Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
"She's a Brick House. She's Mighty Mighty, Just Lettin' it All Hang Out"
In this Torah portion we are given the mandate to build the sanctuary. The details of how it was built, who funded it, and who was in charge of its construction are given. It is interesting to note that a 13-year-old named Bezalel was put in charge of the artistry and construction of the Tabernacle. We can learn from this that even a great man such as Moses, cannot be perfect in everything. We are a community and depend on each other for our different skills and strengths. Bezalel needed Moses to teach him Torah. Moses needed Bezalel to teach him architecture and gold crafting.
Moses asks the people to contribute all sorts of items to be used for the Mishkan's manufacture. The people voluntarily delivered gold, silver, gems, jewels, cloth, silks, furs, and hides. They were so giving that there was a surplus of donations. God instructs Moses to "restrain us from giving" (Ex. 36:06). If only our modern building funds had this problem!
Why did we need a Mishkan? Why did we need the first and second Temples in Jerusalem? Why do some of our people pray for the restoration of the Third Temple? Why do we need our modern synagogues? Do we in the third millennium really need a place where we can "see" God dwelling among us? Is the Mishkan the answer to our quest to see and feel God that we tried to achieve with the Golden Calf? (Please refer to the previous D'var on Ki Tisa).
Bezalel made a wondrous menorah (Ex. 37:17-24). It was of pure gold. Did you ever note that the seven-candled menorahs in traditional synagogues are never golden. Perhaps they are bronze or silver. This is because the Talmud ruled that a gold menorah can only be used in the Temple in Jerusalem. Have you noticed that liberal Judaism's sects chose gold menorahs? Have you noticed that gold menorahs are used in liberal synagogues? Liberal Jews are making the statement that we are no longer waiting for or praying for the Third Temple.
In our synagogues, in our hearts, and in our good deeds are where we say God's presence, the Shechinah, dwells. The Divine Light is accessible to us each and every day. We know from our history that God's presence left the Second Temple. Why? It was because of people's unbiased hatred, jealousy, arguments, and the fact that even murder was committed there.
The Talmud teaches that studying Torah at night (when melancholy can set in, when one can cry over the reasons for the Temple's destruction), is effective in bringing the Divine Light back. Our very own human behavior can cause this light to be with us. Or our behaviors can cause it to leave us.
We have freedom of choice. "Who is strong? The person who practices self-control."(Pirkei Avot 4:01). Rabbi Chanina said, "Anyone whose good deeds are greater than his wisdom, his wisdom will endure. Anyone whose wisdom is greater than his good deeds, his wisdom will not endure." (Pirkei Avot 3:12). Torah study, or going to synagogue, or even teaching a class there, does not change people. Only by practicing what we learn or teach can we influence our own behavior and the behavior of others. Our actions of good deeds and tikun olam are essential
They show our commitment. They help us to grow spiritually while at the same time help others. The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Sotah 3a, tells us that we only sin when we are not thinking straight. God rewards us, in traditional teaching, for planning to do a good deed along with the finished deed itself. But God punishes us for sinning only if we do the act, not our thinking about it (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 40a).
What if Moses said he did not want Bezalel's help because he knew it all? What if Moses acted jealously toward Bezalel or sabotaged his project? Do any of us today get jealous of the successes of our friends and undermine their advancement? Do we have folks in our synagogues who would be great resources, but do not use them because our fear and our jealousy keep us from doing so? This comes from a lack and faith a trust in God.
Are we so silly as to think that there is a finite amount of goodness in God's universe? Are we so unsophisticated to think that if we ignore our friends when they are in need, and do loshan ha ra about them when they wish to succeed, that these sins do not affect our own wellbeing? These types of behaviors only reinforce our own fears of mortality and insecurities. After all, is it not illogical to think that if we help another, there will be less help available to aid us when we are in need? Is the Divine Light available to us only finite?
What do we do in our modern Mishkan that we call our synagogues? "The people has approached Me with its mouth and honored Me with its lips, but has kept its heart far from Me, and its worship of Me has been a commandment of men learned by rote." (Isaiah 29:13).
The Torah is a tree of life. Judaism is not just a religion, it is a way of life. "L'chaim – to life – is our toast. The Torah teaches us to behave at all times "when we lie down and we rise up." Although we are taught to "love your brother as yourself" and to "pursue justice," do we? What does our Judaism mean to us?
