In Parshat Terumah we read about the construction of the Mishkan,
the portable sanctuary from which Hashem spoke to us.In the Parshah we learned that the roof of
the Mishkan would be made up of skins of an animal identified as a “Tachash.”
Not Just Another Pretty Face
But what animal is the Tachash?My best guess is that the Tachash is a Hippopotamus.
For one thing, a hippopotamus is not what you
would call a thin-skinned creature.Its
skin is so thick that it is almost bullet proof, and at 1 ½ inches thick most
certainly arrow proof.
Tachash skins were used in the Mishkan where they served as
a form of protection and weather proofing. They formed the outermost layer of
the Mishkan’s roof.
"And you
shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of Tachash
skins above”.
As in the Book of Numbers,
Chapter 4, Tachash skins were also utilized in the transport many of the
components of the Mishkan. These components were wrapped up in the skins prior
to their transport.
The Talmud, Shabbat 28a says that the Tachash was multicolored:
שיש בו גבוונין הרבה
“…in that it was multicolored…”
A hippopotamus’ upper parts are purplish-grey
to blue-black, while the under parts and areas around the eyes and ears can be
brownish-pink.When out of the water they
will secrete a red oily coating that protects its skin from drying out.
If you need a proof text, consider some verses from Chapter
40 of the Book of Job in which a monstrous primeval land animal who has
enormous strength and is called a “Behemoth” is described and this creature resembles
a hippopotamus:
40:15 - Behold now the Behemoth that I have made with
you; he eats grass like an ox.
40:17 - His tail hardens like a cedar; the sinews of
his testicles are knit together.
40:18 - His limbs are as strong as copper, his bones
as a load of iron.
40:21 - He lies under the shadows, hidden in the
reeds and the swamp.
The hippopotamus is large, very large; males weigh more
than 4000 lb. The hippopotamus spends much of its time in lakes, swamps and
rivers. Before becoming locally extinct they inhabited Egypt and the region
known as the Levant, which includes Canaan.Think of the Hula Valley and the area south of Tiveria.Archaeological evidence exists of its
presence in the Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago.
Hippos measure 10 to 17 feet in length, including a tail of
about 1 to 2 feet in length. The testes of the males descend only partially.Their
diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass. They are considered to be
extremely aggressive
On an interesting note the most powerful land animal on
Earth, the Behemoth/Hippopotamus is paired in the Book of Job with another primeval
monstrous animal, the Leviathan. It is the most powerful sea creature on Earth
and is thought by many to be a whale.Whales
and hippopotamus’ share a common origin. The most recent theory of the origins
of the Hippopotamus family suggests that hippos and whales shared a common
semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from their common ancestor around 60
million years ago. This ancestral group then split into two branches around 54
million years ago.
And in the World to Come, as many believe, just
as the skin of the Leviathan will serve as a tent for the righteous, perhaps it
is only fitting that the skin of the hippopotamus served as a tent for us when
we wandered in the Wilderness.
“Speak to the
children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person
whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering”.
Rabbi Wein has something to say about the aspect of voluntary giving
associated with the building of the Mishkan:
“The demand of
the Torah is not only to give from our heart but to give our heart itself to
the exalted cause and spiritual greatness of the tabernacle/mishkan. It is not
a donation that the Torah asks of us, rather it is a commitment of self that is
demanded. The tabernacle/mishkan has long ago disappeared from our physical
view but its lessons remain relevant and important to us today as when they
were taught millennia ago”.
There is a connection between Rosh Chodesh Adar which fell last Shabbos and the current Parshah. This connection is in regard to the construction of the Mishkan. According to the Talmud (Tractate Megillah 22b), women are forbidden to engage in work on Rosh Chodesh. Rashi comments: Women must refrain: spinning, weaving, and sewing—the skills that women contributed to the building of the Mishkan.
There is a Midrash, (Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 45), as paraphrased explores this further: Aaron argued with himself, saying: "If I say to Israel, 'Give me gold and silver,' the men will bring it immediately; but behold if I will say to them, 'Give me the earrings of your wives and your sons,' the matter will immediately fail,"
"And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden rings.'" The women heard this, but they were unwilling to give their earrings to their husbands. The women said to them: "You want to make a graven image, a molten image (the Golden Calf) without any power in it to deliver.
