D’var Torah – Parashat Terumah 5765 February

11, 2005
3 Adar Alef 5765

by Rabbi Maurice Harris

Possible focal points of the dvar:

• Terumah – root = resh-vav-mem, to lift up. (R’ . S. R. Hirsch) Rashi states that
this is a separation of a portion of one’s resources to be set aside.
• Ex. 25: 8 “Let them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among (within)
them.” -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each person is to build
God a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. – Rabbi Meir Leibush ben
Yechiel Michel, 19th century biblical commentator. (from Plaut)
• Haftarah Terumah – 1 Kings 5:26 – 6:13. Solomon’s construction of the Temple.
o M. Middot 3:4 – “Iron was created to shorten man’s days, while the altar
was created to lengthen his days. What shortens life should not be listed
as a tool to build what lengthen’s life.” This is probably responding to one
of the last verses of Parashat Yitro – and it may come into play in the
Haftarah as well, which mentions that only finished stones were used in
the building of the Temple, so that the sound of hammers, axes, or any
iron tool was heard.
o Plenty of midrash about the life of King Solomon, if you want to go there.
Outline of dvar:

1. Introduce where we are in the Big Torah picture w/Parashat Terumah:

a. We’re out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and Moshe has ascended Mt.
Sinai and the people have heard the 10 commandments, and now Moses is
receiving more of the laws and instructions that comprise the Torah.
b. Last week’s parashah included many laws we would regard as civil laws –
though they’re not limit to that category alone.
c. This week, with Parashat Terumah, God begins to spell out for Moses the
specific instructions for the building of the Mishkan – the Tabernacle.
“God commands that donations be taken from the Israelites for the
building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle).” – reword – this is`a`quote
i. In the parashah Moses receives the detailed instructions for the
construction of:
1. The Aron – the Ark – and its cover.
2. The table for the show bread.
3. The Menorah.
4. Cloth and animal skin curtains or internal walls.
5. Wooden planks and bars to form walls.
6. The parochet – a partition at the entrance of the Holy of
Holies.
7. The altar.
8. Linen curtains to define the perimeter of the Courtyard.

2. Ex. 25: 8 “Let them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among (within)
them.” -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each person is to build
God a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. – Rabbi Meir Leibush
ben Yechiel Michel, 19th century biblical commentator. (from Plaut)

a. If we want to run with the Malbim’s idea, we can go as far as the notion
that the whole sanctuary, the whole space itself, is almost besides the
point. The point is to build something that will help us to create a space
within ourselves. You could make the argument that the physical mishkan
itself means nothing – it is just a temporary structure, the physical result of
a group project that can easily run the risk of being worshipped as an
object of beauty in itself. You can, if you want, go with this idea to the
place of thinking that the very structure that the Torah describes with such
detail and care – over the next three parashas! – is ultimately, entirely
besides the point.
i. Exploring this idea – what does Rambam say about the point of the
mishkan?
1. example - "Change was very difficult for the Jewish
people. Therefore, God gave them animal sacrifices
 because that is the type of service they were used to, not
because it was the best type. God wanted to turn their
sacrificial service of idols to the service of the One God."
-Maimonides--Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon of Fez (formerly
of Cordoba), 11th century (Guide to the Perplexed 3:32)
2. example – “The Rambam argues that the Mishkan and its
sacrifices (as well as the Temple in Jerusalem, its successor
after we had settled in Israel) were necessary stages in the
spiritual maturation of the Jewish people. At first, we
could not tolerate what was too different from what we
knew as religion: That is, if all the other gods were
worshiped with sacrifices in fine temples, then until we
were fully educated about the uniqueness of our God, we,
too, had to be permitted to have a similar set of rituals.” –
Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein

b. The means may be more important than the ends in building the mishkan.
Perhaps the greatest proof that the means employed to build the mishkan
were more important than the ends is that the mishkan was designed to be
a temporary structure from the get go. It was understood from the
beginning that it would be discarded once its usefulness had ended. Once
the people would reach the Promised Land, they would enter a new era in
their communal spiritual life, and they would need to build an entirely new
structure. The mishkan, which the Torah lavishes tremendous attention
on, was a temporary project. The cultivation of an inner space for the
Divine, however, has been a constant yearning of Judaism throughout the
ages. If this theory is right, then the values that were included in the
process of building the mishkan were the enduring elements of the
structure – not the gold, silver, and copper, but the values the people
learned and practiced in cooperating to create the structure. So, what
were the values that characterized the means of building the mishkan?
i. Collaboration by the entire community. (give example)
ii. Honest methods of accounting for uses of resources. (cite example)
iii. Non-violence.
1. M. Middot 3:4 – “Iron was created to shorten man’s days,
while the altar was created to lengthen his days. What
shortens life should not be listed as a tool to build what
lengthen’s life.” (Connect to haftarah, as well.)

SEGUE: We’ve considered that the values that characterized the means the people used
to build the mishkan were the most enduring elements of the project, and we’ve
considered the Malbim’s interpretation of the verse, “Let them make me a sanctuary, so
that I may dwell within them.” -- in them, the people, not in it, the sanctuary. Each
person is to build God a Tabernacle in his own heart for God to dwell in. From this we
could stop and once again learn the valuable lesson that each of us, as individuals, has the
potential to develop an inner space that can be a healthy vessel for the Divine energy.

