Terumah: donations and gifts

Gd, who has personally hardened the heart of Pharoah, asks for donations from every person whose heart is willing. This creates a mystery. What goes into the willingness of the heart? Whose heart has Gd made willing and whose heart has Gd hardened... and why? We has seen in the Exodus story that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened to display the glory of the miracles. Does Gd soften the heart of Israel to demonstrate their merit?

Why donate? It turns the transient, intrinsically meaningless material possession into a lasting memory. It stores a moment and an object in the cloud(s). It eternalizes things that would otherwise necessarily be lost. And maybe if I give a gift to Gd, heaven will favor me. Perhaps these ideas are related. Perhaps by releasing the grasp of the possessive, acquisitive instinct (softening the heart?) life goes better, heaven smiles.

The centerpiece of the Tabernacle complex is a box. The aron. It contains the great gift from Gd... the [broken] tablets. Another great story about a box is the story of Pandora. Pandora’s name means: “all (pan) gifts (dora)” , The Pandora story is a variation of the Eden story. [ Note that the aron contains the eduth, the same 2 letter root as Eden] Pandora is given to Protheus as a wife along with a box that she is forbidden to open...like the fruit that Adam and Eve may not eat. Pandora opens the box [Eve eats the fruit] and all ills of humanity are released [and death comes into the world]. In one version of the Pandora story, the last curse - foreboding- is trapped in the box, at least partially because if people constantly worried about their inevitable future [death], they would give up.

The box in the Mishkan was never to be opened. It [like the road to the Garden of Eden] was protected by Cherubim.

In another version of the Pandora story, the last “gift” to escape from the box is hope. The great hope of Israel is for the return of our box [ the aron and the eduth] to its place ( in our hearts?)

Hope reigns eternal. The Eternal reigns through hope.
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last year: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1lyG3mxE_u0_sM1V9vGI09cxlXemiPvTPxvesTSkeMs8

Mishpatim: rule and exception

The parsha starts with laws, generalizations, universals. It then deals with more specific issues, it refines the rulings, it talks about the exceptions to the rule. The general gives context. The specific defines the meaning.

The law is a level playing field. The rules apply to everyone, the Gaussian everyone. But every one is an exception, different from every other one. Yet, all are one under the law. One size fits all, but some stretching may be required.

The law creates the people. The people have their festivals and the people creates its Gd sanctioned hierarchy.

Whe can stand before Gd and man? Certainly not the average person.

Yithro: I

I came upon a psycho-literary exercise. Suppose that for any word, there is really only one true instance. This is like the Platonic Forms. For example, take the first word of the ten commandments: I ( Anochi). The only I that anyone is actually familiar with is the self. That creates a sense in which the ten commandments are statements about the self.
Every individual must liberate herself from the issues that oppress him.

There is only one self, you cannot dissociate an evil self and a good self.
No other beside …: I cannot blame others for my behavior
Keep the Sabbath: Do not think that you can work 7 days a week.
Honor your parents: remember where you came from
etc

The essence of Yithro is that one person cannot exceed his abilities. Moshe needs to construct an administrative structure. It is only the outsider, Yithro, who can tell him that.

I and thou?

Beshalach: testing the waters

The gemarrah (eruchin 15a-b) Lists the 10 times Israel tested Gd. Seven are in Beshalach ( the remaining 3 are the slav, the golden calf and the spies) The gemarrah is dealing abuse of speech, in this case ...complaining. (about the lack of food and water, etc)

At the same time, this parsha contains the Az Yashir, the song of the sea. A song of praise for the victory over the most advanced army in the world, through (trickery and ) miracles, at the hand of Gd who fought for his nation. The song is incorporated in the daily liturgy. It conveys confidence in redemption against all odds, It hardens the hearts of its singers.

Gd and the Israelites are feeling their way through their relationship. Gd and Moses seem to need a reminder that people need to eat and drink. In the end Gd rises to the occassion, as recalled in the Az Yashir; and Israel has the confidence to protect the throne ( as long as the hands of Moses are raised).