"The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the women their reward in this world and the world to come. What reward did He give them in this world? That they should observe the new moons more stringently (not work) than the men. What reward will He give them in the world to come? They are destined to be renewed like the new moons, as it is said: "Who satisfies the years with good things; their youth is renewed like the eagle."
There is a
message in this week’s Torah portion Terumah which applies to our children and grandchildren.
The Torah
portion concerns in part the building of the Mishkan,
the portable dwelling place for HaShem that we carried during our wandering in
the desert.
In the most
sacred part of the Mishkan there was the Ark of the Covenant in which was
contained the stone tablets, the Ten Commandments. This Ark was a wooden
box covered inside and out with gold. It had a golden cover on which stood two
winged angelic beings called Cherubs, Cheruvim in the Hebrew plural. The cover
and the Cherubs were fashioned out of one block of pure gold.
Because we Jews
do not believe in idols or religious statuary, the presence of Cherubs in this
holiest of places requires some explanation. In Hebrew, the word Cherub
is written כְּרוּב. The letter כְּis often translated “as” or “like”. In Aramaic, רוּבis understood to mean “child”, so we get “like a child”.
HaShem spoke to Moses from between the two Cheruvim. It is the Cheruvim that
stood watch over the Ten Commandments.
Rashi explains
that the Cherub or Cheruvim had the face of a child. Their function was
to guard or keep safe the most sacred of our religious objects. And that
means the Torah. HaShem has placed the care of our Torah in the hands of
our children and grandchildren.
“Let them make Me a sanctuary, and I will
dwell among them.”
I think we no longer need a structure or a building to house the presence of God. We have the Land of Israel which performs that sacred obligation. Israel is the
sanctuary that Hashem commanded us to build.Israel is the מִקְדָּשׁ , a safe haven for us Jews as well as a private place
for the presence of God.
This week we receive detailed
instructions regarding the construction of the משכן, the portable
sanctuary, a dwelling place for Hashem’s presence.Two of the major components of the משכןare the Ark and the
Menorah:
The Ark is
protected by two Cherubs.These are winged-liked
unearthly creatures that have the faces of children.It is thought just as the Cherubs protect the
Ark, it is our children who protect our Torah and our Jewish traditions.
The Menorah in
its abstract resembles a tree, perhaps the Tree of Life.And when it branches are lit by Aaron the
Kohen Gadol, the Menorah resembles Hashem’s Torah that gives light to us Jews
and to the world at large.
At 26:14 we are instructed
that the roof of the Mishkan is to be made up of animal skins, red dyed ram
skins and the uppermost layer is to be composed of “tachash” skins.
"And you
shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of
tachash skins above”.
No one knows
what a tachash is. Since it forms the
uppermost layer of the Mishkan roof I think the animal hide must have tough,
sort of a weather proofing material. One Rabbi in the Talmud at tractate
Shabbat 28a speculates that it came from an animal with a single horn. The Prophet
Ezekiel at 16:10 has the tachash being made into shoes. I would guess that the tachash is an animal
with a very tough skin. I think the
tachash is a hippopotamus. They once
roamed about in Israel.
In the Book of Job (40:15 and 40:31) they are called the Behamot that were huge and lived in swamps. Their skin is two inches thick.
-------------------------------------------------
The Haftorah portion of Parshas Terumah parallels the building of the Mishkan in the Wilderness with Solomon’s building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The portion is from 1 KINGS 5:26 - 6:13 and begins:
“and there was
peace between Hiram and Solomon; and the two of them entered into an agreement”.
When all is done
and said, I do not like Solomon. Despite
his wisdom Solomon was a fool from the beginning. Let’s return to the previous Parshah
at 23:32 where HaShem commands us not to enter into agreements with the
Canaanites.
לֹא-תִכְרֹת
לָהֶם וְלֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, בְּרִית
“You shall not
enter into an agreement with them, nor with their gods”.
So what does
Solomon do? He enters into a construction
agreement, a בְּרִית, with Hiram, who is king of
Phoenicia and a Canaanite. Some believe
that Solomon’s Temple is the best example of Phoenician temple architecture found
to date.
Solomon’s pervasion of
Jewish law does not end here. He
conscripts 30,000 Hebrew workmen to labor in Lebanon. They are not volunteers; they are forced
laborers. But it gets worse. In addition to the 30,000 Jews from birth
laborers, Solomon conscripts 150,000 Jewish converts to shlep stone and timber
from Lebanon to Jerusalem. It is all
laid out in 1 Kings 5:27-32 and according to 2 Chronicles 2: 16-17.
