Showing posts with label Terumah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terumah. Show all posts
Saturday, February 17, 2024
The Four Worlds and the Mishkan in Terumah
The Four Worlds of the mystics of Spanish Kabbalah in the 13th Century, including Azriel of Gerona, then Moses de Leon, Isaac b. Samuel of Acre, and later Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (first half of 18th Cent. from Padua), in The Way of God, derived the concept of the Four Worlds from Isaiah (43:7) which is also in the haftarah for B’reisheet כֹּ֚ל הַנִּקְרָ֣א בִשְׁמִ֔י וְלִכְבוֹדִ֖י בְּרָאתִ֑יו יְצַרְתִּ֖יו אַף־עֲשִׂיתִֽיו׃
“All that is called by my name for my glory (Atzilut) I have created it (Beriyah) I have formed it (Yetzirah) and I have made it (Assiyah)." The four worlds also describe the primal elements of the natural world: Action or earth; Emotion or water; Intellect or air; Essence or Spirit or the energy of fire. Assiyah is the physical world: the material universe in which we live and perform actions and deeds. Yetzirah is the world of angels or energies: of emotion, creativity, and expression; Beriyah is the world of the soul forces that receive guidance and of thought and intellect; Atzilut is the eternal unchanging Divine world of God’s emanations and influences.
The Tabernacle or Mishkan, from the word, Shakan, meaning dwell, consists of a courtyard outlined by lace hangings, and a Tent of Meeting, divided into two sections, containing holy golden objects. The outer courtyard of the Mishkan represents the world of Assiyah, doing, where sacrifice is offered, washing is done, and confession and prayers are offered. The outer half of the tent with the golden menorah giving light for the eyes, the Incense altar with its hypnotic scent and smokey, almost tangible cloud, the table or shulchan with sweet tasting bread, and the sound of tinkling bells from the High priest's robe, represents the world of Yetzirah: the emotions created by engaging all the senses creating feelings of uplift, wonder, and reveling in all the magnificent beauty of the gleaming golden furniture. The inner half of the tent represents Beriyah, the Holy Aron or ark, the place of the words on the tablets of the Ten Declarations, which require intellect, thought, and choice, the command center of the human being from which all emotions and actions flow. The world of Atzilut is represented by the space between and above the wings of the angels on the ark, from where God's voice could be heard. The Mishkan was a physical representation of how human beings create and live in this world. All the spiritual teachers say that thought and choice produce emotion, and lead to deeds, all of which create our world. The design of the Mishkan imparts this knowledge and deep wisdom, showing us that, similar to the teachings of the Chassidic masters and to Buddhism: right thought leads to joyous and uplifting emotions, which lead to blessed action and happy lives. Choosing to think of and care about the Divine and each other, which the 10 Commandments help us to do, and appreciating the Divine and the beauty, goodness, and uplift we receive through our senses, lead us to enjoy our lives and express our joy though an active, expansive, and good life. The design of the Mishkan can speak this to us: be guided by your intellect. Choose the good and beautiful. Choose joy. Enjoy everything that comes to you through your senses, and act, living life fully and joyously.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Refining our Life Energy
This week’s Torah portion is Terumah, which means portion or contribution. It also means lifting up or separation. Terumah contains God’s request for the Israelites to give a freewill offering of materials needed for the construction of the Tabernacle, the portable site of worship and sacrifice that the Israelites carried with them in the wilderness. All the many detailed instructions for building it are also in this portion. Toward the beginning of the portion the text reads: "V’asa li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham." Rashi translates this as: “they shall make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.” (Ex. 25:5) This can also be translated, they shall make for me holiness and I shall dwell within them.
There is a long rabbinic tradition that we are the place of holiness, that we should make a dwelling place in our hearts for God’s Presence to lodge there. There is a line in Deuteronomy that says, “But God has taken you, and brought you out of the iron crucible, out of Egypt, to be for God a people of inheritance, as you are this day.” (4:20) A crucible is used to refine metal. The metal is melted in the crucible and the impurities are poured off, leaving only the pure substance. The Torah is telling us that we were taken out of Egypt to refine, to purify ourselves. A crucible also is the place where what was hard becomes soft. This can be a metaphor for ego, which the Torah describes as being stiff-necked: intractable and resistant to change. We know that the priests had to purify themselves before they could approach the holy areas and holy furniture of the Tabernacle. The people had to purify themselves for three days before they could hear God speak the Ten Commandments to them; and Moses had to purify himself for six days before he could enter the cloud on Mt. Sinai and dwell with God’s Presence for 40 days and nights. So in order for us to experience God’s Presence in our lives, we are being asked to undergo purification too. The Zohar (I: 88b) tells us, “…when a person exerts himself to purify himself and to draw near to God, then the Shekinah rests on him.”
