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Parshas Terumah - On Making a Sanctuary

By Avraham Cohen

Posted on 02/12/16

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

V’asu li Mikdash v’sha’chan’ti b’so’cham w And make for Me a Sanctuary, so that I may dwell amongst them Exodus 25:8


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If you take a few steps back and perceive a wide-view, long-range shot at the Torah narrative – is this the direction that you would have expected the Torah would be taking at this stage in the Biblical narrative? Let’s take a high-speed extreme summary-review of what we’ve been told up until now, beginning with Ma’aseh Bereishis (the Genesis story) up until the Jewish people’s entrance into the Sinai desert [try to imagine, just for a moment, that you’re a very new baal teshuvah – new to the Torah’s contents and unfamiliar with its presentation – and this may help put our introductory question into perspective]:


Okay – Genesis. Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Gan Eden. The destruction of the earth and G-d’s saving Noah & family. The uniqueness of Avraham Avinu and G-d’s promises to him to build his progeny into a great nation and to inherit the Land of Israel. The Fathers and the Mothers and the eventual formation of the nascent Jewish people. The twelve sons of Israel and the selling of Yosef into slavery. How the Jews emigrated to Egypt and settled there as Yosef saves the world and makes Egypt great. A new Pharaoh arises who “knew not Yosef” and turns against the Jews, enslaving and persecuting them. Moshe is chosen as the Redeemer who tells Pharaoh to “let my people go!” G-d brings the Ten Plagues upon Egypt. The Jews leave Egypt and experience the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea and the destruction of their enemies. The Jewish people enter into the wilderness and Moshe brings them directly to Har Sinai where, in a spectacular Revelation, G-d gives Moshe and the Jewish people the Torah. And then …..


And then … what? You would think: … and then G-d takes them directly into the Land of Israel, fulfilling his promise to Avraham and all the Avos and the Ima’os and the Jews live happily ever after, perhaps now fulfilling a mitzvah to build a permanent Bais HaMikdash (Temple) to G-d … right?  But, no (and this is before the sin of the Golden Calf and G-d’s decree that the Jews would wander in the desert for forty years), the narrative takes what seems to be a detour and, in two long parshiyos, we are told in exquisite detail the mitzvos of building the desert Mishkan (Tabernacle/Sanctuary) and the garments of the Kohanim (i.e. the Priests, those who would serve therein). This Sanctuary would be the precursor to the holy Temple, eventually to be built as a permanent structure in the holy City of Jerusalem.


Why are these mitzvos presented here? Why now? What’s the rush and the relevance? Couldn’t G-d just wait until the Jews entered into the Land before we began to build a structure to house his Presence? And, we must also note that after the sin of the Golden Calf, the Torah presents yet two more parshiyos:  reviewing the mitzvos of building the Mishkan; its erection for the first time in the desert; and the inauguration of the Service performed there. So much attention to a portable structure and G-d’s commandment “to make for Me a Sanctuary, so that I may dwell amongst them”! Is there a key to understanding this?


B’aniyas da’ati, upon reflection it will become clear that these parshiyos and this mitzvah to build the Mishkan is not out of order at all; that immediately after the Jews have become a nation at last and have received the Torah and have shaken off the shackles of enslavement to another nation – that it is totally in order that the most preeminent obligation they would have would be “to make for Me a Sanctuary, so that I may dwell amongst them.” The Sanctuary is the Place where one serves G-d, and this is in fulfillment of yet another promise that G-d made to Moshe Rabbeinu at the outset of his mission – that “I will be with you; and this is your sign that I have sent you: When you take the people out of Mitzraim, you will serve G-d on this mountain” [Exodus 3:12] i.e. Moshe on Har Sinai and the people immediately afterwards in the desert. 