It gets even worse: the 30,000 forced laborers are divided into
three groups and work one month in Lebanon and rest two months at home. Not so for the 150,000 converts; the Tanakh
is silent regarding their rotation. Going back
to Parshas Mishpatim as per 22:19 we are enjoined not to oppress or mistreat
the foreigner, which has come to mean those who convert to Judaism. In fact we are to love the convert (Deuteronomy
10:19).
If you have a
problem with my disdain for Solomon, consider this
God gives Solomon wisdom, and in the Book of Kings 1 from Chapter 3 through 10 we learn of the supposed glory of Solomon’s rule. But then we come to Chapter 11 and a different picture of Solomon emergences. He is no longer wise, and it is not just Solomon’s excesses in terms of horses, wives and gold. Nor is it the negative influence of his Egyptian Queen, in terms of her idolatry.
At 11:1 – “King Solomon loved many foreign women and the daughter of Pharaoh; Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.
At 11:3 - And he had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
At 11;5 - And Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
At 11:7 - Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab on the mountain that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
At 11:9 - And the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had digressed from the Lord, God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice.
At 11:11 - And the Lord said to Solomon, "For as this has been with you, and you have not observed My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and I shall give it to your servant.
And that is exactly what happened: The Kingdom of Judah had been comprised of all 12 Tribes. Ten of these revolted and they became known as the Kingdom of Israel or the Northern Kingdom. Judah was left with only two Tribes that of Benjamin and Judah.
Solomon’s servant was none other than Jeroboam (11:26). He had an opportunity to succeed to all the blessings that were to be given to Solomon and Judah, but he too followed the path of idolatry.
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance,
שבת זכור. It
is the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim. On Shabbat Zachor we read from Deuteronomy
25:17-19 which describes the attack by Amalek:
“You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way,
when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all
the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear
God.
Therefore, it will be, when the Lord your God grants you
respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your
God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the
remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens”.
“You shall not forget!”
There is a tradition from the Talmud that Haman, the
antagonist of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek. The portion that is
read includes a commandment to remember the attack by Amalek, and therefore at
this public reading both men and women make a special effort to hear the
reading.
We were entering a “bad neighborhood”. It was bad then and it is still bad today.
And there is a lesson to be learned in connection with a “bad
neighborhood”:
Moshe should have known that there were stragglers who
were vulnerable, and needed rear-guard protection. A leader is responsible for
the well-being of his people.
Slave Market in Cairo, Egypt & Nubia. David Roberts, between 1845
and 1849.
Laws of slavery are the very first
laws given to the newly freed Israelites following the Ten Commandments. They
are found in the collection of laws in Exodus 21–23. Those who have just left
slavery themselves are told by God what to do when acquiring a slave. When Hashem freed us from our Egyptian
masters, God acquired the right to be our master; that right precludes any human
being from acquiring Israelites as slaves.
(Reuven Hammer "The Torah Revolution")
Our exodus from Egypt can be considered as a Slave Revolt. It should be no surprise then that the very first decrees given by God to the newly freed Israelites are rules relating to slavery. They are first found in Exodus 21:1-11.
Slavery is a system in which principles of property law are applied to people. Slavery allows a slave master to own, buy and sell individuals. A slave is a form of property. Slaves are unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and they work without pay. The evil of slavery is so obvious, it seems unnecessary to even to mention it. But do not forget that slavery still exists. Depending on your definition, 20- 40 million people are in some form of slavery today.
PLEASE NOTE: Although the Chumash mentions slavery as an established institution, a Jew has only one master, and that is God.
When we were slaves in Egypt, Hashem freed us from servitude, from Egyptian bondage. Because we are a people of compassion and moral justice, slavery and having slaves is not part of our social fabric.
In the Haftorah portion which is from Jeremiah Chapter 38 we are given an opportunity to avert the destruction of Jerusalem, if only we free our slaves. Slave holders take a sacred oath to do this, but renege on their word…The Temple is destroyed; the Kingdom is lost; we go into Exile.
Bar Kokhba's tetradrachm
similar to shekel. Obverse:
Temple façade with
the rising star.
