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Dvar Torah Parashat Terumah 5765 February

11, 2005

3 Adar Alef 5765

by Rabbi Maurice Harris

Possible focal points of the dvar:

Terumah root = resh-vav-mem, to lift up. (R . S. R. Hirsch) Rashi states that

this is a separation of a portion of ones resources to be set aside.

Ex. 25: 8 Let them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among (within)

them. -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each person is to build

God a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. Rabbi Meir Leibush benYechiel Michel, 19th century biblical commentator. (from Plaut)

Haftarah Terumah 1 Kings 5:26 6:13. Solomons construction of the Temple.

o M. Middot 3:4 Iron was created to shorten mans days, while the altar

was created to lengthen his days. What shortens life should not be listedas a tool to build what lengthens life. This is probably responding to one

of the last verses of Parashat Yitro and it may come into play in the

Haftarah as well, which mentions that only finished stones were used inthe building of the Temple, so that the sound of hammers, axes, or any

iron tool was heard.

o Plenty of midrash about the life of King Solomon, if you want to go there.


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Outline of dvar:

1. Introduce where we are in the Big Torah picture w/Parashat Terumah:

a. Were out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and Moshe has ascended Mt.

Sinai and the people have heard the 10 commandments, and now Moses isreceiving more of the laws and instructions that comprise the Torah.

b. Last weeks parashah included many laws we would regard as civil laws

though theyre not limit to that category alone.c. This week, with Parashat Terumah, God begins to spell out for Moses the

specific instructions for the building of the Mishkan the Tabernacle.

God commands that donations be taken from the Israelites for the

building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). reword this is`a`quotei. In the parashah Moses receives the detailed instructions for the

construction of:

1. The Aron the Ark and its cover.

2. The table for the show bread.3. The Menorah.

4. Cloth and animal skin curtains or internal walls.5. Wooden planks and bars to form walls.

6. The parochet a partition at the entrance of the Holy of

Holies.

7. The altar.8. Linen curtains to define the perimeter of the Courtyard.

2. Ex. 25: 8 Let them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among (within)

them. -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each person is to buildGod a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. Rabbi Meir Leibush

ben Yechiel Michel, 19th century biblical commentator. (from Plaut)

a. If we want to run with the Malbims idea, we can go as far as the notion

that the whole sanctuary, the whole space itself, is almost besides the

point. The point is to build something that will help us to create a space

within ourselves. You could make the argument that the physical mishkanitself means nothing it is just a temporary structure, the physical result of

a group project that can easily run the risk of being worshipped as an

object of beauty in itself. You can, if you want, go with this idea to theplace of thinking that the very structure that the Torah describes with such

detail and care over the next three parashas! is ultimately, entirely

besides the point.i. Exploring this idea what does Rambam say about the point of the

mishkan?

1. example - "Change was very difficult for the Jewish

people. Therefore, God gave them animal sacrifices


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because that is the type of service they were used to, not

because it was the best type. God wanted to turn their

sacrificial service of idols to the service of the One God."-Maimonides--Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon ofFez (formerly

of Cordoba), 11th century (Guide to the Perplexed3:32)

2. example The Rambam argues that the Mishkan and itssacrifices (as well as the Temple in Jerusalem, its successor

after we had settled in Israel) were necessary stages in the

spiritual maturation of the Jewish people. At first, wecould not tolerate what was too different from what we

knew as religion: That is, if all the other gods were

worshiped with sacrifices in fine temples, then until we

were fully educated about the uniqueness of our God, we,too, had to be permitted to have a similar set of rituals.

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein

b. The means may be more importantthan the ends in building the mishkan.Perhaps the greatest proof that the means employed to build the mishkan

were more important than the ends is that the mishkan was designed to bea temporary structure from the get go. It was understood from the

beginning that it would be discarded once its usefulness had ended. Once

the people would reach the Promised Land, they would enter a new era in

their communal spiritual life, and they would need to build an entirely newstructure. The mishkan, which the Torah lavishes tremendous attention

on, was a temporary project. The cultivation of an inner space for the

Divine, however, has been a constant yearning of Judaism throughout theages. If this theory is right, then the values that were included in the

process of building the mishkan were the enduring elements of the

structure not the gold, silver, and copper, but the values the peoplelearned and practiced in cooperating to create the structure. So, what

were the values that characterized the means of building the mishkan?

i. Collaboration by the entire community. (give example)ii. Honest methods of accounting for uses of resources. (cite example)

iii. Non-violence.

1. M. Middot 3:4 Iron was created to shorten mans days,

while the altar was created to lengthen his days. Whatshortens life should not be listed as a tool to build what

lengthens life. (Connect to haftarah, as well.)

SEGUE: Weve considered that the values that characterized the means the people used

to build the mishkan were the most enduring elements of the project, and weveconsidered the Malbims interpretation of the verse, Let them make me a sanctuary, so

that I may dwell within them. -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each

person is to build God a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. From this we


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could stop and once again learn the valuable lesson that each of us, as individuals, has the

potential to develop an inner space that can be a healthy vessel for the Divine energy.

