Torah Weekly -- Terumah

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From: Ohr Somayach <ohr@ohr.edu>
To: weekly@ohr.edu
Subject: Torah Weekly -- Terumah

* TORAH WEEKLY *
Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion
Parshat Terumah =FB Shabbat Zachor
For the week ending 8 Adar 5761 / March 2 & 3, 2001

OVERVIEW

Hashem commands Moshe to build a Mishkan (Sanctuary) and supplies him with detailed instructions. Bnei Yisrael are asked to contribute precious metals and stones, fabrics, skins, oil and spices. In the Mishkan's outer courtyard is an altar for the burnt offerings and a=

laver for washing. The Tent of Meeting is divided by a curtain into two chambers. The outer chamber is accessible only to the kohanim, the descendants of Aharon. This contains the table of showbreads, the menorah, and the golden altar for incense. The innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies, may be entered only by the kohen gadol, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur. Here is the ark that held the Ten Commandments inscribed on the two tablets of stone which Hashem gave to the Jewish nation on Mount Sinai. All of the utensils and vessels, as well as the construction of the Mishkan, are described in great detail.

INSIGHTS

ON THE ROAD

"Remember what Amalek did to you, on the road when you were leaving Egypt..." (Devarim 25:17-18)

Learning Modern Hebrew is a daunting task for many a new immigrant, but there is one Hebrew phrase that can be picked up as soon as you get off the plane. It requires no glottal stops or verbal contortions. In fact you don't even have to use your mouth or your lips to form this expression at all -- because you say it with your fingertips.

Israeli sign-language for "Rega!" ("Wait!") consists of lightly clasping the upward-pointing fingertips together with the thumb and pulling the hand downward a little. This is repeated several times. It helps to communicate your insistence that the other party wait if you also angle your chin down and look at him through narrowed, upturned eyes.

We live in an impatient world.

This Shabbat is a special Shabbat, Shabbat Zachor. Zachor means remember. Shabbat Zachor is about remembering something which strikes at the very center of our existence, at our fundamental view of the world.

"Remember what Amalek did to you, on the road when you were leaving Egypt..."

When the Jewish People were leaving Egypt, there was a nation who came out and attacked them. That nation knew of all the miracles that G-d had done for the Jewish People in Egypt but it didn't faze them. They still attacked. Their name is Amalek. They are the incarnation of atheism in the world. They are the scoffer who says nothing is important. Nothing is real. There is no law. No Judge. No judgment. Nothing. The world stood in awe as the sea divided for the Jewish People. But Amalek merely smirks. One good sneer can banish a million miracles.

Amalek attacked the Jewish People when they were "on the road." What is the significance of the road? A road connects. There is no road in the world which leads nowhere. Every road connects here with there. Amalek waits in ambush beside the road from the head to the heart. Deep inside every Jew there is a primordial sense-memory of standing at Sinai. We are believers who are the children of believers. Why is it then, that so many of us feel so far from G-d? Why is it that so many of us wonder if there is a G-d? Enter the clown. Amalek stops that sense-memory on the highway from the head to the heart. His very name spells out his mission. The gematria (numerical equivalent) of Amalek is 240. The gematria of safek -- "doubt" -- is also 240. Amalek is the power of doubt in the world that tries to sever the Jewish heart from its Source.

But there's another road on which Amalek awaits in ambush. A road symbolizes purpose. And where there is purpose, there is hope. This world is a road, sometimes a dark and lonely road, but it leads to a great palace of light. Amalek says there is no road. There are only moments. There is only this moment.

In the United States, psychologists have identified a frightening new phenomenon they call road rage. Road rage is when someone is driving too slowly in front of the Road Rager. So he puts his foot on the gas, overtakes the "rage-ee" and deliberately tries to kill the person who's driving too slowly, either by forcing him over the side of a precipice, or if there's no convenient precipice, he'll make the innocent victim pull off the road, take out a gun and pump him full of bullets.

We live in a world where impatience has reached homicidal proportions. Why? Because there is nothing more than the moment. That is my life. If you steal this moment, you are stealing my life; in other words -- you are killing me. Therefore you deserve to die.

Bilaam prophesied (Bamidbar 24:20) "Reishit goyim Amalek" -- "Amalek is the first among nations." If you take the first letters of each of these three words, "reish," "gimmel" and "ayin," they spell rega -- which means "moment." Amalek's message is that the moment, the rega, is all there is. All I have is the moment. Quick! I must cram my life with moments. For there is nothing else. There is no purpose. No road. No destination. Just the moment. And then extinction.

On this Shabbat, Shabbat Zachor, the Torah gives the Jewish People a mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us during the Exodus and to eradicate the name of Amalek. Why is it that we fulfill this mitzvah specifically on Shabbat?

