Vayakhel-Pekudei

Parsha Vayakhel and Pekudei repeat the command of taking materials for the Mishkan, and also states the actual construction of the Mishkan. When the Torah describes the bringing of materials, first it states the men brought, and only afterwards mentions the leaders, the Nesi’im. Also, the Torah leaves out the letter י’ and writes it as והנשאם. We know that letters are obviously important and are not usually left out as we see by Sara: her name was originally שרי and it was changed to שרה. The י’ went to Hashem and questioned, “what will be with me?” Hashem responded, “you will be added to the name הושע” to become יהושע. Since letters are important why was the letter י’ left out of the word והנשאים?

Rashi writes in the name of R’ Nosson that Hashem took out the י’ because of the Nesi’im’s laziness. The Nesi’im did not donate to the Mishkan right away, instead they declared, “we will over-see the collection and wait for Bnei Yisrael to contribute and bring their donations, then, we will take care of the rest.”  Bnei Yisrael came and brought everything that was necessary to build the Mishkan. At this point the Nesi’im wondered, “what will we bring?” Then, they brought the stones for the Choshen and Eifod. The missing י’ of the word והנשאם hints at the Nesi’im’s laxness, hinting that they were missing in their contributions. They learned their lesson, and therefore by the Chanukas HaMizbeiyach the Nesi’im made sure to bring the korbanos first.

We can still ask: wasn’t it very generous of the Nesi’im? They were willing to donate anything, whatever would be needed to complete the building of the Mishkan. Wherein lies their fault that the Torah takes out a י’ from their title?

R’ Chaim Shmulevitz writes: We find by the mitzvah of ואהבת את ה’ אלוקיך, letting oneself be killed for the sake of Hashem, that it should be done without much thought and contemplation, for then one will come up with excuses why not to do it. The same is true by the Nesi’im, if they indeed had the proper ahavas Hashem they would have jumped to be the first ones to contribute for the Mishkan without hesitation. So too, is with mitzvos in general. When a mitzva is presented before a person the love for Hashem and His mitzvos should motivate him to fulfill the mitzva right away.

May we learn from the Nesi’im to perform mitzvos immediately and not procrastinate!