Parshat Terumah: Make Yourself (Into) a Mishkan

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Transcript

Transcript

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and take my talus and drape it around my shoulders, and I will also show the show the blessing here for that I'm

and if you notice the little meditations before putting on a Tallis. Barrinae, hi, adailo, hi. Notation, Mayim karakia, Oh, bless the Lord my soul. God is very great, robed in majesty and radiance, he Neena meets a TEF but Talit scheltzit kedela, Keith Mitsu. Bori, here I am prepared to put on this seat, seat, this talus with seats eat in order to fulfill the mitzvah of my creator, kakatu, but Torah, as it is written in the Torah Vasu, lahem, sit can Fay, big dehem, the Dora Tom, and you will place fringes on the corners of your garments throughout your generations. So I'm gonna whether or not you're you're actually wearing a Tallis, take a moment to feel your body settling. Wherever it is that you're sitting or standing, resting. You know your your butt, if it's your took it's on a seat or your feet on the floor, sit up a little bit straighter, relax your shoulders. Take a breath or two, just coming to stillness and feeling the fact that you're awake and alive this morning, breathing into your belly and exhaling, feeling it rising and falling. All right. Baruja, tarona, Lehi, TAFE, bit, seat, seat. You mean, it's always fun. You know, when we have our B'nai Mitzvah rehearsals and the 13 year old kids come in and for the first time, their parents kind of give them their like practice Talis to practice saying the blessing and putting it on for the first time. And many of these kids have been practicing the blessing, but they've never actually put it on, you know, said it with putting on a talus. And so, like, they do it for the first time in the rehearsal. And they're like, kind of put, like, with this is supposed to go, you know, the one side's falling off and the other side's falling off, and then pull it back up, but then it's falling off the back and, you know, and it's a, it's, it's kind of a fun thing over time to get comfy. A relatable Susanna says it to get comfy wearing something that is a mitzvah, you know, like clothes we have to wear. A Tallis is and it's an opportunity, it's an invitation, it's a mitzvah, meaning like it's a spiritual obligation. If you're able to find a Talis something with four corners and seat seat, it's an experience. You don't have to, but it's but over time, it's a really beautiful thing to get comfy with. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and put on these to fill in here, and I'm going to explain a little bit more later. We'll talk a little bit more later about how prayer garb relates to the Torah portion this week, which on the on its surface, has nothing to do with prayer garb. But we'll start here. So moving here, saying this, here's my little arm to fill in, showing it off. All right. Baru kata, I don't either medical them, sure. Kitchena, women's photography. Vanu LA to feeling. And so whether or not you're wrapping to fill in here I am like wrapping seven times around my arm. You take this moment to feel your arm. You know both of your arms. Feel your fingers. You know one by one by one. When I was in college, I had to spend a summer quiet, like silent, because I had to recover from vocal cord nodes that I had given myself from, like singing too much and with the wrong vocal hygiene, or, you know, whatever that is, basically what I've spent the entire rest of my adult life trying to be better at. But anyway, so I thought, what can I do with myself during the summer? And I have to be quiet, so I took a massage therapy class. I actually got a certificate in massage therapy. But one of the things the instructor said she does every single morning, you know, maybe in the shower, maybe in bed, is just like, and for anybody who's watching, who's listening to this later, I'm just sort of like touching each one of my fingers, you know, like giving each one of her fingers a massage, giving, you know, her elbow, her forearm, her shoulder, like, just a conscious way of like waking up and like touching each part of her body in the morning, waking up and saying, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this knuckle. Thank you for this knuckle. Thank you for this knuckle, you know. And think about the extent to which we use every single part of the body all day, and don't say thank you for it. You know, aren't even conscious of it. So as we put tefillin on arm and head,

just taking a moment, Bucha and I don't even suppose to fill in,

taking a moment to think about all of the faculties. You know, there are four, four boxes in the to fill in, on the head for the four different times in the Torah, when it says, when there are, you know, the instructions to put on, to fill in. But another way to think about it is, with your arm, you have one sense. This the the faculty of touch. That's what you get with your arm, but on your head, you have sight, smell, taste and hearing four different, four different faculties that come through the head and then, obviously your entire body is a portal for whatever is beyond that sixth sense, so to speak. So I'm gonna flip over to this one here, and we're going to just begin with moda ni, even though we've already done some morning things that technically you might do after saying moda ni, the first thing you say when you wake up in the morning. But partially, I wanted to bring attention to this line. As we say it, the SULI Mikdash, vishakhanti, Beto Cham this line right here because it's from this week's Torah portion, and it's talking about the Mishkan. It's talking about the portable sanctuary that is the Mishkan. But also maybe that is your body. So, as we're saying with Danny, I'm grateful for waking up this morning, and as we sing the the English words that go with it. Oh, Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary.

