Why God wanted a sanctuary built

For Shabbat, Feb. 29, 2020

Parasha Terumah

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Mantell

SAN DIEGO — The story is told of a little girl flying her kite on a windy day near the beach. The kite was so flying so high up in the clouds, it couldn’t be seen. A stranger walked up to her and asked her what she was doing.

“I’m flying my kite high up in the sky, mister,” she said.

He replied, “What? I don’t see any kite. How do you know it’s up there?”

The little girl smiled, and said, “Mister, I know it’s up there because…I feel the tug.”

This week in parasha Terumah, (“gift,” “portion’ or “offering” depending on whether you read the Jewish Publication Society, the Stone edition or the Soncino chumash ) we learn the many specific details of the building of the Tabernacle, Hashem’s dwelling place. It says in the parasha, “And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst” וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם (Exodus 25:8).

The Malbim, (Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel) understood this pasuk as, “I will dwell within them,” that is, among the people, not within it, the sanctuary. Making a sanctuary is understood to be the requirement for Hashem to dwell within us. We cannot be passive and expect Hashem to dwell within us. We have to take the first step. He doesn’t live in a building, isn’t restricted to one place, but rather lives within us, our hearts and minds.

Do we need a sanctuary to know, to feel, Hashem’s presence and that He dwells in our midst? Or, like the little girl flying her kite, do we “feel the tug” wherever we are? Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk teaches us that “G-d dwells where we let Him in.”

Where do you let Him in? What sanctuary in your life have you built for Him to dwell within you? Does Hashem really need a sanctuary, or does He recognize that we need to participate in building one so that we feel, know, that He is within ourselves? The answer is clear, isn’t it? Rabbi Isaac Abravanel raised this, “Why did [God] command the erection of the tabernacle, when [God] said “that I may dwell among them,” as if God were an object demarcated and limited in space—which is the opposite of the truth!… After all, God himself spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah (66:1): “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what kind of house can you build for me?”

Answers Maimonides in Sefer HaChinuch, “Know, my child, that any commandment that God requires of humankind comes only out of God’s desire to benefit us . . . God’s command to build the Tabernacle, for us to offer therein our prayers and sacrifices, comes not out of God’s needs to dwell in an earthly dwelling among humankind, but rather [out of God’s awareness that we need] train our own selves”

Of course, everyone’s involvement is different in how one makes Him a sanctuary. Indeed, the parasha begins with “Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering. And this is the offering that you shall take from them: gold, silver, and copper” (Exodus 25:2-3). Rashi and other commentators teach us that the gold and silver were voluntary gifts, from open hearts, those that are open to Hashem. Regardless of one’s financial means, there was opportunity enough to make a proper donation.

Our community, our synagogues, are fully reliant on our gifts, portions or offerings. Terumah is our voluntary, generous, personal donation, what we give to our institutions to help magnify and grow in our spiritual lives. Our institutions need our terumah, and the parasha comes to teach that we need to give it.

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Michael Mantell, Ph.D writes a d’var Torah each week for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family worship.