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Friday February 28, 2025/30 Sh'vat 5785/Rosh Chodesh Adar

Parashat Terumah

Friends/Hevre, 

Of the many different names for God imagined by Jewish tradition, the one that speaks deeply to me is "HaMakom" - "the place" - for it implies that divinity or godliness can be found in just about every setting, provided we're looking for it, or better yet, generating it.

Sending a somewhat different message, this week's Torah portion of Terumah describes the building of the Mishkan, the desert sanctuary. While the Mishkan was a precursor to the many beautiful buildings erected across Jewish time and Jewish space to gather community for encounters with God through prayer and ritual, it also signals a distressing shift in the locus of spirituality and meaning.

Before we placed God inside sanctuaries, temples, synagogues, churches and mosques, people discovered the holy One on the top of mountains (where Moses still sits during this portion), by the sea, in valleys and meadows; in the most original and natural sanctuaries. And, as last week's portion of Mishpatim taught us with its myriad laws governing human interactions, sacred encounters are also possible, if not mandated, in the mundane settings of the market, the courthouse, the bank, the immigration office, the field, and even the bedroom.

Placing these two portions one after the other is a powerful rejoinder against the impulse to limit our "religious" behaviour to settings such as the synagogue or Shabbat table. The Torah summons us to try to imbue every interaction with another, whether before the ark or in the checkout line, with the same sacred expressions of humility, gratitude, and grace. A kind word, a warm smile, a generous gift, a respectful gesture are all their own forms of prayer; are all sacred rituals in the building not only of a spiritual sanctuary but a world of love.

Faith communities have long bemoaned diminishing attendance at services while what we're truly suffering from is diminishing attention to the sanctity of the public square. The vitriol and hostility which too often toxify our exchanges today, from the upper echelons of government to digital platforms and even simple exchanges on the street, desecrate not only our human, social landscape, but also the very Source of Life itself permeating everywhere, not just in our often empty pews.

Interestingly, in the wake of October 7 and the many other shocking and frightening upheavals that have shaken our world recently, leaders across religious communities are noticing a renewed interest in spirituality and fellowship and are seeing more people filling their sanctuaries. But it would be a mistake to focus only on trying to keep them there. Our task is to inspire them to bring their yearnings, their intentions, back out into the world when they leave.

May the wisdom and dreams infusing these gatherings spread far beyond the walls of our congregations into the most sacred and urgent sanctuaries of all - the ones that are created each time we look at one another and truly see each other's humanity.

With continued prayers for our ability to bring home all the hostages, protect the soldiers, heal the injured, comfort the bereaved, and build a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom and a joyful new month of Adar,

Dini

Photo Courtesy of Ronen Avisror