How is purification accomplished? The Tabernacle, as a place for sacrifice, always involved confession and atonement. So this is the first step: recognizing and acknowledging our faults: all the things we could have done better, all the things we did wrong. Rabbi Schneur Zalman, as quoted by Rabbi Shachter Shalomi, (Wrapped in a Holy Flame P. 195) wrote, “in this arousing of mercies following the contrition, evil and the other side are no longer nurtured from the life energy.” But there is a next step. The Chassidic masters spoke about three realms of action: thought, word, and deed. Our actions are probably the easiest of the three to purify. We can set about doing the right thing and try to carry that out. Words are harder: we slip and say things we shouldn’t say. We become annoyed and answer too quickly. We forget to take the time to be gentle with each other. Rabbi Gelberman wrote: “A word is an outer symbol of an inner feeling.” This shows us that the real work of purification should concern our thoughts.
There is an inner fine-ness that we are capable of achieving, stemming from the love and real compassion we can feel for others and for the Divine. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev wrote, “One should never think evil thoughts for in the mind of each individual is the holy of holies.” (Soul of the Torah, P. 154) This fine-ness is something to be sought, because as we journey toward it, the change in us activates change above, as the Zohar says,( I:77b) “…whoever makes an effort to purify himself receives assistance from above…for the upper world is not stirred to act until an impulse is given from the lower world. ” As we strive for inner purity, inner fineness we will find many levels and opportunities because we are shown the areas inwardly, that we are expected to tackle. The Apter Rebbe, Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt wrote, God will communicate with the Jewish people in their closed, private, and protected selves, in the deepest depths of their hearts.
This is what spiritual striving is all about: the burning desire for union with the beloved Divine, that which poet Chaviva Pedaya expressed in this way: “One thing have I asked and it I seek: Your dwelling in me…”(Women’s Torah Commentary (P. 472). Our task is to lift ourselves up, by refining our life energy, our thoughts, words, and deeds, to make a dwelling place for God’s Presence. Just because we are human, we are capable of achieving it, not for its own sake, but to heal and help, to be a gift and experience God’s gifts. This is what all kabbalah is about: the thirst for spiritual love, and even ecstasy, that can be experienced when we make for God holiness, that the Divine may dwell within us.
There is a long rabbinic tradition that we are the place of holiness, that we should make a dwelling place in our hearts for God’s Presence to lodge there. There is a line in Deuteronomy that says, “But God has taken you, and brought you out of the iron crucible, out of Egypt, to be for God a people of inheritance, as you are this day.” (4:20) A crucible is used to refine metal. The metal is melted in the crucible and the impurities are poured off, leaving only the pure substance. The Torah is telling us that we were taken out of Egypt to refine, to purify ourselves. A crucible also is the place where what was hard becomes soft. This can be a metaphor for ego, which the Torah describes as being stiff-necked: intractable and resistant to change. We know that the priests had to purify themselves before they could approach the holy areas and holy furniture of the Tabernacle. The people had to purify themselves for three days before they could hear God speak the Ten Commandments to them; and Moses had to purify himself for six days before he could enter the cloud on Mt. Sinai and dwell with God’s Presence for 40 days and nights. So in order for us to experience God’s Presence in our lives, we are being asked to undergo purification too. The Zohar (I: 88b) tells us, “…when a person exerts himself to purify himself and to draw near to God, then the Shekinah rests on him.”
How is purification accomplished? The Tabernacle, as a place for sacrifice, always involved confession and atonement. So this is the first step: recognizing and acknowledging our faults: all the things we could have done better, all the things we did wrong. Rabbi Schneur Zalman, as quoted by Rabbi Shachter Shalomi, (Wrapped in a Holy Flame P. 195) wrote, “in this arousing of mercies following the contrition, evil and the other side are no longer nurtured from the life energy.” But there is a next step. The Chassidic masters spoke about three realms of action: thought, word, and deed. Our actions are probably the easiest of the three to purify. We can set about doing the right thing and try to carry that out. Words are harder: we slip and say things we shouldn’t say. We become annoyed and answer too quickly. We forget to take the time to be gentle with each other. Rabbi Gelberman wrote: “A word is an outer symbol of an inner feeling.” This shows us that the real work of purification should concern our thoughts.
