Terumah 5772

Rabbi Joshua Kullock
Comunidad Hebrea de Guadalajara

The question of God’s presence in our world has enthralled and intrigued many scholars throughout the years.  How can a transcendental and infinite being be present in such a finite, subjective, and limited world as ours?  Moreover:  if God is actually present in our lives, what can we do to feel His presence?

The answers to these questions appear, at least in part, in our Parashah:  God becomes present in the work of your hands, in the work of our hands.  This means that in order to bring His presence forward, we must first devote our efforts to work. Because for the Jewish people, God is not an abstraction without context, but rather a continuous invitation to materialize His existence in actual and tangible works.  Ve'asu li mikdash veshachanti betocham…, it is written in the Torah, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8).  In other words:  God asks us to erect a physical structure, not to contain Him but to contain ourselves.  Because humankind, being the men and women we are, need a space in which to live, grow, and fulfill ourselves.  Because humankind, as the men and women we are, need the structures that will allow us to join our fellow men and women, to build together the common unity that is at the heart of every community.  Because only when humankind is contained within a strengthened, consistent, and unified community space, can men and women feel God’s presence in each aspect and area of their lives.

However… How do you build a Tabernacle?  How do you build the community dwelling which becomes, at a certain point, God’s sanctuary?  The answer to these questions is found as well at the beginning of our Parashah:  “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him” (Ex. 25:1-2).

Once again, we see that our tradition clearly states its ruling, which becomes eternal advice to be passed from generation to generation:  the only path that allows us to build the dwelling that becomes an abode for both humankind and God is the voluntary action of those who know how to open their hands, transforming their act into an offering and love.

The heart, in the Tradition of Israel, is not an organ that can survive by itself.  The heart, in our tradition, becomes fundamental when it connects with the hands.  Because for us, feeling disassociated from action can be alienating; and a purpose dissociated from the actual materialization of our dreams and hopes, can be the same.

Only when the heart is expressed through our hands, can the sanctuary be erected.

Only when the hand opens, our hopes become a reality.

And only when all of us contribute and do not elude the responsibilities we have acquired, can God’s presence be felt again.

The Mishkan was the physical place where the Torah was kept.  Once the Jews settled in Israel, the Tabernacle became the Bet haMikdash.  But the Temple was destroyed, and we no longer have it.  Nowadays, each one of us is the physical place where the Torah becomes incarnate and the Law is kept; each one of us, united in community, are summoned to become Ark of Testimony, Aron haEdut, serving as faithful witnesses of a memory that can translate into serious work and responsible actions.  The gift of giving, the offering for the wellbeing of those who need it most, and the willingness to help each other in the construction of our own space mark the horizon to which we must aspire.  I believe the time has come for us to head there, because then, we are likely to give God the possibility to dwell among us once more.