"So what did my teacher say about me?" Gila asked her mother eagerly the morning after the parent-teacher meeting.

"Your teacher said you were doing pretty well," her mother replied, as she helped her to prepare her lunch. "But..."

"But I could do better, right?" Gila concluded her sentence frowning. "Everyone keeps telling me that. You say it all the time, Tatty says it, and my teacher does too. Even Bubbie keeps telling me that I'm bright and talented and can do better."

"Well, Gila," replied her mother encouragingly, "perhaps everyone is right. Baruch HaShem, you have a lot going for you."

"But Mommy, I do better than many of the other girls in my class."

"That may be true, Gila. But you know, some of us can do more than just a bit better than others. We can learn about this from the parshah.

"In Parshas Terumah, the Jewish people are commanded to contribute to the building of the Mishkan. The word terumah means donations, and the Torah tells us of three different types of donations the Jews gave. For example, there was the donation for the adonim, the money that was given for the silver sockets that supported the wooden walls of the Mishkan. Then there were the money and materials that were donated for the building of the Mishkan. Then there was ---"

"But, Mommy," Gila interrupted her, "why do you say that there was a separate donation for the adonim? Aren't they part of the building of the Mishkan, too?

"Good question, Gila," continued her mother. "And you know, the parshah tells us something even more interesting about the building of the Mishkan. The donation for the adonim was a fixed amount - everyone had to give half a shekel, no more and no less. But for the rest of the building, everyone brought as much as they could.

"You see, the adonim are the base of the entire Mishkan. In our service of HaShem today, the base is bittul - kabbalas ol. Because Kabbalas ol is the foundation of our avodah, we start our day with it. We begin every morning by saying modeh ani and reminding ourselves that HaShem rules over everything.

"When it comes to kabbalas ol, everyone is equal because every Jew's avodah must have the same base. So the amount donated for the adonim was half a shekel - equal for all.

"The other parts of the Mishkan building symbolize the many ways a Jew serves HaShem - different mitzvos, different styles, different abilities, different situations and conditions. To build those parts, not everyone's donation was the same. Every Jew donated the most he could give. And that's how each and every Jew should serve HaShem today - without comparing himself to others. We each serve HaShem only according to our own abilities, doing the very best we can with what we have."

(Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XI, p. 110)