TorahParsha

Direction

for Vayakhel-Pikuedei

 

Moses cannot enter God’s Tent, because God’s presence of cloud is in it. 

 

Then we are told: this cloud guides the people as they wander through the Desert.

God’s presence is not a home for the righteous: it is a guide for how we move through the world.

 

___

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

How to sanctify

for parshat Vayakhel - Pikudei

 

i

They snatched their wive’s gold

and Aaron melted it

and they worshipped the golden calf

that came of this.

*

That is what we know.

 

ii

We know the cloth

and the wood

and the metals

and the dimensions

and the crastmanship

that go into the Tent of God.

The Torah tells us

over and over.

 

iii

An idol is useless

so what it is made of

is rendered useless,

and the building of it

is a useless act.

None of it

bears mention.

*

If you put the materials of the earth

and the materials you own

and the materials you create

and your skills of making

to God’s work,

all of it

is worth talking about

because all of it

becomes holy.

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

____

There are details to the Golden Calf that I have left out, but I think my point is valid nonetheless.

www.TorahParsha.com  / @TorahParsha

 

Can average people approach the holy?

For Parshat VaYakhel

i

God came down to the Mountain in fire.

The Mountain trembled.

The people trembled.

The people stood from afar.

*

God tells Moses: Do not light a fire in your dwelling- places on Shabbat.

So on Shabbat, there is no terrifying fire;

and on Shabbat, there is no Mountain, no Heavens from which holiness comes down.

There is only your dwelling-place.

You, and your son, and your daughter, and your…servant, and the stranger in your midst  all rest together there.

 

iii

There is the holiness of the Fire from Above,

and there is the holiness of everyone resting together:

the holiness of Shabbat.

*

Almost no one can approach the Fire from Above.

But everyone is invited into the holiness of Shabbat,

everyone is commanded into the holiness of Shabbat,

everyone holds a part in the holiness of being together.  

 

______

 

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

____

Please pray for the premature infant  Baer Yakov ben Emunah, who is improving and needs our prayers now. Please also pray for my wife’s grandmother, Rifka bat Shifra Reizel; as well as Fievel ben Chaya, Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

 www.TorahParsha.com