Meyer Shwarzstein

Shabbat Terumah – Meyer Shwarzstein - February 9, 2008

At Arie Crown Jewish Day School they start teaching boys Gemara in the 5^th grade. The book is quite large - perfect for hiding a copy of The Fantastic Four, which I’d tuck away while in my seat at the very back of the room. We’d get thru about a daf, a page, in a month, and I doodled, read my comic book and listened when I was concerned I’d be called on to read or answer a question.

When I was growing up, I was annoyed about all of my religion’s don’ts. I don’t mean the basics like “don’t kill”, “don’t steal,” or even “don’t eat milk with meat” but I’m talking about the kind on Shabbat. Not only was I not allowed to use a pencil, but I wasn’t allowed to even touch one on Shabbat – clearly, someone didn’t trust me.

As I got older, I wanted to drive on Shabbat – another “don’t”. As my daughter told me when she was a teenager, being able to drive means (and she spelled it out for me) F. R. E. E. D. O. M. I felt the same way. I had made friends who were less observant and I started to feel trapped inside the house. These friends egged me on to bend a little. Finally, I started to bend Jewish laws…and, as I got older, I started breaking them.

In a number of ways, I was still different then most people, but it was getting harder to tell. Like so many things in my life, I put off figuring out what my religion meant to me until later. It wasn’t until I had children that I was forced to face my religion again – I had to figure out what I was going to teach them. I had to figure out how I wanted to practice and why so I started looking at synagogues and I started to read and learn. It was then that a process was started. I started to look at everything differently – and every year, I learn new things about myself, my Judaism and my relationship to it. I discover new things in the Torah while reading the same parshiot year after year.

Here we are at Terumah. By now, the Children of Israel have been at Mt. Sinai for some time. We’ve accepted and received the 10 commandments, a series of other laws, and God has written the tablets. He invites Moshe up to the top of the mountain but Moshe must wait 7 days for God’s presence to peek out from among the clouds atop the mountain. It is here, in our parsha, that Moshe’s 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai begins.

And what is the first thing we hear God talk about? The laws regarding the building of the Mishkon, or Tabernacle. When he finishes, he repeats the laws of Shabbat and gives Moshe the two tablets of testimony, “tablets of stone written with the Finger of God”.

The laws of the Mishkon involve clothing, food and shelter – a tent for God. Clothing, food and shelter are essential for man, but these are three things God doesn’t need.

MISHKON & SINAI

The Ramban notes a connection between the Mishkon and the revelation at Mt. Sinai. In Rabbi Joshua Berman’s terrific book about the Temple, he compares the language used at Mt. Sinai and in relation to the Mishkon.

Mt. Sinai

The Mishkon

Moshe went up to the Mount and the cloud covered the Mount

The presence of God dwelled on Mt. Sinai

And the cloud covered if for six days

He called to Moshe on the seventh day from amid the cloud

…and the appearance of the Glory of God was that of a consuming fire upon the Mount

beheld by the Children of Israel

Moshe went into the cloud and ascended the Mount

The cloud covered the tent of meeting

The presence of God filled the Mishkon

Moshe could not come to the tent of meeting for the cloud dwelled on it

He called to Moshe…and God spoke to him from the tent of meeting.

The glory of God appeared to the entire nation. Fire went out form before God and consumed up the altar.

And the nation beheld and rejoiced

Moshe and Aaron came into the tent of meeting

We could also imagine that the incense recreates the sense of a cloud. The menorah recreated the image of the consuming flame. Also, the people could not look at God, nor were they allowed behind the curtain near the ark. Of course, the most important connection between Mt. Sinai and the Mishkon are the tablets themselves.

We made an agreement with God, we pledged our allegiance to Him and, in return, we received the tablets – from a legal standpoint, there’s consideration on both sides. The tablets are called a testimony – the standing evidence of the event. The Mishkon and its elements are a continued reminder of the covenant we made with God at Mt. Sinai.

MISHKAN & CREATION

The Mishkon may also be a reminder of creation itself. Rabbi Berman illustrates the language used in the Torah when God complete creation and Moshe finished building the Mishkon:

Creation	Mishkon
And God saw all that he made and behold it was very good (1:31) The heavens and the earth and all of their array were completed. (2:1) And God completed al the work that He had done. (2:2) And God blessed… (2:3)	Moses saw all of the skilled work and behold they had done it; as God had commanded it they had done it (39:43) All the work of the Tabernacle of the Tent of meeting was completed. (39:32) And Moses completed the work… (40:33) And Moses blessed… (39:43)

