As a teenager, I worked as a waiter in a dairy restaurant for a couple of summers. I remember one customer who wanted an omelet with hash browns…with ketchup. “Sure,” I replied. Alas, there was NO ketchup in the kitchen. I told the customer we were searching up and down for any ketchup, but he nevertheless got very impatient and agitated. “How do you expect me to eat my omelet without ketchup?” he said. I finally found some ketchup deep in our storage area and happily returned with a bottle, but he was gone! His friends said he had just left a minute ago to buy his own ketchup at a grocery store! I saw him in his car about to pull out of the parking lot. I knocked on the passenger window and held up the bottle of ketchup for him to see! He returned to the restaurant, where we had a freshly made omelet for him to eat with his ketchup!

Losing patience can lead to some extreme actions by people. As set forth in Parshas Pekudei, the inauguration of the Mishkan occurred on Rosh Chodesh Nisan. This is interesting, considering that the Midrash says all the utensils and materials of the Mishkan were fully ready many months before! Indeed, the construction of the Mishkan was completed in two and a half months, on 25 Kislev (the future first day of Chanukah). The speed of the project was miraculous, considering all the incredibly intricate details of the weaving of cloth, the creation of all the clothing and curtains and the crafting of utensils. Nonetheless, the inauguration was delayed by three months, until Rosh Chodesh Nisan. Why the truly miraculous haste of construction if the Mishkan would not function until three months later?

To answer this question, Rabbi Yosef Salant quotes the Midrash which says that the Mishkan was an atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. The root cause of the sin of the Golden Calf was…impatience. The people miscalculated Moshe’s anticipated return. They thought he had died. They lost patience and couldn’t wait any longer for his return. The leaders thought that with Moshe gone, the people wanted an intermediary between them and Hashem. The Kuzari and Ibn Ezra explain that Klal Yisrael fashioned a golden calf since a calf is one of the images on the throne of Hashem. They had good intentions, but what they did was contrary to what Hashem had commanded them.

The timing of the Mishkan, therefore, was a test. Hashem miraculously helped them complete everything in a short time, but He waited…and waited…to instruct them to start its operation. Hashem tested Klal Yisrael to see if their passion to get close to Him would cause them to be impatient once again. Klal Yisrael passed the test. Indeed, they waited patiently until Hashem told them it was time.

The concept of having good intentions to do something yet doing it in a way that’s not fully aligned with what Hashem wants is something we may encounter daily. Notice in Parshas Pekudei how many times it says “ka’asher tzivah Hashem es Moshe—as Hashem commanded Moshe.” (It says it 14 times.) Why the constant emphasis that it was completed as Hashem commanded?

Rav Yosef Salant explains that the craftsmen could have done it their way, perhaps looking for fame and prestige based on their own flourishes, but they didn’t. Therefore, the Torah emphasizes that they completed it exactly in accordance with how Hashem wanted it to be done.

This is a challenge we face all the time. We can do something, even following the letter of the Halacha, which is technically correct, but may be contrary to how Hashem wants it to be done. A Tefillah may be davened too quickly without trying to connect to Hashem. We may conduct business in a technically ethical way but which is unfair to a competing Jew.

May Hashem grant us the wisdom and honesty to ensure that our actions are not only in accordance with Halacha but also not at the physical, monetary or emotional expense of someone else, and that our mitzvos are performed sincerely, in a way that is pleasing to Hashem.

Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the Rosh Yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at rbbodie@gmail.com. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com