T'rumah: Exodus 25:1 - 27:18

"(1) Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts (t'rumah); you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. (3) And these are the gifts (t'rumah) that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; (4) blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair; (5) tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; (6) oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; (7) lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece."

Rashi on Exodus 25:2 -- Implied in the word תרומתי “My heave offering,” and referred to by the word כסף in the next verse, the heave offering for the Tabernacle was a free-will gift from each individual (Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 1:1).

(8) And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (9) Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you make it.

(10) They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. (11) Overlay it with pure gold—overlay it inside and out—and make upon it a gold molding round about. (12) Cast four gold rings for it, to be attached to its four feet, two rings on one of its side walls and two on the other. (13) Make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold; (14) then insert the poles into the rings on the side walls of the ark, for carrying the ark. (15) The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark: they shall not be removed from it. (16) And deposit in the Ark [the tablets of] the Pact which I will give you.

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Rabbi Sheldon Lewis (Torah of Reconciliation pp. 151-152): "The Tabernacle of the Testimony" testifies to all humanity that the Holy One was reconciled with Israel. A parable: To what is this compared? To a king who married a woman and loved her exceedingly. [At one point] he became angry at her and left her. Her neighbors said to her that he would not return to her. After a period of time, the king was reconciled with her and entered her palace where he ate and drank. The neighbors did not believe the king was reconciled with her. The fragrance [of the king] was upon her. Immediately they recognized that the king was reconciled with her. Similarly, the Holy One loved Israel, brought them before Mount Sinai, gave them Torah, and addressed them as kings. After forty days they made the golden calf. At that moment the nations said that the Holy One would never be reconciled with the people Israel. When Moses stood and prayed before the Holy One, Hashem said: "I have forgiven according to your words. Moreover I will cause My Presence to dwell upon them and in their midst, and all will know that I have forgiven them. (Yalkut Shimoni, Pekude 414)

Rabbi Beniah said: "Israel, having engaged in idolatry was liable to destruction. The gold of the Tabernacle came to atone for the gold of the calf. "(Sifre, Deut. 1)"....

[Rabbi Lewis:] According to the view expressed in these selections from Midrash, the idea of the Tabernacle did not arise until the golden calf was worshipped. It was a new antidote, a pathway to reconciliation. The very materials used to build the calf were now to be elevated to a sacred purpose. Instead of being an object of worship, the gold would now be offered as a devotional act toward G-d. Most importantly, the Tabernacle symbolized renewed intimacy between G-d and the people after their egregious act of disloyalty embodied in the golden calf.... [S]uch and act of rejection could have irreparably broken the bond between G-d and Israel. That even such a crisis could be met with an entirely new path to healing and renewal teaches us that overcoming distance is possible and urgent, even in the extreme. The Tabernacle... represented an ever-present central symbol of reconciliation. There was no need to accept distance caused by sin; there would always be another opportunity for a new beginning. The [Torah's] surprising focus on the details of building the Tabernacle and its functioning perhaps is explicable as a statement of the ongoing need for an instrument of renewal. Much of the Torah can be seen as an emphatic statement of the possibility of rebuilding a fractured relationship. If reconciliation was possible with G-d after such a cleavage as the golden calf, how much moreso would it be possible to heal the breakdown in any human relationship."

(17) You shall make a cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. (18) Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover. (19) Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end; of one piece with the cover shall you make the cherubim at its two ends. (20) The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover. (21) Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing inside the Ark the Pact that I will give you. (22) There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you -- from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact -- all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people."

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Rabbi Sheldon Lewis (Id. p. 153)

"In a tradition that generally prohibits facing a human image during devotion (or even creating a graven image at all), these two human/angelic forms are surprisingly placed at the focal point of the Ark in the Holy of Holies. The text has their faces turned both toward each other and toward the Ark, implying that the relationship of one to the other, and their relationship to G-d, are intertwined. It is noteworthy that G-d's Presence is then located precisely between these two figures and in no other place.... [The cherubim] remind the viewer that love between one person and another creates the optimal ground for sensing the Presence of the Divine.... which depends on a loving trusting relationship between G-d's creatures."

