Terumah
Summary of the Parashah
At the end of the reading last week, God had just told Moses to come to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, to receive Gods Commandments. Moses went up the mountain, and a cloud covers it, hiding the mountain completely. On this mountain, within the presence of the Lord, Moses remained for forty days and nights.
God first instructed Moses to tell all Israelites whose heart so moved them to bring gifts of gold, silver, copper, coloured yarns, fine linen, goats hair, tanned ram skins, acacia wood, oil, spices, lapis lazuli, and other fine stones to make a sanctuary the Tabernacle (Mishkan) and its furnishings, so that God could dwell among them.
God instructed him to make the Ark of the Covenant from acacia wood overlaid with gold. The Ark must be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Above it were to be two cherubim of gold placed on the arks cover or mercy seat, and God would speak to Moses from between these two cherubim. Into the Ark would be the two tablets of Testimony which God would give to Moses. God instructed Moses to make a table of acacia wood overlaid with gold, on which to set the bread of display or showbread. The table would have bowls, ladles, jars and jugs made of pure gold.
Next came the instruction to make a special lamp stand menorah of pure gold. It would look like six almond-blossom type branches and have seven lamps to give light.
The Tabernacle was to be made of ten strips of fine twisted linen, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, with a design of cherubim worked into them. It was to have 11 cloths of goats hair for a tent over the Tabernacle, and coverings of tanned ram skins and tachash skins. Planks of acacia wood were to be used for the Tabernacle, fitted with silver rings and copper stakes. There was to be a curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen, with a design of cherubim, to serve as a partition obscuring the Holy of Holies. The Ark, the table, and the lamp stand were to be placed in the Tabernacle. There was to be a screen for the entrance of the Tent, of coloured yarns, and fine twisted linen, done in embroidery and supported by five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. An altar was to be made, of acacia wood overlaid with copper. And the enclosure of the Tabernacle was to be from fine twisted linen.
Dvar Torah
Dabeir el bnei Yisrael vayikhu li teruma. Meeit kol ish asher yidvennu libo, tikhu et terumati. .... vaasu li mikdash vshachanti betocham. And God spoke to Moses, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering; of everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take My offering.... And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
With this sidra we embark upon no fewer than thirteen weeks' worth of Torah portions detailing how the Mishkan, the tabernacle, was meant to be built. One might contrast this to the narrative about the creation of the world which takes two chapters to tell two stories, or the narrative about Sinai and the revelation of Torah which takes three chapters in total.
So why is Torah focussing so narrowly and for so long? The answer can I think be found in the key word Terumah is usually translated as an offering, it is made clear that this is an offering freely given by whoever is moved to give. There is none of the hard sell we are used to in appeals, none of the slightly guilt tinged writing of cheques or pledge cards. This is an offering motivated only by the desire to give. The word terumah is translated as a free will offering but its literal meaning is something that is uplifted, elevated to a higher status. What is happening here is the moment when human beings choose to do something extraordinary of their own free will; they are uplifted in some profound way, not because they are giving but they are giving because they are in some way transcending their base selves.
What is it that causes this shift in the soul, this essential expansion in the awareness of the person? Coming immediately after the debacle of the golden calf, when people gave their gold and jewels in order to make for themselves an idol to worship it must surely be some deep recognition that however much we make for ourselves external props and supports in order to buttress our fragile existence, true strength comes from within us. Gods words in verse 8 vaasu li mikdash vshachanti betocham is a clue let them make for me a sacred space and I will dwell within them.
Once the people truly understand that the space they make within themselves by stopping all their frantic activity and verbal whirlwind and just letting themselves breathe and be once they see that that that space is effectively a mikdash, a sanctuary that is within themselves, then it quickly becomes apparent that the resources they need to support themselves are all there, all available and accessible. Call it God, call it by any other name, once we stop and let ourselves simply be, once we make the time and space to simply notice what our heart and mind truly wants, when we stop trying to fill the space around us and within us with busy-ness and activity then we ourselves are raised above the mundane. We become Terumah uplifted; and we offer Terumah the gift of who we are is a gift both to God and to ourselves.
Where does God dwell? This portion reminds us of the response of the Kotsker Rebbe Menachem Mendel. God dwells wherever we let God in.
As we begin the long and extraordinarily detailed description of the building of the sanctuary in the desert, we may reflect on why Torah spends so many weeks on the particular descriptions and the minutiae. It takes a long time to create such a sacred space, yet consider the mikdash which we ourselves can create without the gold or the silver, the purple or scarlet. The mikdash which we create within ourselves comes from our taking time out of our constant activity. And when we create that space within ourselves, we may find it filled with the Terumah the willing heart, the presence of God, the strength and support that dwells within ourselves, if only we would reach for it.
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild 2010