Vayikra: presence and absence

We begin the chapters of the sacrificial rite.  What animal is slaughtered, has its blood sprinkled, has its fat and kidneys removed, and gets burned up .  The classes of sacrifice: olah, shlamim, chatoth, asham. These are the rites of expiation and thanksgiving, I am glad that we still read them.  

What are these sacrificial activities?  Many are ritualized components of apology, part of the formula for expiation, No gift makes up for a wrong. But the gifting ritual helps re-establish the damaged relationship so that more experiences can be shared... and more slights committed. 

The trigger that initiates the sacrifice is the realization of error, guilt,  That leads to the need to correct the consequences of the error - generally an impossible task.  The rites that are listed address the repair of a rift made in the Divine covenant by the erroneous act.  After sinning,  one should feel that heaven will be angry and requires amends.  It is only through the formula that a person can know how to approach the problem.  The  true beneficiary of the sacrifice  is the donor. The penitent has a way to express remorse and can now move on. 

The errors that lead to this apology ritual are often expressed in terms of lapse.  There is a lack of realization, an absence of mind.  This is followed by a recall, an Oh My Gd moment.  The animal sacrifice is the appropriate antithesis of absence. Death, including animal death, is an overwhelming presence, it is a change that is beyond palpable, its impact on the infinity of futures screams through its silence. The one who sinned through neglect has prompted and undeniable consequence.  

It is hard to realize that the aftermath of an error fades over eternity, 

A formula to help get back on track is useful. 

Sleepers Awake

Vayakheil Pikudei: doing it right

These parshioth recount, in decreasing levels of detail,the construction of the Mishkan: the portable locus of the ultimate sacred.  The text repeats, for each  completed object, that the work was done in accordance with the instructions. This principle of adherence to instructions, in the absence of clarity of purpose, becomes a core Orthodox value.  The perfection of ritual,  with endless argument about details, is the stuff of religious observance.

There is a military aspect to this kind of thinking and behavior.  A grand mission is imagined, greater than the individual  or small group.   The best contribution one person can make is to perform her task perfectly. 

Vayakheil and Pekudei describe the actual construction and accounting of the Mishkan.  The instructions were recorded in Teruma and Titzaveh.  In between is the golden calf.  The instructions were originally  for a bridal palace.  When it is finally  constructed the Mishkan has become  an apology  for infidelity.  The apology for infidelity never ends. The Israelites have been begging for forgiveness ever since.  Every expiation is tied  to the great act of forgiveness,  tying every transgression to the   great transgression.

Consequently,  the construction of the Temple  becomes the centerpiece  of hope. Having the building is not the point.  Reconstructing the Mishkan would mean that we had finally made peace with Gd

Should the symbol become the mission?

Ki Thisa: Follow the Money

The Beatles said: Money Can't buy me love.  The advertising industry very successfully and lucratively  argues to the contrary.   Why is expensive  jewelry used for betrothal?

There are three precious metal transactions in the parsha.  The parsha begins with the poll tax, half a  silver shekel ( by my rough estimate 20%  of the annual income) . Every man over the age of 20 had an equal share. The tax was an expiation, membership dues. 

The golden calf, that spontaneous outpouring  of misdirected need for ritual, involved  contributions of jewelry.  The golden rings that were in the ears of the most beloved, the wives and children, were needed to create this alternative love object.  Like a 19th century Russian novel,  these men stripped the gold from their families to please the illicit lover. 

After the molten calf, the Israelites, in their regret, remove their jewelry.  After  they remove these tokens, their betrayed Gd instructs them to remove the jewelry.  The errant  fiancee recognizes that the gifts must be returned and the wronged party agrees. 

