Have you ever seen a physical space that was so beautiful it took your breath away?
When I was 20 years old, I hiked part of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage through the north of Spain to the third holiest site for Catholics (after Jerusalem and Rome). I walked one hundred kilometers over five days, which was just long enough to get the certificate at the end. When I arrived at the city of Santiago de Compostela, I made my way to the cathedral plaza, where I lay down on the ground alongside fellow pilgrims to see the cathedral in all of its glory. Now it might have been the sheer exhilaration of arriving at a destination after long, full days of walking with new friends, but I remember feeling stunned by the majestic cathedral. Surely God is in this place, I thought. Beauty, both natural and human made, has a way of opening our eyes to the presence of God. I had walked all this way to see a holy space, and even from the outside, I felt its holiness.
Parshat Terumah, this week’s Torah portion, features the blueprints to build our first permanent (though movable) holy space (“mishkan”) and, along with the building materials that God instructs the people to use, it will clearly be shiny, colorful, and beautiful.
God says:
Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them: gold, silver, and copper; blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
וְעָשׂוּ לִי, מִקְדָּשׁ; וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, בְּתוֹכָם
And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:2-8).
This is an epic list of materials, from precious metals and stones to richly dyed fabrics of different materials, animal skins to valuable wood and oils.
What is so striking to me about this list is that these people who are being commanded to build a sanctuary are the former slaves. They have known no other life but slavery, except for this brief time that they have spent in a state of freedom. How is it that these former slaves come to have so many valuables and so much to give away?
Back in Exodus 12:35-36, after the final plague, while the Israelites are hurriedly preparing to leave Egypt, we read:
לה וּבְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל עָשׂוּ, כִּדְבַר מֹשֶׁה; וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ, מִמִּצְרַיִם, כְּלֵי-כֶסֶף וּכְלֵי זָהָב, וּשְׂמָלֹת
The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing.
לו וַיהוָה נָתַן אֶת-חֵן הָעָם, בְּעֵינֵי מִצְרַיִם–וַיַּשְׁאִלוּם; וַיְנַצְּלוּ, אֶת-מִצְרָיִם
And יהוה had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they stripped the Egyptians.
Plague after plague, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. In contrast, when the Israelites ask their Egyptian neighbors for precious materials, God inclines the Egyptians to give their belongings to the Israelites (very literally: God puts grace in the eyes of the Egyptians and they look favorably on the Israelites). With complete willingness of the Egyptians, the Israelites strip the Egyptians of their belongings, effectively collecting reparations for their four hundred years of slavery.
When God begins laying out the plans for the mishkan, suddenly we understand that Israelites really did take a lot of stuff from the Egyptians! And they have been traveling with all of this silver, gold, and fabric. These items, though beautiful and rare and precious, haven’t been so useful in their journeying through the midbar (desert) – but they will become useful to create a beautiful place for God to dwell among the people.
And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
The instructions to build the mishkan reflect God’s faith in the Jewish people, that a people who have just walked away from the worst trauma will not fall into a scarcity mentality or hoard their wealth, but rather they will give generously to build something that is for the benefit of the whole community. They will be misguided, of course, when they work together to build a golden calf, but ultimately they will recover and they will put their wealth to work, bringing God’s presence into their community in a tangible way.
God’s instructions to the Israelites remind us that our physical items are never ours to hold onto forever. The money we inherit or earn is only as good as what we use it for.
And also, the mishkan is something that the people will build. God does not build it. It will be a human-made space – a beautiful and functional one – that brings God’s presence to the people. “And let them make Me a sanctuary,” says God, empowering us to build beauty into the world, teaching us that we too can manifest the presence of God through the spaces and communities that we build.
May we consider the power of our money as we work to make God’s presence more tangible in the world. May we build a more beautiful world, each and every day. And may we find spaces and moments of beauty that allow us to feel God in our lives.
I enter into Shabbat with these prayers:
May this Shabbat bring blessings and consolation to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity. May all those who are ill find healing.
May all the hostages come home soon to their families and friends, and may we see peace.
Leah Carnow, Rabbinic Intern