We are all struggling with
this “new normal”. We hear terms such as “essential travel”, “social distancing”,
“shelter in place”, and “the curve”.
Religious institutions have closed, as well as the notion of “community”
is beginning to take on a new reality. Our family, like other families, has
essentially remained at home. In order to lighten the mood, our kids have
surfed the web to find funny and inspired moments. Our daughter found John
Legend, a famous pop star, gave an online free concert because there are no
more concerts. We found an incredibly clever Public Service Announcement made
by Max Brooks and his famous legendary comedic 93-year-old father Mel Brooks.
With Mel standing inside his home behind sliding glass doors, Max introduced
himself and explained that he loves his 93-year-old father. Max explained that
he does not know if he is a carrier of the Covid 19 virus and if he did not
practice social distancing, if he did not stay away from his father there would
be a chance of him passing the virus to his legendary father and his father
could pass it to his long time comedy partner, Carl Reiner, and he could pass
it along to their friend and former actor on one of their legendary shows, Dick
Van Dyke. Max explained that in one fell
swoop he would be responsible for wiping the last of a generation of legendary
comedic writers and performers. Max reminds us, the viewers that this behavior
will save lives, and it is something that we can all do.
This week we combine the final two Parshiot,
Vayakahel-Pekudei, and complete the Book of Exodus. After the destructive
behavior of worshipping the Golden Calf, B’nai Yisroel comes together and
shares a common constructive experience bound by a common goal. Their goal is
to complete the construction of the Mishkan. The common experience is their
contributing raw materials. V’Yavo’u
Kol Ish Asher Nasahu Libo V’chol Asher Nadvah Rucho- Every man
whose heart inspired him came; and everyone whose spirit motivated him brought
the portion of God for the work of the Tent of the Meeting, for all its labor
and for the sacred clothing (Ex.35:21). By participating in this
constructive process, everyone had an opportunity to repent for the sin of the
Golden Calf and for their lack of faith. If viewed as a process, B’nai Yisroel began
its relationship with God by struggling to connect. They didn’t quite know how
to connect to God, let alone each other. This explains the need for the Aseret
Dibrot – The Ten Commandments as well as Parsha Mishpatim with its
focus upon Civil Law. However the episode of the Egel Zahav Golden
Calf indicated that B’nai Yisroel’s default behavior was idolatry. This
makes sense since they had been slaves in an idolatrous society for several
centuries. Now that B’nai Yisroel has repented as a nation, they began to
re-connect to God in a more acceptable manner. They came together as a
community and began the actual construction of the Mishkan.
The double Parsha begins
in a peculiar manner. Before the community begins construction, Moshe gathers
them together as a community to remind them of Shabbat. Why does he need to
gather the community together to remind them about Shabbat, they already knew
about Shabbat? Also, what is the point of gathering together in the first place?
Clearly, the construction of the Mishkan is a communal effort. However, the
construction of the Mishkan also embodies a nation’s attempt at its version of
creation. This nation was creating a means by which it connects to God.
Therefore, prior to the nation engaging in creating its new world embodied in
the Mishkan, Moshe gathers the nation together to remind them that God created
something as well, and established the Shabbat as part of Creation. In a sense,
B’nai Yisroel was being presented with something very new. As former slaves,
they knew all about building things. They knew all about working together to
create cities pyramids etc. However incorporating Shabbat, incorporating the
opposite of labor (e.g. rest) was antithetical to what they understood to be
the creative process.
We are living in very
troubling times. We are being forced to rethink the “how” we do things. However,
we should not rethink the “why” we do things. Grandchildren love their
grandparents. However, this virus seems to be fatal in people who have been
blessed with grandchildren. Our eldest
daughter is in Boston, which is now quickly becoming another “hot spot” in the
U.S. Her grandparents felt bad that she was there by herself so they called
her and suggested that she could come to them and stay. She needed to remind
her grandparents that although she would love to, she didn’t want to put them
at risk. She loved them too much to do something like that. Much like Max Brooks didn't want to put his father Mel and a bunch of legendary comics at risk. As difficult as this time is, we have all
been empowered. We can have all been empowered to save lives. Saving a life
these days is as easy as rethinking how to connect to people. Rather than a
Mishkan, for a community to gather together, the Jewish community will have to
learn to rely on another medium. While we need to figure out the “how” to
connect; we should not question the “Why” to connect in the first place. We
connect because we hunger for relationships with our family, our friends and
with God.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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