I just want to, could you just, can you blow up the text of it, the text of what? The English, you know, the SID, can you just blow it up, like make it larger?

What this right here? Like that? Yes, thank you. Oh, no problem. Yes, sorry, and thank you for saying something. So, yeah. So, you know, we do this translation here, which is, I would say, as literally true to the Hebrew well being, kind of poetic as possible. But this is the, this is the English, excuse me, this is the Hebrew vasuli Mishkan that gives rise to the actual gospel tune, oh Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary that we take this tune from. And after we, after we do this, we'll learn a little bit from From the

Parsha see where all that resonance happens. I She been Rabbi

one more Time.

Moda Niha,

grateful Grateful Am I,

as I said before you, living spirit of the world, this soul you gave me, your great faith in me. May I be grateful? May I be good

there as to Lee mihik

Dash be shakhati, better.

Am Lord.

Prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true, and with thanksgiving, I'll Be

a living

sanctuary for you.

Hebrew the ASU li mihi,

better may i ta me?

Me. Lizzi, could you make it just a tad bigger? Sure, thank you for saying that. Blair, uh huh. Can Is that better or even bigger?

That's better. I think. Oh, look, yeah, that's Yeah, that's great. Thank you.

Alright, no problem, yeah, no problem. So this is this. I'll actually do the same thing here. This is where that line comes from. I just want you to see Exodus, 25, verse eight. The asuli Mikdash, vishakhanti betocham, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell betoham among them. And if you've, you know, heard me draw it all on this before, or probably anywhere else, it has been pointed out to you that the asuli, Mikdash, vishakhanti, you would think that the next line, and let them make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell. Where would you think it would be? Let them make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in somebody, somebody on mute, the sanctuary. Yeah, in it, right? Yeah, in it. But vishakhanti, bit toho, in it. But no, it was the to come, and I will dwell in them, the ones that make this for me. And so, you know, we could go and we could read all of the different fancy things here, you know, all of the gold and the silver and the copper and the blue and the purple and the Crimson yarns. And you know, the oil for the lighting and the spices for the anointing oil, and the lapis lazu and the stones for setting and all that good stuff, right, of course, and that wears the dolphin skin, right, and acacia wood and tanned RAM skins. But ultimately, the asuli miktash for Shanti Beto hum. So before, before we even go on and talk about anything else. I want to ask us, like, what? What can that mean? What could that mean? You know, maybe. What does that mean? But what could that mean? When God says this to Moses,

I like to think of it as the outer space reflecting the inner space and creating a space externally is also creating a space internally.

Say more. Oh, I really like that. Say more,

yeah, that that what happens in the external world can be reflected in the internal world as well. So that, if I take the energy and the effort to create an external sanctuary space, I'm also taking the effort to create an internal sanctuary space that I can then host. Hashem,

yeah, I mean, and what you're describing, really, it's like for anybody who has ever cleaned their house because they knew they would feel better afterward, or like made their bed in the morning, because they knew that when they walk into your room later and the bed is made you feel better walk into a messy room, you know, it's like you build up a certain amount of of, I don't know, like resistance or blindness or numbness to, you know, like external chaos, but when there's actually sort of, like order and the effort it takes to create what looks like beauty, and beauty looks like a lot of different things to a lot of different people, there's like an internal resonance. It like strikes a chord inside. Is that sort of what you're saying? I mean, I used a very mundane example.

But, yeah, yeah, very similar. And I

think that logic applies also. Like during Passover, for example, we're like, cleaning homemade out of our house, and like, getting in the corners and really scrubbing. And the idea is, if we're doing this to our kitchens, so much the more so are we looking at our souls and asking, like, what is, what's the sticking point keeping me from getting a little bit more free or liberated or conscious or kind or generous, or what is it? You know, as we do that external process, what else what I love, that Meredith. What else could this mean? I

uh, people basically co sign,

just to add to it quick too. Like if I make a space where I go to do prayer, I'm actually doing the prayer in my head and in my heart and in my body. So again, it's just reflective of, like, the internal space of that.

