Weekly Dvar Torah: A Home for G-d – A Home for the Jewish Nation

This week is very exciting for me and my wife, Tamara. Our daughter Rochelle got married. And to be honest — it takes over everything. It fills the mind, the heart, the house, the schedule. At this moment, I am simply full — full of joy, full of anticipation, full of hope for a beautiful future filled with nachas.

We invite and welcome all your Brochos. Wherever you are, please say l’chaim with us. Rejoice with us. This is how Jews celebrate — not alone, but together. When one family dances, the entire people dance.

A wedding is never just a private event. It is not merely a union between a man and a woman. A Jewish wedding echoes something cosmic. It mirrors the union between Hashem and the Jewish people at the giving of the Torah.

At Sinai, we became His. And He became ours.

After Matan Torah, Hashem asked something astonishing: “Make for Me a dwelling place, and I will dwell within them.” Not only in a physical structure — first the Mishkan, later the Beis HaMikdash — but within each and every Jew.

And the Torah tells us something remarkable. When Hashem asked the Jewish people to contribute to the Mishkan, everyone gave. But after the donations were tallied, it turned out that the women gave more than the men. The men were donating in addition to the women.

That is how central the Jewish woman was to building Hashem’s dwelling place.

And this is not the first time.

In Egypt, when the future of the Jewish people seemed impossible, it was the women who ensured continuity. With their mirrors, they brought joy and connection into homes darkened by slavery. They teased their husbands gently, lovingly, reminding them that there would be a future. That from this darkness would come children, and from those children a nation.

Hashem did not dismiss those mirrors as vanity. He highlighted them. From them was made the washbasin of the Mishkan — a holy vessel.

The message is clear.

The Jewish woman is not a side character in Jewish history. She is its foundation. Akeres Habayis — the essence of the home.

Without her, there is no Jewish nation. And with her, the nation is nurtured, shaped, elevated.

And perhaps that is why, it seems like the woman is not found on center stage. That is only because we are still in middle of construction. As I have written in the past, when a palace is being built, the queen does not linger at the construction site. Not because she is less important — but because she is not a construction worker. The entire structure is being built for her.

When Moshiach comes, the palace will be finished.

And who will move in?

The Queen.

We are building it all for her.

And we are told that in the future, “Eshes Chayil Ateres Ba’alah” — the woman of valor will be the crown of her husband. The crown sits above the head. What was once hidden will be revealed as higher, deeper, more essential.

This is what a Jewish daughter is about.

This is what fills my heart this week.

I am happy and proud to marry off my daughter — a Jewish princess who will become, with Hashem’s help, a Jewish queen. Together with her Chosson, Dovvy, they will build a Bayis Ne’eman B’Yisrael — an everlasting Jewish home.

An edifice of Torah.

A home illuminated with warmth, with laughter, with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Continuity.

This brings joy to us now.

It brings joy to Hashem.

And it will bring ultimate joy to the Jewish people when Moshiach comes and all that remains will be revealed good — revealed joy.

A wedding is not only about today. It is about the future of the Jewish people. It is about another link in the golden chain stretching back to Sinai and forward to redemption.

So yes — this week we are a little overwhelmed. A little busy. A little emotional. But mostly — we are grateful.

Grateful for our daughter. Grateful for her Chosson. Grateful for the privilege of watching another Jewish home come into existence.

Please join us in our simcha. Wherever you are, raise a glass and say l’chaim. Send your Brochos. Rejoice with us.

And may we all share in one another’s joys, returning simcha for simcha, dancing from wedding to wedding, from redemption to redemption.

Mazal Tov. Mazal Tov.

And may we merit very soon the ultimate wedding — the union of Hashem and His people in the rebuilt Beis HaMikdash, speedily in our days.

Have a Dancing of a Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Yosef Katzman