Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1 - 27:8)

by Rabbi Janet Burden, West Central Liberal Synagogue

Summary
God commands that freely given donations be taken towards the building of the Tabernacle.  The rest of the portion is taken up with the instructions for all its various components.

Commentary

With this Shabbat’s portion, T’rumah, we have reached that section of the Torah which, for many people, is the most difficult: the detailed description of the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness.    Apart from the episode of the Golden Calf, the remainder of the book of Exodus is concerned solely with the construction of the sanctuary.  The great narrative that began with the “Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” has culminated in the Revelation at Sinai....how could the continuation not be anticlimactic?  Yet my feeling is that this shift is absolutely essential for us.  If, as the Haggadah tells us, we are to experience the story of the Exodus personally, it seems to me that we need a break, a chance to process some of what we have seen and heard.  Psychologically, we could not have coped with a continuation of the intensity that has gone before.  We know this from our personal experience.  Our lives generally follow a pattern of peak moments, followed by quieter times of consolidation and moving forward.  The Torah text reflects this.  Although our portion is still presented as part of the Revelation to Moses, we sense that it is time to start coming down from mountain, to begin realising the vision we have had on the summit.

We have also reached a point where another kind of shift is necessary.  Up until this moment, the people - individually and collectively - have been little more than a backdrop to the action -  almost part of the scenery.  God, Pharaoh, and Moses (with a little help from Aaron) have filled the stage.   Not anymore.  At the end of the portion last week, Mishpatim, the people have said, “Kol ha-d’varim asher dibeir Adonai, na-aseh. -  All the words which the Eternal has spoken we will do”(Exodus 24:3).   Finally, they are to be given the chance to become actors in this unfolding drama.  And each one has a part to play.  From the outset, the building of the tabernacle is profoundly a co-operative effort.  It starts with the people’s offering, the t’rumah, that gives our portion its name. 

Their offerings, no less than the ultimate building of the tabernacle itself, were acts of real worship.  Now that’s a word I do not use lightly, as it is one almost guaranteed to turn most people off these days.  In everyday speech, we use this word virtually exclusively in relation to formal religious services.  Clearly, however, this is not the kind of “worship” we are talking about here.  The Biblical word that is frequently translated as “worship” is “avodah.”  Speakers of modern Hebrew will know this word in a very different context, meaning “work” or even “job.”  I find it interesting that, in Biblical Hebrew, the same word serves for both “work” and “worship.”  Given the later development of diaspora Judaism, especially in those countries where Christianity predominated, these could be seen as opposing concepts:  “Work” is what you don’t do on Shabbat, which is set aside for “Worship.”  I am not making a value judgement on that - in many ways, it seems right to me.  But we should recognise that the original split was not between “work” and “worship,” but between “work” and “rest.”    Worship was part of people’s daily lives, not something done once a week.  And “worship,” at least as they knew it, was jolly hard work. 

Most of the work that they begin is not glamorous.  Some people will be chopping trees, kindling fires, pounding out precious metals.  Others will weave and sew the curtains, attaching the fitments   (and, if my experience is anything to go by, probably redoing them when it doesn’t go quite right).  But everyone has a part to play, a skill to offer.  It is work, and it is worship.  What is important is the goal – serving God in and through community.

Why not make some time to consider what your terumah or your avodah is, or could be, today?

Rabbi Janet Burden

West Central Liberal Synagogue