Terumah – Once Upon a Week

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This week we will discuss the basic yet important aspect of worshipping God: offerings, and we will be reading about the Tabernacle construction.The detailed description of the building of the Sanctuary will continue through the rest of the book of Exodus until its grand opening, when the Glory of God completely covers the Tabernacle, and no man, not even Moses, are able to enter it.

God accepted the offering and the work of men, of people, and came to dwell among us. In the coming weeks, we will read in great detail, about the construction of the Sanctuary, it’s utensils and priestly garments. Our Torah Portion begins with the offering that the children of Israel are asked to give, out of the goodness of their hearts:

“Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.”

(Exodus 25:2)

And what is the purpose of these offerings?

This raises an immediate question. A question that our sages kept asking for generations:

How can a man build a house that will contain God, the Creator of the universe?The bible says: (in Isaiah,66:1)

Midrash Tanchuma asks: can we make Him a sanctuary?The answer is:

Here ,it is our willingness to give our offerings, our worship to God. It is not measured according to God’s power, which we cannot match, as the entire world is the creation of God. So we see that the entire world cannot be compared with God and his power.

So how can we serve such God?

The answer is, not according to His power, but according to our strength and abilities.The Midrash continues and says that:

And when people opened their hearts and offered freely and all the work was done, then the sanctuary was filled with God’s glory, because it was built with the open heart, with honest effort and with good will.

We learn from this Midrash, that our will to give freely and to serve God and those around, is the foundation upon which rest all other commandments and rules of the Scriptures. This principle “Not according to my means, but their means” is very clear in the New Testament. Yeshua is sitting next to the treasury, watching people who came to the Temple, donating money for its work and function.Many of the pilgrims, who came to the Temple, were wealthy and they donated a lot.

But among all the people who put money into the treasury, Yeshua noticed a very special woman, a poor widow, who had nothing. This woman put into the treasury box two coins. I imagine that she was probably ashamed at her appearance in the Temple, because although she was wearing her best cloths, her Shabbat cloths, I am sure they were still very simple and poor.

And when she compared herself to all the other visitors in the Temple, those who donated large sums of money, she felt shame. because she saw what Yeshua saw: people putting lots of money into the Temple treasury. It was easy for her to hold back her tiny donation, because what can these two pennies do or add to the Temple? Nothing!

But, I think this woman understood the principle of “not according to His means, but to hers,” and she gave all her means and all she had. Yeshua saw this woman and was touched by her offering. He turned to his disciples and said:

His disciples probably looked around, and did not understand how this poor woman gave more than the others?

So Yeshua explained to his disciples. All the others gave out of their abundance. Some probably gave the tithe – 10%, as commanded, while others were even more generous, and added over their 10% offering. But this poor widow, she gave everything that she had. She gave according to the principle: “I am not asking according to my strength, but according to yours”, without diminishing other donations. So from a relative perspective, this widow simply gave more.

What was the Tabernacle?

It was a desert shack, made with planks of acacia wood; 20 planks long and 8 planks wide, covered with 10 curtains. In our Torah Portion, we see the detailed list of all materials used for the construction of the Tabernacle. But it was only a shell, only the outside. The Sanctuary was built by the power of giving and generosity, by the good will to serve God.

We are talking about people who were slaves. People who had struggled financially over a long period of time, and now they are asked to give, not because they have to, but because they want to. And because they wanted to, because they, the nation of slaves, gave their offering with love, the Sanctuary got filled with God’s Glory and his Power.

This common project succeeded to unite the people. If Pharaoh tried to break their spirit, the Tabernacle construction created a common vision, responsibility and cooperation. Everyone waswelcome to join forces in offering and in work, and even if one person could not give much, who had neither artistic talent, nor material goods to offer. Such person was invited to learn from Bezalel, to learn some creative skills and artistic work. As it is written, Bezalel had a heart for instruction, and had the ability to teach.

Because of the offering and the common work, everyone felt connected. I imagine different people looking at the Tabernacle, and each of them thinking, I painted this, I colored that, I sawed these parts together. Others were thinking – these instruments are made with my silver, or- my gold was used for the menorah. We are talking here about a tremendous national achievement.

In the book of Nehemiah, we read about a similar achievement, when Nehemiah asked the residents of Jerusalem to build the walls of the city by themselves. He was the first to roll up his sleeves and began to work. Their hostile neighbors opposed this work, and Nehemiah’s answer to them was:

The Messianic Movement adopted this verse, this idea, and there is a beautiful song about the building of the body of Messiah, based on these verses, saying that we will continue to work together until Yeshua will come to reign in His Jerusalem. And also, today we say, that the opposition will not stop us, God will fill us with strength, and that we, God’s workers, will rise and build; rise and act, we will do our best, till the day of Yeshua’s return to Jerusalem.

Now, Nehemiah’s idea was that every family in Jerusalem will take responsibility for a section of the wall, will fix and repair it. A large family will take a larger section, while a smaller family will repair a smaller section of the wall, so that everyone will do the work according to his abilities. For example, the Hight Priest, Eliashiv and his family, built the sheep gate and its doors. According to this model, the residents of Jerusalem quarried stones, polished wood, attached gates, constructed towers, moves stones… and thus - built Jerusalem.

The residents of Jerusalem did not only build the wall, but they built themselves up and built their own confidence. By working together, the residents of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah, earned their homeland and took ownership of the city. It was now truly theirs! Nehemiah’s call was for everyone, those well-off, and those whose only contribution was a bit of work. It was relevant for every person, every family, according to their abilities.

Every family walked around the city knowing that they took part in its restoration, and Jerusalem is standing firm, also because of them. Contribution and joint action, built connection, partnership and even friendship. The Torah teaches us, that in order to gain the divine presence, one must open his heart and give willingly and with love. Our Portion goes into details of the Tabernacle, God gives the exact dimensions, quantities, colors and materials, to be used for His Sanctuary.

Sometimes we feel small, insignificant and meaningless. Who and what are we? Are we only a speck of dust in the universe, too small for God to even notice us? But this Torah Portion teaches us that God cares, and that every hook and every loop, even the smallest one, matters. Yeshua tells us that God sees and counts everything:

Yeshua reminds us that even the hair on our head is counted and known to God, who created us. He cares for each and every one of us. Every person in the world is important for Him, every person means the world to Him. God created man in his own likeness and image, In Judaism we say that:

The word image first appeared in the book of Genesis, where we read that man was created in the image and likeness of God. The holiness and the value of every life is based on this definition of man, and that is why bloodshed is strictly forbidden. Killing a person nullifies the life that has divine meaning. When someone hurts his neighbor, either physically or emotionally, he hurts the image of God in this person. Whoever humiliates another human being, humiliates God’s reflection in him.

The famous Jewish book - Ethics of the Fathers speaks of  “Three important things”.

And also:

In a similar way, in the New Testament, the apostle Paul concludes his teaching on love:

Paul defines love as the most important, because everything is included in it. Faith is important, it is the foundation on which we stand, but love upgrades the life of faith to action with joy. We can observe the commandment, because we must, or we can observe them in love and joy, with true intention; free from pursuit of reward or fear of punishment.

Hope, we are lost without it. What person can exist without hope?He, who lost hope, has lost the taste in life. But love plants hope. Love makes us invest, it makes us selfless, for the sake of others. Love promises hope as well.

The Tabernacle was built by Israel’s love.They gave the offering of love, out of hope and faith.Hope for the future, with complete faith, is reflected in Israel’s free giving; in their open and giving heart.

Today our love, our generosity and our work for heaven’s sake, makes us participants in the Kingdom of God! And this love will fill our prayer houses with the presence of God.