Is it just matzoth balls and singing our prayers without trying to act on them in our daily lives? We are all children of God. If you want to make a parent happy, be nice to his or her kids. "You are children of God, your Almighty." (Deut. 11:01).
We are also servants of God as it says in Ex. 19:06: "You shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests." We are to act holy, in all of our activities. "You shall be holy, for I God am holy." (Lev. 19:02). This holiness is not genetic. We need to work at it regularly. As Isaiah says it best in Chapter 44, Verses 6-10, "You are My witnesses...a light unto the nations, so that My salvation may be unto the ends of the earth!"
These are interesting times in which we live. It seems that politicians running for public office face a litmus test that forces them to explain to voters the role religion plays in their lives. Does this marginalize us as Jews since we are taught not to wear our Judaism on our sleeves?
Also, many or our Christian brothers wish to see the Ten Commandments posted in courthouses and other public facilities. While we recognize their intent – a reminder that our Founding Fathers were guided by their faith in God when crafting our system of government – it nevertheless creates conflict for Jews on two fronts. First, we might ask again; does it marginalize Judaism in American society to point only to the Christian Ten Commandments? You'll remember; Jews do not assign any special significance to these ten out of concern that the other 603 equally important mitzvoth would be forgotten. Second, from a Jewish point of view, with spirituality so blatantly absent from the workings of our government, such a display is as vain as the Second Temple full of hatred and our modern synagogues filled with Torah talk, but without Torah behavior.
In Europe today, neo-Fascists parties are part of their coalition governments. Anti-Semitic web sites abound. Yet many act conciliatory to these governments fearing a backlash. Didn't we hear those same fears in the 1930s? Did it save our European cousins? Rabbi Stephen Wise spoke out courageously against Hitler and Nazism in the 1930s. Who among us will speak out forcefully now against those who spew hatred?
Bezalel's menorah in his Mishkan, as our menorah and Torah in our own sanctuary, remind us about God's dwelling in this world. By virtue of our incorporating Godliness and holiness into our own lives we can redeem the world! This was the message that Moses brought to us from Sinai. This is our mission as Jews. We cannot avoid it. Once we do, we are not Jews, and not worthy of our synagogues, Torah, and menorah. May we all try to act better toward one another so that our neighbors can see that if we make our synagogues a place for brotherhood, there is hope, tikvah, to make our cities, nations, and world fulfill our prophets' dreams. Let us give a little "extra" so that one day, there will be so much love, peace, and understanding. God will tell us all to "restrain" with a loud "Dayenu!"
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Clouds
This parasha brings us to the end of the book of Exodus. If you have been reading in order on a weekly basis, a year has passed since the first Pesach and our deliverance from slavery in Egypt. We have now become "evedim ha Shem," servants of God. So much has happened during this year. We have been given the Torah, we sinned with the Golden Calf, and the cult of sacrifice and the Cohan theocracy from Aaron has been firmly established. All of our major pilgrimage holidays have been commanded and our lunar calendar was promulgated. We have been awarded Shabbat. We have constructed the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, as God's dwelling place among us.
Pekudei means reckoning. Moses has made an accounting to the children of Israel, of every shekel they have donated to build the Mishkan. Moses, who was above suspicion of doing wrong, still wanted us to have no doubts that all of our monies went into the project. The Talmudic rabbis teach us the concept of Marit Ayin from this telling. This phrase means "appearance to the eye." It was very important to our sages that not only should we do good, but it should never even appear as if we could be doing bad.
The Midrash on these verses (Ex 38:21 to 38:29) says that Moses did not have pockets in his clothes so that so no one could even hint at any gold going for his personal use. We also learn the concept of Kedosh ha Shem, the sanctification of God's name, that occurs when we do the good deeds that are expected from us. Conversely, we are taught the opposite concept of Chilul ha Shem, the desecration of God's name, when we behave badly.
All of our actions need to be good, and we are to avoid even looking as if we did wrong. We were elected to be God's servants. This connects with the mitzvah of not putting a stumbling block before the blind. How can our actions that we know are good, but may not appear to be good (i.e., an Orthodox rebbe using a pay phone at a barbeque restaurant), cause someone else to sin? The answer the rabbis teach is that it can lead someone to either think that eating pulled pork or pork rib is allowed, or cause someone to do lashon ha ra (gossip), also a sin.
