Scrollers Preview - Parashat Terumah

In its introduction to the Haftarah portion this week (which is about the building of the First Temple), the Etz Hayyim commentary points out an interesting difference between the account of the building of the Tabernacle in the desert and the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem. 

In our parasha, the Israelites are asked to bring gifts so that they might make God a sanctuary that God may dwell among them. It seems that all they need to do is build it, and God will come J  But the instructions to King Solomon are different. In our haftarah, from I Kings, God’s word comes to Solomon,

With regard to this House you are building –if you follow My laws and observe My rules and faithfully keep My commandments, I will fulfill for you  the promise that I gave to your father David: I will abide among  the children of Israel, and I will never forsake My people Israel. (6:12-13)

Here, keeping the covenantal laws is what will bring God to dwell among us and will keep God’s presence in our midst.

May of the rabbis argue that the Torah is out of order, and that the instructions for building the Tabernacle actually came after the sin of the Golden Calf, as a way for the Israelites to make it right with God. The building of the Tabernacle would cleanse them of their idolatrous sin and will bring God’s Presence back among them. In this light, the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness is a way of showing loyalty to the covenant.

The prophet Ezekiel, with the exiled Jews in Babylon, also invokes the rebuilding of the destroyed Temple as a way for the people to make up for all of the sins that led to the destruction and the exile in the first place.

Tomorrow, we will read the parasha, and then look at the haftarah and Ezekiel together. As we study, I want to keep this question in mind: is the building of the Tabernacle and then the Temple(s) a way to make things right with a God whom we’ve betrayed? Or are these instructions here simply to help us make a home for God among us? Must the construction of this holy space be linked with our sin – our tendency to stray?

Scrollers Preview - Mishpatim 2015

In the words of the Etz Chayim commentary, beginning with this week’s Parasha, “the tone of the Torah changes. Up to this point, it has been a narrative, with occasional references to laws. . . . Now the emphasis is reversed. From here on, the Torah will present the rules by which the Isralites are to live, with occasional narrative breaks.”

This week’s Parasha is mostly a compendium of case laws regarding how to treat one’s neighbor. There are laws regarding slavery, damages for injury to self or to property, laws about thievery and kidnaping, about how we are required to treat those at the margins of society. There are also ritual laws regarding Festivals and worship. The Parasha concludes with a fascinating scene in which Moses concludes the covenant between God and the Israelites, and it ends with Moses heading up the mountain for 40 days.

The Etz Chayim commentary also asserts that these laws reflect that “Our standards for how we treat others must be based not on social-utilitarian concerns, the desire for an orderly society, but on the recognition of the image of God in every person and the presence of God in every relationship.” How does the God-centered context of the Torah, especially given last week’s drama at Mount Sinai, and the last chapter of our Parasha, color how we understand these laws? Do they simply reflect a desire for an orderly society, or is there something more?

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Yitro 2015

This week’s parasha begins with the story of Moses’ father-in-law Yitro’s visit to the Israelite Sinai encampment. Yitro sees Moses standing all day long giving rulings in the interpersonal affairs of the Israelites, and he gives Moses the sage advice to delegate! Afterwards, we have the set-up for and then the giving of the Ten Commandments.

This year I’d like to focus on the Ten Commandments or better said in Hebrew, “aseret ha-dibrot,” the ten utterances. Among these statements are some revolutionary concepts as well as laws that are common to most societies. The more common laws include the prohibitions against murder, adultery and theft. Among the revolutionary concepts, we have the prohibition of making graven images of God, and we have the idea of a 24-hour period of cessation from work every week, on Shabbat.

What makes these utterances unique as well is that they are not given in the form of case law – if you do this, you will be punished. Theft and adultery and violating Shabbat are not merely seen as illegal and disruptive to society. But to break these commandments would mean that one is violating universal principles, determined by God. The statements are absolute.

Rather than proposing some questions for us to wrestle with up front, I look forward to slowly working our way through these ten statements, hearing your questions, and drawing on the Etz Hayyim commentary as we try to address them.