Readings for Sunday, March 10, 2024
First Day Rosh Chodesh Adar II
28:1-15 Bamidbar (Numbers)
This is the standard reading for each Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh is the name of the minor holiday
that marks the start of each month. The
term Rosh Chodesh is translated as New Moon. The first day of the month is referred to as
Rosh Chodesh because the months are lunar and the first day of each month comes
with the start of the new moon. In the
days of the Temple special sacrifices were brought in honor of the new moon. With the destruction of the Temple, the
sacrificial system ended. In place of
the sacrifices, Jews read a description of the sacrificial offerings, which is
described in the first fifteen verses of chapter 28 in the book of Numbers. The Torah reading takes place during the daily
morning service. There are many Jews who
have no desire to return to the sacrificial system. They use these readings as a way of providing
a connection with the past which is one of the keys to our future. Because of its connection with the moon, Rosh
Chodesh is thought to have a special meaning for women. Some sages suggest that wives and mothers
should be given gifts on Rosh Chodesh. There are other sages who think that Tzedakah
should be given in the name of these women. Once again, Jewish fund raisers would seem to
be missing a golden opportunity (no pun intended).
Adar II is the 13th month counting from
Pesach. This second month of Adar is added to the calendar during a leap
year. In a leap year all Adar related
observances such as Purim are observed in Adar II. Adar is mentioned by name numerous times in
the Bible, most frequently in the Scroll of Esther but also in the Book of
Ezra. As reported in the Book of Ezra,
the Second Temple was dedicated on the third of Adar. According to tradition, Moses was born and
died on the 7th of the month. For this reason, officers of Jewish Burial
Societies observed 7th of Adar as a minor fast day. During the Maccabees’ war with the Syrians,
Judah Maccabee defeated the Syrian General Nicacnor on the 13th of
Adar. Purim, which falls on the 14th
of Adar, is the most famous event connected with this month. Because of Purim, Adar is viewed as a joyful
month causing the Rabbis to write, “When Adar comes in, rejoicing is
increased.”
Readings for Monday, March 11, 2024
Second Day Rosh Chodesh Adar II
28:1-15 Bamidbar (Numbers)
Same as the first day; this is actually the first day of
the Month of Adar.
Themes:
Adar
Anniversaries
The Second Temple was dedicated on the third of Adar, 350
BCE. 14) And the elders of the Jews
builded and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and
Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they
builded and finished it, according to the commandment of the G-d of Israel, and
according to the decree of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15) And this house was finished on the third
day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the
king. (JPS Translation), http://www.aish.com/dijh/Adar_3.html
You would think such a monumental event would rate some
sort of annual observance on the Jewish calendar. After all, everybody knows the date of the
destruction of the Second Temple. Why
are we not as conversant with our successes as we are with our failures? What was the true nature of the Second Temple?
These and other questions surrounding
the generation that did and did not return from the Babylonian Exile take on a
special urgency as we move from the unremembered 3rd of Adar to the
lionized 14th of Adar. Why do
we make such a tumult over a group of Jews who were in danger only because they
had not returned to Jerusalem; a group that had forgotten the promise that if I
forget thee O! Jerusalem may my right hand forget its cunning? Yet we turn our historical and celebratory
backs on those Jews who remembered Jerusalem and went home to rebuild the
Temple in fulfillment of the prophetic visions.
Readings for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Pekuday
(Count or Enumerate)
38:21-40:38
Shemot (Exodus)
Pekuday is the eleventh and last sedrah in Shemot. It is also the fourth and final sedrah
dealing with the construction of the Mishkan.
The sedrah takes its name from the second Hebrew word in the first
sentence of the portion. “Ayleh Pekuday
Hamishkan” or in English, “These are the countings (or enumerations) of the
Tabernacle.…” It is a brief sedrah. Based on Etz Hayim Chumash and The
Stone Chumash, the sedrah may be divided as follows:
A Tally of the
Metals - 38:21-31
Moshe insists on a tally of the precious metals used in
the construction. The need for honest
accounting did not begin with the financial meltdowns in the last decades of
the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st
century. The author(s) of the TaNaCh
understood that people were only human where great wealth was involved. The givers need to be assured that their
offerings did not stick to any fingers.
And anybody can be accused of having sticky fingers, including
Moshe. In Devarim, he will proclaim his
virtue by announcing that he never took anything and that nobody ever proved
that he did.
The Making of
the Priestly Vestments - 39:1-31
· The Ephod;
· The Breastplate;
· The Robe of the
Ephod;
· The Tunics of
Linen;
· The Headplate.
