Torah Thoughts on Pekudei

In this week’s Torah portion, Pekudei, (Ex. 38:21 - 40:38) the last portion of the book of Exodus, the work of the Mishkan is finally finished.  In the last few weeks, we have heard God describe the work to Moses, Moses describe the work to the Israelites, and now the work is finally done, and Moses blesses the people for what they have accomplished.

In a wonderful essay on this portion published in the current edition of The Jewish Week, Dr. Erin Leib Smokler brings ancient and modern sources to prove a point that Moses, when he blesses the people (Ex.39:43), is subtly reminding them that all their work has been for one purpose: to make a place for God to dwell among them.

One wouldn’t think that they would need that reminder.  After all, they have spent all this time, effort and expense doing God’s will to exact specifications in the building of the Tabernacle.  How could they forget it?

A number of years ago, when I was a Hillel director, I attended a national conference.  At a dinner, one of the people seated at my table was the director of a very prominent Hillel foundation which had just completed a brand new, large and beautiful building to house its programs.  “How do you like the new building?” someone asked him, “Thank God that it’s all over,” he said, “For the last two years, I’ve been a fundraiser, an architect, and a building supervisor.  Now I finally feel like a rabbi again.”

When working on a project, it is easy to get caught up in the details, and lose sight of the overall goal.  The children of Israel had Moses to remind them of their ultimate goal, and we have Dr. Smokler’s incisive commentary, which you may find at http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/sabbath-week/inviting-god-gods-house.  I borrow her final sentence: “May we all be blessed not to lose God in our pursuits of God.”

Torah Thoughts on Vayakhel

                In this week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel (Ex. 35:1 – 38:20) Moses repeats to the Israelites the detailed instructions for building the Tabernacle that God had given to him.  Moses names Bezalel, who he says, “God has singled out” as the director and chief artisan of the enterprise.  Indeed, in Exodus 31, God tells Moses that He has endowed Bezalel with “ruach Elohim”, divine spirit of skill, ability and knowledge in every kind of craft.  “Ruach Elohim” is the same phrase used in the opening words of Genesis, just before God speaks to create light.

                 In Midrashic literature, Bezalel’s name is deconstructed to b-tzel-el, meaning “in the shadow of God”.  Rabbi Harold Kushner, in the Etz Chaim Torah Commentary, takes this to mean that, because of Bezalel’s work, people will be able to see in it, in limited manner, the presence of God.  Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, in her work The Particulars of Rapture points out that in order to create his artistic works,especially metalwork,  Bezalel must master the use of fire.  Just as God creates and destroys, so Bezalel uses fire, which also has creative and destructive properties. 

                Legend says that not only Bezalel, but his assistant Oholiab and all those who worked on the Tabernacle were also gifted with ruach Elohim.  So too is every person who makes art, or literature or music given this divine spirit.  With that spirit, we create, and in the words of the Baal Shem Tov, string pearls for the delight of Heaven.

Torah Thoughts on Ki Tissa

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, (Ex.  30:11 – 34:35) concludes God’s instructions to Moses regarding the building of the tabernacle, and then recounts one of the Torah’s most painful episodes.  At the end of the instructions, Moses receives the two tablets of the Covenant, inscribed by the finger of God. But meanwhile, the people below have become frightened at his long absence.  They go to Aaron, who inexplicably assists them in building an idol, a golden calf, which they then worship as their god. On Mount Sinai, God tells Moses what is taking place below, and he rushes down the mountain, carrying the tablets.  When he sees the people dancing before the calf, he becomes enraged and threw the tablets, shattering them at the foot of the mountain.  Moses punishes the wrongdoers by pulverizing the calf, mixing it with water, and making the idolaters drink it.  God also sends a plague among the people for punishment, and states that He will no longer dwell among the people, essentially for their own protection.   They anger God  so much that He would always want to destroy them.  This threatened withdrawal of God’s presence finally seems to make the Israelites come around.  They acknowledge their sin.  Moses climbs the mountain and God agrees to write a second set of tablets to replace the ones Moses broke, and allows Moses to sense God’s presence.  God repents His refusal to dwell among the people.  

After anger, near-destruction, and threatened separation, God, Moses and Israel still stand together, with new tablets, a renewed covenant, a common goal, and an enhanced understanding of the nature of the parties involved. 

We have all been in the place where the Israelites stood.  We have been angry and others have been angry with us.  We have betrayed and have been betrayed, we have violated that which is sacred to others, and had that which is sacred to us violated.  These things happen in our personal relationships, in work situations and in the communities in which we live and function, including—if not especially—our religious communities. True, there are things which cannot be forgiven or replaced, but if the very covenant which defines our ancient origins and identity can be broken and repaired, then so can most things in our lives.  And if Moses, God and the Israelites can reach an understanding and come to stand together, than so can we.

Torah Thoughts on Tetzaveh

In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh (Ex. 27:20-30:10) God gives Moses the details of how the priestly vestments are to be made and how the consecration of the priests will be conducted.  Near the end of the portion, after these very precise instructions have been given comes this passage, “For there I will meet with you and there I will meet with the Israelites and it shall be sanctified by My Presence… I will abide among the Israelites and I will be their God. (Ex. 29:43, 45)

The notes to this portion in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary point out the daily sacrifices that will be offered by the priests consist of meat, cereal, oil and wine.  “The basic foodstuffs of the Israelite diet also become foods offered to God; the exalted resident of this resplendent earthly residence.”  

Today we do not have a tabernacle or a temple, but we are told that every Jewish home is a mikdash me’at, a miniature tabernacle, and that wherever Jews live, there God dwells.  As we celebrate this Shabbat, let us remember that, in addition to our family, God also resides in our home.  

Torah Thoughts on Mishpatim

This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1 – 24:18) outlines God’s rules that Moses is to set before the Israelites.  They are a compendium of civil and criminal laws and social and religious precepts that will have to be obeyed in order that Israel remain God’s covenant people.  After Moses repeats these laws to the people, they declare, “All that God has spoken, we will hear, and we will do!”.  

Following this acceptance, a strange ritual takes place.  Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadav and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel , “And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet the like of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like of the very heaven for clearness.  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand; and they beheld God, and did eat and drink” (Ex. 24:10-11).  This same God, a few chapters from now, will tell Moses that no human can see God’s face and live.  ).   God, who has placed such emphasis on being incorporeal, not only allows Moses and the elders to see Him, but to eat and drink before Him!  

Modern academic commentators explain this passage by comparing it to ancient suzerainty treaties in which the vassal people ate a meal with the king to seal the treaty.  Rabbinic commentaries on the Torah generally understand that Moses and the leaders experienced a prophetic vision, rather than actually “seeing God”.  What I love about it is that a long list of very earth-bound laws and precepts, of concrete and understandable rules about daily life comes a powerful other-worldly experience of the ineffable Presence.