Yeah, that's so beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, and I think that's just, it's really important to remember that there's that relationship between sort of external setting, circumstance, effort and internal resonance. You know, spirituality, groundedness, connection, because the next four partial are all going to be about the building of the Mishkan that, you know. So my daughter goes, my kids go to a Jewish Day School, and she came home yesterday and she said we were talking about the Mishkan in kindergarten. And I'm like, wow, tell me more. And she said, it's a Mishkan means God's house. And I said, Really, you know? Like, I don't know. She's like, Yeah, it's God's traveling house. And she's not wrong. That's actually, that is what, that's what all of these sections of Torah are about. And I'll just go back to the beginning here of this parsha Truma, which means gift. Tell the Israelite people to bring me gifts to bear. El Deena Israel, the coolie Truma May at colisha, sherid Venu, libo tikhoo et Truma. T tell the Israelite people to bring me gifts. You shall accept gifts for me from every person whose heart is so moved. And so it's, you know, I love that you sensitized us, Meredith to this connection between inner and outer. Because already we're seeing, like, here's a commandment, tell them to do this, but also their heart needs to be in it. I don't want their stuff if their heart isn't in it. And of course, there's kind of like, there's a both and here, because there's a lot of Jewish stuff. We actually say, like, your heart's not going to be in it, but you do it, and then you feel it, you know, the nasema. You might not feel like getting up out of bed, but once you get up and brush your teeth, you know, then you're glad you did. So this is where it begins. Is bring me gifts from every person whose heart is so moved. What I thought I would do after minion is over, actually, I won't wait till minion is over. I wanted to share a little bit of the rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. I mean, he wrote commentaries for ages and ages for many, many decades. And so this is, this is an early one from a while ago, from 15 years ago, but one that I thought was nice. But I think this is just a really interesting, lovely reminder. You don't always feel like being like being generous, but there is something about being moved to give that creates space for God, giving of yourself that actually creates space inside of you, for for divinity, and for, you know, the Divinity that's always there, but for actually feeling it, for making yourself a sanctuary, as we say every single morning. Okay, any, any like, last thoughts on this before we look at, well, I'm gonna, I'm going to zoom us forward to the Shema, and as we say, via half to a healing prayer, and then we'll listen to a little Rabbi Sacks.

I was just going to say, it just shows that God is everywhere, and you don't need a formal place to worship God, kind of like Hasidic teaching of, why, my son, are you walking in the woods to be with God? Because God, that's where I find God, and Right, right? God, find him or her in a separate place. And it's great.

Well, the kid goes into the forest, and the parent says, Why are you going into the forest? Don't you know God is everywhere? And the kid says, Don't you know God is the same everywhere? And the kid says, Yeah, but I'm not the same everywhere, right? Yeah, beautiful. And so, right? And that's kind of the idea, right? Yeah, of course, God is everywhere. But there's something about creating a space, a defined space, and that space can move. And in fact, that space will be deconstructed and reconstructed. And, you know. Dismantled and reassembled many times in many places. But there's something about this act of creating a special, defined space that allows us to connect with holiness. All right. Great, thanks everybody. Oh, and Anne Merle just puts in here our bodies are our Mishkan, right? If we, if we bring the attention to it, I think you're absolutely right. Admiral, is there anything you want to add to that before we, before we jump to schma?

No, it's just yeah, just that we've been trained out of that, the things that our minds are a Mishkan. But that's a big mistake.

It's like, I think it's like a both and, right? Probably first it's

both and, but the extent to which we've been conditioned and trained to give 100% attention to our minds really has been damaging. So we've got to kind of reassess and re establish these relationships. So yeah, it is both and, but it's not easy to get to that both end.

Yeah, yeah. I had a teacher in rabbinical school, a man, and he said he never would wear a tie. He doesn't like wearing ties. Why not? Rabbi Cohen? Because it separates my head, my thinking head, from my feeling body,

