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.

How we treat our leaders matters

Mishpatim

Ex. 21:1 - 24:18

Précis: Having received the Ten Commandments (in the previous parasha), Moses now reveals ordinances (mishpatim) needed to implement a comprehensive system of laws. The first group of commandments (mitzvot) relate to the rights of servants (slaves), followed by rules about murder, crimes against parents, personal injury law, offenses against property, and bailment. A list of moral offenses follows, including seduction, witchcraft, sexual perversion, polytheism, and oppression of the “widow, the orphan, and the stranger among you.” The parasha also includes the command to observe a sabbatical year, the Shabbat, and then lists the requirements for the observance of the pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot). The command not to boil a kid in its mothers’ milk (a key proof text for the laws of kashrut) is mentioned, and at the conclusion of the parasha, we find a ceremony where the People, represented by Moses and 70 elders, have an encounter with the Divine Presence and accept the laws and the Covenant.

Ex. 22:2 “You shall not revile God, nor curse a leader among your people.” 

            Many traditional commentators see these two commandments as being connected. Leaders, they maintain are there to fulfill God’s plan. To curse a leader is to curse God Himself. But what of the leader who errs or who is deeply flawed?

            One example is found earlier in this Book (when Yitro gives instruction to Moses on how to be a better leader). We also have the story of Nathan’s excoriation of King David over David’s having Bathsheba’s husband slain in battle so that David could have her or himself (2 Sam. 11-12).

The later Books of the Bible relate almost countless stories about leaders acting badly. Why, then, does this verse prevent us from cursing leaders? One idea is that there is a difference between cursing a leader and criticizing the leader. When we curse, we express anger. When we criticize, we hope for improvement and a change in behavior.

            In the current context of American political discourse, cursing leaders is automatic and constant. Many would suggest that critiquing a leader is futile, since (obviously) their point of view is based on such heinous error. In this past week, for example, President Obama was excoriated by opponents when he had the temerity to note, at a National Prayer Breakfast, that the barbaric actions taken by ISIS in the name of Islam today had counterparts in the Christian atrocities of the Crusades and Inquisition, and American Christian support of slavery and Jim Crow laws. His point was that because some commit sins in the name of a particular religion does not necessarily discredit all of that religion’s adherents. Despite the historical accuracy of his points, his opponents assailed him in the most bitter of terms, questioning whether he believed in “American values.”

            Eleanor Roosevelt was characterized (by Adlai Stevenson) as someone who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness; we seem to have a paucity of candle lighters in American life today.