Parashat Terumah takes place just as Moses ascends Sinai, disappearing into "the cloud” of divinity that surrounded it. The entire parasha is a monologue of G-d speaking to Moses about the very specific details of building the mikdash, also known as the tabernacle, or sanctuary. The Hebrew word mikdash means literally “a place of holiness,” ultimately, a dwelling place for divinity. Until this point in other beliefs of the time and the region, it is thought that gods were place-specific, yet here, G-d godself is instructing the Israelites to build a structure in which divinity can travel. Maybe anywhere.
The details of the building of the structure are meticulous, but it is the materials that get a lot of curiosity.
Last month, we looked at Parashat Bo with an eye for reparations. The Israelites were told to ask their Egyptian neighbors for money and clothing just before their exodus. And now here we have G-d asking them to use those reparations to pool their new resource and wealth and build a collective structure that houses and makes divinity portable.
As we consider how to deal with injustices of the past and the present, let us remember that we might truly owe some of what we have to repair injustice. And that what we have received is not all for us as individuals, but for a collective good. May we use our resources well and continue to build structures of justice where divinity might wish to dwell.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
The details of the building of the structure are meticulous, but it is the materials that get a lot of curiosity.
Last month, we looked at Parashat Bo with an eye for reparations. The Israelites were told to ask their Egyptian neighbors for money and clothing just before their exodus. And now here we have G-d asking them to use those reparations to pool their new resource and wealth and build a collective structure that houses and makes divinity portable.
As we consider how to deal with injustices of the past and the present, let us remember that we might truly owe some of what we have to repair injustice. And that what we have received is not all for us as individuals, but for a collective good. May we use our resources well and continue to build structures of justice where divinity might wish to dwell.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
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