Our parsha begins “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, copper…”
Shemot Rabbah, a midrash on Exodus, connects these verses with Proverbs 4:2 which says “I give you good doctrine; do not forsake my Torah.” How are these connected? It’s because the word “doctrine” in Hebrew is “le-kach”, which means something received or taken away. It is based on the verb Lakach, which means to take. This equates to the three times that Hashem uses the word take in the opening verses of the parsha. So the midrash sees the building of the Mishkan as an exchange of gifts. God gives us His Torah, and we build Him a home in the midst of the people.
It is likened to a king who marries off his only daughter to a prince who will take her to another kingdom. The king says the prince, “I love my daughter so much and will miss her greatly. Please do this for me, build a wing onto your palace so that when I come to visit her I may stay.”
In this midrash, God is the king and his daughter is the Torah. The Mishkan is God’s place that Israel builds so that He can be near to her. So he gives Israel the Torah and Israel in turn builds Him a home. This is further indicated in that the word “take” is used in terms of marriage. For example, in one verse it says that when a man takes his wife in marriage, he doesn’t have to go to war.
But how do we build God a home? This, too, is hinted at in our opening verses. Rashi says that the three references to offerings (terumah) refer to three different donations given. The first, where God says “li terumah”, take for me an offering, is the half shekel donation to build the silver sockets that hold the walls of the tabernacle together. The second, where God says “terumati”, my offering, refers to the half shekel donation for communal sacrifices. The third, where God says “ha-terumah”, the offering, refers to all of the materials donated to build the Mishkan.
But why does the third one only have details and the other two don’t? And why is there no mention of God with this third donation? It doesn’t say “take for me” or “my offering”, it simply says “the offering”.
Midrash says that these three offerings refer to how we build a home for God in this world. The donation for silver wall sockets refers to the Torah. Just as the walls are the foundation of the Mishkan, so too Torah is the foundation of our lives. The donation for communal sacrifices refers to Avodah, prayer. Prayer is intimately connected with the sacrifices offered in the Temple. And finally, the materials used to build the Mishkan refer to the mitzvoth, commandments. It is the practical, everyday things that we do. This is why there was only details on this third offering. The observance of the mitzvoth are the detailed practices of our daily lives. And it is also why God is not mentioned with this third offering. God is hidden in the very details of the practice of mitzvot. As we go about our days saying a blessing over food, or washing our hands, these could be seen as just rituals that we are doing; it is not necessarily immediately evident that God is the focus of why we do these things to an outsider.
So we build a house for Hashem in this world through the study of Torah, prayer, and the practice of mitzvoth.
But I would like offer you a different take on the midrash about the king and his daughter. Usually Israel is referred to in Scripture in the feminine. It is Israel the woman wedded to Hashem. So I propose to change this midrash so that it’s not the king’s daughter, but his son; Yeshua whom He weds to the “princess”. Israel, and the Church, is wedded to Yeshua, the King’s beloved Son. And just as we build a house of Hashem, Yeshua has promised that he is building a house for us in Olam Ha-Ba!
May we build a house for Hashem thru Torah, Avodah, Mitzvot. May we be faithful marriage partners with our husband Yeshua. May we all be at that Great Wedding Banquet in Olam Ha-Ba!
Shabbat Shalom!
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Yitro- Three Stages of Prayer
The Zohar is a mystical commentary on the Torah written in the Middle Ages. It states that the story of Exodus indicates that redemption happens in three stages: silence, crying out, and words. The Israelites were so caught up in their suffering that at first, they don’t even cry out to God; they are silent. It is only after Moses slays the Egyptian and flees that they cry out. But this a wordless cry. The text says that they sighed and cried out, a-nah and za’ak. Words only came to them after their deliverance from Egypt as we have in this week’s parsha where they tell Moses that they will do all Hashem commanded them, and Moses took their words back to God.
These three stages of redemption coincide with the three stages of prayer. At first we are silent, not praying at all. Many people don’t pray because of unbelief or unaware of their needs, or so caught up in their sin that they don’t care. But then something happens that disrupts their lives and they cry out in wordless anguish. They don’t know what to say; they are only raw emotion. It is only later that they can put their anguish to words; to pray. They move from za’ak to tefillah, prayer.
Some traditions of skeptical of liturgy, but it does have value. Our siddur gives us the words when we don’t have them. It helps us articulate our wordless groans. Liturgy also teaches us what is important; what we should focus on. And it teaches us who we really are; that we are children of God. Our concerns should reflect and be in concert with His concerns. Tefillah doesn’t mean “prayer”, it literally means “to judge oneself”. Prayer is an act of self-discovery and growing self-awareness. This is why one of the first prayers of the Amidah is a request for God to give us insight and wisdom.
Our Sages constructed the siddur to accomplish this goal. It consists of praise, thanksgiving, and petition, but the overall focus is prayer for redemption. We begin every morning before leaving the bed with Modeh Ani, a prayer of gratitude that Hashem has restored us to wakefulness. We then proceed to praise Him for past salvations (like the Exodus), for sustaining us daily, but it then moves to focus on the future redemption. One of our final prayers is the Alaynu which prays that all of humanity will come to recognize Hashem and His Messiah.