There is an inner fine-ness that we are capable of achieving, stemming from the love and real compassion we can feel for others and for the Divine. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev wrote, “One should never think evil thoughts for in the mind of each individual is the holy of holies.” (Soul of the Torah, P. 154) This fine-ness is something to be sought, because as we journey toward it, the change in us activates change above, as the Zohar says,( I:77b) “…whoever makes an effort to purify himself receives assistance from above…for the upper world is not stirred to act until an impulse is given from the lower world. ” As we strive for inner purity, inner fineness we will find many levels and opportunities because we are shown the areas inwardly, that we are expected to tackle. The Apter Rebbe, Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt wrote, God will communicate with the Jewish people in their closed, private, and protected selves, in the deepest depths of their hearts.
This is what spiritual striving is all about: the burning desire for union with the beloved Divine, that which poet Chaviva Pedaya expressed in this way: “One thing have I asked and it I seek: Your dwelling in me…”(Women’s Torah Commentary (P. 472). Our task is to lift ourselves up, by refining our life energy, our thoughts, words, and deeds, to make a dwelling place for God’s Presence. Just because we are human, we are capable of achieving it, not for its own sake, but to heal and help, to be a gift and experience God’s gifts. This is what all kabbalah is about: the thirst for spiritual love, and even ecstasy, that can be experienced when we make for God holiness, that the Divine may dwell within us.
Friday, May 24, 2013
From the Physical to the Spiritual
This week’s Torah portion is Terumah, which means a portion, gift, or contribution. God spoke to Moses and asked the Israelites to make a freewill offering of all the materials that would be needed to build a portable place of worship in the wilderness, as the text says, “so that I may dwell among them. (Ex. 25:8)” God then gives precise instructions for the design of the Tabernacle and its furniture, including a golden ark to house the tablets of the Ten Commandments, a golden menorah as tall as a person, a gold clad table that looked like a baker’s rack, to hold 12 special loaves of bread; and a copper altar for sacrifice, and many other items. We had been slaves in Egypt, possibly as long as 400 years.
We had built cities for the Pharaoh; but now, as pointed out by Rabbi Denise Eger in the Women’s Torah Commentary, we were being asked to embark on a different kind of building. As we constructed the Mishkan, the dwelling or the Sanctuary, we would be using the freewill gifts, ordinary building materials, and transmuting them into something holy. As Rabbi “Tarphon points out in the Talmud (Avot de Rabbi Natan 11, The Torah Revealed by AY Finkel), “You can see how highly regarded labor is, for God did not cause the Shechinah to rest upon Israel before they did work. Of course, we were building community as we were building the Tabernacle. We were building the traditions of Judaism itself, and we were taking the mundane that with our pure intentions and labor we were able to sanctify it. The Lubavitcher Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, wrote that, ”Man’s task is to incorporate material existence into God’s dwelling”. Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk wrote about the difference between God’s creative process our ours. He explained that God created something from nothing, which he expressed by the Kabbalistic terms Yesh, something, from Ayin, nothing. Our work is the reverse of God’s: we take yesh, the material and turn it into the spiritual. How is this done?
There is a famous commentary on Terumah by the sage Malbin, Rabbi Meir Lev ben Yeshiel Michael, from 19th Century Russia. Malbin wrote, “It says Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among or in them. Each person is to build God a Tabernacle in their own heart, for God to dwell in.” We are meant to create holiness from both of these directions, from the material to the spiritual and also the spiritual to the material. Finding what some have called the God within is discovering our moral compass, our inner holiness, and a reverence for what we can create. Taking that inner guidance and applying it to the physical world completes the work. Rabbi Arthur Green has written, “God’s presence in this world depends upon the depth and sincerity of human desire.”
It is up to us to bring God’s Presence into our world. Only we can create the conditions for God to be manifested in the material world, in human life. We can work from within: from the inner to the outer, and from without: from the outer to the inner. Ideally we should work from both directions: realizing God’s Divinity within ourselves and making all our work, our words, and deeds, into a tabernacle of peace, justice and goodness. As we sang at the Song of the Sea, “This is my God and I will enshrine the Eternal. (Ex. 15:2)” When there is a Tabernacle in our hearts and in our outer lives, God can truly dwell among us.
We had built cities for the Pharaoh; but now, as pointed out by Rabbi Denise Eger in the Women’s Torah Commentary, we were being asked to embark on a different kind of building. As we constructed the Mishkan, the dwelling or the Sanctuary, we would be using the freewill gifts, ordinary building materials, and transmuting them into something holy. As Rabbi “Tarphon points out in the Talmud (Avot de Rabbi Natan 11, The Torah Revealed by AY Finkel), “You can see how highly regarded labor is, for God did not cause the Shechinah to rest upon Israel before they did work. Of course, we were building community as we were building the Tabernacle. We were building the traditions of Judaism itself, and we were taking the mundane that with our pure intentions and labor we were able to sanctify it. The Lubavitcher Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, wrote that, ”Man’s task is to incorporate material existence into God’s dwelling”. Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk wrote about the difference between God’s creative process our ours. He explained that God created something from nothing, which he expressed by the Kabbalistic terms Yesh, something, from Ayin, nothing. Our work is the reverse of God’s: we take yesh, the material and turn it into the spiritual. How is this done?
