Terumah 5762, Exodus 25:1 - 27:19

Read the reading online at:
http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/jpstext/terumah.shtml

God instructs Moses "have them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them"
(25:8), then proceeds to make a box to contain the Presence (such as used for
Eastern gods to this day), and hut, and a house. Moreover, there is bread and
light. But it is explicitly stated that the bread is not for God to eat
(25:30), but for the priests (Leviticus 24:5-9). So what of the light? It comes
to teach that even when we build a home for God on Earth, we are truly building
a home for ourselves, to illumine our lives. In concrete terms, building for
others ultimately builds for ourselves.

Have a caring week!
-Shabbat Shalom!

This week's bootleg dvar torah comes from the University of Judaism's Rabbinic
School. http://38.246.89.29/Content/ContentUnit.asp?CID=845&u=1925&t=0

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Shabbat Parashat Terumah
February 16, 2002 - 4 Adar 5762
The Menorah: Let Your Light Shine
By: Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

Everyone knows that the principal symbol of Judaism is the six-pointed Star of
David. But did you know that the
Magen David only became a Jewish symbol in the Middle Ages? Despite its
prominence on the flag of Israel and kiddush cups, the Magen David is a rather
late representative of Judaism and the Jewish People. For most of our history,
and certainly in antiquity, the preeminent symbol of the Jewish religion was
the Menorah, the seven- branched candlestick which was found first in the
Tabernacle of Moses, and later in the Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem.

That menorah is mentioned for the first time in today's Torah reading, when God
tells Moses to "make a lampstand of pure gold...its base and its shaft, its
cups, calyxes, and petals shall be of one piece. Six branches shall issue from
its sides." In reading the description of the Menorah, the confusion is
overwhelming--the details are so complex that it is easy to despair of ever
visualizing it correctly.

That same confusion must have overwhelmed Moses as well. An ancient midrash,
recorded in the Talmud as well, states that "three things presented
difficulties to Moses, until the Holy Blessed One showed Moses with His
finger:...[one was] the menorah, as it is written, 'and this was the work of
the menorah." According to another ancient tradition, not God but the angel
Gabriel drew a picture so that Moses could see the image that God was
portraying in words.

Yet another tradition, found in Midrash Bamidbar Rabbah, holds that Moses kept
confusing the details each time he returned to the camp. After forgetting for
the third time, God told Moses not to worry, since the artist Betzalel would be
able to remember the details correctly, which indeed he did. Why were those
details so impossible to retain? What is the Torah teaching us about human
beings and about being human? After all, Moses is able to remember the entire
Torah (according to one tradition of how the Torah was recorded), and according
to Mishnah Avot, he was able to remember the entire Oral Teaching as well! How
could such a skilled and gifted mind have trouble remembering the details of
the Menorah?

Perhaps the Torah is telling us that even the most gifted of minds is stronger
in some areas and weaker in others. Moses was a great role model for our entire
people, yet he too was imperfect. Betzalel, who made no great contribution to
Jewish law or Jewish literature, was able to make a timeless contribution that
was beyond Moses' abilities. Each of us has some special talent or gift that is
our unique strength. No matter how special other people may seem, you are able
to bring your unique perspective and insight and talents in a combination that
no one else can reproduce. In the words of the Mishnah, "there is no one who
doesn't have their hour, and nothing which does not have its place." Each one
of us, in our own ways, can add something irreplacable to the luxurious weave
of humanity.

Every individual person, like each glistening thread, makes the cloth that much
more shimmering and durable. No one can replace you. Perhaps that is also why
the Menorah has so many lights. Each one of the seven lights shines in its own
uniqueness. In fact, the only thing that can make a menorah treif (ritually
impermissible) is if the lights are not all on the same level--precisely
even--so that no two lights can be confused as one. So too, the Talmud
instructs that no replicas of the Temple menorah can be made or displayed
anymore. Perhaps this too is an assertion of the importance of each individual.
Just as the Temple Menorah cannot simply be replaced, so too no human being can
simply be replaced. Instead, those seven burning flames testify to the shining
light within each human being: "the human soul is the lamp of God." The light
of God's love, justice, and concern can only illumine the world throught the
individual light that we shine through our deeds, our communities, and through
our performance of mitzvot.

Like the Menorah of old, we can illumine the world.

Shine brightly. Shabbat Shalom.

Have a caring week!
Benjamin Fleischer 

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