Vayekhel
My brother makes pb&j all wrong. He uses way too much peanut butter, not enough jelly (apricot preserves!! GROSS), and he lets all the filling sort of sit in a blob in the middle of the bread. Me, I like a more moderate amount of peanut butter, raspberry jam, wheat bread, spread all the way to the edges, ideally with something like potato chips or granola in it for some extra crunch. As kids, pb&j time could be a mini war. My way was right, his way was wrong. Discord ensued.
It is Shabbat HaChodesh, the Shabbat where we usher in Nissan, the month when we celebrate Passover, our celebration of transition from strangers in the land of Egypt to our own people. This week's double Torah portion, Vayikhel-Pekudei, is all about the details of building the Tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. Exodus 35:1 opens as "Moses invoked the whole Israelite community1" and reminds them to keep Shabbat. This is followed by the ins and outs of the people bringing the different parts and pieces of the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, how Moses and his artisans, Betzelel and Oheliav, build it, an inventory of what exactly was used and finally,as we conclude the entire book of Exodus, "When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Eternal filled the Tabernacle...in the view of the whole house of Israel..."2. The Hebrew words at the beginning are kol edat bney yisrael, the whole pack of the children of Israel. At the end, the people are referred to as kol beit yisrael, the whole house of Israel. The people change from being an edah bney or pack of children to a beit or a household. I look to the lessons from this portion and peanut butter and jelly for some insight into how this transition occurred.
Next, Moses tells this pack of children to keep shabbat and all the rules God gave him on how to make the Mishkan including the enigmatic phrase, "all who volunteer their hearts" will bring gifts to God for the building of the Tabernacle. The all the people then bring their gifts. Exodus 35:20-29 breaks down those who give gift, those who have volunteered their hearts, into ten different sub-groups. Each man, every man whose heart is lifted, every man who even just finds they have the requisite raw weaving materials, every woman who is wise-hearted and skilled, every woman whose whole heart is lifted, anyone who volunteers their heart, anyone who ever made a wave offering, anyone who finds they have the needed Acacia wood, and, lastly, the chieftains all bring their different gifts to God. At the end of this section, these ten groups are collectively referred to as kol ish v'isha asher nidav libam, each man and woman who volunteered their heart. Whatever it is that you do, whether moved by heart, spirit, past experience or practical reality, you are considered one whose heart is moved. Any gift given to build God's home is a voluntary gift of the heart.
We begin the adventure of building the Mishkan as a gaggle of children. It is not just the creating of God's house which matures us from Israel's children to Israel's household, but an acceptance of and appreciation for the varied ways each of us contributes to bringing God's presence to the world. This month, my brother had his third child, I helped officiate at the bris. We still have our varied ways of creating a sacred space, but as we have matured, a love for our different contributions binds us to our shared household of one family. As we enter in to this Passover season and celebrate our collective Jewish identity, may we all remember that we rejoice in our unity as one people with various gifts, talents, modalities and motivations for creating a household of Israel sharing in the work of making a home for God.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment