Thoughts on Parashat Terumah (5780/2020)
(Exodus 25:1 – 27:19)
[Note: I gave this dvar torah two years ago, when this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Terumah, came around. As can be seen, these were the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It feels so weird to re-read this two years later when so much has changed but so much yet remains to be done.]
This week’s torah portion, Terumah, is the first of several that present the detailed instructions for building and equipping the Mishkan. The word “mishkan” (from the same root as Shechinah) means “dwelling place.”
The Torah is speaking here of a portable sanctuary that the Israelites were commanded to transport with them during the decades of wandering in the wilderness. Tradition sees the mishkan as the precursor of the Temple that would be built centuries later in Jerusalem under the reign of King Solomon. In this way it is also a precursor of the Temples of our day – including this building in which we are gathered right now.
On a surface level, this may seem like really dry stuff. Just a slew of intricate details about the building process of this structure and of its furnishings: This week’s Torah portion Terumah (and continuing in next week’s Torah portion Tetzaveh) sets forth God’s instructions to Moses. Later in the book of Exodus, in Parashat Vayakhel, Moses painstakingly repeats those instructions to the people. And after that, all of these minute details get repeated yet again as the text recounts the actual carrying out of these instructions by the people.
When we read all the details about the making of the ark, and of the fashioning of the ark cover, with the figures of cherubim hammered out atop it from a single piece of gold. And when we read about the golden menorah with its component sections that evoke the symbolism of trees and flowers. And the fancy bowls, ladels, jars and jugs; and the table for the shew bread, and so on and so on…
It’s easy to get bogged down in the material descriptions and lose sight of the spiritual purpose.
But the Torah reminds us that holiness is not about material goods, it’s about human connections.
In what is probably the most well-known verse of our parasha, Exodus 25:8, God declares:
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ; וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
("v'asu li mikdash v'shachanti betocham")
“They shall make for me a sanctuary and I shall dwell within them.”
Not, as we might expect – ”btocho”/ within it (i.e. within the fancy sanctuary with its fancy accoutrements), but rather “btocham” -- within or among them. The actions of the people in building the mishkan and fabricating its contents bring them together in holy community. Although God is everywhere, the community building project helps the people to be better able to experience God’s presence.
Bottom line: It’s nice to have an aesthetically beautiful building, but what it’s really all about is having a setting in which we can experience God’s presence through our interactions with one another.
And yet, even as we gather here tonight, trying to experience that sense of God’s presence by virtue if being together in the same space at the same time – we are conscious of the fact that in China, Japan and elsewhere gatherings are being cancelled, and thousands of individuals are being quarantined. All because of a pandemic disease -- COVID-19 --- the new corona virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, and which is rapidly spreading around the world.
The New York Times reports that as of today, the coronavirus outbreak has sickened more than 83,800 people, according to official counts and that at least 2,866 people have died, all but 78 in mainland China.
And we are told that the situation may get significantly worse in the coming weeks in places like the United States that have so far been largely spared. As Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said in a news briefing earlier this week:
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen.” According to the New York Times, Dr. Messonier further stated that “cities and towns should plan for ‘social distancing measures,’ like dividing school classes into smaller groups of students or closing schools altogether. Meetings and conferences may have to be canceled, and businesses should arrange for employees to work from home.” That quote doesn’t mention cancelling religious services, but one could easily imagine this if the situation were to become extreme in Duluth.
However, so far, it’s best just not to panic but just to be vigilant. As one apt meme making the rounds on the internet advises: “Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands.”
Morbidity rates from COVID-19 are quite low, and, so far, anyway, most people who do catch the disease have mild symptoms and recover fully in a couple of weeks.
And on an especially optimistic note, news out of Israel is that scientists there claim to be only weeks away from developing a vaccine.[1]
Of course, I am no public health specialist. I just want to emphasize the message of being conscientious and not panicking.
And, indeed, a key debate among the traditional commentators on this week’s Torah portion reinforces that message.
How so?
Well, that debate involves the question of chronology in the Torah. Some commentators, like Nachmanides, say that in general we should assume that Torah stories took place in the order in which they are set forth. But others, like Rashi emphasize the idea that : אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה / “eyn mukdam u’me’uchar batorah” / “there is no before or after in the Torah.” --- that the text is not necessarily set out in chronological order.
What does that have to do with Parashat Terumah or with the new Corona virus?:
As I mentioned above, this week’s Torah portion Terumah (and continuing in next week’s Torah portion Tetzaveh) sets forth God’s instructions to Moses on building the mishkan or tabernacle.
Later in the book of Exodus, in Parashat Vayakhel, Moses conveys those instructions to the people and the people carry them out as they build the mishkan.
But in between God’s instructions to Moses in Exodus chapter 25 and Moses’s instructions to the people in Exodus chapters 35 – some dramatic stuff happens!
Most prominently, the incident of the Golden Calf when the people rebel against God by building a Golden calf as an idol --- which enrages God and leads to a deadly plague.
Only after all of that takes place, does the Torah continue the story of the Mishkan with Moses relaying the directions to the people that God had given to him.
Rashi, echoing many of the classic rabbinic midrashim that preceded him, argues that this week’s Torah portion is inserted into the Torah out of chronological order. That God’s instructions to Moses to build the mishkan chronologically came after the incident of the Golden Calf. That the Mishkan project was a project through which the people could be healed after the trauma of the Golden Calf and the plague that had ensued in its aftermath.
In the words of the rabbinic midrash Tanchuma –
אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: יָבֹא זָהָב שֶׁבַּמִּשְׁכָּן וִיכַפֵּר עַל זָהָב שֶׁנַּעֲשָׂה בּוֹ אֶת הָעֵגֶל,
The Holy Blessed One said: “Let the gold used for the Mishkan atone for the gold that was used in making the calf,” (Tanchuma, Terumah 8)
And why was this placed out of chronological order? Because, as we learn in Tractate Megillah of the Talmud,
דאמר ר"ל אין הקב"ה מכה את ישראל אא"כ בורא להם רפואה תחילה
Reish Lakish said: The Holy Blessed One does not inflict the Jewish people until having first created their cure. (Megillah 13b)
In other words, before describing the sickness resulting from the Golden Calf incident we needed to be encouraged in our faith by first hearing about the Mishkan project that would symbolize healing and the continued divine presence in our midst.
And so, taking these teachings to heart, as we “Keep Calm and Carry On,” and as we wash our hands, and sneeze into our elbows, and, if necessary, stay home if we are sick, and do whatever needs to be done until this current pandemic has abated ----
Let’s also keep the faith that God doesn’t create the sickness without first creating the cure --- or, to put it more naturalistically – before first creating a world in which doctors, scientists and others will have the ability to do God’s work by finding that cure.
I’ll close with words composed by my colleague Rabbi Leila Gal Berner that can be found in the Kol Haneshama siddur that we use here at Temple Israel on Shabbat mornings:
May the One who blesses all Life, bless and heal
these people who struggle against illness.
May those afflicted with disease be blessed with
faith, courage, loving and caring. May they know
much support and sustenance from their friends,
their loving companions and their communities.
May they be granted a full and
complete healing of body and soul.
May those who seek ways of healing through
increased medical knowledge and those who care for
the sick daily be blessed with courage,
stamina and communal support.
May all, the sick and the well together be granted
Courage and hope. And let us say: Amen.[2]
Shabbat shalom.
(c) Rabbi David Steinberg (2020, edited for publication 2022)
[1] https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-vaccine-weeks-away-being-developed-says-head-israeli-science-research-institute-1489694
[2] Kol Haneshama: Shabbat Vehagim (Reconstructionist Press, 1994), p. 686