Traditionally speaking, God has given us the Torah, which is our instruction book for proper living and Good, Orderly Direction. How, we ask? We do so with honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness to change for the better. We were not asked by God to be spiritually perfect, but instead to make spiritual progress in our lives. We are to remember to attempt to make all of our actions holy.
"The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of God filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, for the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of God filled the Tabernacle." (Ex 40: 34 and 35).
"When the Kohanim left the Holy of Holies, the cloud filled the House of God (Solomon's Temple). The Kohanim were unable to stand and minister because of the cloud and the glory of God filled the house of God." (I Kings 8:10-11, Haftarah Pekudei). Do we as modern Jews need an invitation to visit God? Both Moses and the descendants of Aaron apparently did. Can we not dwell with God as we daily do good deeds?
If we place the Mishkan in our own hearts, we can create a place where the quietness of our soul is welcome. We can find that deep peace at being one with God that passes all understanding. We can mindfully walk with God each moment of our day.
But now they (clouds) only block the sun,
they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I would have done,
but clouds got in my way.
I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
from up and down, and still somehow,
it's clouds' illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.
(from "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell, sung by Judy Collins)
The gift of Shabbat helps us push away the barrier of clouds that at one time or another veil our vision. Shabbat is an infinite gift with in a 25-hour period. The building of the Mishkan represents the finite as does God's creation of the world. Kabbalistically, the Mishkan and Creation are Yesh m'ein, something from the Ein Sof (the Infinite Being).
They are finite things being given to us by the infinite. If God is infinite, and He produces something finite, we know mathematically that anything added to infinity still produces a sum that is also infinite. The Zohar says that this concept is called Tzimtzun, contraction. Creation is not an addition but in reality a holding back of the infinite and hence a small piece of the infinite God. During the first six days of creation God actually is holding back. But on Shabbat, He reverts back to a non-contraction state and hence Shabbat is spiritually infinite.
The Kabbalists teach that God is beyond time. Hence it was an eternal Shabbat a second before God began creation. And when creation was completed, God gave us a human taste of infinity with the weekly Sabbath.
Shabbat is our taste of infinity and provides Jewish Spiritual Renewal with God. We then can push back the clouds that block our relationship with God, the infinite. By doing this, we are also able to push back the clouds that keep us from being connected to one another. On Shabbat we are to contract and hold back from what we physically know we can do, but make a rational decision not to do. Our rest is touching the infinite.
Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai that if all the Jews were to observe Shabbat, redemption would come immediately (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 118A). In liberal Jewish terms, we have the power to redeem ourselves by taking time out for rest and spiritual renewal each week.
As Moses did an accounting in the beginning of this parasha, so should we do a daily spiritual accounting, Talmudically called chesbon (also cheshbon) ha nefesh. The last day of each month is called Yom Kippur Katan (small day of atonement). We do not need to wait until autumn's Yom Kippur to reflect, ask for forgiveness, and grow as people. We have the power to do so regularly.
The rabbis teach that if a person sincerely does this chesbon 80 times, he will emerge as a new person with a new ruach (spirit). We can regain our sanctity regularly. We do not have to wait for the cloud to lift and be given an invitation to reach God. We have the ability to do so regularly. If we only use this ability, our lives would benefit immensely.
In the previous parasha we were told of the 13-year-old Bezalel whom God chose to construct the Mishkan and its artifacts. The name Bezalel means "in the shadow of God."
Psalm 91:01 states that "he who sits alone most high, will abide within the shadow of God." The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Shavuot 15B, says that the Mishkan itself may be considered to be the shadow of the Shechinah and its purpose was to allow the Divine Presence or the Shadow of God into this world.
Nachmanides writes that the purpose of the Mishkan was to keep the experiences of Sinai with us in all of our travels. As Isaiah spoke (Is. 11:06) in his messianic prophesy, "a little child will lead them." May we all work on developing a "wise and understanding heart" (I Kings 3:09) like Bezalel, Moses, and King Solomon so that we can keep God's presence inside each of us and walk humbly in His shadow each day.
Chazak Chazak Vinitchazek! Be strong, be strong, and may we be strong for one another!
Shabbat Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
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