Immediately following the laws that were given at Har Sinai, Mount Sinai, in last week’s parsha, the Torah directs our attention to the structure of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Beginning with this week’s parsha, Parshat Terumah and continuing into the next, we explore the architectural designs of the house of Hashem and the designs of the clothing of the Kohanim in the next. Yet, as we saw in last week’s Torah reading, this is not the chronological order as they occurred. We should be discussing the acts of Bnei Israel after thinking Moshe had abandoned them on high, their construction of the Golden Calf and the events that follow. Yet, we don’t.
Instead, Hashem commands the Jewish people to donate their wares to construct the Mishkan, the structure that will symbolize Hashem’s presence in our physical world as they travel to their final destination, the Land of Israel. Why now? Why here?
This past week we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Adar, the beginning of the Jewish month that is highlighted by the celebration of Purim. We read Megillat Esther recounting the harrowing tale of Esther and Mordechai as they attempt to outwit and outduel the decree of Haman. Each of the ten chapters of the megillah is particular in its content, word choice, how it develops the characters and depicts their evolution as Jewish leaders. What it doesn’t have? Any mentioning of the name of Hashem.
Commentaries on the text attempt to illuminate Hashem’s hidden presence throughout the story. The events that transpired could not have been a coincidence, they could not have been mere luck, there was a force acting from behind the scenes. What, however, spurred on the events of the decree to destroy the Jewish people? The commentaries share that the parties that Achashverosh threw in the opening scenes of the Megillah celebrated the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the temple built once the Jewish people settled in the Land of Israel.
In our parsha we are introduced to the beauty of the Temple and its centrality to our relationship with Hashem. In the Purim liturgy we are introduced to its dismissal and desecration. Two different paradigms, two different outcomes and, yet, they are very much tied to each other.
The Jewish people became a nation, a religion, once they received the Torah from Hashem. This act, commonly compared to the act of marriage in the book of Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, forged an everlasting, unbreakable bond between us and Hashem. Coming off the high of a wedding celebration, the first goal of the new couple is to begin to build their home together. First with the physical structure and second with the expansion of their family, through the birth of Jewish children. The Torah was sharing with us an important message, the opposite which we see in the Purim story.
When we forge families, homes where we will grow alongside our spouses, where our children will be nurtured, we need to emphasize the presence of Hashem, the Torah and the mitzvot in a central, tangible and meaningful manner. If we dismiss the importance of those elements, we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Jews in Persia that almost led to their utter demise. If we embrace it, structure our physical and spiritual home/community environments in a way that places a relationship with Hashem, a dedication to mitzvot and a way of life that breeds ethics and morality, we have the recipe to share those tenets with our children as they forge their individual relationships with Hashem.