Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Divre Torah/Words of Torah, of Prayer and other Reflections
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| TO MAKE OF ONESELF A SANCTUARY Torah Portion/Parashat Pekude Rabbi Victor H. Reinstein |
In a crescendo of excitement, Sefer Sh’mot/the Book of Exodus comes to its completion
with Parashat Pekude. The desert sanctuary, the Mishkan, is completed. The entire
congregation of Israel has participated in its building, and, as a result, there is a
tremendous feeling of both collective and individual accomplishment. A free people giving
creative expression to its relationship with God and with each other is a far cry from the
beginning of Exodus, when Israel was an enslaved people whose labor gave expression
only to Pharaoh’s arrogance. From enslavement to liberation, Israel comes to Sinai and
becomes through Torah a People in covenant with God. Guided now by the life-map of
Torah, the desert journey begins.
The journey of a people is recapitulated in the lives of its members. The entire Book of
Exodus, the transformation from slavery to freedom, the desert journey, and the building
of the Mishkan can be read as a metaphor for each individual life. Every life has its
difficulties, its challenges and barriers along the way of its journey. Some people are
challenged to the very core, facing stark and brutal realities, while others seem relatively
unscathed. There is a time, though, when each one of us is in need of personal
liberation, of our own exodus. This is the personal dimension of the Pesach/Passover
Seder.
Pekude, meaning an accounting of, a numbering of, is about details, an enumerating of
the details of all that went into making the Mishkan. All of the details add up to make the
whole, as the gathering of ten individuals, counted by ones, adds up to make a minyan. In
a community, every individual counts. In the desert journey of Israel there were forty-two
stopping places of encampment. In some of the places where Israel pitched its tents there
was celebration and accomplishment, while in others only shame and sorrow. All of these
way stations are part of the journey, each one adding of its essence to the emerging
character of Am Yisrael, the People of Israel. Just as every detail is needed to make of
the sanctuary “one whole,” so each of the stopping places along the way of our journey,
as a people and as individuals adds up to the fullness of a life.
The previous Slonimer Rebbe, known as the Netivot Shalom, meaning “Paths of Peace,”
after the title of his major work, writes with exquisite sensitivity here about life journeys,
expressing in summation at its close the entire Book of Exodus as metaphor for the living
of life. He speaks of the path of each person’s life as having “journeys of ascent and
journeys of descent.” He then explains that it is through all of these journeys, the “ups”
and the “downs,” that the individual “arrives at the essential purpose of their life.” The
ultimate goal writes the Slonimer, is “to make of oneself a sanctuary.”
From out of the bleak times of life, when enslaved of body and spirit, may we each
emerge to gather in freedom the details of our own life’s journey. Taking all the pain and
sorrow then, all the joy and triumph weave it all together to make a sanctuary that shall be
for you God’s place of innermost dwelling.
Having finished the Book of Exodus, Sefer Sh’mot, we say together, Chazak Chazak v’
Nitchazek, “Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another.”
with Parashat Pekude. The desert sanctuary, the Mishkan, is completed. The entire
congregation of Israel has participated in its building, and, as a result, there is a
tremendous feeling of both collective and individual accomplishment. A free people giving
creative expression to its relationship with God and with each other is a far cry from the
beginning of Exodus, when Israel was an enslaved people whose labor gave expression
only to Pharaoh’s arrogance. From enslavement to liberation, Israel comes to Sinai and
becomes through Torah a People in covenant with God. Guided now by the life-map of
Torah, the desert journey begins.
The journey of a people is recapitulated in the lives of its members. The entire Book of
Exodus, the transformation from slavery to freedom, the desert journey, and the building
of the Mishkan can be read as a metaphor for each individual life. Every life has its
difficulties, its challenges and barriers along the way of its journey. Some people are
challenged to the very core, facing stark and brutal realities, while others seem relatively
unscathed. There is a time, though, when each one of us is in need of personal
liberation, of our own exodus. This is the personal dimension of the Pesach/Passover
Seder.
Pekude, meaning an accounting of, a numbering of, is about details, an enumerating of
the details of all that went into making the Mishkan. All of the details add up to make the
whole, as the gathering of ten individuals, counted by ones, adds up to make a minyan. In
a community, every individual counts. In the desert journey of Israel there were forty-two
stopping places of encampment. In some of the places where Israel pitched its tents there
was celebration and accomplishment, while in others only shame and sorrow. All of these
way stations are part of the journey, each one adding of its essence to the emerging
character of Am Yisrael, the People of Israel. Just as every detail is needed to make of
the sanctuary “one whole,” so each of the stopping places along the way of our journey,
as a people and as individuals adds up to the fullness of a life.
The previous Slonimer Rebbe, known as the Netivot Shalom, meaning “Paths of Peace,”
after the title of his major work, writes with exquisite sensitivity here about life journeys,
expressing in summation at its close the entire Book of Exodus as metaphor for the living
of life. He speaks of the path of each person’s life as having “journeys of ascent and
journeys of descent.” He then explains that it is through all of these journeys, the “ups”
and the “downs,” that the individual “arrives at the essential purpose of their life.” The
ultimate goal writes the Slonimer, is “to make of oneself a sanctuary.”
From out of the bleak times of life, when enslaved of body and spirit, may we each
emerge to gather in freedom the details of our own life’s journey. Taking all the pain and
sorrow then, all the joy and triumph weave it all together to make a sanctuary that shall be
for you God’s place of innermost dwelling.
Having finished the Book of Exodus, Sefer Sh’mot, we say together, Chazak Chazak v’
Nitchazek, “Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another.”
| Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue 43 Lochstead Avenue, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 |