We pray for our individual needs but it is always framed within this overall context. We learn that our concerns are merely a part of an overall arc of the world’s need for redemption. And we discover who we really are; priests interceding on behalf of the world. We are indeed a mamlechet cohanim, and kingdom of priests called to pray for God to bring redemption.
Prayer does not end there, however. It is also connected to sacrifice. The reason that we pray three times a day is to coincide with the activities going on in the Temple. Prayer is rooted in the idea that we do not belong to ourselves but to Hashem. As we discover who we really are and what is important, we also must give all that we are back to God!
We ask God three times a day in the Amidah to restore the fires of the altar; this is not only a request for the Temple to be restored, but also an expression of Israel’s self-sacrifice and devotion to Hashem. Every morning in the siddur we recite the Akedah; the Binding of Isaac. This, too, is an expression of sacrifice, as Abraham and his son were willing to do what they were commanded. Prayer is also called Service of the Heart. This expresses the giving of our whole heart to God. We are fulfilling the Shema in giving our whole heart, soul, and all our might. The Rabbis say that this last, me-o-de-cha, means our monetary means. I have never liked this interpretation. I like better to say it means with all our “very-ness”. We are to give our heart, soul, and every fiber of our being to Hashem.
Prayer is not just for humanity but for all of Creation. Rav Sha’ul, the Apostle Paul, says that all of creation groans awaiting redemption. This is za’ak, a wordless groaning. We, as priests of all Creation give words to this groaning. Israel fulfills our priestly calling in praying for humanity and the whole world.
Jewish prayer is focused on praying for the redemption of the world. The Church is joined to us in this mission. May we, Jew and Christian, take our place in the chorus of praise and petition. May we pray that indeed all people would come to know the God of Israel and His Messiah. May we serve as priests, interceding not only for others, but for all of Creation, that can only groan. May we discover who we really are and then offer all of our “very-ness” to Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom.
These three stages of redemption coincide with the three stages of prayer. At first we are silent, not praying at all. Many people don’t pray because of unbelief or unaware of their needs, or so caught up in their sin that they don’t care. But then something happens that disrupts their lives and they cry out in wordless anguish. They don’t know what to say; they are only raw emotion. It is only later that they can put their anguish to words; to pray. They move from za’ak to tefillah, prayer.
Some traditions of skeptical of liturgy, but it does have value. Our siddur gives us the words when we don’t have them. It helps us articulate our wordless groans. Liturgy also teaches us what is important; what we should focus on. And it teaches us who we really are; that we are children of God. Our concerns should reflect and be in concert with His concerns. Tefillah doesn’t mean “prayer”, it literally means “to judge oneself”. Prayer is an act of self-discovery and growing self-awareness. This is why one of the first prayers of the Amidah is a request for God to give us insight and wisdom.
Our Sages constructed the siddur to accomplish this goal. It consists of praise, thanksgiving, and petition, but the overall focus is prayer for redemption. We begin every morning before leaving the bed with Modeh Ani, a prayer of gratitude that Hashem has restored us to wakefulness. We then proceed to praise Him for past salvations (like the Exodus), for sustaining us daily, but it then moves to focus on the future redemption. One of our final prayers is the Alaynu which prays that all of humanity will come to recognize Hashem and His Messiah.
We pray for our individual needs but it is always framed within this overall context. We learn that our concerns are merely a part of an overall arc of the world’s need for redemption. And we discover who we really are; priests interceding on behalf of the world. We are indeed a mamlechet cohanim, and kingdom of priests called to pray for God to bring redemption.
Prayer does not end there, however. It is also connected to sacrifice. The reason that we pray three times a day is to coincide with the activities going on in the Temple. Prayer is rooted in the idea that we do not belong to ourselves but to Hashem. As we discover who we really are and what is important, we also must give all that we are back to God!
We ask God three times a day in the Amidah to restore the fires of the altar; this is not only a request for the Temple to be restored, but also an expression of Israel’s self-sacrifice and devotion to Hashem. Every morning in the siddur we recite the Akedah; the Binding of Isaac. This, too, is an expression of sacrifice, as Abraham and his son were willing to do what they were commanded. Prayer is also called Service of the Heart. This expresses the giving of our whole heart to God. We are fulfilling the Shema in giving our whole heart, soul, and all our might. The Rabbis say that this last, me-o-de-cha, means our monetary means. I have never liked this interpretation. I like better to say it means with all our “very-ness”. We are to give our heart, soul, and every fiber of our being to Hashem.
Prayer is not just for humanity but for all of Creation. Rav Sha’ul, the Apostle Paul, says that all of creation groans awaiting redemption. This is za’ak, a wordless groaning. We, as priests of all Creation give words to this groaning. Israel fulfills our priestly calling in praying for humanity and the whole world.
Jewish prayer is focused on praying for the redemption of the world. The Church is joined to us in this mission. May we, Jew and Christian, take our place in the chorus of praise and petition. May we pray that indeed all people would come to know the God of Israel and His Messiah. May we serve as priests, interceding not only for others, but for all of Creation, that can only groan. May we discover who we really are and then offer all of our “very-ness” to Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom.
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