Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei

Exodus 35:1-40:38, Shabbat HaHodesh

Moses assembles the entire Israelite community and again instructs them to observe Shabbat. He asks them to bring their gifts of materials to build the Mishkan; and those who have the skills to come forward to perform the work. The artisans come together under the leadership of Bezalel and Oholiav, they report to Moses that the people are bringing more materials than are necessary. Moses announces that no one should bring any more gifts for the Mishkan.

The Torah describes the making of the cloth walls, roof, planks, and bars of the Mishkan, the curtain for the Holy of Holies, and the screen for the entrance. Bezalel makes the ark and its cover, the table, the menorah, the altars for incense and for burnt offerings, the anointing oil, and the incense.

Moses instructs Aaron’s son Itamar to conduct an accounting of the materials used for the building of the Mishkan. The making of the priestly vestments is described. Once all of the work has been completed, the Mishkan and its furnishing are brought to Moses and he blesses the people who made them. God instructs Moses to set up the Mishkan, to anoint it and its contents, and to consecrate Aaron and his sons. The cloud representing God’s presence fills the Mishkan, lifting up from it when it is time for the Israelites to set out on their journeys.

1. Your Presence Is Requested

Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. (Exodus 40:35)

A.  But another passage (Numbers 7:89) says: “When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting.” There comes a third verse and reconciles (the difference) between them: “Because the cloud had settled upon it.” Hence you may say: as long as the cloud was upon it he was not able to enter; when the cloud departed (Moses) entered and He spoke with him. (Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki), 1040-1105, France)

B.  Even to the door, because the cloud covered it, and he was not permitted to come into the cloud. Moreover, “the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle,” so how could he enter it? The reason for this was so that Moses should not go in without permission, but instead God would call him and then he was to come into the midst of the cloud just as He had done at Mount Sinai. (Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman), 1194-1270, Spain)

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Ki Tissa

Ki Tissa, Exodus 30:11-34:35
Shabbat Parah

Transformative Power

Moses was changed internally and externally by his experience on Mt. Sinai.

The story is told about Franz Kafka that the last time he visited Berlin, he chanced upon a little girl in a park awash in tears.

When he inquired as to the reason for her distress, she sobbed that she had lost her doll. Compassionately, Kafka countered that not to be the case. The doll had merely gone on a trip and, in fact, Kafka met her as she was about to leave. He promised that if the little girl would return to the park the next day, he would bring her a letter from her doll. And so Kafka did for several weeks, arriving each morning at the park with a letter for his new friend.

As his tuberculosis worsened, Kafka decided to return to Prague where he would soon die at age 41, but not before buying the girl another doll. Along with the doll came a letter in which Kafka insisted that this was the doll that belonged to his friend. Admittedly, she looked different, but then on her long trip the doll had seen many remarkable sights and gone through many searing experiences. Life had changed her appearance. (Jack Wertheimer, ed., The Uses of Tradition, p. 279).

Life-Altering Experiences

Of the many meanings in this profound parable I wish to focus on the most obvious: that a transformative experience alters us externally as well as internally. This is the point of the closing narrative of our parashah. The second time that Moses ascends Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments--that is after the debacle of the golden calf--the Torah uncharacteristically gives us a profusion of details. In contrast to the brevity of description pertaining to his first ascent (Exodus 19:18-25; 24:1-4;31:18), the Torah now divulges that Moses stayed atop the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights without eating a morsel of bread or drinking a sip of water (34:28).

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Tetzaveh-Shabbat Zachor

Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20 – 30:10 

Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser

Much of parashat Tetzaveh describes the golden menorah that was placed in the tabernacle, along with the procedure for lighting it. It is a precursor to the ner tamid, the eternal light that is displayed and kept illumined in our own sanctuaries.

The priests, including Aaron, the first of their line, are outfitted with sacral vestments and equipped with a gem-encrusted breastplate and the oracular urim and tummim. The terminology used for the vestments also has been adopted for the appurtenances of the Torah scroll: me’il, choshen, and so on. The bells often attached to Torah crowns and the fringes on Torah mantles also find their origin and inspiration in the priestly vestments described in our chapter. The significance of the vestments may be summarized by the inscription on the gold “tzitz” worn on the priest’s headdress: “Holy to the Lord.”

