Also a miracle: unity

WE are all familiar with the big miracles in the Torah: the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, the manna falling from the heavens, sustaining the Jewish people for 40 years. These indeed are the famous miracles.

But think about this week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, literally, “and he gathered.” Moses gathers the entire Jewish people. The whole nation. Everyone stands together ready to hear the words of Moses.

First of all, picture that many people in the wilderness, throngs and throngs, able to hear Moses their leader, who is not a man of words. This itself strikes me as miraculous.

The unity of the Jewish people, according to Rashi a hallmark of receiving G-d’s Torah at Sinai, is repeated here. All the people who enthusiastically participated in building the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, are ready to receive the Shechinah, G-d’s Presence, in physical space. This is a rare unity of the people. Vayakhel, “and Moses gathered them all” — this becomes one with the moment of the Tabernacle.

It is almost as though being united is a precondition for the Jewish people to receive such momentous spiritual events that manifest G-dliness in this world, such as in the Tabernacle.

Or, perhaps it is the unity itself that invites the sacred dwelling of G-d on this earth, whether through the Torah or avodah, spiritual service in the Tabernacle.

Vayakhel is of the same Hebrew root as kehillah, a united community. This is what we need to transform ourselves into when we want to be nearest to G-d, nearest to receiving the Shechinah, His Presence.

Today, we are no longer privileged to be near to G-d in the Tabernacle, His dwelling place in physical space. What we still do have, and will always have, is our connection to G-d in time.

The beginning of this week’s Torah portion repeats the commandment of keeping the Sabbath.

We already learned about the Sabbath as a people at Mt. Sinai. But here, on the cusp of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, we hear of the Sabbath again, for there will come a time, and we now live in this time, when we will not have the Mishkan, the physical dwelling place of G-d, the sanctification of G-d in space.

But we will always have the opportunity to sanctify G-d in time. And that is what the Sabbath is.

It is a sacred pause in time once in seven days, when we can access the holiness of the Mishkan, the experience of standing before its intricate golden, silver, copper and scarlet veils, ark, menorah, altar, walls and courtyards.

The root letters of Mishkan form the word shachen, “neighbor.” There is a certain intimacy between neighbors that exists because of sheer proximity. What geographically affects a person often affects one’s neighbor as well.

This caring from shachen to shachen, from neighbor to neighbor, is symbolic of a certain unity. A unity that, if cultivated, can eventually have the domino affect of reaching a state of Vayakhel, a kehillah, a community ready to receive G-d’s dwelling presence in space, here on earth, in the Mishkan.

As the sun sets on Fridays, we welcome the Sabbath and her accompanying Shechinah, G-d’s presence in time, with the poem “Lecha Dodi.”

THIS week’s portion of Vayakhel is almost an exact repetition the earlier portion, Terumah. Terumah conveys the perspective of the future; it is the preparation for Vayakhel. It is the “motivated heart” to actualize the dream. Vayakhel is the reality, the execution of “the motivated heart” of Terumah, becoming the “wise heart” with which we look back to see the transformation of the Mishkan from theory to reality, to Divine presence in space.

As the seven days of the work week lead up to the pause of the Sabbath, to the wisdom and presence of G-d, so, too, from Terumah to Vayakhel and kehillah. From the “motivated heart” to the “wise heart,” from neighborliness Mishkan, to G-d’s Presence. To Shabbos.

Shabbat Shalom.

Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News