The message here is quite clear. How we dress, how we appear to others says
volumes about who we are and what we do.
Completion and
Inspection - 39:32-43
According to Rashi, Moshe did not do any of the actual
construction work himself. But when the
people brought the Mishkan to him, the walls were lying down. It was Moshe who miraculously lifted the
walls. Also according to Rashi, when
Moshe accepted the work of the people the blessing he offered included a prayer
that God would rest in the Mishkan and the spirit of the Lord would abide among
the people.
Assembly and
Dedication - 40:1-15
Moshe is commanded to set up the Tabernacle and to anoint
Aaron and his sons. According to the
text, this was all supposed to happen on the first day of Nissan, the month of
the Exodus. According to the Midrash,
the work was actually finished in the month of Kislev. In order not to hurt the feelings of Kislev,
God promised that another Sanctuary would be dedicated during Kislev. This promise came true with Chanukah when the
Second Temple was re-dedicated.
Fulfilling the
Instructions - 40:16-33
Here the Tabernacle is actually erected. According to the text, Moshe did all of the
work himself. Earlier, we had wondered
where the Tablets were kept before the Ark was built. According to a comment by Ramban on 40:20,
Moshe kept them “in a wooden box in his own tent…” There is one difference between the
instructions given to Moshe (40:1-15) and what he actually does
(40:16-33). He is instructed to anoint
Aaron and his sons. But, here at any
rate, he does not do actually do it.
Appearance of
the Divine Presence - 40:34-38
The sedrah and Shemot end with God showing his acceptance
of the work of the Israelites by filling the Tabernacle with His glory. This scene is reminiscent of the last part of
the Seder called Nir’tza or Accepted. It
is a request that God accept the Seder we have completed. For no matter how correctly we may think we
have done it, without God’s approval it was for naught. Well, the same is true of building the
Tabernacle, or any other endeavor. Until
it has found favor in God’s sight, it has no real value. God had “learned” from the experience of the
Golden Calf. The Israelites needed
tangible proof of His presence. So a
cloud filled the Mishkan as a symbol of the divine presence. When the cloud rose up it was time to
move. When the cloud stayed put, so did
the Israelites. The cloud was with them
in the day and a pillar of fire showed that He was with them in the night.
Themes
Commandments
Interestingly enough, there are none in this last sedrah
of Shemot. Could it be that God and
Moshe sensed that the Israelites needed a rest from learning and needed time to
savor what had happened?
Coming Attractions
All that has been described took place in the first month
of the second year of the Exodus. The
next book, Vayikra (Leviticus) primarily concerns itself with laws pertaining
to the Priests and the sacrifices. The
book following Vayikra, Bamidbar (Numbers), picks up where Shemot ends since
its first words are “On the first day of the second month in the second year
following the Exodus.…”
Leadership
Moshe is told to anoint Aaron’s sons as well as
Aaron. This is proof that Moshe accepts
the leadership role that is passing to his brother’s house. Moshe does not ask for special favor for his
two sons. As a father, Moshe may have
been bothered by the lack of a special place for his offspring. But as a leader, he accepted the divine plan
without a hint of complaint.
Numbers
The phrase “that God commands” is written eighteen times
concerning the building of the Tabernacle.
There are eighteen benedictions found in the Amidah. Could it be that each time we recite the
Amidah we are building our own Tabernacle, which we hope God will enter?
The Ark
What went into the Ark?
The text says Moshe put the Tablets in the Ark. In Hebrew the word used is “Ay-doot” which is
a plural form of the word. From this,
the commentators concluded that Moshe had put both the First (the broken) Set
and the Second Set in the Ark. In our
highly disposable society it is interesting to note that our ancestor clung to
the broken stones. There is no mention
of a place for the Torah. Only in
Devarim will we read of the Torah being placed in a special spot just outside
of the Ark of the Covenant.
Limitations of
Language
In Hebrew Moses puts the “Ay-doot” in the Ark. The problem is that different authors use
different English words in translating “Ay-doot.” According to at least two sources, the word
“Ay-doot” is the plural form of the word for Testimony so the Commandments can
be viewed as a testimony to the relationship between God and the Jewish
people. “Ay-doot” is also the plural
form of the word for a female witness.
There are those who believe that the Shechinah is a “female
manifestation” of God and that it is the Shechinah that settles into the
Tabernacle at the end of this Torah portion.