you know, absolutely,

it was symbolic, you know, obviously, but, but he didn't want anything separating his thinking head from his feeling body, because they need to work together and not be divorced, as you described, right? All right. So speaking of, speaking of, as we go into Shema, the oneness we're talking about here. I mean, that's, that's one really important dimension of it, of course, you know, is like the the unity of the the whole, the gestalt of each one of our bodies moving through this world, you know, as fragmented and distracted as as we might feel. You know, it feels like our head is in one place, our body's somewhere else. Or, you know our body's not feeling the way or working the way that we want it to, and therefore it's like, ugh, if I could just leave this part of my body somewhere else. But you know, we are we are one, so we have to grow to love it. You know, they have to ATAR and you will love this oneness. I just read in a great book I started, Rabbi David Aaron says God is one, and you are some of the one. You're someone as someone. You are some of the one. You know, each one of us portal for the divine. Okay, so as we go into via hafta after the Shema, we're like, really take a moment to settle breathe, say the words of the Shema. And then as we go into the ahafta, you know, I'll play that really pretty tune we often sing now that he let's just a chant of the very first line. We have to Deena, I have a bad Lord with all of your mind, heart, body, spirit, your everything. If you want to put names into the chat of folks that you're thinking about who need a healing prayer, then we can do that all right. Close eyes. Take a moment to just focus on the words that you're saying of the Shema and taking a breath for each one.

Shema, Israel,

Adonai, elohinu, knew. I don't know

so anyone you're thinking of, they have to

I'll refresh lemma for Catherine Oh, for Catherine's finger, Scott, Sherry,

Ron and Beth aunt, Linda

Andrew, Cindy, Nancy, Pope, Francis, Laurie Kim and Nicole and John and Marie and Dan Nicole K and Shane and Kate and Aiden,

who live afgha.

Sending

love to Orion and Sarah Parker, whole,

so many stories,

everyone in this room, Everyone in this Minion room, all of your parents. Is in varying states of health and sickness and struggling. Nikki, sorry for all the names that went by too quickly on my screen for me to read here, but I hope other people did just taking a moment to send some real tenderness their way for each person you've named, and for each person in this room, especially the ones who are vulnerable enough to say like you Need a prayer. You are seen. Our flesh. Shalima, you

Okay,

all right, so as as often happens on minion days with me, we're going to go over just a little because I want to hear, I want us to hear Rabbi Sacks. And so I'm going to put him on 1.25 speed, which won't make him sound too crazy fast, but I think if I make it any faster, it will not we won't catch it. And he's talking about parsha Truma this week's to our portion. And he really, you know, he gets to his, his point, the point that I really love at the very, very end. But the whole setup is the, the first part of it. So we'll just, we'll do it. Okay? Share sound optimized video. Here we go. Let me know if you can't see it or anything.