There is a famous commentary on Terumah by the sage Malbin, Rabbi Meir Lev ben Yeshiel Michael, from 19th Century Russia. Malbin wrote, “It says Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among or in them. Each person is to build God a Tabernacle in their own heart, for God to dwell in.” We are meant to create holiness from both of these directions, from the material to the spiritual and also the spiritual to the material. Finding what some have called the God within is discovering our moral compass, our inner holiness, and a reverence for what we can create. Taking that inner guidance and applying it to the physical world completes the work. Rabbi Arthur Green has written, “God’s presence in this world depends upon the depth and sincerity of human desire.”
It is up to us to bring God’s Presence into our world. Only we can create the conditions for God to be manifested in the material world, in human life. We can work from within: from the inner to the outer, and from without: from the outer to the inner. Ideally we should work from both directions: realizing God’s Divinity within ourselves and making all our work, our words, and deeds, into a tabernacle of peace, justice and goodness. As we sang at the Song of the Sea, “This is my God and I will enshrine the Eternal. (Ex. 15:2)” When there is a Tabernacle in our hearts and in our outer lives, God can truly dwell among us.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Taking and Giving
This week’s Torah portion is Terumah, which means a portion or an offering. God asks Moses to inform the people that they can bring freewill offerings of precious metals, precious stones, colored fabric, wood, and animal skins for the grand project: the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, that will allow God’s Presence to dwell among them. The portion also gives precise instructions about how the Tabernacle should be constructed. The Israelites were to build a tent of meeting and an outer courtyard for the service of worship and sacrifice. They were also to make the holy furniture: a golden ark to house the tablets of the Ten Commandments, a golden menorah as tall as a person, a tall golden table that looked like a baker’s rack, to hold 12 special loaves of bread; and a copper altar for sacrifice.
The portion begins, “God spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for me a portion from every individual whose heart is willing, shall you take my portion.” As in the Torah portion, Bo, also from Exodus, which begins, “Come to Pharaoh,” not Go to Pharaoh, we have a linguistic mystery. Why does the Torah say, Take, a form of the Hebrew word, Kach, and not, Give, Tein, as in Natan and Notein? You might say, well Moses is taking the offering; but that’s not what the Torah says. The words indicate that the Israelites will be dong the taking. What is the Torah trying to tell us? In Rabbi Elimelech’s Torah commentary, in a note at the end of this week’s portion, it says, ”My Father said at a gathering, God created the Universe and all physical objects – something from nothing. Jews must transform the something into Nothing. They must transform the material into the spiritual.” Rabbi Elimelech refers to Job, who said, “Wisdom comes from ayin, from Nothing.” This mystery of taking, not giving, is a window into one of the great secrets of the Torah. The Zohar expresses it like this: (II: 127a) “in this Foundation is the fabrication of the whole, of all the world, of souls and spirits; this is the hidden force behind the creation of the heaven and earth, and this is also the hidden force behind the building of the Tabernacle, which was erected in the likeness both of the world above and of the world below. This is the significance of the words: “that they take me an offering”: two grades become united as one in the Tabernacle which is the emblem of that union.” Something is being united. The Zohar speaks about the Tabernacle uniting earth and heaven, however, this also occurs for the individual who gives. In Kedoshim, from Leviticus, it says, “You shall not indulge in sorcery and you shall not believe in lucky times (19: )” This verse delineates the relationship between us and the Divine. By hearing the words of a fortune teller, we create a blockage or an impediment between us and God, who is sending us information and experiences, based on our free choices The choice to give initiates an intimate relationship between the material and the spiritual, allowing this circle between us and God, or this opening of a channel between us, to be a pathway for the flow of blessings, which then can reach us. Such a thing happens in the material plane in the same way as a loving or caring interaction with another person equips the first person to receive love back from the second. In the Midrash it says, (Ex Rabba 33:6) “Ordinarily, when one buys an article in the market-place, is he then able to acquire its owner, too? But the Holy One, blessed be God,, gave the Torah to Israel and said to them: ' You are taking Me, as it were! ' Hence, THAT THEY TAKE ME AS AN OFFERING.” What we are receiving is Divinity: more Divine blessings. Since everything is God, what we receive is a quality of God. The Leadership and Management consultant and author Ken Blanchard has spoken about receiving blessings as a result of his giving. He writes, “I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works.” I, in my own life, have witnessed that my giving initiates blessings being able to flow to me. I never worry about giving to charity anymore. I know, because I have seen it: that whatever I give will mysteriously be replaced. Giving is the way to unite earth and heaven – to initiate, maintain, and deepen our relationship to God. It is one way to become a little more holy. And giving does not have to be money. As the V’ahavta tells us, giving can be love in our hearts. Giving can be actions, giving with all our hearts, souls, and might. The Apter Rebbe speaks about the Tabernacle being a representation of God’s giving and sharing with the Jewish people, of sharing God’s Kingdom with us In Terumah we are being asked to give – if, and only if, the giving comes from our hearts with free will – in order to allow us to take: to take the blessings we are being sent, through our own giving. The secret of taking is giving. God commands us to give so that, in God’s love, God may give to us. May each of us be among those that nurture the world through our giving: and in this way, to unite earth and heaven.
