Mikdash Me'at

T’rumah

Ex. 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. 25:3 “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.”

                Rabbi Sacks has written about the Tabernacle from the perspective of the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (Covenant and Conversation, 2/6/19).  He notes that “It is hard to understand the depth of the crisis into which the destruction of the First Temple plunged the Jewish people. Their very existence was predicated on a relationship with God symbolized by the worship that took place daily in Jerusalem.”  Babylon’s conquest in 586 BCE meant that the Jews lost not only their land and independence, but also, their hope. This is perhaps best expressed in Psalm 137, where the Jews sang, “By the waters of Babylon, we sat and wept as we remembered Zion…How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a strange land?”  The answer began to take shape. With the loss of the Temple, Jews could come together in collective worship. It was during the Babylonian exile that the tradition of exegesis of the Torah began.

            Ezekiel prophesized on the creation of the synagogue as an institution: “This is what the sovereign Lord says: although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet I have become to them a small Sanctuary (Mikdash me’at) in the countries where they have gone” (Ez. 11:16). The Temple had been destroyed, but a miniature remained.
            Historians often ignore the revolutionary nature of the synagogue as an institution. It was an entirely novel form of divine worship, unlike any others previous seen in human experience. But what was the origin of the synagogue? Ironically, here we come full circle to this week’s reading: to the Tabernacle. It was designed to be portable and temporary, as opposed to the stationary and “eternal” Temple. The Tabernacle in our parasha was erected so that God could dwell within the People (Ex. 25:8). In other words, God lives in the human heart, and so the location of the “dwelling place” becomes irrelevant. This would usher in the creation of the synagogue seven centuries later, and the synagogue can be seen as the parallel of the Tabernacle for us today. 

Slavery, Yesterday and Today

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. 21:2 “When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free without payment.”

            Rabbi Jonathan Spira-Savett has written about the concept of slavery in Jewish History (MyJewishLearning.​org, 2/10/15), noting that immediately after the Exodus and Revelation at Sinai, the next parasha begins with laws concerning Hebrew slaves. How, he asks​, can this people be permitted to own slaves, having so recently be​e​n slaves themselves?

            As a partial answer​, ​he points to the following word “y’shalachenu” (he shall go free) This word is from the same root in Hebrew that Moses demanded of Pharaoh: “Shalach et ami” (Let ​my people go!). So, we have a connection between God’s act of freeing an entire people, and a master freeing his slave.

            In its historical time, the Torah presumed a society where there were slaves, who had sold themselves because of debts or poverty. This law does not condone slavery, but rather demands that the slave be freed.

            Of course, slavery is (thankfully) no longer tolerated. On the other hand, we do tolerate​ workers in foreign countries making our goods while working in conditions which are close to slavery. We also tolerate extraordinary income disparities within our own country as well.

            We are commanded to free the oppressed around us, and to set a limit to the time we are willing to tolerate inequity and injustice before we rid ourselves of this kind of slavery. The law of the Hebrew slave freed in the seventh year begins the law code of Mishpatim. The code ends with a demand not to mistreat the stranger. These are bookends of a code of conduct to which we should aspire.