When my parents were  displaced persons in Germany, my father was arrested for dealing in contraband: ration cards or cameras.  The situation looked bad.  He was going to jail for some time.  My mother went to the rabbi.  He asked her if she had anything of value.  She had an expensive ring.  Perhaps the ring had been sown into a shirt  that my father had washed in  Treblinka.  She gave the ring to the rabbi.  He sold it and with the proceeds, he hired a lawyer ( and, perhaps, gave the lawyer something to work with).  My father was promptly released.  The man he was dealing with went to jail. 

I am really not sure what money can or cannot buy. 

Titzaveh - Zachor:the near and the far

This week there is a juxtaposition of portions of the Torah: Titzaveh is one those parshioth that I have trouble relating to.  Most of it involves the clothing and investiture  of the Cohanim. The addendum, Zachor, read on the Shabbath before Purim, instructs us to always remember, and never forget, the treachery of Amalek.  Amalek is the eternal Antisemite  The Nazis were Amalek.  There is no portion of the Torah that I relate to more closely than remembering Amalek, remembering the Nazi holocaust.  

Two books I have recently opened: Moonglow by Michael Chabon and Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer  inform me that I am not alone in this attachment to Judaism and , even belief in Gd , through the Holocaust. The ancestral characters in both of these recent American Jewish books do the same. 

 

The focused, irrational destruction of my ancestors and relatives  is a revelation.  It is an affirmation of their specialness.  How else could the most  advanced nation on earth, the land that incubated Einstein and Planck, the land of Goethe and Heine, Beilstein and Haber,  Beethoven and Mahler; how could these people feel so threatened that they could  murder a million children because they were born to Jews? Does that not prove the special relationship between Gd and the Jews? 

What other people would maintain their relationship  with a Gd that allows their decimation?  Remembering Amalek reminds us that Gd allows our defeat, as well as our victory.  Israel prevailed only when Moshe's hands, supported by Aaron and Hur, were raised

Titzaveh describes the vestments of the High Priest.  The tribes of Israel are inscribed into the precious stones on his shoulders.  The tribes of Israel are represented on the breastplate.  The High priest is the delegate of all Israel to the Divine.  He and his actions unify the people...as long as there was a sanctuary.  The sanctuary long gone, we still read the chapter, try to imagine the splendor, the embodiment of the relationship of a unified Israel  with Gd. 

Remembering Amalek is our current collective memory.  It binds us as a people,  It binds us to all  persecuted peoples.  It binds us to erase the behaviors of the persecutor.

  Remember.  Don't forget.  

Terumah: the displaced core

The parsha  starts by calling for contributions to the construction of a sanctuary, a holy place.  This mishkan will house the tablets  written by Gd.  They will be locked away in a  gilded coffin, constructed of wood ( perhaps from the trees of Life and/or Knowledge) , covered by( a sculpture of ) cherubim,  the beings that guard against eating from the tree of Life.  This cover, called  the kapores, evokes expiation from transgression.  A second curtain that blocks entry to the tablets, the parocheth,also contains  the cherubim image,  Parocheth is a rearrangement of thrse forgiving letters.  Lots of symbols.

How do symbols help? The true  and lasting location of the Mishkan  is in the heart of the reader.  The mishkan and the temple  that was modeled upon it, have not stood for thousands of years.  Even when they had a physical reality, the core, the holy of holies, was off limits to all but the annual Yom Kippur ( there is that word again) visit by the high priest.  And the ark itself  never had a scheduled opening.

 This symbol of the  undiscoverable  core is my message of the Mishkan.  There is a core within me that I am not permitted to uncover.  Like the ark, it is not (necessarily ) centrally located, it is displaced , on one side, like the heart  or the left side of the brain.  To remove the curtains and cover requires far more absolution and clemency than I can ordinarily muster, probably more than I can ever have. 

 That core contains the rules of my existence, it is more fundamental than my DNA.  I cannot approach it because I have broken the rules.  I cannot go there because I have confused myself, with opinions that I have  positied as knowledge.   But knowing that the core exists is a guide.  It directs me to minimize the stray. 

Truth is hidden, but I believe it exists