Parshat Terumah: The Origin of the Gift Registry

This week’s Torah portion, Parshat Terumah (Ex 25-27:19) begins, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, that they bring me an offering;” and then comes a part that has long intrigued me. The verse continues, “…from every man that gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering.” What does the phrase “gives it willingly with his heart” mean? Is this a commandment from God to give a gift or is it a suggestion – if a man feels like it, he should give me a gift?

The Parshah continues with what I eventually decided is the first gift registry: “And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, and silver, and bronze, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and goats’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set on the ephod, and on the breastplate.” (25:3-7) 

If God were to command that the people give gifts, these specific gifts, and someone didn’t have the item or enough of the item, then it would be as if they were disobeying God’s command. Not a situation that anyone would want to find themselves in. But perhaps, the fact fact that it specifies that the gift should come willingly from the heart, this might signify something like an equivalent of a modern sliding scale. Each should give from the heart according to their desire and ability.

And what is the purpose of these gifts? “Let them make me a Mishkan/sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” (25:8) The purpose is to use these materials to build the Mishkan, the portable Tabernacle/sanctuary. The Mishkan will be a material reminder that God’s presence dwells amongst God’s people. Given the experience of the Exodus and Revelation, one would assume that the people knew that God dwelt among them. But they were, after all, only human. And humans often require reminders, tangible reminders, of that which one might think obvious. Once we are in the Holy Land, the Temple will be built as a permanent dwelling place for God’s presence. But until then, the portable Mishkan will remind them that God is with them during their travels. It also reminds them that their contributions made this aide de memoire possible.

As we enter this month of Adar, the month that is traditionally associated with Purim and joy, may we remember that much of the joy of life comes through our relationships. Relationships with God, with family, with friends, with stranger who might become friends – relationships that come in many shapes and forms.

Parshat Mishpatim: How do bias and judgement impact our lives?

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim Exodus 21:1-24:18. In it we receive 53 of the 613 commandments. Mishpatim begins: And these are the laws which you shall set before them (Exodus 21:1).  We look at this sentence and we wonder why it begins with “and these are the laws” and not just “these are the laws.” Generally the word “and” is not considered a critical word, it’s a conjunctive, a linkage word. Here it serves that precise purpose but in a very important way. Rashi teaches that “and these laws” implies that the laws to presented here (all 53 of them) are in fact a continuation of what is written before, what we had just received last week – the 10 Commandments. All the laws, not just the 10 Commandments are then understood to be from Sinai.

I want to highlight just one law for you. In Exodus 23:8 we find the injunction against taking a bribe, which is part of a section of laws dedicated to justice. Remember the expression, “a man’s word was his bond?” It presumes that worth of a person is based on their word, on their integrity, on their reputation. If this is true, then how much more so must a judge be a person of impeccable reputation and strength of character.  Strong enough to recognize and withstand bribery.

There is a story told in the Maayanah Shel Torah,  a work from mid-twentieth century in Eastern Europe that is the largest compendium of Dvrei Torah:

            An impoverished widow once came to the beit din (courthouse) of the great sage Rabbi Yehoshua Kutner. Weeping bitter tears, she begged him to summon to the court a man   she accused of having wronged her.

            Rabbi Yehoshua summoned the man to appear before the court, but referred the case to  another rabbi, refusing to preside over it himself. “The Torah forbids the taking of bribes,” he explained. “Do you think that a bribe is only a gift of money? Tears can also be a bribe that ‘blinds the clear-sighted’—especially the tears of a poor widow.”

This story reminds us that one can be bribed by more than just money. We are led to understand that a bribe is exactly that which blinds us – by greed, by desire, by any kind of emotion. As in this case, it doesn’t matter if our sympathies lie toward one party or the other, as a judge, the mere fact of having an emotional bias investment in a case is considered as if it were a bribe.

Although the majority of us are not working judges, we often encounter situations in our daily lives where we have to form a judgement, make a decision. While these are usually not decisions that can send someone to prison, they can be decisions that can change a person’s life for the good or for the bad. We can grant or deny someone a job, with just a few well-placed words we can influence on a person is perceived by others, we choose whether or not to believe someone.

In today's world, both explicit and implicit bias and judgement are apparent in ways that we may not have noticed at other times in our lives. This Shabbat and in the week ahead, pay particular attention to moments and causes of bias in your life. How do they impact you? Do they influence your decision making, your actions? Are there things that you never noticed before that perhaps you are now noticing for the first time?

Judaism is a tradition that is grounded in mindfulness. May we all live full and fulfilled lives of mindfulness.

Yitro - A Journey to our Sinai Experience

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This is the Dvar Torah that I gave this Friday night. I think of it as our journey toward Sinai - through the calendar, through our holidays, through the years. I ended the Dvar with instructions for a "Sinai Experience" that would we would share during out Torah reading. (We read Torah on Friday nights.) At the end is the sheet that I used for our Torah reading.  

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We are on a journey – the journey of the spring holidays – Tu Bishvat, Purim, Passover and finally Shavuot.

We begin with a story from the Babylonian Talmud (Ta'anit 23a) about Honi the Circle Maker who learned the importance of planting and planning for the future. It’s a Tu Bishvat story, you may have heard it but bear with me.

