The Parsha in a Nutshell Immediately after Moshe returns from the top of Mount Sinai, having convinced God to forgive the people for the sin of the Golden Calf, he gathers everyone together and commands them, first about Shabbat, and then about the making of the Tabernacle. The parsha repeats much of what was said earlier in parshat Terumah, with…
…said: “Let them make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell (veshakhanti) among them” (Shemot 25:8). It is from this verb that we get the word Mishkan, “Tabernacle,” and the post-biblical word Shekhina, meaning the Divine Presence. Applied to God, as we discussed in parshat Terumah, it means “the Presence that is close.” That is the ongoing miracle of Jewish…
From here to the end of the book of Exodus the Torah describes, in painstaking detail and great length, the construction of the Mishkan, the first collective house of worship of the Jewish people. Precise instructions are given for each item – the Tabernacle itself, the frames and drapes, and the various objects it contained – including their dimensions. So…
…or terumah or tithes or tzitzit. You made this all up yourself.” Yalkut Shimoni Korach 752 So the rabbis were opposed to any custom that would give special prominence to the Ten Commandments since the sectarians were pointing to such customs as proof that even orthodox Jews treated them differently from the other commands. By removing them from the prayer…
This week’s sedra and those that follow it to the end of the book of Exodus, describe the great collective project of the Israelites in the desert: building a mikdash, a portable Sanctuary, that would serve as the visible home of the Divine presence. It was the first collective house of worship in the history of Israel. The opening command, however,…
As I have stressed many times in these studies, the Torah was meant to be listened to, not read. The eye can scan many lines at once; but listening is always a sequential, word-by-word process. The result is that the ear can sometimes hear a discrepancy that the eye misses. A discrepancy is always significant when it comes to Torah….
…no fields or farms, no businesses, no source of income through the work of their hands. Instead, they were dependent on the gifts of the people. The Israelites gave them a portion of the harvest called terumah. They received other statutory gifts. So when the Israelites prospered as a whole, the priests benefited. They had a direct interest in the…
Creation: Where Did We Come From? Transcript Jodie Cohen: Good evening Chief Rabbi, ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the third in the Chief Rabbi’s lecture series on Faith. My name is Jodie Cohen and I have been asked to chair this evening’s proceedings. The subject for this evening’s discussion is “Creation – Where did we come from?” Following the…
…Divine command before the story of the Golden Calf (in parshat Terumah) is intended to illustrate the principle that “God creates the cure before the disease” (Megillah 13b). Does Moshe’s solution surprise you? How does your community encourage its members to build and bond? What sort of initiatives can you think of that might increase the team-building within your community?…
…[Shemot 25:20-22] Vehayu hakeruvim, The cherubs, above the Aron [the Ark] right? The cherubs, porsay chnafayim lemalah, they spread their hands over them, sochechim bechanfayhem al-hakaporet. They comfort him. They were overshadowing, they were protecting, they were shadowing the kaporet. Al hakaporet uf’nayhem ish el-achiv el hakaporet. And the cherubs were facing one another. And that is in parshat Terumah,…