For those who believe this, it would be fitting to see the commandments
as the perpetual witness who saw the development of the unique relationship God
and the Jewish people begin at Sinai and who is always there to remind us of
its timeless existence.
Positive
Reinforcement
“And when Moses saw they had performed all the tasks - as
the Lord had commanded…Moses blessed them” (39:43). According to the Gersosnides, the 14th
century French Talmudist, “We learn from this that a leader ought to bless
those under his direction when they obey him so that they will be readier to do
his will.” Once again, we are reminded
that one of the reasons that the Torah has been studied for so many centuries
is because it speaks to the human condition without regard to time or
place. Here the Torah teaches the
importance of saying thank-you and not taking it for granted when people behave
in a desired manner. Psychology majors
will recognize what Moses did as the forerunner of B.F. Skinner’s concept of
Operant Conditioning using Positive Reinforcement. Since Judaism believes in the concept of Free
Will, people can choose to do the right thing or to do the wrong thing; it is
appropriate to thank them (in this case with a blessing) when they choose the
right path.
Divine Revelation
The Hebrew word for fire is “aysh.” At the beginning of Shemot God first appears
to Moshe “b’lahbaht aysh,” “in a flame of fire.” At the end of Shemot we read that “fire” or
“aysh” is the nighttime sign of the Lord’s presence. Not only that but “aysh” is the last symbol
of the divine presence that is mentioned in Shemot. In other words, God’s first and last
revelation comes in the form of fire. He
begins by revealing Himself in fire to one man.
He ends by revealing Himself in fire to the entire nation. Furthermore, in non-leap years Vayakhel and
Pekuday are read on the same Shabbat.
Vayakhel begins with a command prohibiting the kindling of fire or
“aysh” on Shabbat. Fire is a symbol of
the divine presence. We are allowed to
enjoy a pre-existing fire on Shabbat. We
just are not allowed to create a fire on Shabbat. This means that by observing Shabbat we enjoy
the divine presence (fire) that is with us all week long but which we can only
fully appreciate on the Day of Rest.
“The Medium Is Not the Message” by
Mordechai Beck
The best known Jewish statement of principle on art is,
unfortunately, the ban given at Sinai on making graven images with a likeness
of “anything in the heavens above or the earth beneath”. Despite this prohibition, a few chapters
later the same jealous God commands Moses to erect a tabernacle and fill it
with objects of beauty that are described with such precise detail as to
suggest Divine acceptance of the power of the visual on the imagination of His
children. How do we explain this radical
change of heart? Is art not only to be
permitted but even lauded as a means of reaching the Divine?
The key to this riddle is found in the figure of Bezalel
- or to give him his full name, as it appears when he is first mentioned and
again at the beginning of Pekudei -
“Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah” (Exodus 31:2,
38:22), who “made all that the Lord had commanded Moses.” He was an artist and craftsman capable of
fashioning objects that inspired awe, in the same way, perhaps, that the works
of Leonardo and Michelangelo did for their contemporaries. Does this mean that God repented His
objections to the visual image? What did
Bezalel bring to his work that made it kosher?
According to Midrash Tanhuma,
the answer lies in the very lineage mentioned in the Bible when Bezalel was
introduced. “What need is there to
recall here the name of Hur? Because he
(Hur) gave up his soul for the Holy One, Blessed be He. In that hour that they sought to make the
(golden) calf, he stood before them - between the people and his uncle Aaron,
the high priest - and rebuked them; and they stood against him and killed
him. Said the Holy One, blessed be He,
to Hur: ‘By your life, I will compensate
you for this…by elevating all your progeny.’
Thus it is written: ‘See, God has
called Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur…and filled him with the spirit of God.’”
The sudden explosion of Bezalel’s artistic activity is
here seen as a response to the incident of the golden calf. That incident proved to the hidden mysterious
God that a spiritual life on earth was impossible without some visual, external
props. To this He agreed, but on one
condition: that the objects act merely
as a medium, valuable only insofar as they brought greater glory and praise to
God. Said the invisible Creator of the
Universe, recounts the midrash: “Even My
own children are not prepared to recognize the truth. And if they, who saw with their own eyes all
the wonders and miracles which I wrought in Egypt and in the Exodus from Egypt,
do not believe, how much more so those who did not see such things!” So God searched for someone who could
distinguish between art and idolatry. He
searched and He found Bezalel. Not that
Bezalel was a born artist; rather, God saw his potential to serve the Divine
purpose with his hands and heart and, given his lineage, could be presumed able
to remain pure of idolatrous intent.