The portion begins, “God spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for me a portion from every individual whose heart is willing, shall you take my portion.” As in the Torah portion, Bo, also from Exodus, which begins, “Come to Pharaoh,” not Go to Pharaoh, we have a linguistic mystery. Why does the Torah say, Take, a form of the Hebrew word, Kach, and not, Give, Tein, as in Natan and Notein? You might say, well Moses is taking the offering; but that’s not what the Torah says. The words indicate that the Israelites will be dong the taking. What is the Torah trying to tell us? In Rabbi Elimelech’s Torah commentary, in a note at the end of this week’s portion, it says, ”My Father said at a gathering, God created the Universe and all physical objects – something from nothing. Jews must transform the something into Nothing. They must transform the material into the spiritual.” Rabbi Elimelech refers to Job, who said, “Wisdom comes from ayin, from Nothing.” This mystery of taking, not giving, is a window into one of the great secrets of the Torah. The Zohar expresses it like this: (II: 127a) “in this Foundation is the fabrication of the whole, of all the world, of souls and spirits; this is the hidden force behind the creation of the heaven and earth, and this is also the hidden force behind the building of the Tabernacle, which was erected in the likeness both of the world above and of the world below. This is the significance of the words: “that they take me an offering”: two grades become united as one in the Tabernacle which is the emblem of that union.” Something is being united. The Zohar speaks about the Tabernacle uniting earth and heaven, however, this also occurs for the individual who gives. In Kedoshim, from Leviticus, it says, “You shall not indulge in sorcery and you shall not believe in lucky times (19: )” This verse delineates the relationship between us and the Divine. By hearing the words of a fortune teller, we create a blockage or an impediment between us and God, who is sending us information and experiences, based on our free choices The choice to give initiates an intimate relationship between the material and the spiritual, allowing this circle between us and God, or this opening of a channel between us, to be a pathway for the flow of blessings, which then can reach us. Such a thing happens in the material plane in the same way as a loving or caring interaction with another person equips the first person to receive love back from the second. In the Midrash it says, (Ex Rabba 33:6) “Ordinarily, when one buys an article in the market-place, is he then able to acquire its owner, too? But the Holy One, blessed be God,, gave the Torah to Israel and said to them: ' You are taking Me, as it were! ' Hence, THAT THEY TAKE ME AS AN OFFERING.” What we are receiving is Divinity: more Divine blessings. Since everything is God, what we receive is a quality of God. The Leadership and Management consultant and author Ken Blanchard has spoken about receiving blessings as a result of his giving. He writes, “I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way life works, and that is the way energy works.” I, in my own life, have witnessed that my giving initiates blessings being able to flow to me. I never worry about giving to charity anymore. I know, because I have seen it: that whatever I give will mysteriously be replaced. Giving is the way to unite earth and heaven – to initiate, maintain, and deepen our relationship to God. It is one way to become a little more holy. And giving does not have to be money. As the V’ahavta tells us, giving can be love in our hearts. Giving can be actions, giving with all our hearts, souls, and might. The Apter Rebbe speaks about the Tabernacle being a representation of God’s giving and sharing with the Jewish people, of sharing God’s Kingdom with us In Terumah we are being asked to give – if, and only if, the giving comes from our hearts with free will – in order to allow us to take: to take the blessings we are being sent, through our own giving. The secret of taking is giving. God commands us to give so that, in God’s love, God may give to us. May each of us be among those that nurture the world through our giving: and in this way, to unite earth and heaven.
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