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Parasha Terumah: Exodus 25:01-27:39
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG
"Carry On. Love is Coming. Love is Coming to Us All"
On a quick reading, this Torah portion may appear to be from Architectural Digest. It contains blueprints given to Moses by God on how to construct the Mishkan, the Tabernacle and resting place of God. The corresponding Haftarah from First Kings 5:26 gives King Solomon's plans for the building of the
One of the earliest commandments given to our ancestors in the construction of the Tabernacle has to do with its portability. In Ex. 25:12 we were commanded to put four gold rings on the Holy Ark, two on each side. In the next verse we are told to make wooden poles covered in gold that will fit thru these rings. And in verse 15, we are given the mitzvah: "The poles will remain in the rings, they shall not be removed from it." And into this portable
Traditionally, we are taught in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah (daf 35A) that the
In the nineteenth century, Rabbi Hirsch, who was quoted last parasha in this series, stated that the eternal presence of the non-removable poles symbolized the concept that Torah is not tied to any one place. Wherever Jews go, willingly or otherwise, he writes, "Torah goes with us, as its means of transport are always attached to it." How have we transported Torah over the centuries? We have done so not with buildings built for vanity but through study and transmission of Judaic values from generation to generation. In Ex. 25:08 note that we are commanded to "make a sanctuary for Me - so that I may dwell among them." We are to build our modern synagogues, and even their additions, dedicated, to God's service. Says Rashi, 900 years ago, elegant synagogues are meaningless if built for ego's sake and not God's sake.
God, we are taught in the Mishna Pirkei Avot, dwells among us in a variety of ways even after the
Frankly, it has been posited that the sacking of the first
What we Jews have learned is that our religion is not confined to the Mishkan in the Sinai, to the Temples of Jerusalem, or to our synagogues on Shabbats. Our religion is a way of life, a way of living our lives. God is everywhere. God does not just reside in the Tabernacle.
Being good, decent people brings God into our midst. We do not need a high priest to say God's name secretly once a year for us. By doing good, studying and transmitting Torah to our children (and ourselves), by taking time off for renewal each Shabbat, being good parents, being good spouses, being good friends and doing ahavath chesed (acts of loving kindness), we build our own spiritual Mishkan over ourselves for God to dwell with us. This is the basis of the religion of Judaism as formulated by our rabbis in our Talmud and other texts.
The German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber drew a detailed commentary between the chapter of Genesis, where God creates the world, and this chapter, Terumah, and others in Exodus where we create God's resting place on earth. In Gen. 2:1-2 "God finished the work," and in Ex. 40:33 "Moses finished the work." In Gen. 1:31 God "beholded" that His work was very good and in Ex. 39:43, our people "beholded" their work. It is we who have the obligation to bring the Shechinah of God's Holy Presence every day into our lives and into the lives of those around us. We imitated God, according to Nehama Leibowitz in Studies in Shemot (Exodus) by building the Tabernacle and the
We need to continually imitate God by doing acts of kindness, justice, mercy, and love as well. Buber says that God dwells wherever we let him in. The Gaon Sa'adia says there is no place without God. Was God there in
Each of us today needs to be our own portable Tabernacle, continually rebuilding the Mishkan in our own souls and hearts, growing spiritually, and renewing spiritually, and as the prophet Micah said, "walking humbly with God."
Shabbat Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG
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