We heard of racist chants on
a fraternity bus that led to the SAE Fraternity National Organization closing
the University of Oklahoma fraternity chapter altogether.
We hear voices in our community accusing various types
of leaders not of gross misconduct, but of the sin of disagreeing with them, or
not affirming their tactics and strategies even when agreeing in principle.
And the Westboro Baptist
Church tried to picket the funeral of actor Leonard Nimoy, at which one of my
colleagues officiated. They failed
in their effort because they couldn’t find the location of the funeral home.
These events and situations are examples of
characteristics that we don’t consider gifts and that we don’t want to keep on
giving. There is too much bigotry,
too much hatred, too much arrogance, too much prejudice, and too much racism,
because even one example of each is too much.
Jewish tradition makes plenty of suggestions about how to
prevent the preponderance of undesirable expressions and attitudes that fail to
create warmth and peace in a community.
This week’s Torah reading makes a strong statement
about positive gifts that can keep on giving, both on the material and
spiritual level.
The Israelites were bringing raw materials to the
chief artisans, Bezalel and Oholiab, and their fellow workers so that the
Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary used in the wilderness, could be fashioned
in a way that made it beautiful and impressive. In these verses, something amazing happens, something that
most any modern religious congregation would see as a miracle. The people brought too much. The artisans had to tell the people to
stop giving. By the end of
the passage, it says that the Israelites had not just brought enough – DAI –
they had brought MORE than enough – “HOTEIR.” Would that most any effort to raise funds or volunteer
sign-ups in a congregation would reach the level of more than enough!!! It does happen sometimes. When does it happen?
The Torah gives a hint of what it takes to reach the
“more than enough” level.
The Israelites brought “N’DAVAH” – voluntary contributions. And when did they bring them? BABOKER
BABOKER – a repetition of the phrase “in the morning” that means “every
morning.” One commentator
noted that not only were those donations brought in the morning: they were
brought at dawn, when the givers could not be seen because the sun had not
totally risen. Their identities
were concealed. They didn’t care
about personal credit for what they were doing. They only wanted to give.
In his commentary on the Torah, Richard Elliot
Friedman quoted one of his teachers with regards to this passage: “My teacher
Yohanan Muffs pointed out a paradox about sacrifice: ‘people are commanded to
do it, yet sacrifices are regarded as a freewill offering.’ The same applies here at the point of
the establishment of Israel’s entire ritual structure. They people are COMMANDED to bring
donations in Exodus Chapter 25, yet they act with a kind of zeal that reflects
more than just obedience to a commandment. They bring far more than was required of them. This is an essential concept ultimately
for the entire notion of law and commandment in Judaism. The law is not regarded as a
burden. It is mandatory, yet one
fulfills it out of choice and with joy.
Thus the word for commandment, MITZVAH, has two meanings to this day: it
means a law that must be obeyed, but Jews also commonly understand it to mean a
good deed, freely performed.”
I would take this one step further. The Torah reading speaks of gifts that
are tangible – items contributed for fashioning a physical structure. We know that a faith community is more
than the building in which it meets.
The creation of a warm, loving and holy congregation also requires
intangible gifts that come from our hearts. What do we bring to our religious communities – or to
any group to which we belong – that has no limit? What are some examples of those donations from the heart
that sustain a community of which we can give more than enough? What would you put on that list???
For me, that list would
include:
• Kindness
• Hope
• Generosity
(including generosity of spirit)
• Righteous
giving/Tzedakah
• Understanding
• Empathy
• A desire to
help and guide people close to us when they come to us for help.
Like Bezalel
and Oholiab, we can be artisans and experts in giving, people who are wise in
mind and heart, who can instinctively know what is needed by the people around
us and by our community. May the
Tabernacle that we create together be one that is made of cooperation,
consideration, mutual respect, love and peace.
And let us say
Amen.
Amen!
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