Reverse: A Lulav, the text reads: "to the freedom of
Jerusalem"
There are four special Sabbaths, each
of which derives its name from the additional Torah portion that is read that
day. Two of these Sabbaths occur in the weeks leading up to Purim and two in
the weeks then leading up to Passover.
This Shabbat we celebrate the special
Shabbat of Shekalim
Shabbat Shekalim ("Sabbath of Shekels"
שבת שקלים) requests each adult male Jew contribute half of a Biblical
shekel for the upkeep of the Tabernacle, or Mishkan (משכן).
The Torah portion Exodus 30:11-16 (the beginning of Parashat Ki Tisa) is read.
This Shabbat takes place on the Shabbat before or on 1 Adar. In leap years of
the Hebrew calendar, when there are two months of Adar, Shabbat Shekalim is on
the Shabbat before or on 1Adar II.
“Behold, I am sending an angel before
you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.”
The question then is: Who or where is
this Angel?
We have to wait until Chapter 5,
verses 13-14 of the Book of Joshua to maybe come up with an answer:
“And it was when Joshua was in
Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and saw, and, behold, a man was standing
opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went to him, and said
to him, Are you for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, No, but I am the captain
of the host of the Lord; I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the
earth and prostrated himself, and said to him, What does my lord say to his
servant?”
Rav Kook asked an interesting
question. Why were the Aseret HaDibrot (10 Commandments) written on stone tablets? Why is it
important to mention the raw material used for the tablets?
One might think that it is only
necessary to be faithful to the spirit of the Torah - that is the essence of
Judaism. The details, the intricate laws of conduct, however, are a function of
the prevailing culture and society. They must be adapted to fit the needs of
the day. In other words, we need not be overly concerned with the detailed
legal code of Mishpatim. What is important is following the general spirit of the
Parshah.
The Torah relates that the tablets
were made of stone. According to the Midrash, it was not just any stone, but
sapphire. This material was so tough that a hammer swung against them would be
smashed to pieces. G-d used tablets made of unbreakable sapphire to emphasize
that even the Torah's physical manifestation - i.e., its day-to-day practical
laws - may not be changed.
The concept of the Torah's
immutability, even in the details of everyday life, is particularly relevant to
this verse. Sometimes the oral tradition appears to contradict the simple
meaning of the written Torah. One might mistakenly think that the Talmudic
sages adjusted Torah law in order to conform to the needs of their time. Rabbi
Shimon taught that there are no changes in the Torah. The Mishnah and Talmud
are rooted in oral traditions going back to Mount Sinai. "All of these
were given to Moses at Sinai."
(Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 14)
At 24:12, Moses ascends Har Sinai and
remains there for forty days and forty nights.
“And the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to Me
to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the
Law and the commandments, which I have written to instruct them."
Beginning
at Chapter 20 at Mt. Sinai we hear the 10 Commandments spoken by Hashem. It is not until much later in Chapter 31 that
Hashem inscribes the 10 Commandments into two stone tablets and gives them to
Moshe to bring down to the people.
Most
likely they were written in a script called Paleo-Hebrew and not in the square script
that we today are familiar with called Ashura script. Paleo-Hebrew was the script used through out
the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age, about 1,500 BCE when the Ten
Commandments were given. Ashura script
developed much later, perhaps a thousand years later and originated out of Mesopotamia
and not Canaan.
---------------------------------------
In Parshas Yisro we receive the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, a high point in our relationship with Hashem.. The third one of these Commandments at 20:6-7 is:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold blameless anyone who takes His name in vain.”
What does this Commandment mean to you?
It seems to me that in our common culture, taking God’s name in vain has been much trivialized…perhaps a sign of the times where things are taken casually or made light of.
לַשָּׁוְא which appears twice means “for nothing” or a misuse.
-------------------------------------------------
The Ten Commandments begin at 20:2
with Hashem stating his bonafides: “I am the Lord, your God, Who took you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”.
Then there is a list of
responsibilities and obligations, things that we are required to do or not to
do through verse 20:14. In turn if we do
our part Hashem will do His as stated previously in Chapter 19:
19:5, וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים,
“…you shall be My own treasure from
among all peoples…”
“And Moses sent his
father-in-law away; and he went to his own land”.
To be sent away has an emotional connotation of finality or divorce or banishment. At Genesis 21:14 where Abraham sends Haggar away, there is no question as to his intent:
“And Abraham arose up early in the morning, and
took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her
shoulder, and the child, and sent her away; and she went, and became lost in
the wilderness of Beer-sheba”.