The priests’ consecration and ordination is described in graphic and dramatic detail. The occasion is marked with an elaborate sacrificial offering, and the new priests undergo a ritual washing. The priests are anointed with oil. Sacrificial blood is dashed on the altar and placed on the priests’ ears, thumbs, big toes, and vestments. The priests eat the flesh of the sacrificial ram, as well as the bread that accompanies the offering. The ordination rites are protracted, conducted over the course of seven days. An expiatory bull is sacrificed each day, and the altar undergoes a daily purification.

The daily sacrificial regimen is prescribed and God offers a consequent assurance that He will dwell among the Israelites. The parashah concludes with instructions about burning incense on the altar.
Theme #1: “Inscribe the Tribes”

“They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns. Then take two lapis lazuli stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.” (Exodus 28:6, 9-10)
Derash: Study

“Engraving the names of the twelve tribes – six on each stone – symbolizes the presence of all Israel in the decisions made with the ephod and gives authority to those rulings; it also carries the implicit hope for divine awareness of the people and their needs.” (Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary)

“The names of all the tribes engraved on the gems and affixed to his vestments serve as a perpetual and humbling reminder of the High Priest’s role as representative of the entire community of Israel before God.” (Nahum Sarna, JPS Commentary)

“Whatever your relationship is to your sacred tradition in the West, you have some relationship to the Bible if only through the names of the characters.” (Anita Diament)

“There are people and nations, Mother, that I would like to say to you by name. I entrust them to you in silence, I entrust them to you in the way that you know best.” (Pope John Paul II)

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” (Pericles)

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Terumah

Exodus 25:1−27:19

Creating Sacred Space

Two very different models, two very different outcomes, one very important lesson.

 This week's parashah and haftarah [reading from the Prophets] are an exercise in counterpoint.

Superficially, the construction of sacred space joins them in a common theme. While the Torah portion takes up the erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the narrative from the book of Kings recounts the building by Solomon of the First Temple in Jerusalem some 480 years later.

The move is from a mobile sanctuary to a permanent one, from wood to stone. Still, the basic design remains the same, an oblong structure with the Holy of Holies (devir) at the rear, farthest away from the entrance. Likewise, the content of the Holy of Holies is unaltered: an ark covered by two large cherubim with outstretched wings. The ark itself contained only the two tablets which attested to the covenant between God and Israel sealed at Mount Sinai.

Of greater interest to me is what separated these two cultic centers. They enjoyed vastly different levels of popular support. Both institutions reflect God's will. In the case of Moses, the instructions are given directly, orally and visually (Exodus 25:9, 40; 26:30; 27:8). In the case of David, the sanction comes from God (II Samuel 7), the execution is left to Solomon. Yet the contrast could not be greater, and herein lies the value of the juxtaposition.

Helping Build the Tabernacle

The Torah highlights the fact that the people as a whole volunteer their possessions and services to build the Tabernacle. God enunciates the ideal at the outset: "Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him" (25:2). By implication, should they fail to contribute, the project would be delayed, if not aborted. And later the narrative stresses their extraordinary degree of compliance. The occasion stirred both men and women to share equally and unstintingly of their valuables and handiwork for the glory of the sanctuary. Indeed, contributions flowed in at such a furious pace that word had to be issued to end the campaign (Exodus 36:5-6).

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Mishpatim

Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1-24:18, Shabbat Sh’kalim 

The Death Penalty Reconsidered

Beware of selective Bible-passage quoting. 

In the closing days of his administration in 2003, outgoing IIlinois Governor George Ryan pardoned or commuted the sentences of all prisoners on the state's death row. The governor's action sparked a renewed debate about the death penalty in the United States. For Jews, this debate presents the opportunity to review and clarify the stance of Jewish law on capital punishment not only for our own information but in light of public policy discussions now underway. 

One might think that the Jewish view of capital punishmentis governed by one of the verses in this week's parashah, "He who fatally strikes a man shall be put to death" (Exodus 21:12). However, it is not that simple. In Jewish law, one cannot form a defense simply by taking one's pick of biblical verses and ignoring others. 

What Christians Believe

A good example of why we cannot do this is a panel that was sponsored in June 2001 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On this panel, a Catholic, a Jew, an African-American Protestant, and a Southern Baptist presented their different religions' and denominations' views on the death penalty. Each spokesperson arrived at this position by citing distinct sources that supported his denomination's viewpoint.