“Let them make for Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.” (Ex. 25:8)

This is the first time in the Torah that we hear the verb sh-ch-n, meaning “to dwell,” in relation to G-d. As a noun it means literally, “a neighbour.” From this is derived the key word in post-biblical Judaism, Shechinah, meaning the Holy One's immanence as opposed to Hashem's transcendence, G0d-as-One-who-is-close, the daring idea of G-d as a near neighbour.

In terms of the theology of the Torah, the very idea of a Mishkan, a Sanctuary or Temple, a physical “home” for “G-d’s glory,” is deeply paradoxical. G-d is beyond space. As King Solomon said at the inauguration of the first Temple, “Behold, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens, cannot encompass You, how much less this House?” Or as Isaiah said in G-d’s name: “The heavens are My throne and the earth My foot-stool. What House shall you build for Me, where can My resting place be?” (Is. 66:1)

The answer, as the Jewish mystics emphasised, is that G-d does not live in a building, but rather in the hearts of the builders: “Let them make for me a Sanctuary and I will dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8) – “among them,” not “in it.” How, though, does this happen? What human act causes the Divine Presence to live within the camp, the community? The answer is the name of our parsha, Terumah, meaning, a gift, a contribution.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying ‘Tell the Israelites to bring Me an offering. You are to receive the offering for Me from everyone whose heart moves them to give.’ (Ex. 25:2)

This would prove to be the turning point in Jewish history. Until that moment the Israelites had been recipients of G-d’s miracles and deliverances. Hashem had taken them from slavery to freedom and performed miracles for them. There was only one thing G-d had not yet done, namely, give the Israelites the chance of giving back something to G-d. The very idea sounds absurd. How can we, G-d’s creations, give back to the One who made us? All we have is Hashem's.

As David said, at the gathering he convened at the end of his life to initiate the building the Temple: "Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things … Who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. (I Chronicles 29:12, 29:14) That ultimately is the logic of the Mishkan. G-d’s greatest gift to us is the ability to give to G-d's Glory. From a Judaic perspective the idea is fraught with risk. The idea that G-d might be in need of gifts is close to paganism and heresy. Yet, knowing the risk, G-d allowed G-d's self to be persuaded by Moses to cause G-d's spirit to rest within the camp and allow the Israelites to give something back to G-d.

At the heart of the idea of the Sanctuary is what Lewis Hyde beautifully described as the labour of gratitude. His classic study, The Gift, looks at the role of the giving and receiving of gifts, for example, at critical moments of transition. Hyde quotes the Talmudic story of a man whose daughter was about to get married, but who had been told that she would not survive to the end of the day. The next morning the man visited his daughter and saw that she was still alive. Unknown to both of them, when she hung up her hat after the wedding, its pin pierced a serpent that would otherwise have bitten and killed her. The father wanted to know what his daughter had done that merited this Divine Intervention. She answered, “A poor man came to the door yesterday. Everyone was so busy with the wedding preparations that they did not have time to deal with him. So I took the portion that had been intended for me and gave it to him.” It was this act of generosity that was the cause of her miraculous deliverance. (Shabbat 156b)

The construction of the Sanctuary was fundamentally important because it gave the Israelites the chance to give back to G-d. Later Jewish law recognised that giving is an integral part of human dignity when they made the remarkable ruling that even a poor person completely dependent on charity is still obliged to give charity. To be in a situation where you can only receive, not give, is to lack human dignity.

The Mishkan became the home of the Divine Presence because G-d specified that it be built only out of voluntary contributions. Giving creates a gracious society by enabling each of us to make our contribution to the public good. That is why the building of the Sanctuary was the cure for the sin of the Golden Calf. A society that only received but could not give was trapped in dependency and lack of self-respect. G-d allowed the people to come close to the Divine Presence, and It to them, by giving them the chance to give.

That is why a society based on rights not responsibilities, on what we claim from, not what we give to others, will always eventually go wrong. It is why the most important gift a parent can give a child is the chance to give back. The etymology of the word terumah hints at this. It means not simply a contribution, but literally something 'raised up.' When we give, it is not just our contribution but we who are raised up. We survive by what we are given, but we achieve dignity by what we give."

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🎶Song: Sanctuary (by W. Angeles Cogic Congregation Choir)

Lord prepare me

To be a sanctuary,

Pure and holy,

Tried and true.

And with thanksgiving.

I'll be a living

Sanctuary

For You.