Shabbat Terumah
Written by student rabbi Debbie Young Wednesday, 21 February 2007
“And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them?” commands Exodus 25:8.
Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) questions why God asks this, “as if He were a physical being who could be limited in place – the opposite of the truth”. Indeed the idea of a Mishkan and Temple can be very challenging for us as Progressive Jews. We no longer pray for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, and do not wish to see a return to Temple Sacrifice, but do our synagogues fulfil the function of aiding God to ‘dwell among us’? Indeed, how do we attempt to keep God in our midst?
Last week we had an engaging and thought-provoking two day seminar looking at conversion. Several times the issue was raised of how perhaps those who wish to convert for a partner are understood better than those who wish to convert because of a religious experience or sense of the divine expressing itself in Judaism. An analogy was made between this and how rarely we, as rabbinic students, bring God into our discussions. Those of us who are here because of a sense of calling do not often discuss it, perhaps because it sounds too Christian? Or because we sound a little mad when we try to express anything in ‘God Language’? For me this week’s parashah is a reminder not to forget to keep God among us. There will be no one model for how we do this because, in the words of Brian, ‘You are all Individuals’ (though of course I’m not!), but we must be conscious of the need to make space for God in our own, hectic schedules, and to make God a part of our community.
Perhaps this space, here, is the very forum in which to do this, creating a weekly space where we can come together as a community to pray, and experience how other people pray and approach the Divine. For some of us it might be that we find God in community, for others it might be in solitude, for some it will be social action and sweeping up school yards (as Yisroel Cambell joked last week), but however we wish to create a space for God in our midst, we should perhaps take to heart Nahmanides’ comments on “They shall make an ark” two verses later in Exodus 25:10: “‘They shall make’ hints that all Israel should participate in the making of the Ark” writes Nahmanides. We cannot leave this task to someone else, and hope that God is brought into our midst by a few. We all have to make the effort to participate, engage, and lead.
Indeed, in our communities (please God we will have some!) it will not, I believe, be our job to bring God to the congregation, but rather to encourage all to bring what they can of themselves so that God will dwell among us as a community. This is a collective task for us now, and in our future communities, and one we should not underestimate because we don’t have the language to express ourselves about God without sounding crazy. Bringing God into our midst will be hard work, but it will be easier because we do it together. I hope we can all make space for the variety of ways that we, individually, try to bring God into the midst of our community here.
