February 28th: Terumah
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
The end of Mishpatim and the beginning of Terumah offer an interesting parallel. Mishpatim continues the revelation and adds fifth-three more mitzvot to the famous Ten Commandments. Then there is an invitation: “Then God said to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord, with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar.’” (Exodus 24.1) So, “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; and they saw the God of Israel: under God’s feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. Yet the Lord did not raise a hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24.9-11) It is as though the mitzvot—the commandments of godly behavior—prepare and allow the Israelites to encounter God.
The very next chapter begins Terumah and features the list of building materials the Israelites are to use when they build God’s Mishkan/Dwelling Place. Eventually God will dwell in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, but in the wilderness and the early years in The Land of Israel, God dwells in the Tabernacle, a tent temple which can be transported as the Israelites travel. The list of materials is interesting—gold, silver, yarn, and wood, etc., but the purpose is the most significant. “Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus 25.8)
The Torah thus gives us two parallel ways to feel God’s Presence—to encounter the Divine. First, we must incorporate ethical behavior in our daily lives, and second, we must draw close to the holy through religious rituals. As it turns out, this combination of the ritual and the ethical is a consistent theme throughout Judaism, and we just saw it in the Ten Commandments. Some commandments tell us how God is to be treated, and others tell us how God wants us to treat each other. Look at the list and consider the main “beneficiary” of each. Is it God, or is it humans? And what does this double message teach us about God?
I. I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods beside Me.
II. Do not make any idols or graven images and worship them.
III. Do not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.
IV. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
V. Honor your father and your mother.
VI. Do not murder.
VII. Do not commit adultery.
VIII. Do not steal.
IX. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
X. Do not covet.
This lesson continues in that story about Moses and the leadership “seeing God.” Focusing on the “pavement of sapphire” upon which God is standing, the Midrash explains that it is what God builds when He is in slavery alongside the Hebrews in Egypt (Mechilta de Rabbi Yishmael, Piska 14). While the Hebrews are building Pithom and Raamses, God is building the pavement of sapphires. In other words, God is so invested in human welfare that, when people are oppressed and suffering, God is oppressed and suffering too.