Ari Merten – Year 9

Parashat Terumah

In this week’s parashah, Terumah, the Israelites, wandering the desert, have now been instructed by God to create the Mishkan/Tabernacle. It was a ‘portable’ place of worship wherein God dwelled, as the parashah states ‘Make Me a sanctuary, so I may dwell among them’. God is very specific about the building of the Mishkan. The Israelites are to build it with oil for lights, sweet incense, gems, and as ark made of acacia wood that is exactly 2.5 cubits long and so on.

Very early on in the parashah God says: “Speak to the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering; of every man whose heart is willing shall take Me an offering”. God is asking of all the Israelites to make a voluntary offering to the new Tabernacle that will be built. He says the offering of them that He will take is in the form of gold, brass and silver, linen and a few other items. This enabled the Israelites to connect to the Mishkan as they had a role in creating it. Nowadays we don’t really offer God our precious metals, we offer our time spent in Synagogue or our effort in helping the community.

There is a key message that God is trying to teach us within this parashah, and that is to step up and take a role in our society – whether it be donating gold to build the Mishkan or turning up for a Minyan and being there. God is asking for an offering from every person whose heart makes him willing.

In return for this offering, God says he will give the children of Israel an Edut/Testimony, (Aseret HaDibrot -The Ten Utterances) to be housed in the Aron/Ark within the Mishkan.

This Edut/Testimony will guide the Israelites to being better people. God has made his offering fair, the Israelites take up their responsibilities and in doing so God helps them become better people.

Finally, I would like to talk about the word Terumah. It directly translates to gifts, referring to what the people were to bring to help in the construction of the Mishkan. In considering gifts we may bring today, what might they be? Observing moral codes, helping God and or praying and gathering as a community in our place of worship?

Sonia Redman – Year 12

On Shabbat

Shabbat is seen as a gift to our people. Below is a reflection by Sonia Redman, shared at our High School Kabbalat Shabbat celebration, on what this time may/should mean to us.

Abraham Heschel said: “Shabbat comes with its own holiness; we enter not simply a day, but an atmosphere. Shabbat is a realm of time where the goal is not to have, but to be”.

Shabbat is often thought of as a time in which we are prevented from creating, a ‘day of rest’. But in reality, we are still creating, we are still fashioning. But instead of producing material products, as is characteristic of the remainder of the week, Shabbat intends us to further create ourselves, to fulfil our spirit, rather than our bodies. We must detach ourselves from the clattering cacophony of our lives, separate ourselves from technology and consumerism.

On Shabbat we are empowered to create positivity, energy, togetherness. We create the true aspects of ourselves in an environment where we are free to just be. 

So, as our voices rise as one, let us welcome the atmosphere of Shabbat.