The Catholic spokesman emphasized the development in his Church's thinking--a development away from capital punishment. He did not quote Bible, nor mention religious law per se. He did, however, cite three sources: the catechism of the Church, the statements of the current Pope, and the statements and advocacy of the US Catholic Bishops. The Church's position, he said, is that while the state has the right to impose capital punishment, it should forego that right for a variety of reasons.

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February 2, 2013

Yitro, Exodus 18:1–20:23 

The Word Made Animate

Seeking the living soul of our sacred texts. 

By Rabbi Ismar Schorsch

Christianity turns on the doctrine of incarnation as formulated famously by the Gospel of John: "So the Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us, and we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (1:14). It is a doctrine that Jews tend to identify as uniquely Christian. Whereas both Judaism and Christianity equally acknowledged that at creation "the Word dwelt with God" (1:1) as both wisdom and instrument, Judaism refrained from ever endowing it with human form. Though valid, the distinction does not preclude the appearance in Judaism of the doctrine. For Judaism, the Word became incarnate as book.

The comparison occurs to me because of a Talmudic comment on the first word of the Ten Commandments. Like many such comments, its brevity conceals a world of profundity. The emphatic form of the pronoun "I," anokhi, did not fail to arrest the midrashic imagination. R. Yochanan, the dominant Galilean rabbi of the third century, treated it as an acronym, that is, each letter stood for a word. Thus deconstructed, he read the word to amplify the divine authorship of the Decalogue: "I Myself, wrote and gave [this]" (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 105a). Implicitly, the statement affirms that the entire Torah embodies God's word.

Jewish Incarnation
But Abraham Joshua Heschel in his final book Kotzk: A Struggle for Truth (Yiddish, 1973) goes beyond the doctrine that the Torah was literally revealed. In quoting this passage from the Talmud, he translates the words of R. Yochanan to mean "I give Myself in writing" (p. 58). That formulation is a Jewish version of incarnation. The words of the Torah are more than the medium of God's will; they are the very form which God's presence takes in our world of time and space. Concentration on the text leads to union with the Almighty.

In the spirit of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of modern Hasidism, Heschel reminds us that when we study the words of a particular sage in the Talmud, we ought to conjure up his presence, to see him standing before us. Beyond understanding his words, we must actually live with him and feel the power of his spirit. Similarly, the words of the Torah enable us to lose ourselves in God's presence.

The doctrine of incarnation is not absent from the synagogue either.

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January 26, 2013

B'shalah, Exodus 13:17-17:16
Shabbat Shirah

Torah Like Water

A creative interpretation yields a valuable lesson about the vital importance of Torah to the Jewish people.

By Rabbi Ismar Schorsch

A Canon Without Closure

We tend to think of revelation as a highly restrictive term.The fate of a revealed text is to be immutable. We humans have no right to alter what God has given. But inJudaism, precisely because the Torah is revered as divine, it becomes susceptible to unending interpretation. It would be a denigration of God's word to saddle it with just a single meaning.

drinking waterIn contrast to human speech, which carries a finite range of meanings, the language of God was deemed to be endowed with an infinity of meanings. This theology freed the Rabbis to do midrash, creating the anomaly of a canon without closure. The vessels kept changing their contents. New challenges elicited new insights into a text inviolable only on the surface.
A Metaphoric Reading

In this week's parashah we have an instance of a metaphoric reading that takes us in a single move from the physical world to the realm of the spiritual. I focus on this piece of midrash not only because it reflects brilliantly how the Rabbis transcended the literal confines of the Torah, but also because it sheds light on the mystery of Jewish survival.

After crossing the Sea of Reeds with God's unforgettable help, the Israelites continued on into the wilderness of Shur. Three days into their journey without water, their mood turned ugly. The water at Marah was toobitter to drink. They groused and God instructed Moses to sweeten the water with a piece of wood, which he did successfully (15:22-25). The incident is note worthy only as a harbinger of uprisings to come. Miracles failed to change the Israelites into long-term believers.
Thirsty For Torah

It is the midrash that lifts the episode out of the ordinary. On the verse, "They traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water" (22), some mystically inclined Rabbis opined: "Water actually stands for Torah, as it is said (by Isaiah, 55:1), 'Ho, all who are thirsty, come for water.' Having gone for three days without Torah, the prophets among them stepped forth and legislated that the Torah should be read on the second and fifth days of the week as well as on Shabbat so that they would not let three days pass without Torah" (Babylonian Talmud, BavaKama 82a).

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