February 26th: Terumah and Tetzaveh, Part II
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Last week, I wrote about the difference between Exegesis and Eisegesis, Exegesis being the legitimate identification of a lesson in a Scriptural passage, and Eisegesis being a preacher’s imposition of his/her own agenda on the text. We also considered the extreme malleability of a text like the Holy Scriptures—and how all kinds of absurd cases can be made with Biblical verses. In the gradual development of the Jewish Weltanschauung, our world view, there seems to be a wisdom that is deeper than the text—that can be accessed with the text, but which is not always subject to the text. This is the realm of Midrash and Aggadah, the stories of our faith that speak to these deeper truths.
A case in point comes in Exodus 25. In both last week’s and this week’s Torah portion, we learn about the construction of the Mishkan, the “tent-temple” that travels with our people in their wanderings. Six chapters in Exodus (25-31) include God’s many and detailed commands for this sanctuary. The key verse, however, comes with the initial assignment: “Let them make for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus 25.8
This verse is preceded by a shopping list of supplies needed for the Mishkan—a list in which a modern Sage sees a teaching opportunity. Here is the list. “… gold, silver, and copper; yarns of blue, purple, and crimson; fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting—for the ephod and the breastplate.” (Exodus 25.3-7)
One could well ask about where a bunch of escaped slaves would get all these precious materials, but the modern Rabbi Marc Gelman seizes on a particular item, the dolphin skins. Dolphin skins? Such an unusual item is what the Rabbis call a koshi, something in the Torah which begs for further explanation. What follows is a Midrash he created about thirty years ago. It is no less factual than any of the classic Midrashim—all of them being fictional stories created to make a point, but it is just as masterful an application of the ancient art: using a small detail in the text to teach a moral lesson. In Midrash, as in fables and parables, the truth is in the wisdom.
When our ancestors, the children of Israel, escaped from Egypt, they found the dolphins of the Red Sea waiting for them, chirping their happy dolphin-chirping sounds and splashing the blue waters of the Red Sea with their flat tails.
Suddenly the Israelites heard the terrible sounds of Pharaoh's great army chasing them from Egypt—long spears clanking and horses' hooves pounding the dry earth as the Egyptians pulled the war chariots with the metal wheels and the pointed hubs. "We are trapped!" the children of Israel screamed. "If we go back to Egypt, Pharaoh and his army will kill all of us," and about this they were absolutely right. "And if we go forward, we will all drown in the Red Sea." But about this the people were quite wrong. Moses raised his arm, and God split the Red Sea right down the middle so that two huge walls of water stood straight up with just a narrow path of dry Red Sea bottom in between.
The sight of the Red Sea split in half right down the middle with a hallway of dry land in between was amazing and confusing to the children of Israel. But can you imagine—can you just imagine—how amazing and confusing this was for the fish of the Red Sea? Now let's face it: Fish are dumb, and your average Red Sea fish would be swimming along just minding its own fish business when, suddenly, it would be swimming in midair—which is nowhere—if you're a fish. Fish, fish, and more fish just kept plopping and flopping through the wall of water and flopping around on the dry hallway of the Red Sea bottom.
The dolphins tried to save their friends, the fish. They swam quickly along the edge of the walls of water, chirping a warning in fish language, "Don't go there!" But as I said before, fish are dumb, and so they would ask, "What do you mean, don't go there? Where is the there?" And the dolphins would scream, "THERE IN THE AIR!" and then the fish would say, "HUH? We don't see any air there." And, of course, by the time this conversation was over, the fish were already there in the air—which is nowhere—if you are a fish.
As if the problem of dumb fish in the air was not enough for them, the kindly dolphins of the Red Sea had another problem. Our ancestors, the children of Israel, left Egypt with some flocks of sheep and goats and a few cows, and on their way across the Red Sea on the dry hallway of land, some of those flocks strayed a little and walked right through the walls of water and right into the bottom of the Red Sea—which is nowhere if you are a sheep or a goat or a cow. So the dolphins would swim quickly down to the bottom of the Red Sea and nudge the animals back into the air—which is somewhere if you are a goat or a sheep or a cow.
Now as if the problems of dumb fish and dumb animals were not enough for the kindly dolphins of the Red Sea, there was another problem for them. The army of Pharaoh was gaining on our ancestors, the children of Israel, in their race across the dry hallway of the Red Sea bottom. The dolphins tried to slow down Pharaoh's army by flicking their tails through the walls of water and showering Pharaoh's army and the dry hallway of Red Sea bottom so that it was not dry any more. Because of the flicking, the wheels of Pharaoh's war chariots got stuck in the mud.
Then God warned the dolphins that the children of Israel were almost all safely on the other side of the Red Sea hallway and that the walls of water would soon collapse on Pharaoh's army. But the dolphins were so busy warning the fish, pushing the flocks, and flicking Pharaoh's army that some of them did not hear God's warning. Thus when the walls of water came crashing together to make the Red Sea whole again, a few dolphins were sucked down onto the spears, onto the arrows, onto the swords, and onto the pointed hubs of Pharaoh's war chariots.
The next day, along with the junk of Pharaoh's army, there were some dead dolphins washed up on the shores of the Red Sea. Our ancestors, the children of Israel, complained to Moses, "Let's get out of here; the place stinks of dead things." But God commanded Moses and Moses told the people to gather up the dolphins, prepare their skins, and sew them together to make a tent covering that would be the top tent for the great golden box that would hold the words of God written on the stone tablets by Moses on Mount Sinai. Moses said, "When you see this tent of dolphin skins, I want you to remember that we did not leave Egypt and become a free people without a lot of help."
When our ancestors, the children of Israel, left their camp at the shore of the Red Sea, the dolphins were waiting for them, chirping their happy dolphin-chirping sounds and splashing the blue waters of the Red Sea with their flat tails.