Letting Hashem dwell among us

T’rumah

Exodus 25:1-27:19

Précis: As the Israelites continue their journey through the wilderness, God tells Moses to ask the people for gifts to build the Tabernacle. “T’rumah” (voluntary donations) of fine metals, yarns, skins, and woods are offered by the People. God gives Moses precise instructions as to the interior and exterior construction of the mishkan (tabernacle). Specific items include an altar for burnt offerings, a curtain (parochet) to separate the main room from an inner sanctum, elaborate candlesticks, incense burners, and other tools. There will be a special Ark to be placed in an area called the Holy of Holies to house the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Precise measures are given for all spaces as well as specific materials designated for the composition of the mishkan.

Ex. 25:8 “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”

As noted by my friend Rabbi Marc Israel in his Torah Thought for the Day (5/6/11), we were commanded to work for six days and to observe Shabbat on the seventh. The rabbis note that  just as Israel is commanded on the positive commandment to observe Shabbat, so we are commanded to work [on the six days. Speaking to the issue of the importance of labor, Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah says, “So great is labor that God’s presence did not dwell among them until they had performed labor. As the Torah [as cited in this verse] says ‘Let them make me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them’” (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 20:9).

The great Chasidic master Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk asked some learned men who were visiting him, “Where is the dwelling place of God?” Laughing, they responded, “What a thing to ask! Is not the whole earth full of God’s glory?”Menachem Mendel then answered his own question: “God dwells wherever we let God in.” Another Hassidic Rabbi once asked, "Why does the Torah say, 'Build a sanctuary for me and I will dwell in them (plural)?' Wouldn't it be more correct to say, 'build a sanctuary and I will dwell in it (singular)'?” The answer teaches us that the sanctuary is a metaphor for what we need to build for ourselves, in ourselves: a place for God to “dwell” and be part of our lives.

In current days, our understanding of what it means to have God dwelling within us stands in stark contrast to of nihilism of the Islamic terrorists of ISIS and Al Qaeda. How (or even whether) we can impart to them the essential need for allowing God to “dwell” within us is the challenge of the age.