Parashat T’rumah: G!d’s Need for a Dwelling

(A Torah study led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on February 5, 2022)

Our reading today mostly contained a detailing of the command to build the mishkan, a portable sanctuary, that our ancestors would carry throughout their desert wanderings. With our reading as background, let’s go to the beginning of the portion to read the literary origin of this command:

Exodus 25:1-8

HaShem spoke to Moses, “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. These are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

Question to consider:

• What do you see as an issue with this verse?

Some possible responses might be:

• Where would the Israelites have gotten dolphin skins now that they are in the wilderness?
• If these are t’rumot, gifts, how can they be commanded?

Perhaps we might have some analogy to a couple getting married who creates a registry of things they want at a nice store, so they can begin their relationship with much of their basic needs taken care of. After all, the events at Sinai are often celebrated by Jews at Shavuot as a kind of wedding ceremony between G!d and the Jewish people.

• Nonetheless, why pick these items? What might they have in common–or what do they all lack?
• The Israelites have been enslaved for some 400 years. How would they have these items or saved up for them? And, if they are going to barter for them, where will they find an oasis in the desert that might stock these items?!!?

Actually, while all of these things might be problems, there is one that is at least as great, and more basic. Rabbi Isaac Abravanel,^[1] who shepherded our people through the expulsion from Spain and beyond, pinpoints the problem:

Why did G!d command the erection of the tabernacle, when [G!d] said “that I may dwell among them,” as if G!d were an object demarcated and limited in space— which is the opposite of the truth!… After all, G!d spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah (66:1): “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what kind of house can you build for me?”

 Question to consider:

• Yes, why does G!d need a dwelling in the first place?
• Why does G!d need a sanctuary, whether the Mishkan or a synagogue?

[When you consider your answer, please think about whether your answer is G!d-based or people-based. Remember, the question is: What does G!d get out of it?]

One early answer to this comes from an early 13th century anonymous work from Spain, titled Sefer HaChinuch.^[2]

Know, my child, that any commandment that G!d requires of humankind comes only out of G!d’s desire to benefit us…G!d’s command to build the Tabernacle, for us to offer therein our prayers and sacrifices, comes not out of G!d’s needs to dwell in an earthly dwelling among humankind, but rather [out of G!d’s awareness that we need] to train our own selves…

Question to consider:

• According to the Sefer HaChinuch, G!d needs a sanctuary so that we can train ourselves. In what or for what might we need training? In considering this, think of what G!d might want from or need from us.

Another possible reason G!d needs a sanctuary comes from a more modern commentator, Rabbi Umberto Cassuto.^[3] Rabbi Cassuto was a historian and Bible scholar at the University of Florence in Italy, but antisemitic laws forced him to resign in 1938, and he went to live in Israel, teaching at Hebrew University. He established a very specific Israeli critical approach to studying Tanakh that is still done there today. About G!d’s command to build G!d a sanctuary, he writes:

…the Israelites, had been privileged to witness…Mount Sinai…So long as they were encamped in the place, they were conscious of God’s nearness; but once they set out on their journey, it seemed to them as though the link had been broken….It was the function of the Tabernacle to serve as such a symbol…Therefore, this section comes immediately after the section that describes the…Covenant at Mount Sinai.  

The nexus between Israel and the Tabernacle is a perpetual extension of the bond that was forged at Sinai between the people and their God. The Israelites, dwelling in tribal order at every encampment, are able to see, from every side, the Tabernacle standing in the midst of the camp, and the visible presence of the Sanctuary proves to them that just as the glory of G!d dwelt on Mount Sinai, so too G!d dwells in their midst wherever they wander in the wilderness. This is the purpose of Scripture, when it states: ‘And let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.’

 Questions to consider:

• How important is it to you to have a physical space designated for prayer? Why do you think this is?
• Has it been as important to you that we have our premises during the pandemic even though we were solely on Zoom?
• For members of synagogues who do not attend regularly, why might being a member still be very important to them?
• What human need might a specific location fill for many people, even when they do not?

One way to think about this is offered by a commentator known simply as the Malbim.^[4] On this command to build a tabernacle, he writes:

…Each one of us needs to build God a Tabernacle in the recesses of our hearts,

by preparing oneself to become a Sanctuary for God and a place for the dwelling of God’s glory. 

Malbim’s view may be understood as tying together the views of the Sefer Chinuch and Cassuto. We need to train ourselves in mindfulness and holiness by cultivating spiritual direction. This is something that for many people starts in a “sanctuary,” a “synagogue,” but surely its purpose is not to stultify or stagnate there. Rather, it’s something we take with us to impel us toward being the best version of ourselves we can, and to spread the kind of godly concerns–honor, integrity, justice, kindness, love–in all that we do, in how we bear ourselves.

Question to Consider:

• So how do you prepare your heart to be a sanctuary for the Divine, a center of holiness, a home for G!d, a refuge for you to bask in, and a place of encourage that can challenge you, in the best sense, to be more you?
• What do you need to do this Shabbat and beyond to get your heart ready, so that your life can be a place of Glory?

May all that we do in establishing this sanctuary within us, be deemed good and worthy of ourselves and of G!d’s blessings.

Shabbat shalom!

^[1] Abravanel, 1437-1508, was a Portuguese Jewish statesmen, Bible commentator, philosopher, and financier.

^[2] Sefer HaChinuch, systematically discusses the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, based on Maimonides’ organization of the mitzvot.

^[3] Rabbi Cassuto, 1883-1951, was an Italian historian and scholar of both the Hebrew Bible and the Ugaritic Language. He was forced out of his position at the University of Florence in 1938 due to the adoption of Italy’s racial laws. He fled and taught thereafter at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

^[4] The name “Malbim” derives from the initials of his name: Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser (1809-1879). He was a Hebrew grammarian, Bible commentator and rabbi who lived in the Russian Empire.