First and foremost, this is our objective: to serve G-d and bring His vision of Din (Balance) into the World He created through the medium of Torah and mitzvos. How many people have achieved their freedom from oppression – and immediately focus their attention on a Bill of Rights? Rather, it is Service to G-d and service to mankind, through giving and adherence to truth in judgement, that has preserved us as a nation. What better place to implement a philosophy of Service than in the wilderness – a place which transcends any particular living arrangement, even that which we would find in the Land. In the wilderness we could see G-d’s providential Hand through a clear, unblemished lens; it was in the wilderness that we could build a Sanctuary so that G-d could always dwell amongst us, no matter what environment defined our physical surroundings.


Rabbi Shlomo Porter (of the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Studies in Baltimore, MD) comments on the irony of building a physical structure to ‘hold’ G-d’s presence. He writes that “in truth, G-d is both transcendent and imminent; He is both distant and close.  We cannot really comprehend G-d's essence.  He transcends our minds, but nevertheless, He is accessible and close.  The Tabernacle's purpose is not to put G-d in a ‘box’, but rather to put us in the box with Him – to make us feel G-d's presence in our hearts and our homes.”


Although the Tabernacle is also a physical structure, it nevertheless conveys timeless spiritual messages which we can take with us anywhere:


We will always be a part of the world, but we should erect walls to remind us that our values are holy and may be different than our neighbors. All of our actions should be directed towards serving G-d; we can even transform the mundane into an altar upon which we can give to G-d and man (i.e. the table upon which we eat can be transformed into an altar upon which we can elevate the otherwise mundane activity of consuming food). Our actions in this world should have a sweet aroma, like an altar of incense. Every day we should keep the holy fires burning and let all our actions be like flames in a dark room, like a menorah. We can go out each workday to earn a living, but our actions in that world should always be for a higher purpose, as indicated by the altar of showbread. Let us house a covenantal ark within our hearts, making it a holy of holies where all of our ideals and best directives will be protected. When we speak to G-d and when we look out upon His world, we pray that we can sustain a childlike wonder and innocence, cherub-like in our presentation and outlook.


By first building a Sanctuary for G-d so that He may dwell among us under any circumstance, we transform ourselves and our lives into an entity that can soar heavenwards, sweeping along the edge of eternity, glimpsing visions of the Shechinah and the Infinite.


Translate Inspiration Into Physical Action


The following dvar Torah is by R’ Yissocher Frand of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Baltimore, MD:


Parshas Terumah follows Parshas Mishpatim, in which we read the famous words "na'aseh v'nishma" – We will do and we will hear" [Exodus 24:7]. Those words were recited by the Children of Israel at the time of the Giving of the Torah. Immediately following this section, the Torah saysd (in this week’s parshah) "Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for Me a portion..." [Exodus 25:2].


The Baal Shem Tov zt”l comments on this juxtaposition: Whenever a person is spiritually aroused, it is very important that he or she concretize that inspiration by practical action to channel the arousal and give it tangible physical manifestation. The Baal Shem Tov interprets the pasuk "Let us lift our hearts with our hands to G-d in Heaven" [Lamentations 3:41] in just this manner: When our hearts are inspired, we must take that inspiration and put it into our hands, so to speak, via concrete action.


In the same vein, a beautiful Chassidic interpretation is quoted in the name of the Kedushas Levi (Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev zt”l) on the pasuk "mah ta'iru, u'mah te'oreru es ha'ahava ahd she'techpatz" [Song of Songs 8:4]. Rav Levi Yitzchak interprets this pasuk (homiletically) to mean that when a person is inspired and experiences his’oh’re’rus (an ‘awakening’, so to speak), they need to concretize that inspiration, as symbolized by relating the word techpatz (meaning ‘desire’) with the word chefetz (meaning ‘object’]. A person should take his inspiration and put it into something tangible, rather than letting it dissipate.


There are so many times when we hear things or we go places or we participate in events that inspire us. Unfortunately, however, human nature is such that most of the time, nothing will become of such inspiration. Therefore, whenever we are inspired, he should remember the teaching of ahd she'techpatz and channel that inspiration into something concrete and physical – to do something and not let the opportunity for meaningful action pass without effect.