Getting back to Moshe and the Parshah, it is only
in 18:2 and not before that we learn that Zipporah had been sent away.They had started out together from Midian on
their way to meet Aaron at Mt. Sinai.The family stopped at a lodging and there was the incident of Zipporah circumcising
one of the children.The Chumash is
silent regarding her until she rejoins Moshe in the Parshah.We have to read into the text in order to
make sense out of 18:2.
The verse regarding Moshe and his father-in law
at 18:27 is a little more, but not much, explicit regarding the intentions on
the part of Yisro and Moshe.
Some verses from the Book of Numbers 10: 29-32
shed some light on what may have transpired in the Parshah:
Moses says: “…We are traveling to the place about which the Lord said, I will give
it to you. Come with us and we will be good to you, for the Lord has spoken of
good fortune for Israel.
Yitro
replies: He said to him, I won't go,
for I will go to my land and my birthplace.
Moses answers: He said, Please don't leave us, for because you are familiar with our
encampments in the desert and you will be our guide. And if you go with
us, then we will bestow on you the good which God grants us.
There is another clue as to what is happening.At 18:24, Moses seems to comply with what Yitro is
telling him:
"Moses understoodhis
father in law, and he acted to all that he said".
וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע means that Moses heard or
listened or understood. On its face this conversation seems to refer to setting up of a judicial
system.
But it might mean something more, and Moshe got the
picture. His father-in-law was a
Midianite who had no desire to throw in with the Jews.
And in our Parshah: “And Moses sent his father in-law away; and he went
to his own land”.
We all know that Moshe had a temper. I’m thinking
that Moshe understood and was so upset with Yitro’s response, that Moshe threw
him out never to return.
Sam Cooke, not Rav Kook, has a different point of view:
https://youtu.be/tcrU3ddNeIg
------------------------------------------
The Haftorah portion concerns parts of Chapters 6, 7 and 9 (for Ashkenazim).
In this week's Haftarah portion at 6:1-3
we read the Prophet Isaiah's vision of heavenly beings:
“Seraphim stood above for Him, six
wings, six wings to each one; with two he would cover his face, and with two he
would cover his feet, and with two he would fly. And one called to the other and said,
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."
Isaiah saw a Seraph which is a
heavenly being that flies around the Throne of God exclaiming:
Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole
earth is full of His glory”.
These words are the Kedushah, probably
the most important part of the Amidah where we attempt to emulate the
Angels. The Kedushah is also said in the
first prayer prior to reciting the Shema and towards the conclusion of the
morning service as part of the Uva L'tzion prayer and at the conclusion of
Shabbat.
Then at 6:5 the Prophet exclaims that
he is not fit to have seen what he has seen:
“Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips...Then one of the seraphim
flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs
from the altar. And he touched my mouth
with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken
away”,
At 7:1 Isaiah introduces us to the Judean King, Achaz. Most of us do not know him, but are familiar with his son Hezekiah and his great-great grandson Josiah. Ahaz ruled in Judah between 734–714 BCE.
He is viewed as a wicked King, but from a historical perspective, Achaz was one of the strongest and most determined leaders of the kingdom. In the north the Assyrian Empire was on the rise, and two local kingdoms, Aram and Israel (that’s right Israel, the northern kingdom) tried to force Achaz to join an alliance in opposition to Assyria.
According to Isaiah 7:6, when Achaz refused, they attempted to force Judah to join their anti-Assyrian coalition, or annex it and put their own man on the throne. נַעֲלֶה בִיהוּדָה וּנְקִיצֶנָּה, וְנַבְקִעֶנָּה אֵלֵינוּ; וְנַמְלִיךְ מֶלֶךְ בְּתוֹכָהּ, אֵת בֶּן-טָבְאַל
“Let us go up against Judah and provoke it, and annex it to us; and let us crown a king in its midst, one who is good for us.”
Long story short: Achaz appealed to Assyria for help; Assyria complied and whips Israel and Aram, but in turJudah loses its independence and becomes a vassal kingdom of Assyria. For the next 600 years until after the Maccabees, we were a subject kingdom or province of Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Ptolemy, Seleucid and lastly Rome.
It sure is good, now, to be free in our Land and not under the foot of a foreign power.