But, as you’ve heard many people say from this bimah before, Judaism is not just an
individual path of self-improvement. Judaism is a group sport. Often a messy,
entangled, argumentative, confused, opinionated group sport, but a group sport
nonetheless. Judaism likes to ask the question, “How does the community do the right
thing?” How does the community build its structures in a way that helps manifest justice
and truth, two pillars of the universal sanctuary of the Divine? And, with it’s hopeful
look towards a future in which the world finally finds its tragi-comic way to redemption,
Judaism also dares to ask, “How does the entire human race create a world that is, itself,
one large sanctuary for the divine presence?” Fortunately, Jews are not alone in asking
that question, and I’d like to, with my final thoughts, turn to the thoughts of someone we
talked a lot about last month, but whose writing has remained in my thoughts all through
this month, Dr. MLK. If the Malbim asks us to take the lesson of the mishkan and look
inward, to the inner mishkan each of us can build within, Dr. King asked us to look as far
outward as our entire world, daring to imagine and describe how we might work to build
planet Earth into a global mishkan, a global dwelling place for the Divine.

3. Building a World that is a Sanctuary for God to dwell in - what would that
look like?
a. MLK’s World House essay. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or
Community?, published in 1967.
i. “Some years ago a famous novelist died. Among his papers was
found a list of suggested plots for future stories, the most
prominently underscored being this one: “A widely separated
family inherits a house in which they have to live together.” This is
the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large
house, a great “world house” in which we have to live together—
black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew,
Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu—a family unduly
separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never
again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in
peace. …
ii. All inhabitants of the globe are now neighbors. This world-wide
neighborhood has been brought into being as a result of the
modern scientific and technological revolutions. The world of
today is vastly different from the world of just one hundred years
ago. …
iii. Human beings, searching a century ago as now for better
understanding, had no television, no radios, no telephones and no
motion pictures through which to communicate. Medical science
had not yet discovered the wonder drugs to end many dread
plagues and diseases. One hundred years ago military men had not
yet developed the terrifying weapons of warfare that we know
 today—not the bomber, an airborne fortress raining down death;
nor napalm, that burner of all things and flesh in its path. A century
ago there were no sky-scraping buildings to kiss the stars and no
gargantuan bridges to span the waters. Science had not yet peered
into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space, nor had it
penetrated oceanic depths. All these new inventions, these new
ideas, these sometimes fascinating and sometimes frightening
developments, came later. Most of them have come within the past
sixty years, sometimes with agonizing slowness, more
characteristically with bewildering speed, but always with
enormous significance for our future.
iv. The years ahead will see a continuation of the same dramatic
developments. … All this is a dazzling picture of the furniture,
the workshop, the spacious rooms, the new decorations and the
architectural pattern of the large world house in which we are
living.”
b. “In “The World House,” Dr. King calls us to: 1) transcend tribe, race,
class, nation, and religion to embrace the vision of a World House; 2)
eradicate at home and globally the Triple Evils of racism, poverty, and
militarism; 3) curb excessive materialism and shift from a “thing”-oriented
society to a “people”-oriented society; and 4) resist social injustice and
resolve conflicts in the spirit of love embodied in the philosophy and
methods of nonviolence. He advocates a Marshall Plan to eradicate global
poverty, a living wage, and a guaranteed minimum annual income for
every American family. He urges the United Nations to experiment with
the use of nonviolent direct action in international conflicts. The final
paragraph warns of the “fierce urgency of now” and cautions that this may
be the last chance to choose between chaos and community.” – THIS
PARAGRAPH WRITTEN BY THE F.O.R. WEBSITE AUTHOR.

4. Conclusion.

SHALL I USE THIS TIDBIT?

Putting the Mishkan of the Torah in perspective – a modest, portable sanctuary compared
to the great temples of the ancient world. Oh, plenty of finery and lavish detail, an
aesthetic marvel of its own, no doubt. But by way of comparison, consider the Egyptian
pyramid at ____________. It was built as the home, the spiritual dwelling place, of
_____________. _______________ stones, each weighing _______________ were used
to make it. At ______________ feet tall, it remained the tallest building in the world
until ____________.
SIDE THING:

“This debate may shed some light upon the halachic approaches of the aforementioned
Rishonim as well. In his Sefer Hamitzvot, mitzva 20, the Rambam essentially reduces all
the details related to constructing the Temple to one mitzvah- "to construct a house for
worship, in which can take place the sacrifices and the gatherings each year". What
matters most is not the size and form of the architecture and utensils within, rather that
the space allows for the fulfillment of all the commandments that need to take place
within its walls. On the other hand, the Ramban reads symbolic significance into each
detail related to the Mishkan, and in this approach he is followed by many texts, from the
Zohar to the Ramhal, who has an entire book, Mishkenei Elyon, which attempts to
demonstrate how every detail related to the Mishkan and Temple is illustrative of the way
in which Gd’s hanhaga, the Divine Plan, is manifested in the universe.” -- Mark H.
Kirschbaum, M.D