Terumah 5773

Creation takes work, whether constructing a building or fortifying a community.  Parashat Terumah, Exodus 25:1-27:19, outlines what’s needed to construct the mishkan, God’s dwelling place on earth.  Through physical gifts (precious metals and stones, colored yarns, animal skins, oil, and wood) and physical effort (hammering, washing, marking, cutting, and carrying) the Israelites construct an edifice and weave themselves into a single people.  The work is hard.  It is also holy.

Interestingly, the rabbis of the Talmud (Shabbat 7:2) refer to the labor required to build the mishkan to describe the work prohibited on Shabbat.  Work that is holy in one context is profane in another; work that is encouraged some times is prohibited others.

And so it is at synagogue.  So much of the “work” that makes the synagogue function—setting up, taking down, teaching,  cleaning, answering phones, working in the gift shop, building, organizing, calling, and writing—is performed by congregants who give their time and skill to build our community.  Temple Emanuel bursts with the energy and effort of our volunteers!  These actions, which might be mundane elsewhere, become holy here.

Just as our ancestors brought disparate gifts and wove themselves into a single people, so do we in our own day form community through our shared dedication, contribution, and service.