Shabbat is referred to as "last in action; in thought, the first." When G-d created the world, His ultimate purpose was Shabbat. Shabbat shows us that this world is not just a machine which runs for no purpose other than to continue running. Shabbat is the most distant whisper of a world beyond. A world where we harvest everything we have sown in this world. Shabbat is the ultimate expression of purpose. It stands in ultimate opposition to a world which is obsessed by the moment.

Written and compiled by Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

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From: Ohr Somayach <ohr@ohr.edu>
To: weekly@ohr.edu
Subject: Torah Weekly - Tetzaveh

* TORAH WEEKLY *
Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion
Parshat Tetzaveh
For the week ending 15 Adar 5761 / March 9 & 10, 2001

OVERVIEW

Hashem tells Moshe to command the Jewish People to supply pure olive oil for the menorah in the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). He also tells Moshe to organize the making of the bigdei kehuna (priestly garments): A breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, a sash, a forehead-plate, and linen trousers. Upon their completion, Moshe is to perform a ceremony for seven days to consecrate Aharon and his sons. This includes offering sacrifices, dressing Aharon and his sons in their respective garments, and anointing Aharon with oil. Hashem commands that every morning and afternoon a sheep be offered on the altar in the Mishkan. This offering should be accompanied by a meal-offering and libations of wine and oil. Hashem commands that an altar for incense be built from acacia wood and covered with gold. Aharon and his descendants should burn incense on this altar every day. Hashem tells Moshe to command the Jewish People to supply pure olive oil for the menorah in the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). He also tells Moshe to organize the making of the bigdei kehuna (priestly garments): A breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, a sash, a forehead-plate, and linen trousers. Upon their completion, Moshe is to perform a ceremony for seven days to consecrate Aharon and his sons.
This includes offering sacrifices, dressing Aharon and his sons in their respective garments, and anointing Aharon with oil. Hashem commands that every morning and afternoon a sheep be offered on the altar in the Mishkan. This offering should be accompanied by a meal-offering and libations of wine and oil. Hashem commands that an altar for incense be built from acacia wood and covered with gold. Aharon and his descendants should burn incense on this altar every day.

INSIGHTS

BILLING

"And now, you shall command the Children of Israel..." (27:20)

It always amazes me how many people's names roll down at the end of a movie. There's the "third assistant grip..." "Poodle manicure services by..." "Beers chilled by...." A vast and determined army has come together to create two and a half hours of armchair illusion. And that's only the end titles. The opening titles are usually a showbiz lawyer's nightmare -- (or dream really when he has to bill his client). Who goes first? The Director? Or the Star? Is it "Seldon Shmendrick presents Rock Jaw" or should it be "Starring Rock Jaw in a Seldon Shmendrick production." What about the pecking order of the lesser actors? And then of course there are the TV trailers and the print ads. Have you ever seen so many names in so many typefaces in so many different point sizes grace a piece of printed material as the average Hollywood blockbuster poster?

If Hollywood is about anything, it's about prestige. Or as it's called in Hebrew kavod. Judaism sees honor-seeking as one of the things that "removes" a person from this world. It puts him into a non-real world where he becomes a legend in his own lunchtime. Kavod is something that a Jew runs a million miles from.

There's a fascinating section of the Talmud which describes a conversation between the Almighty and Yerovam ben Navat. Yerovam was a Jewish King, a great and brilliant scholar, who was ultimately responsible for turning the Jewish People to idol worship. It was he who caused the division of the twelve tribes into the Kingdoms of Yisrael (the ten tribes) and Yehuda (the two tribes). Those ten lost tribes, the vast majority of the Jewish People, are now vanished, invisible and lost as Jews. That was Yerovam.

What caused someone so great to fall so far? There's a fascinating character insight that the Talmud gives us in Sanhedrin (102a): "Rebbe Abba said -- the Holy One, Blessed is He, grabbed Yerovam by his garment and said to him 'Return to your former self and I and you and the son of Yishai (King David) will walk in Gan Eden. He (Yerovam) said: "Who's going to be at the head?" "The son of Yishai will be at the head." "If so, I don't want."

Why did Yerovam ask the Almighty who would be first? G-d already said that "I and you and the son of Yishai will walk in Gan Eden." G-d mentioned Yerovam first, indicating that Yerovam would be before King David. If so, why then did Yerovam ask who would be first?

Yerovam wanted a billboard two stories high with his name in lights. He wanted G-d to spell it out. This was the granddaddy of disputes over billing. It wasn't enough that he would go first. He wanted his billing locked into the contract.

If kavod -- honor-seeking -- is something so despicable and lowly, its reverse is the greatest treasure available to man. Humility is the greatest prize that one can aspire to. The praise of the greatest Jew who ever lived was that he was the humblest of people. That man was Moshe, our teacher.

From his birth until Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy), Moshe's name appears in every parsha, except one -- this week's parsha. The Vilna Gaon explains that Moshe died on the seventh of Adar. As this date usually falls in the week of Parshat Tetzaveh, so just as Moshe was removed from the world during this week, so his name was "removed" from the parsha of this week.

