Parshat Ki Tisa by the Esteemed Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a - "The Women Build the Mishkan"

"And all the people took off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron" (Exodus 32:3)

"In the heavens above, there are countless palaces, of countless righteous women throughout the generations, each building a palace above from her yearning and longing for a mitzvah."

Why Aaron Agreed to Make the Calf

"The holy Zohar says about the sin of the calf (Zohar 192a) - that Jannes and Jambres, the sons of Balaam the wicked, who were from the mixed multitude, and left Egypt with Israel, began to convince the Israelites that Moses would surely not return. If he ascended to the heavens, he would not return, and therefore they needed to make a calf, a new coronation with sorcery and magic. They said with this calf we will conquer nations, and thus we will also conquer Eretz Yisrael. Immediately they went to Aaron the priest and said to him, let's make a calf. What did Aaron do? How did he want to 'arrange' them? He told them to go to the women, bring me the women's earrings and say that Aaron commanded to make a calf."

"Aaron knew that the women would not agree to make a calf, he knew that if a woman heard once 'You shall have no other gods before Me,' nothing would help! No one can move her from that, it is the nature of the woman, if she heard a word, a Torah word, nothing in the world can move her from it."

Nothing Can Move a Woman from Her Awe

"A woman who fears Hashem, she shall be praised" – the woman has the awe, the woman fears more than the man, because the women were not involved in the sin of the calf, the women were not involved in the sin of the spies, because the moment the women received the Ten Commandments, the moment they accepted upon themselves the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, nothing in the world could move them, nothing could sway them, no argument, no persuasion, because the emunah of the woman is much stronger than that of the man."

"When they came to the women, each husband tried to convince his wife, what? You don't believe in Aaron the priest, don't you have emunah in the tzaddikim? You don't believe in the tzaddik? Aaron the priest said to make a calf, where is your faith? Every woman said to her husband, 'Come, let's go to Aaron the priest, let's argue with Aaron, what does it mean he said to make a calf? After we heard such a word "You shall have no..." from one end of the world to the other in seventy languages, even a bird did not chirp, an ox did not bellow, now we should change such a word? What does it mean Aaron told me? What is this that Aaron changes the Ten Commandments?"

Nothing Moved the Women from Their Innocence

"The holy Zohar says "And all the people took off" – what does the term 'took off' mean? The Zohar explains that the women did not remove the earrings in any way! They held their ears and pressed their hands to their ears, so it is written "took off" like "removing mountains, breaking rocks." The women simply took it by force, "they wrapped and broke their ears" as the Zohar says, because when the husbands got some madness, God forbid, and wanted to make a calf, then Hashem have mercy, but the women remained in their innocence, in their purity, in their modesty, and in their pure faith, and nothing moved them, nothing in the world!"

There is a Palace in Heaven Where Women Renew Torah

"Even a woman can be a prophetess, can be Deborah the prophetess, Miriam the prophetess, as the Tanna D'bei Eliyahu says, he swears by heaven and earth that everyone can see the holy Shechinah, without exception. The holy Zohar says there are palaces in heaven, palaces that righteous women merit, there is a palace called Batya the daughter of Pharaoh, thousands of women renew Torah insights there every day, there are thousands of women who left their homes, left wealth, left careers, Batya was a king's daughter and left everything to be a simple Jewess. So every woman who could have been a great manager and left everything to be at home, to raise her children for Torah study, who sends her husband to study Torah, and says Psalms and goes to the Kotel, then she ascends to such levels that no other woman can ascend, and she merits the levels of Batya the daughter of Pharaoh who ascended with her body to Gan Eden."

Deborah Wanted to Increase Torah and Her Light Grew in Judah and Jerusalem

"There is a palace of Serach the daughter of Asher who ascended with her body to Gan Eden, and there is a palace of Yocheved, and a palace of Deborah the prophetess. All the righteous women of the generation ascend to those palaces, each is assigned the palace that suits her, according to her deeds, and so there are endless palaces. Tens of thousands of righteous women throughout the generations, each building a palace above from her yearning and longing for a mitzvah, like Deborah the prophetess whose entire yearning and intentions were to magnify and glorify Torah. Deborah made her torches, her great candles, just so that Torah scholars would sit until morning and study Torah, so that the candle would not go out in the middle of the night because the wick was not good, or the wax was not good, or the oil was not good. Deborah made sure that the light of the candle was the finest, the wax the finest, the oil the finest, that everything would be the pinnacle of beauty. It never happened that suddenly the candle went out in the middle of the night and they had to close the holy Gemara, God forbid, the candles always burned until dawn. So Hashem said to Deborah, you intended to increase My light in Judah and Jerusalem, so I will also increase your light in Judah and Jerusalem, He gave her prophecy, gave her such insights and such intellect until she was a judge, as the Chida (Rosh David Parshat Beshalach) says, all the innovations were revealed to her, all the laws of judges were revealed to her."

Women Are Like the Altar

"The Zohar in Mishpatim says "And Deborah sang" – And sang – this hints at the mesh of the altar, as the verse says "and there shall be a mesh under the rim of the altar." Deborah merited to sacrifice herself to Hashem, she was the aspect of the mesh of the altar, "And sang" is the letters R'esh'T. Women are the aspect of the altar, because indeed they sacrifice themselves to Hashem, they sacrifice themselves, they receive the children, care for ten children, the mothers do everything, they devote themselves to the children, feed them, give them drink, admire them, do it with self-sacrifice, sacrifice themselves to Hashem, so they can be prophetesses.

The Women Build the Mishkan

What is a home? A home is a Mishkan, M'ish'kan is an acronym for Bed Table Chair Lamp. The woman cleans the house, educates the children, it's like having Torah scrolls in the house because the children learn Torah, the husband can sit and learn Torah, when the woman washes dishes and lights candles, cooks and sets the table, then she builds the Mishkan, if she does her work, her mission, she can receive prophecy from it."

If She Keeps All the Negative Commandments She Can Be a Prophetess More Than the Man

""These are the judgments which you shall set before them" - women are equated to men in all the laws of the Torah (Rashi), a woman is like a man and she is obligated in all negative commandments, she is also forbidden "You shall not steal" "You shall not murder", she is also forbidden to speak lashon hara, and if she decides to keep the mitzvot properly, to do the three meals and Melaveh Malka, not to speak lashon hara, not to speak nonsense, etc., then she can be a prophetess more than the man."

"A woman is exempt from studying Gemara, but she is not exempt from being attached to Hashem, from this she is not exempt, she can be attached to Hashem when she cleans the house, cooks, washes dishes, as told about the wife of Rabbi Yitzchak of Drohobych, the mother of Rabbi Michel of Zlotshov, who in the middle of sweeping the house, said 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' her husband Rabbi Yitzchak asked her 'Why do you say Holy, Holy, Holy?' She replied and said to him 'I hear the song of the angels, the angels are now saying Kedushah.'"

"Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov became blind, they asked him why did you become blind? He said to them because of my wife I became blind... everything she says 'for the honor of Shabbat, for the honor of Shabbat,' kneading the dough and cooking, and saying for the honor of Shabbat, and from every 'for the honor of Shabbat' she says an angel is created, from every word for the honor of Shabbat angels are created, until the whole house became a blazing fire, the whole house was filled with angels until they blinded my eyes from the abundance of light."

"If the woman does what she needs to do in her matters, fulfills her role faithfully, with devotion, with simcha, with awe and love, for the sake of Hashem, then from the simplest things she can receive prophecy."