“These are the countings of the Mishkan.”
(Shemos 38:21)

The pasuk uses the word “these” to exclude all other countings. For whenever a person counts money his counting is not a real counting. And money’s name [mammon] explains its essence [for it is a contraction of] “mah atah moneh” — [for] what are you counting? However this counting [of the Mishkan] stands forever. The reason being that it is the counting of the wondrous Mishkan in which Hashem G-d of the world dwelled. (Ohr Hachaim on Chumash quoted by Rav Yaakov Neiman in Darchei Mussar)
In Behind the Ice Curtain (CIS 1992) Rebbetzin Dina Gabel tells a story of her father Rav Aver Shapiro a millionaire in Lida. One day the gadol hador Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky visited to fundraise for yeshivos. In the course of their conversation Rav Aver glanced out the window and sighed.
“Why are you sighing?” wondered the gadol hador. “Everything you see belongs to you! The factory the fields the big garden. Why do you sigh?”
Rav Shapiro shook his head. “No ” he said “all these are not mine and never were mine. Only one thing belongs to me.” He opened his desk drawer and withdrew the black leather book in which he recorded his donations to Torah and chesed institutions. He placed it in front of Rav Chaim Ozer. “All I have is in this book. The rest is not mine.”
Lida was captured by the Russians during World War II. Rav Shapiro was sent to prison where he was murdered. His wealth was confiscated. His family was exiled penniless to Siberia… but the leather book remained theirs. Forever.
The Chofetz Chaim would say: People are used to saying that foolish people are smart toward themselves but I say the opposite: Smart people are foolish toward themselves. For man toils all the days of his life to amass fortunes and build houses and the like and for this he uses all his time and energy but these are not for himself.
“…And leave their wealth to others” (Tehillim 49:11). He is not smart enough to provide for himself for silver and gold do not accompany a person [when he dies] only Torah and good deeds alone.
“These are the countings of the Mishkan.” These are the black leather books that each of us has and that no one can ever take away.
A day will come when no one remembers the belt that perfectly matched the skirt the seven-layer cake for sheva brachos or the gleaming floors.
A day will come when none of the children will care if we went to a five-star hotel or just enjoyed a picnic in the park during vacation. They’ll primarily remember what we wrote in the black book. Were there lines about loving attention showered upon the children? Or about pressure quarreling and complaints children thrown into the hotel’s day camp despite their protests and parents who only cared about making a presentable family appearance in the dining room?
A day will come when no one will care if I invested thousands of dollars into my kitchen with telescopic drawers and stainless steel appliances or if I had a nice practical yet simple kitchen. Only what I did in my kitchen will be remembered. What type of atmosphere did I create there? How much human warmth was dished out along with the homemade yeast cakes?
I know this. I do. So why do I forget it so quickly? Why do I continue to whirl around those imaginary countings? Why do I forget that davening Shacharis with kavanah remains with me forever long after the interesting phone conversation?
Because I forget.
The black book is in the drawer of my heart quiet and personal. From time to time I remember it. During those moments I daven. Hashem. Help me so I don’t forget how all earthly acquisitions are imaginary. Only acquisitions of the Mishkan in my heart are real and will remain with me forever.