For the Audio Podcast reflecting on some of these sources please click here.
Exodus 36 (trans by TaggedTanakh)
3They took over from Moses all the gifts that the Israelites had brought, to carry out the tasks connected with the service of the sanctuary. But when these continued to bring freewill offerings to him morning after morning,
4all the artisans who were engaged in the tasks of the sanctuary came, each from the task upon which he was engaged,
5and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the tasks entailed in the work that the Lord has commanded to be done.”
6Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: “Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary!” So the people stopped bringing:
7their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.
8Then all the skilled among those engaged in the work made the tabernacle of ten strips of cloth, which they made of fine twisted linen, blue, purple, and crimson yarns; into these they worked a design of cherubim. 9The length of each cloth was twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each cloth was four cubits, all cloths having the same measurements.... (and a lot more detail where that came from)
A question for all the artists out there:
Have you ever been able to talk about the tools and specifics of your creating process to a laymen? Or is that it might as well be rocket science?
"All of this feels somehow therapeutic, and it was meant to be. After the listless waiting for Moses and then the frenzy of the Golden Calf and his return, the Jewish people had to be built from the ground up, riven and soldered into a more durable entity than the one that had thus far struggled to finds its footing. This combination of labor and detail suggests a different way of being in the world, one where the human mind and body engage themselves in the projects of mending and building. At a time of Jewish tragedy, this chapter reminds us that it might be the work of our hands that helps heal the pain in our hearts."
-By Ari Hoffman, Sacred Craft: Love’s Labor Found
(Link here)
Question:
Do you imagine that this labor of healing is a metaphor or is it something tangible? For instance is it a labor of love, such as calling to register people to vote, or do we need to build actual physical structures to bring healing?
"The midrash is not just attempting to source the wood in a location where such wood was unavailable, but more significantly to teach that the tabernacle, and our temples as well, must be built upon the foundations of our ancestors. Everything had changed from the time that Jacob’s family of seventy descended to Egypt, but the central pillar of the mishkan, representing the core of who we are as a people, must remain true to the open tent of Abraham."
-By Marc Gitler, Sourcing the Wood for the Tabernacle
(Link here)
Reflection:
It is so lovely to think of building as happening upon the shoulders of previous generations. How heart-wrenching is it for us as the Jewish people that we lost an entire generation as a result of the Shoah. Not only did we lose our loved ones, but we also lost all of their stories and wisdom, parshanut and hasidic tales. How much more so is this generation vital in doing the work of rebuilding in the wake of the greatest calamity to befall our people.
Exodus 37 (trans by TaggedTanakh)
17 [Betzalel] made the lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand—its base and its shaft—of hammered work; its cups, calyxes, and petals were of one piece with it.
18Six branches issued from its sides: three branches from one side of the lampstand, and three branches from the other side of the lampstand.
19There were three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on one branch; and there were three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on the next branch; so for all six branches issuing from the lampstand.
Reflection:
One of my all-time favorite divrei torah is on this parashah. It can be found here.
This is my favorite section from it:
"A tree on fire embraces what we misperceive as antitheses: earth and heaven, matter and energy. What we are accustomed to polarize is revealed to us in blazing union. A tree on fire unconsumed proclaims that what is material, temporal, perishable, can sustain what the Christian theologian Rudolf Otto calls the “fearsome and fascinating mystery” of the presence of God (The Idea of the Holy, 1923). If we were only able to see, the whole earth would appear to us like a tree on fire, and we would see a tree on fire in every human frame."
Artistic dvar torah (by Robert Kirschbaum) in the form of a textile panel can be found on the front page of Exodus 37.
The textile describes the panel as being inspired by sacred space. The visual is a gorgeous textile work where the shapes all lead towards a middle space.
Question:
The Tent of Meeting/Tabernacle/Mishkan place the holy of holies in the middle. In Exodus 33, however, it is described that the Mishkan was outside the camp, ie not in the center. Where have your sacred spaces been: in the center or outside at the periphery?
Exodus 38 (trans by TaggedTanakh)
7and [Betzalel] inserted the poles into the rings on the side walls of the altar, to carry it by them. He made it hollow, of boards.
8He made the laver of copper and its stand of copper, from the mirrors of the women who performed tasks at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
9He made the enclosure:
On the south side, a hundred cubits of hangings of fine twisted linen for the enclosure—
Who were these women?
Exodus 38:8 tells that the washbasin in the courtyard was made of copper, “from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” Who were these women? They make one more appearance in the Bible, in a less positive context. The sons of the high priest Eli abused their power in all sorts of ways, according to 1 Samuel 2, including “lying with the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (2:22).
These two enigmatic references conceal more than they reveal. What were the women doing? The word tzove’ot, which I translated “served,” is the same word used for all the people who “served” in the Tabernacle. Were there women among them? Were women in the workplace, even in the Late Bronze Age, too challenging for men, some of whom mistreated them sexually? Why do we not hear of these women elsewhere? And why were their mirrors made into a washbasin? Was this an act of usurpation? Or of generosity?
Sometimes, Scripture says nothing but “interpret me!”
-By Aaron Koller, Who Were These Women?
Question:
What is your interpretation?
Exodus 39 (trans by TaggedTanakh)
27They made the tunics of fine linen, of woven work, for Aaron and his sons;
28and the headdress of fine linen, and the decorated turbans of fine linen, and the linen breeches of fine twisted linen;
Reflection:
I am a member of The Community Hevra Kadisha of Greater Boston, a group where we prepare the meyt (the departed) for burial the following morning. One of the final acts performed is dressing the meyt in a white tunic. Yes, it feels a lot like Yom Kippur. And yes we are like the angels on Yom Kippur. But it never really hit me until now that aside from the colorful accouterments there is abundant similarity in our final outfit and those of the cohanim as they would go into the holy of holies to commune with Hashem. This juxtaposition is quite striking to me.
Exodus 40 (trans by TaggedTanakh)
34the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
35Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
"Has it not already been stated: Do I not fill heaven and the earth (Jer. 23:24)? R. Joshua of Sikhnin said in the name of R. Levi: This may be compared to a cave situated at the edge of the sea. Though the sea rushes forth and fills the cave, the sea lacks nothing."
(Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 7:2)