Subject: Torah Weekly - Terumah 5758 Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 23:52:04 +0000 To: "Parasha-Page List"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: "Ohr Somayach" <info@virtual.co.il> To: " Highlights of the Torah weekly portion" <weekly@virtual.co.il> Subject: Torah Weekly - Terumah 5758 X-To: weekly@virtual.co.il * TORAH WEEKLY * Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion Parshas Terumah For the week ending 2 Adar 5758 27 & 28 February 1998 =========================================================================== 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 extraordinary detail. =========================================================================== Insights __________ The Lair Of The Lion__________ "They shall make a Sanctuary for Me." (25:2) A couple of years ago a well-know Israeli daily newspaper, not known for its sympathy to religion, published a cartoon. In the cartoon, a man was having a dream. Out of his head came the statutory "think-bubbles." The bubbles got larger and larger until the following scene unraveled: The man saw himself "upstairs" being questioned by winged angels wearing black hats: "But why didn't you keep Shabbos?" they asked. "You knew there was a thing called Shabbos didn't you? What about Kashrus? You knew there was something called Kashrus?" In the following bubble, the man wakes up in a cold sweat. Then a close-up on his face. "Maybe they're right!" he says. Why isn't everyone religious? Why don't people think: "What if those religious fanatics are right? After all, if they're wrong, at least they have wonderfully rich and fulfilling lives, lovely families, etc. And if they're right, and I'm wrong? I'm going to lose out on something eternal. I'm going to get to the next world and I won't have the price of admission. I won't even be able to get a cheap seat! Maybe I will have to give an accounting in front of the real Supreme Court. I'll be religious just in case! Better safe than sorry!" Why don't people think like this? In this week's Parsha the Torah starts a lengthy description of the Mishkan. The sheer volume of this account outweighs almost every subject in the Torah. What was the Mishkan and why does it merit such voluminous expanse in the Book where nothing is merely descriptive and there is no place for literary embellishment? The word Mishkan comes from the word "to dwell." It was the place where Hashem "dwelled" in this lower world. But how can a mere building house the One whose glory fills the universe. How can the Omnipresent have a "house?" There is a difference between existence and presence. Hashem exists equally everywhere. He is no more in one place than another, because there is no place where He is not. Rather, the Mishkan was a place where the presence of Hashem was palpable. You could see He was there. Imagine sitting at a computer. You are typing away, lost in the great American/British/Israeli novel. Unbeknownst to you, a lion enters your room. It's a very quiet, well-behaved lion, and you carry on typing in blissful ignorance. The lion's existence is unaltered by whether you carry on typing or you turn around and give yourself a bit of a surprise. However, the presence of the lion has everything to do with whether you turn around or not. The Mishkan allowed one to see and fear the Lion. Hashem's presence there was palpable. The word for "sight" in Hebrew is from the same root as "fear" -- yirah. What is the connection between seeing and fearing? A person only fears what he can see. Intellectual concepts don't frighten us. The biggest proof is that even if we're religious and we know that there is a world-to- come, a cosmic day of reckoning, even though we know these things clearly, we can't see them, and so we don't really fear. Fear only comes from seeing the Lion. Going into the Mishkan was like going into the lion's lair. __________ Heart Is Where The Home Is__________ "And they shall make a Sanctuary for Me, so I may dwell in them." (25:8) The Torah's choice of the words "so I may dwell in them" is unusual, for more correctly it should have written "so I may dwell in it." -- in the Sanctuary. However, the real meaning is that every Jew should make his heart into a Sanctuary where Hashem will dwell. "And they shall make their hearts into a Sanctuary for Me, so I may dwell in them." __________ The Jewel In The Crown__________ "You shall cover it (the Aron) with pure gold, from within and without, and you shall make on it a gold crown all around. (25:11) The Aron HaKodesh, the Holy Ark, represents the Torah scholar. He must be as golden on the inside as he is on the outside -- his inner character must be consistent with his public demeanor. Then the Torah will be his crown and he will be a crown for the Torah. =========================================================================== Haftorah: I Kings 5:26-6:13 __________Built to Last__________ "This Temple that you build -- if you follow My decrees, perform My statutes, and observe all My commandments..." (6:12) Just as in this week's Parsha the Torah speaks of the construction of the Mishkan, the Divine "residence" in the desert, so too the Haftorah describes the first Beis Hamikdash which was built by Shlomo Hamelech 480 years after the Exodus. Even though the physical statistics of Shlomo's construction are staggering, what is important to Hashem is that the real construction be built from the giving heart. This is what Hashem is saying to Shlomo in the above verse: Don't think that the construction of My house is by mere material means, by the lavishing of silver and gold. These are mere illusions -- not the real Beis Hamikdash. Rather, "if you follow My decrees, and perform My statutes" -- this is what the Beis Hamikdash is really built of. And since the "materials" of its construction are really spiritual, so the Beis Hamikdash, even after its physical destruction, even after its material components have disintegrated, continues to exist: "I will dwell within Bnei Yisrael, and I will not forsake My people Israel".25 Kochav M'Yaakov =========================================================================== Sources: o The Lair Of the Lion - Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, Rabbi Mordechai Perlman and Rabbi Naftali Kaplan o Business As Usual - Rabbi David MiKotzk o Heart Is Where The Home Is - Alshich o The Jewel In The Crown - Rabbeinu Chananel o Kochav M'Yaakov =========================================================================== Do you link to us? 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