But, as youve heard many people say from this bimah before, Judaism is not just an

individual path of self-improvement. Judaism is a group sport. Often a messy,

entangled, argumentative, confused, opinionated group sport, but a group sportnonetheless. Judaism likes to ask the question, How does the community do the right

thing? How does the community build its structures in a way that helps manifest justice

and truth, two pillars of the universal sanctuary of the Divine? And, with its hopefullook towards a future in which the world finally finds its tragi-comic way to redemption,

Judaism also dares to ask, How does the entire human race create a world that is, itself,

one large sanctuary for the divine presence? Fortunately, Jews are not alone in asking

that question, and Id like to, with my final thoughts, turn to the thoughts of someone wetalked a lot about last month, but whose writing has remained in my thoughts all through

this month, Dr. MLK. If the Malbim asks us to take the lesson of the mishkan and look

inward, to the inner mishkan each of us can build within, Dr. King asked us to look as far

outward as our entire world, daring to imagine and describe how we might work to buildplanet Earth into a global mishkan, a global dwelling place for the Divine.

3. Building a World that is a Sanctuary for God to dwell in - what would that

look like?

a. MLKs World House essay. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or

Community?, published in 1967.

i. Some years ago a famous novelist died. Among his papers was

found a list of suggested plots for future stories, the mostprominently underscored being this one: A widely separated

family inherits a house in which they have to live together. This is

the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a largehouse, a great world house in which we have to live together

black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew,

Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindua family undulyseparated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never

again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in

peace.

ii. All inhabitants of the globe are now neighbors. This world-wideneighborhood has been brought into being as a result of the

modern scientific and technological revolutions. The world of

today is vastly different from the world of just one hundred yearsago.

iii. Human beings, searching a century ago as now for better

understanding, had no television, no radios, no telephones and nomotion pictures through which to communicate. Medical science

had not yet discovered the wonder drugs to end many dread

plagues and diseases. One hundred years ago military men had not

yet developed the terrifying weapons of warfare that we know


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todaynot the bomber, an airborne fortress raining down death;

nor napalm, that burner of all things and flesh in its path. A century

ago there were no sky-scraping buildings to kiss the stars and nogargantuan bridges to span the waters. Science had not yet peered

into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space, nor had it

penetrated oceanic depths. All these new inventions, these newideas, these sometimes fascinating and sometimes frightening

developments, came later. Most of them have come within the past

sixty years, sometimes with agonizing slowness, morecharacteristically with bewildering speed, but always with

enormous significance for our future.

iv. The years ahead will see a continuation of the same dramatic

developments. All this is a dazzling picture of the furniture,

the workshop, the spacious rooms, the new decorations and the

architectural pattern of the large world house in which we are

living.

b. In The World House, Dr. King calls us to: 1) transcend tribe, race,class, nation, and religion to embrace the vision of a World House; 2)

eradicate at home and globally the Triple Evils of racism, poverty, andmilitarism; 3) curb excessive materialism and shift from a thing-oriented

society to a people-oriented society; and 4) resist social injustice and

resolve conflicts in the spirit of love embodied in the philosophy and

methods of nonviolence. He advocates a Marshall Plan to eradicate globalpoverty, a living wage, and a guaranteed minimum annual income for

every American family. He urges the United Nations to experiment with

the use of nonviolent direct action in international conflicts. The finalparagraph warns of the fierce urgency of now and cautions that this may

be the last chance to choose between chaos and community. THIS

PARAGRAPH WRITTEN BY THE F.O.R. WEBSITE AUTHOR.

4. Conclusion.

SHALL I USE THIS TIDBIT?

Putting the Mishkan of the Torah in perspective a modest, portable sanctuary compared

to the great temples of the ancient world. Oh, plenty of finery and lavish detail, an

aesthetic marvel of its own, no doubt. But by way of comparison, consider the Egyptianpyramid at ____________. It was built as the home, the spiritual dwelling place, of

_____________. _______________ stones, each weighing _______________ were used

to make it. At ______________ feet tall, it remained the tallest building in the world

until ____________.


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SIDE THING:

This debate may shed some light upon the halachic approaches of the aforementioned

Rishonim as well. In his Sefer Hamitzvot, mitzva 20, the Rambam essentially reduces allthe details related to constructing the Temple to one mitzvah- "to construct a house for

worship, in which can take place the sacrifices and the gatherings each year". What

matters most is not the size and form of the architecture and utensils within, rather thatthe space allows for the fulfillment of all the commandments that need to take place

within its walls. On the other hand, the Ramban reads symbolic significance into each

detail related to the Mishkan, and in this approach he is followed by many texts, from the

Zohar to the Ramhal, who has an entire book, Mishkenei Elyon, which attempts todemonstrate how every detail related to the Mishkan and Temple is illustrative of the way

in which Gds hanhaga, the Divine Plan, is manifested in the universe. -- Mark H.Kirschbaum, M.D

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