Terumah

TERUMAH, this week's parasha explains in the deepest details how to build the sanctuary.

“The House We Build Together”.

It’s not so much WHAT we build, 

but HOW we build which tells of our character.  

“V’asu Li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham.”  

“Make for me a sanctuary,” 

God says, 

“so that I may dwell among them.”  How do we build?

WHAT we build will be beautiful and environmentally-responsible.  

But HOW we build will be transformative.  

This is the wisdom of our parashah.  

God instructs us:  “Make for me a sanctuary,

” God says,

" so that I may dwell among you.”  

The emphasis is not on the noun, 

but on the verb.  

Not on the thing, 

but the action.  

You see, 

SOME people WILL be attracted to a beautiful building.  

But 

EVERYONE is attracted to a community that BUILDS TOGETHER.  

That is where the sanctity lies.  

Not in the tent pegs, 

but

in the COMING TOGETHER over the tent pegs:  

Not what we build, but how we build.

" Ner Hashem nishmat adam chofesh kol chadrei baten "

" the lamp of the Eternal is the soul of man, searching all its inner chambers’ (Proverbs 20:27).

To be clear, Judaism has always been and must always be a religion of DEEDS, 

A sacred collection of actions intended to draw us closer to one another and to our G-D. 

Let, 

 HOW WE build THIS SACRED SPACE together be in the spirit of our parasha, 

so that God’s Presence will indeed be among us.  

Amen.