Mindful Torah...and more

This week’s parashah/portion is Va-yak'hel ( Shemot /Exodus 35:1-38:20).  As we near the conclusion of Shemot/Exodus, we read of Moses relaying God’s instructions concerning the building of the mishkan (Tabernacle) to the people.  In the earlier part of Shemot , God gives Moses detailed instructions concerning the mishkan .  This is then followed by the commandment to observe Shabbat as a day of rest, the incident of the Golden Calf.  In this week’s parashah, the commandment to observe Shabbat is reiterated.  Moses then transmits the instructions concerning the building of the mishkan to the people and to Bezalel, the artisan entrusted with the actual construction. Rashi (12 th c. France) comments on the reminder in this parashah that after six days of working we are required to rest on Shabbat by writing that God “prefaced the instructions about the mishkan work with the warning about Shabbat, to tell them that the mishkan does not supercede Shabba...

כי זה אלהים אלהינו עולם ועד הוא ינהגנו על מות׃ For this is God, our God; forever and eternally he shall be guiding us until death. This is the final line of the psalm.   After a series of complex images, phrases and ideas the psalmist ends with a seemingly simple, yet powerful phrase.   Yet, no verse in the psalms is ever quite as simple as it might seem on the surface. A more traditional translation of the verse would read something like “For this is the Lord, our God; forever and ever he shall lead us until death.”   The verse begins with a reminder that God is our God.   This does not imply, as one might imagine, that God belongs to us.   For God is ours because we are all a part of God.   In addition, though אלהים Elohim is translated as “God” or “Lord”, it is actually a plural noun. Many commentaries have been written on the origins of this name for God.   But in this case, I see it as a reminder that, even though God is One, th...

This week's  parashah Ki Tissa ( Shemot /Exodus 30:11-34:35) includes the all-too-familiar narrative of the Golden Calf.  After Moses smashes the Tablets of the Ten Commandments and destroys the Calf, Moses ascends Mt. Sinai for a second time in order to receive a new set of tablets from God. While on the mountain, Moses experiences what we might call a crisis of faith.   He tells God in no uncertain terms that God must be in the lead as they commence their journey.   In addition, Moses implores God to be able to see God’s “face” – to know God’s true essence.   Moses tells God that he cannot continue to lead the people if God does not meet his demands (my words, not the Torah’s). God tells Moses that no one can see the Divine Face and live.   Instead, God places Moses in the cleft of a rock and allows the Divine Glory to “pass” Moses.   As God passes, God proclaims what we refer to as the 13 attributes of God, including God’s mercy and compassi...

This week's parashah is Tetzaveh ( Shemot / Exodus 27:20 – 30:10).  The parashah focuses on the directions for lighting of the Ner Tamid (eternal, or continually burning, lamp) in the Mishkan /taberbacke,  The parashah begins with God instructing Moses, still on Mt. Sinai, that when lighting the Ner Tamid , the priests are to bring clear oil of beaten olives. Though this seems a simple instruction, things in the Torah are seldom as simple as they seem. Throughout the centuries, commentators have focused on this clear, freshly beaten olive oil as metaphor. Some commentators, such as Khaquiz (1672-1761) believed that, just as olives "...yield up its oil only when it is crushed, [so] the people of Israel reveals its true virtues only when it is made to suffer."  Though there is something positive in the idea that the Jewish people are able to show strength and perseverance in the face of persecution and adversity, I am simultaneously troubled by his claim that i...

This week’s parashah /portion is Terumah ( Shemot /Exodus 25:1-27:18).   The word terumah is usually translated as a gift or offering.   It is specifically a gift to be used in the building of the mishkan , the portable sanctuary the people will take with them during their 40 years of wandering. The parashah begins with God saying to Moses:   “Speak unto the Israelites, telling them to take for me terumah ; from each person whose heart stirs them shall you take my terumah ……they shall make a sanctuary for Me and I will dwell in their midst (Shemot 25:2,8). For centuries, these verses have begged the question: why does God, need a dwelling place?   The common response is some variation on “It isn’t God that needs a dwelling place.   It was the Israelites that needed some kind of physical representation of God’s presence.”    As Midrash Mekhilta states “the Sanctuary is not to be according to My [God’s] dimensions, but according to...

שיתו לבכם לחילה פסגו ארמנותיה למען תספרו לדור אחרון׃ Note well her fortified walls; pass through her palaces that you may tell of them to the next generation. In my commentary of verse 13, I discussed how we build walls as boundaries around heart and soul .   However, as I stated, we need to make these boundaries the right strength so that they protect us, but also allow others in.   This is all part of maintaining a balance and preventing the ego from taking control and alienating us. In verse 14, we are at first commanded, literally, to “place in our hearts” the city’s fortified walls.   An expression meaning to ‘note well’ or ‘pay attention,’ it reminds us that we can’t simply ignore the fortified walls that we have built around our own holy city and around our heart.   For if we do not acknowledge the existence of the walls, then that will allow the ego to continue building them unchecked.   This will eventually lead to a state when we are wa...

This week's parashah /portion is Mishpatim ( Shemot /Exodus 21:1 – 24:18). The parashah is the beginning of what is referred to as the "Book of the Covenant."   The contents of the parashah are instructions given to Moses by God while still on Mount Sinai; it is the first series of detailed laws to be given following the speaking of the Ten Commandments.   It includes laws on how to treat slaves and lists the penalties for various crimes. All of these laws are meant to provide a structure for the Israelite people. For this is a people that had only known slavery and now they must be taught the rules and regulations of a free society. Without these, they might assume that freedom was equivalent to anarchy and havoc would ensue (just think of the Golden Calf incident which takes place while Moses is still on Sinai receiving all of these laws). In reading these laws it has always fascinated me that the first law given is concerning how to treat a Hebrew ...