TERUMAH, EXODUS 25:1–27:19, SHABBAT ZACHOR

 TERUMAH, EXODUS 25:1–27:19, SHABBAT ZACHOR

“You shall not forget!”

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At 25: 2, Hashem speaks to Moshe:

דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ-לִי תְּרוּמָה:  מֵאֵת כָּל-אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ, תִּקְחוּ אֶת-תְּרוּמָתִי

“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:

Fund raising -  https://www.rabbiwein.com/blog/post-1739.html

“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”.

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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."

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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 כְּ is often translated “as” or “like”.  In Aramaic, רוּב is 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.  

Young ones: Please do a good job.

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In Parshat Terumah, 25:8, Hashem says to Moshe:

וְעָשׂוּ לִי, מִקְדָּשׁ; וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, בְּתוֹכָם

 “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.

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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 משכן are 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.

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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.

וְעָשִׂיתָ מִכְסֶה לָאֹהֶל, עֹרֹת אֵילִם מְאָדָּמִים, וּמִכְסֵה עֹרֹת תְּחָשִׁים, מִלְמָעְלָה

"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.

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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:

וַיהוָה, נָתַן חָכְמָה לִשְׁלֹמֹה, כַּאֲשֶׁר, דִּבֶּר-לוֹ

“And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He had spoken to him,…“ 

 וַיְהִי שָׁלֹם, בֵּין חִירָם וּבֵין שְׁלֹמֹה, וַיִּכְרְתוּ בְרִית, שְׁנֵיהֶם…”

“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).

 Even in his heyday Solomon never got it.

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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.

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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.