King Midas, of Greek myth, had hands whose touch turned everything to
gold. Everything gold touched by Bezalel
turned into something holy. Bezalel got
similar results from silver, copper, ram skins, and acacia wood, as he did from
stone and other materials crafted with sophisticated cutting techniques of high
artistry.
The Torah’s extended descriptions of the objects of the
Tabernacle fill chapters of Exodus, suggesting awareness of the profound need
for the aesthetic in our lives. Visual
art, the Torah seems to concur, is a powerful tool. It touches the root faculty of our humanity -
our imagination. It can be used to
enhance or destroy us, depending on the purpose to which the artistry is put. The medium, that is to say, is not always the
message. Often the artist’s technique
disguises his true purpose. The objection
to idolatry is not to the materials themselves - since all material has its
source in God - or to their being worked into tangible images. The objection is to the assumption that
material - or the image - has some intrinsic value. For idolatry is when the material presence
replaces the reality it represents. This
is what modern philosophers call reification, and what the Sages in their
wisdom saw as a substitution of the container for the content.
Conclusion of the Reading
This marks the end of the reading of the book of
Shemot. Each time the congregation
completes the reading of one of the Five Books of Moses it is customary to
recite “Chazak, Chazak, ve-nit-chazek” or in English, “Be strong, Be strong,
and let us be strengthened.” Variants of
this statement appear in several places and are tied to the study of the
Torah. One of the most common references
is to the Book of Joshua where the statement Chazak ve-matz (Be strong and of
good courage appears three times in Chapter one, verses 6 through 9). In the mention in verse 7 the reference “is
directly tied to importance of the observance of the Torah.” So this Shabbat, you will have earned the
right to stand and recite Chazak, Chazak, ve-nit-chazek.
Haftarah
I Kings
7:51-8:21 (Ashkenazim)
I Kings
7:40-50 (Sephardim and Chabad Chassidim)
The Book: (Briefly) I Kings and II Kings or the Book of
Kings covers the period from the Death of David through the Destruction of the
First Temple. The emphasis is on the behavior
of the monarchs in terms of their relationship to obeying Jewish law and
observing the commandments of the Lord.
The Message: The Ashkenazic reading picks up from where
the haftarah for Vayakhel ended. The
construction of the Temple is completed and now it is time to begin using the
new Sanctuary. The haftarah describes
the elaborate ceremonial activity marking the opening of Solomon’s Temple. After moving all of King David’s treasure
into the Temple, Solomon brought all of the leaders to Jerusalem for the
ceremony. He had the Ark and the Tent of
the Meeting brought to Temple along with all the holy vessels that were in the
Tent. Note that the term used here is
Ohel Moed (Tent of the Meeting) and not Mishkan (Tabernacle). There are those who contend that these two
terms indicate different traditions or different structures. Regardless, the Ark and the Commandments are
installed in the in the Holy of Holies.
And a cloud so filled the House of the Lord that Priests had to leave
had to leave he Sanctuary. For Solomon,
this was proof that the Lord now dwelled in His Temple. The haftarah ends with a speech by Solomon. First Solomon praises his father for having
begun the work that Solomon has now completed.
And then he cites what he has done as fulfillment of the Divine promise
and, by implication, that he has found favor in God’s sight.
Theme-Link: Both the sedrah and the haftarah describe the
completion of divine building projects - the Tabernacle and the Temple. They are joined by the fact that both are
spiritual dwelling places for God and physical homes for the Ark of the
Covenant. Furthermore, the Temple would
appear to be the final resting-place for the Tabernacle. But does the haftarah describe a joining of
the spirit of the Tabernacle with the spirit of the Temple or has the Temple
supplanted the Tabernacle? The
Tabernacle is dedicated in time for Pesach.
The Temple is dedicated on Sukkoth.
The Tabernacle was built by the Israelites using materials gained
through free-willing offerings. The
Temple was built with Jewish and non-Jewish labor. It was built using taxes. And the taxes were not administered equally. Last but not least, Moshe is content to let
his labors speak for themselves, as would befit a man who, after living in pomp
and splendor, had learned to lead the life of a simple shepherd. Solomon, as befits a monarch, felt compelled
to add his words of wisdom as if they were the only way to gain final approval
for what he had done. Tabernacle and
Temple - they represent different strains of our customs and practices and we
need them both to survive and grow.
Copyright; March, 2024; Mitchell A. Levin
3/5/19
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