…here. Rabbosai, Parshat Terumah begins a most extraordinary sequence. Hakamat haMishkan, the building of the first collective House of God, occupies Terumah, Tetzaveh, half of Ki Tissa, Vayakhel and Pekudei, an enormous length – the longest, as it were, single sequence in the Torah. And there is something very strange about it. As the late Nechama Leibowitz, of blessed memory,…
With Terumah begins the longest single passage in the book of Exodus, continuing to the end of the book and interrupted only by the episode of the Golden Calf. Its subject is the Mishkan, the Tabernacle or Sanctuary the Israelites were commanded to make as a centre of worship and as a visible sign of the presence of God in…
…assure us in advance that we can be purified after any bereavement. Human mortality does not ultimately bar us from being in the presence of Divine immortality. This is the key to understanding Terumah. Though not all commentators agree, its real significance is that it is God’s answer in advance to the sin of the Golden Calf. In strict chronological terms…
…thunder and lightning as it was at the great revelation, but today, just a day among days? That is the life-transforming secret of the name of the parsha, Terumah. It means “a contribution.” God said to Moses: “Tell the Israelites to take for Me a contribution. You are to receive the contribution for Me from everyone whose heart prompts them…
…of a sublime landscape. But how do you feel the presence of God in the midst of everyday life? That is the life-transforming secret of the name of the parsha, Terumah. It means “a contribution.” God said to Moshe: “Tell the Israelites to take for Me a contribution. You are to receive the contribution for Me from everyone whose heart…
As soon as we read the opening lines of Terumah we begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the Exodus with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed narrative of how the Israelites constructed the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that they carried with them through the desert. By any standards it is a part…
The Parsha in a Nutshell With Terumah begins the longest single passage in the Book of Exodus, continuing to the end of the book and interrupted only by the episode of the Golden Calf. Its subject is the Mishkan, the Tabernacle or Sanctuary the Israelites were commanded to make as a centre of worship and as a visible sign of…
The Parsha in a Nutshell The Torah’s explanation of the design and building of the Mishkan (the portable Temple) is the longer passage in the whole book of Shemot.) It begins this week in Terumah and continues all the way through to the end of Shemot (only taking a short break to tell the story of the Golden Calf). The…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. As we read the opening lines of Terumah, we witness a shift from the drama of Yetziyat Mitzrayim to the detailed narrative of Bnei Yisrael constructing the Mishkan, their portable Sanctuary in the desert. This part of the Torah occupies one-third of the…
…people journeyed through the wilderness. But a case could be made for saying that even more than the product was the process, summed up in the word that gives our parsha its name, Terumah, meaning, a gift, a contribution, an offering. The parsha is telling us something very profound. Giving confers dignity. Receiving does not. Until that moment, the Israelites…