Rabbi Yohanan said: "This righteous man [Honi] was troubled throughout the whole of his life concerning the meaning of the verse, 'A Song of Ascents: When the Lord brought back those that returned to Zion, we were like dreamers' (Psalms 126:1). [Honi asked] Is it possible for seventy years to be like a dream? How could anyone sleep for seventy years?"

One day Honi was journeying on the road and he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked, "How long does it take [for this tree] to bear fruit?" The man replied: "Seventy years." Honi then further asked him: "Are you certain that you will live another seventy years?" The man replied: "I found [already grown] carob trees in the world; as my forefathers planted those for me so I too plant these for my children."

Honi sat down to have a meal and sleep overcame him. As he slept a rocky formation enclosed upon him which hid him from sight and he slept for seventy years. When he awoke he saw a man gathering the fruit of the carob tree and Honi asked him, "Are you the man who planted the tree?" The man replied: "I am his grand-son." Thereupon Honi exclaimed: "It is clear that I have slept for seventy years." He then caught sight of his ass which had given birth to several generations of mules, and he returned home. There he inquired, "Is the son of Honi the Circle-Drawer still alive?" The people answered him, "His son is no more, but his grandson is still living." Thereupon he said to them: "I am Honi the Circle-Drawer," but no one would believe him.

Two take-aways from this story –

1) is that if you give something you will not be alive to see, you are still giving. No matter what.

2) The story ends with a vision of the future – albeit one filled with carob treesJ. Our people has always dreamed of a day when hatred and war will be forgotten; a day when no one will go hungry and no one will suffer homelessness; a day when we will all care for one another and live together in peace. Our sages called it the Messianic Age. (Chabad)

Tu Bishvat with its vision of people taking care of each other and most especially, taking care of the earth, planting trees, providing for the future.

Purim arrives in exactly one month. This is a story that takes place in the Diaspora, outside of the Land of Israel, in the Persian Empire. Here our people might be able to look to the future but they also have to expend a lot of energy to take care of the here and now, in a land that is not their own. One take away from Purim is the question of “What is our role, as Jews, in the place that we live?”

Exactly one month after Purim we celebrate Passover  - a story that begins with a people enslaved and ends with a free people, receiving the Torah, developing a relationship with God.  The practice of Passover began in the land of Israel with sacrifices offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. It continues with the Rabbis in Exile in Babylonia realizing that with the loss of the Temple and our exile, they need to do something in order to keep us connected to Eretz Israel and our religious way of life. So they developed a ritual that would go on to keep us connected to Holy Land, 

to Torah and to our people and history regardless of where we live.  The Passover Seder in some ways is the answer to the question that is raised through Purim,  “how do we live at Jews no matter where we are?”

But let’s take a step back and a step forward – first answering who are these people called the Jews? The Jews are the ones who accepted the Torah at Sinai. They experienced something that no one before or after ever would – standing in the presence of God, hearing God’s voice, and experiencing what was probably the most amazing pyrotechnic show in all of history.

The rabbi’s say that all Jewish souls – those born Jewish, those who ultimately convert – were at Sinai. The Torah was not given to just those who were standing at Sinai, at the base of that mountain, but to all Jews who would ever live. So We Were There. Though we might not remember it!

This is one reason that Shavuot, our final spring/summer holiday is called Zman Matan Torateinu – the time of the GIVING of the Torah. Present tense  - or present continuous – something like that. Not the Time the Torah was given or received in the past. But now, always, every year we receive the torah – because we were there as souls, and now each year we reaffirm our receipt of and commitment to the Torah anew.

So today is not Shavuot- that’s true. But liturgically we sort of receive the Torah 3 times. The first is here in the Exodus, Parshat Yitro, where the first telling of the story of revelation falls on our yearly cycle of torah readings. Second on Shavuot when we ritually receive the Torah. Lastly in the book of Deutoronomy, Parshat Eikev – this year on August 1^st -the final telling of the story of revelation falls on our yearly cycle of torah readings.

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So together let us have the Sinai Experience.

Here’s how it will work:

We will imagine we are standing at the base of Mount Sinai – weary from running away from slavery in Egypt, a bit (or very) anxious about whatever is going to happen. We are told by Moses to prepare ourselves for three days – bathing, washing our clothes, not engaging in intimate relations – and not eating meat.

After 3 days we gather at the base of mount sinai and see and hear an incredible pyrotechnic display. Thunder, lightening, God’s voice. We are afraid – the Sages say that when the people heard God’s voice they fell over in fear and begged Moses to intervene for them. God should tell Moses the Commandments and Moses would relay to us. That way at least we could stay conscious and actually experience what was going on.

We have taken our Torah our of the ark. 

Handouts are being passed out with today’s Torah reading. There will only be one Aliya today and we will all have it. I will chant at first from the Torah, you will have the translation in front of you as I chant.

When I finish we will all rise and read out together a slightly abridged version of the 10 Commandments

You are welcome to read in Hebrew or English – Read loudly, with power. Let us feel the cacophony of the voices, the people, all around us. 

I will then conclude the reading from the Torah.

Allow yourselves to feel the moment, to experience it, to Stand at Sinai.

(**If you would like a copy of the script that I used, please leave a comment or email me at rabbaharlene@gmail.com.   For some reason the format is not transferring to my blog at present.)