Parashat HaShavua - Terumah

Parashat Terumah and Sacred Space

In his book, The Sabbath, Rabbi Heschel passionately teaches that “Judaism is a religion of time aimed at the sanctification of time.” (The Sabbath, p 8)  He argues that “[w]e are all infatuated with the splendor of space, with the grandeur of the things of space.  Thing is a category that lies heavy on our minds, tyrannizing all our thoughts.” (The Sabbath, p 5)  Rabbi Heschel’s words cannot be denied; who among us is not burdened by our need and our desire for things?  How might our society, our country, our world, be more caring, more generous, more just, if we managed to shake off this weight?

Yet, this week’s parasha, Terumah, contains the direct instruction: 

"וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם” 

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.”  (Shemot 25:8)  

If the sanctification of time rather than space is primary, why does God give this command, and why is it followed by a litany of details explaining exactly how the mishkan (Tabernacle) is to be built?  Many of our commentators, including Rashi and midrash Tanchumah (Rabbi Heschel takes this position as well), argue that it was only after the sin of the golden calf that God gave Moshe this directive to build the mishkan.  In this view, the mishkan is at best a gift of reconciliation and at worst a compromise with human nature.  Either way, the sanctification of space remains secondary to the sanctification of time.

And yet - Covid.  We are less without our communal space.  Like many of the qualities that make us who we are as human beings, we can use our inclination toward the things of space to better ourselves and our world, or we can use it to destroy ourselves and our world, and everything in between.  The instruction to build the mishkan contains within it the guidance we need in order to use the mishkan for good.  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch reads the phrase “v’shachanti b’tocham/and I will dwell among them” as a direct response to the phrase “v’asu li mikdash/And let them make me a sanctuary.”  That is to say, when the people make the sanctuary then God will dwell in it.  Hirsch sees in this single sentence the essence of the brit (covenant) itself.  The term mikdash (holy place), in Hirsch’s words, “denotes the mission that we are to discharge for  God,” and the term mishkan (dwelling place) “expresses the fulfillment of the promise made to us by God in return for our discharging of that mission.”  Through mikdash we are to make ourselves holy; through mishkan, God blesses and protects us, “enabling both our outer and inner lives to flourish.”  In this reading, the mishkan was always intended to be a part of the lives of the people of Israel, golden calf or no golden calf.  The mishkan is just what it claims to be - the gift of God’s presence.  But it is not a gift given out of grace; rather, we earn it through our commitment to building and to sustaining it.

May we be granted the strength, the courage, and the wisdom to rebuild our sacred spaces, and to dwell in them in peace.  

אַחַ֤ת שָׁאַ֣לְתִּי מֵֽאֵת־יְהֹוָה֮ אוֹתָהּ אֲבַ֫קֵּ֥שׁ 
שִׁבְתִּ֣י בְּבֵית־יְ֭הֹוָה כּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיַּ֑י 
לַחֲז֥וֹת בְּנֹעַם־יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה וּלְבַקֵּ֥ר בְּהֵֽיכָלֽוֹ׃ 

One thing I ask of the LORD, only that do I seek: 
to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, 
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, to frequent the LORD’s temple.
(Psalms 27:4) 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Miriam Greenblatt 
High School Learning Specialist & Limudei Qodesh Teacher