The words of the tzaddik can have a power beyond their immediate context. When G-d wanted to destroy the Jewish People after their infidelity at the golden calf, Moshe pleaded with Hashem to "Erase me from Your Book that you have written." Moshe asked that he, rather than the Jewish People, be eradicated. Even though Moshe spoke out of total self-sacrifice, nevertheless, his words made an impression, and it is for this reason that his name was "erased" from this week's parsha.

The question remains, why this week's parsha? Moshe's name could have been omitted from any of the other parshiot in the Torah. The answer is the Hashem "delayed" omitting Moshe from the Torah "as long as He could." For next week's parsha, Parshat Ki Tisa, deals with the golden calf and it is there that Moshe makes the statement "Erase me from your Book." So this parsha was G-d's "last chance" to leave out Moshe's "billing" from the Torah.

Sources:
* Ba'al HaTurim
* Nachal Kadmonim
* Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz

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From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA61 -20: Parashat Tetzave

YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)

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PARASHAT TETZAVEH
The Kindling of the Menorah
by Rav Zvi Shimon

Why does kindling the menorah belong to the section dealing with the construction of the Mishkan? It would seem to be a form of 'avoda,' a function, and not part of the actual construction of the Mishkan. How does the kindling of the menorah differ from the offering of sacrifices which appears in the book of Leviticus, only after the construction of the Mishkan?

The light of the menorah is, simply speaking, a special effect to impress onlookers and to arouse their awe and appreciation of the sanctity of the Mishkan.

By contrast, our sages invest the light of the Mishkan with far greater significance than a simple light illuminating the Mishkan, whether for the kohanim working within or for the onlookers from without. The light of the menorah is not ordinary physical light; it has metaphysical import. The light of the Mishkan symbolizes the 'shechina,' the Divine presence:

"which is before the Testimony" (27:21) - "It [the light of the menorah] is a testimony to mankind that the 'shechina' (the Divine presence) rests in Israel" (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Menachot, 86b).

This midrash focuses on the clause which designates the location of the menorah, "in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain which is before the Testimony." The 'Testimony' refers to the two Tablets brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai on which were etched the ten commandments (see 31:18). However, the midrash interprets the word 'testimony' as refering to the light of the menorah. The light is proof that God "dwells" in the Mishkan.

A different midrash of our sages, cited in the Midrash Rabba, (a compilation of homiletical interpretations of our sages) suggests that the light of the menorah symbolizes the wisdom of the Torah. Compare the following two midrashim. What is the difference in their understanding of the function of Torah?

"Just see how the words of the Torah give forth light to a man when he studies them; but he who does not occupy himself with the Torah and does not know it, stumbles. It can be compared to one who stands in a dark place; as soon as he starts walking, he stumbles against a stone; he then strikes a gutter, falls into it, and knocks his face on the ground - and all because he has no lamp in his hand. It is the same with the ordinary individual who has no Torah in him; he strikes against sin, stumbles, and dies, while the Holy Spirit exclaims: 'He shall die for lack of instruction' (Prov. 5:23); and 'instruction' means the Torah. He dies, because he knows not the Torah and goes and sins, as it says, 'The Way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble' (ib. 19). But those who study the Torah give forth light wherever they may be. It is like on standing in the dark with a lamp in his hand; when he sees a stone, he does not stumble, neither does he fall over a gutter because he has a lamp in his hand, as it says, 'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path' (Ps. 119:105), and also, 'And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble' (Prov. 4:12)."

"'The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord' (ib. 20:27). God said: 'Let My lamp be in thy hand and thy lamp in My hand.' What is the lamp of God? The Torah, as it says, 'For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light' (ib. 6:23). Why is the commandment 'a lamp'? Because if one performs a commandment it is as if he had kindled a light before God and as if he had revived his own soul, - also called a light, for it says, 'The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord (ib. 20:27).' (Shemot Rabba 36:3)"

The heart of the Mishkan is the ark which holds the two tablets of stone given to Moses on Mount Sinai (see 25:16). The Mishkan is thus not only the house of God, it also houses the Torah. The light of the menorah symbolizes the light of the Torah. According to the first midrash cited, the purpose of the Torah is to serve as a light to the people, instructing them in the ways they should behave, and helping them evade the many pitfalls which reality presents. Those without knowledge of Torah are likened to one walking in the dark with no light, unaware of, and unequipped to deal with the obstacles he meets. Those who do not know Torah are not equipped to deal with the moral challenges which they will meet, and are thus likely to falter and sin. The Torah is depicted here as a tool which guides man, and helps him escape from sin and moral disintegration.

The second midrash, by contrast, doesn't see the Torah in pragmatic terms, as a signpost guiding man through the moral hazards of existence. Rather, it views the Torah from an existential perspective. The Torah and the commandments help man discover his true self and fulfill his latent potential. It is through the keeping of the commandments that man reaches his most elevated stature. Through Torah, man bonds with God and with his fellow man, and thus reaches a greater fulfillment of his human potential.

YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

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