Let’s take our perspective toward money, for example.
There are those who like to follow the Gold Standard. Whether they use the standard as a means to invest or view it as the control for the world's economy is secondary; what matters to those people is the value of gold itself.
Then there are those who prefer to look at the Consumer Price Index (CPI). What matters to them is not so much the value of the currency itself (the bar of gold), but what people are buying and selling. How is the consumer behaving? They are interested in investment behavior patterns.
The third category includes those whom we call the Common Consumer. They are not thinking too deeply about prices or about the market. They are not concerned about the Federal Reserve, or which way interest rates are going, short term or long term. Yes, they know inflation when they see it, but they don’t really understand it; all they know is when the end of the month comes whether there is less or more money in the bank.
The Torah, in this week’s reading of Teruma, recognizes that we each have different perspectives on life. Yet in Biblical times, we wanted to be united as one when it came to building the Temple, and the temporary Temple, called the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Therefore, today, as in historic days, we are commanded to use as building materials gold, silver, and copper.
In the examples mentioned above, gold represents the people who are tied to the Gold Standard. Silver, a currency which was more commonly used (in the old days) in business dealings, is represented by those interested in the CPI, while copper represents the commoner who cannot afford more than their daily expenses.
This is a nice lesson that brings all the Jews of different classes together, or better yet, showing that there really isn’t a separation between one Jew and the next. However, we must ask a question: When the Jews came out of Egypt, they had more than enough gold and silver, so why the need for copper?
True, in later years, in the times of the Second Temple when the Jews were poor, copper was necessary, but not now.
Actually, it is not so clear as to when G-d commended the Jewish people to erect the Tabernacle. Was it before the sin of the golden calf, or after the sin? Perhaps G-d told Moses about it before the sin of the golden calf, but Moses didn’t have a chance to tell the Jews yet, as he was still on the mountain, and only told the Jews about it after they sinned?
The reason why this matters to us is because of the answers to these question: Were the Jews righteous when they were commanded to build the Tabernacle (Gold Jews), or was the Tabernacle given to them as a place to repent for their sin of the golden calf? If it was part of the process of repentance, then building the Tabernacle is all about the consumer (Silver Jews). However, if they sinned after G-d gave the command, even though they didn’t know, then they were, at the time, sinners. Therefore, they might have thought to themselves: What do we have to do with building a “home for G-d?” That is the way a commoner (Copper Jew) might think. The Torah teaches us that this type of person can also change their ways and become an investor, a partner with G-d.
All three possibilities are correct; all three types of Jews are necessary to build the Tabernacle. Unity of the Jewish people is what G-d wants more than anything else to make His home our home.
No one should cast themselves as being a lost cause. Everyone is part of the Temple. Each and every one of us matter. A gold, silver, and copper Jew were all part of building of the Tabernacle!
We all belong. Am Yisroel Chai.