There is another connection between creation and the Mishkon. The description of each ends with the law of Shabbat. Why is it necessary to repeat the laws of Shabbat after the Mishkon is completed? Because even if we are involved in work that we think is the most important – and what, from a Biblical perspective could be more important that building the Mishkon? – we must stop that work for Shabbat. And what is “that” work? Anything having to do with building the Mishkon -

The Gemara lists the primary activities that were involved in building the Mishkon and thus are not allowed on Shabbat --

Work having to do with baking bread:

SOWING,(12) PLOUGHING, REAPING, BINDING SHEAVES, THRESHING,

WINNOWING, SELECTING, GRINDING, SIFTING, KNEADING, BAKING

Work having to do with making clothing:

SHEARING WOOL, BLEACHING, HACKLING, DYEING, SPINNING, STRETCHING

THE THREADS, THE MAKING OF TWO MESHES, WEAVING TWO THREADS,

DIVIDING TWO THREADS, TYING [KNOTTING] AND UNTYING, SEWING

TWO STITCHES, TEARING IN ORDER TO SEW TWO STITCHES,

Work having to do with the preparation of hides:

CAPTURING A DEER, SLAUGHTERING, OR FLAYING, OR SALTING IT, CURING ITS

HIDE, SCRAPING IT [OF ITS HAIR], CUTTING IT UP

Other work:

WRITING TWO LETTERS – writing is prohibited because each part of the Mishkon was marked with a letter on its edge to allow them to be matched up when it was reassembled – A to A, B to B; ERASING IN ORDER TO WRITE TWO LETTERS [OVER THE ERASURE], BUILDING, PULLING DOWN, EXTINGUISHING, KINDLING, STRIKING WITH A HAMMER,(18) [AND] CARRYING OUT FROM ONE DOMAIN TO ANOTHER

THESE ARE THE PRIMARY LABORS – the avot – many other laws are derivative from these.

These labors all involve the making of clothing, food and shelter. So, by telling us to build the Mishkon and then telling us to stop that activity for Shabbat, God is teaching us that we must not do work that’s involved even in making our basic necessities on Shabbat. A clear separation of this day is made from the rest of the week.

I’m now grateful for these laws. I have continued pressure to provide. I have a daughter in college and another who’s looking for a job and, if I wasn’t commanded not to, I’d feel obligated to work on Shabbat to take care of my family. But taking care of family isn’t just about supporting them, it’s also about being there. Some of my best family moments have been during Shabbat.

I now look upon these mitzvot as a fence around time defined by the pattern of my own behavior. Every time I see a pencil, I remember Shabbat. Every time I look at the stove, I remember Shabbat. Every time I look at a light switch, I remember Shabbat.

The Mishkon was the moving evidence of Mt. Sinai. It’s now gone, but in its place stands Shabbat. In addition to the “don’ts” there are a number of “do’s” - activities we do on Shabbat that recall the Mishkon and the temple – the loaves of bread, the special clothing, the salt we put on our bread like that which was put on the sacrifices, the cover on the bread separating it until its appointed time, the lighting of the candles.

The Mishkon was also a standing reminder of creation. In the Mishkon, behind the gold curtains, menorah and other gilded furnishings is an ark. While covered with gold, it’s a fragile, simple wood box that holds stone tablets. Eidut - Evidence of a contract. God’s words. Stones in a box – two of which are broken.

How might these tablets be a reminder of creation and what’s their connection to Shabbat?

In addition to the laws, which can be broken, I see the tablets themselves as fragile stones. As the Earth is the core to all of creation, so the stones are the core of the Mishkon. The stone may appears hardy but it is easy to break. The earth also appears indestructible, but we know it to be fragile. And both include a signature written with the Finger of God.

Shabbat is not only a day when we don’t create, but is also a day when we don’t destroy. Imagine if the entire world shut down all of our non-life-saving machinery for one day. How much energy would we save? I always thought of myself as an environmentalist but I now see the value in celebrating Shabbat as a weekly Earth Day. Perhaps it was always intended to be so.

Clothing, food and shelter.

We all spend our weeks working to leave our mark on the world. I try to spend one day making my footprint as light as possible – leaving little evidence of my having been here so I can leave more of what I found when I arrived.

Don’t worry, I fail every week. For instance, I’ve convinced myself I have to take a hot shower for health reasons. But, when I look at a pencil; I no longer see the “don’ts.” I see it as a do – to protect our world and to embrace our history.

Rabbi Berman notes that there is not a single commandment in the Torah instructing us to commemorate the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. We don’t know the date or the place where it happened. The revelation happened “on this day.” He suggests that the implicit message is that this is not an historically bound event – every generation must feel that God’s words at Sinai are spoken to them.

Shabbat gives us a time to listen, to learn, to celebrate, to commemorate and perhaps even to save our planet one day a week.

Shabbat shalom.