We begin the massive shift from the intense drama of the Exodus, with its signs and wonders and epic events, to the long, detailed, exhaustive narrative of how the Israelites constructed the tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that they carried with them through the desert. By any standards, it's part of the Torah that cries out for explanation. I mean, the first thing that strikes us is the sheer length of the account, 1/3 of the book of schmut, five, Truma tether, half of Keith is a vague and picude interrupted only by the story of the golden calf. And this becomes even more perplexing when we create. Compare it to another act of creation, namely God's creation of the universe. That story is told with the utmost brevity, a mere 34 verses. Why take some 15 times as long to tell the story of the sanctuary, the question becomes harder still when we call recall that the Mishkan was not a permanent feature of the spiritual life of the children of Israel. It was specifically designed to be carried on their journey through the wilderness, and later in the days of Solomon, it would be replaced by the temple in Jerusalem. So what enduring message are we supposed to learn from a construction that was not designed to endure? Even more puzzling is the fact that the story is part of the book of Shemot. Shemot Exodus is about the birth of a nation. Hence Egypt, slavery, Pharaoh, the plagues, the Exodus, the journey through the sea, the covenant of Mount Sinai. All these things would become part of our people's collective memory, but the sanctuary where sacrifices were offered, that surely belongs to the book of Vayikra, otherwise known as torad khanim Leviticus, the book of priestly things, that's where it belongs, seems to have no connection with Exodus whatsoever. But the answer, I believe, is profound. The transition from breishes to shamos, from Genesis to Exodus, is about the change from family to nation. When the Israelites entered Egypt, they were a single, extended family. By the time they left, they'd become a sizable people, divided into 12 tribes plus an amorphous collection of fellow travelers known as the Erev ROV, the mixed multitude. Now what united them was a fate. They were the people whom the Egyptians distrusted and enslaved, the Israelites had a common enemy. Beyond that, they had a memory of the patriarchs in their God. They shared a past. What was to prove difficult, almost impossible, was to give them a shared sense of responsibility for the future. Everything we read in Shema tells us that, as is so often the case among people long deprived of their freedom, they. Were passive, and they were easily moved to complain. The two often go together. They expected somebody else, Moses or God, to provide them with food, water, lead them to slavery, take them to the promised land. They expected somebody else to do it for them, and if not, they complained at every setback, they complained. They complained when Moses first intervention failed, may the Lord look on you and judge you. You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and a poured a sword in their hand to kill us the Red Sea. They complained again. They said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert after the Red Sea, the terror says when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him in Moses and in Moses his servant. But after a mere three days, they were complaining again, there was no water, or there was water, but it was too bitter. Then there was no food. The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you brought us out into this desert to starve the entire assembly to death. Soon, Moses himself is saying to God, what am I to do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. Now, by then, God had already performed signs and wonders on the people's behalf, taken them out of Egypt, divided the sea for them, given them water from a rock, manna from heaven. And still, they don't cohere as a nation. They're a group of individuals unwilling or unable to take responsibility, to act collectively rather than to complain. And now God does the single greatest act in the history of human religious experience, he appears in the revelation of Mount Sinai, the only time in history that God has appeared to an entire people. And the people tremble. There was never anything like it before. There never will be again. How long does this last 40 days. Then the people start making a golden calf. If miracles, the division of the Red Sea and the revelation of Mount Sinai failed to transform them Israelites. What will? There are no greater miracles than these. That is when God does the single most unexpected thing. He says to Moses, speak to the people and get them to contribute, to give something of their own, be it gold or silver or bronze, wool, animal skin, oil, incense or their skill or their time, and get them to build something together, a symbolic home for my presence. A tabernacle doesn't mean to be large or grand or permanent. Get them to make something. Get them to become builders. Get them to give. And Moses does, and the people respond. They respond so generously that Moses is told the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done, and Moses has to say, Stop. During the whole time the tabernacle was being constructed, there were no complaints, no rebellions, no dissension. What all the signs and wonders failed to do. The construction of the tabernacle succeeded in doing. It transformed the people. It turned them into a cohesive group. He gave them a sense of responsibility and achievement and identity seen in this context, the story of the tabernacle was the essential, crucial element in the Birth of a Nation. No wonder it's told at length. No surprise that it belongs to the book of Exodus, and there's nothing ephemeral about it whatsoever. The Tabernacle didn't last forever, but the lesson it taught really did. It's not what God does for us that transforms us, but what we do for God a free society, is best symbolized by the tabernacle. It is the home we build together. It is only by becoming builders that we turn from subjects to citizens. We have to earn our freedom by what we give, by what we build. It cannot be given to us as an unearned gift. It is what we do, not what is done to us, that makes us free. That is a lesson as true today as it was then. Shabbat, shalom.

Shabbat shalom. All right. Well, now you understand why at Mishkan, we call members builders and right, yeah, so good. We'll, we'll discuss for anybody who wants to after we say Kaddish, right now, yeah, now you understand why we call members builders in this community at Mishkan. All right, okay, conscious that it's 835, here, all right, so we always say Kaddish, not just because it is how we close out minion remembering folks who've come before us, but also on the heels of learning. This is a way to honor having learned something from anyone you might mention, where Rabbi Jonathan Sacks may his memory. Would be a blessing. Is there anybody who you're remembering this morning whose name you want

to share? Nancy Jacobson, Sean soborsky, and today, Shira Keith and Ariel Bevis were buried.

Oh, thank you. Mark nur love Joan Carlo and Lee Herron, or excuse me and Theresa Owen,

anyone else

is there anybody who would like to lead us in Kaddish? Joan Carlo,

no one else wants to. I can lead. All right. Thanks, Irene, please feel free to unmute and join iskadal Fauci may Rabbi Amen divra, who say the Alima, who say Bucha, the Call base is for

mom say, but you said Dark. Visala, she may decoo shot,

Iran, bilama, Rabbi, minj, Rabbi Shamaya, Bucha, Elena, y'all call Israel be Emma Osei, shalom, bimro, love, who ya ASA, shalom. Elena, y'all call yes for El ya call your faith table. Amen,

may all of their memories be blessings, be blessings. And I want to

close us out with a tune for you to carry with you for the rest of the day, just to call back to what we did earlier,

just to call back to what we did earlier so that it can be your soundtrack for walking around the world.

Oh, Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true, and with thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary or Mishkan for you. There I SULI

mihik da ve Shahan, tea me

Toha

VA na me ba rabbi,

Nam one.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai