could be completely made up and totally not true. But regardless, somewhere in my head I remember hearing a story of a person whose baby was going to get stuck under a car (or something along those lines) and he had an insane adrenaline rush that enabled him to lift the car and save his baby. I tried to look around online for this story or a similar one and ended up chancing upon articles describing a human ability called hysterical strength. In short, our bodies have built in safety systems that do not allow us to fully exert our strength because if we did, we would end up hurting ourselves. For example, in theory our jaws are strong enough to crack out teeth, but our bodies do not allow us to clench our mouths so tightly. However, in extreme circumstances, our bodies have a workaround that lets us bypass this safety system and tap into incredible hidden strength.

The truth is that this concept does not just exist in our physical bodies. It exists spiritually, as well. A few weeks ago, in פרשת תצוה, the builders of the כלים were described as “חכמי לב.” The same description is given to the, in פרשת ויקהל, where the חומש says “וכל איש חכם לב.” The question is, what is this description? What does it mean for someone to have “wisdom of the heart?”

To understand this concept Rav Chaim Shmulevitz points to another instance of this formulation. Regarding Shlomo HaMelech, the פסוק says that when Hashem offered him anything he wanted, he requested wisdom. In granting his request, Hashem says that “יען אשר לא שאלת לך ימים רבים ולא שאלת לך עושר...נתתי לך לב חכם.”  Hashem says that specifically because his greatest desire was wisdom, Hashem turned him into a חכם לב. Rav Chaim points to this as a paradigmatic example of that fact that individuals who have an intense desire to gain wisdom will merit to have special help from Hashem to do so. Those who reach this height are called חכם לב.

The רמב“ן develops this idea further. In elaborating on the meaning of the phrase “כל איש אשר נשאו לבי” he explains that the individuals who contributed to the building of the בית המקדש did not have anyone to teach them the craftsmanship to fashion the כלים. Yet, each of them managed to pull it off. The רמב“ן says that this was possible because these people had such an intense desire to participate in the project that they found within themselves skills that they never knew they possessed. The combination of this desire and סיעתא דשמיא enabled them to tap into tremendous abilities dormant inside of them.

My brother Andrew pointed me to a piece written by Rav Moshe Krieger, who develops this יסוד and extends it to each facet of our עבודת ה׳. He says that “if we want to grow in Torah with all our might, we will certainly succeed because we have a double advantage. Just like the wise of the heart, we can tap into our dormant abilities, and also merit סיעתא דשמיא to discover new abilities. If a person really wants to grow in Torah, Hashem will help him.”

This idea really resonated with me. Knowing that within myself there is greatness and a skillset that I never knew I had has made me consider whether I am doing all that I could to tap into my full potential. Looking to the people who were נשאו לבם, I hope I can draw inspiration to want greatness in my עבודת ה׳ so much that the extra סיעתא דשמיא will come to me.

Yehi Ratzon that we should have hysterical strength in our עבודת ה׳ and discover within ourselves potential and a skillset that we never knew we had. Good Shabbos!