Monday, February 28, 2011

Shabbat Vayakhel: A Lesson in Community Building, delivered 2/26/2011

It is striking that the Torah spends so much time and energy on the details of the Tabernacle. For the past three weeks, we’ve been reading about the details of this enormous building project. Any one ready to move on yet? Due to the Jewish leap year, parshiot Vahakhel and Pekude are read separately this year. So, we have another week to go. Anyone else want to speak about the building of the Tabernacle? After this Shabbat, I think I'm done.

The big events in Biblical history, the ones we recall regularly in our liturgy and celebrate in our festival cycle -- Creation (כי ששת ימים עשה יי את השמים ואת הארץ וביום השביעי שבת וינפש); Exodus, redemption, from Egyptian bondage; and Revelation of law and the forming of covenant at Sinai – don’t take up a lot of space in the Torah. They don’t have to. The drama of these events speaks for itself. We’ve experienced, as best as we can from our reading and study, the drama of, for example, revelation. Its presentation in the text is so extraordinary that it is hard for us to wrap our modern, rational minds around the episode. Redemption, too – come on, a splitting sea? No, we can’t explain it. We can try to rationalize it as unexplainable miracle or complete myth; but, regardless of how we as liberal readers come to terms with the text, the dramatic presentation helps imprint the episodes on our communal memory. That moment is ours as much as it was our ancestors who stood in the midbar at the foot of a mountain called Sinai, and the editor didn’t need an abundance of space to get that vital point across. The building of the Tabernacle, on the other hand, isn’t particularly dramatic, and it shouldn’t be. Those of us who have built anything know that drama in construction projects usually means trouble. More to the point, however, Judaism celebrates formative events in the community’s, namely the Israelite community’s, development, not buildings.

So then, why all this attention to building materials and instructions? Why the tedious, meticulous, and frankly repetitious, detail regarding how to construct the Tabernacle and all that goes into it? As I’ve reflected on other occasions, these are not simple, IKEA-style ‘one man or woman can do it,’ instructions. With regard to the planks, for example, our text instructs “...The length of each … was 10 cubits, and the width, a cubit and a 1/2. Each shall have two tenons, parallel to each other...make 20 planks on the south side, making 40 silver sockets under the 20 planks, 2 sockets under the one plank for its two tenons and 2 sockets under each...” and so on. I consider myself pretty handy. I’ve put together my share of IKEA-do-it-yourself type furniture. I know how to use a drill. However, if anything came with instructions as convoluted and demanding as these apparently dictated by God; sorry God, the project wouldn’t get done…certainly not by me alone.

The Biblical narrative doesn’t give the Israelites that choice, the choice to say, ‘no thank you, God, we don’t need a Tabernacle.’ But, perhaps we are assuming that they had no choice. Imagine if the Tabernacle didn’t get built. This week’s Torah portion is a repetition of instructions. Earlier the instructions are given to the community, Parashat Vayakhel reports how they were done. And this is precisely the point; for, if the Tabernacle didn’t get built, the entire story of the Israelites would end here. Just as important as redemption and revelation is the building of the Tabernacle - not a miracle performed dramatically by God and experienced by the people due to Divine grace; but rather, a miracle performed by the determined and cooperative labors of the people.

The Tabernacle - the mishkan - the first formal place of worship, of gathering for the community. A place that is to serve as symbol of both God’s presence and communal unity. Certainly, we are not defined by the buildings we build. The text makes it very clear that it is not the material gifts that determine the success. We read that so many gifts were brought, so many material offerings, that Moses was forced to proclaim to all: "אלֹ־יאשוּ עוד מלאכה לתרומת הקדש" - stop making further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary. Stop your individual donations. We should be so fortunate as to have to stop individual gift giving.

What is needed is community action, not more stuff. All the materials - the blue, purple & crimson yarns for example, the dolphin skins, the gold, the talents of silver described at length - none of it matters if the Israelites are unable to work together to get it done. No matter the amount of material riches bestowed on any community, our synagogues included, not a penny of it is worth a damn unless the individuals work together towards a unified goal.

The Israelite saga - their growth from a vagabond group of slaves into a people with a shared identity and mission is begun with redemption and revelation, but it is solidified by accomplishing this great and awesome task. Only now, not as passive recipients of God’s interventions, but rather as active partners with God and the community, can the Israelites continue their journey. Yes, a lot of textual space is given to the descriptions regarding and the building of this first mishkan, and the descriptions are at times dull, but we will learn that they finish. Finally next week, we will read, “וַתֵּ֕כֶל כּל־עבוד֕ת משכּ֖ן א֣הל מוע֑ד” “Thus was completed all the work of the Tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting. No splitting sea, no smoke and thunder, but the level of cooperation and mutual respect required in order to complete this task is just as, if not more, miraculous. It is certainly worthy of emulation!

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