The Power That Makes For Human Potential (Parshat Pekudei)
A bonus for this week because Rabbi Patrick can't count or follow calendars
Last week we accidentally made a double portion dvar for Vayakhel Pekudei, not realizing that this week was Pekudei. So in the spirit of that, we’ve added a Pekudei dvar torah that will catch us up to next week. You’ll find that the week numbering is slightly off from this torah cycle, but the parshayot are the same. We’re also offering it for free to our non-students, with the hope that you love it and will join us at Darshan Yeshiva.
If none of that is meaningful to you, then as they say in Internet speak…
tl;dr - we gave you a double torah portion last week when we did not need to, so here’s one for this week, enjoy.
By Rabbi Patrick Beaulier
שהיה כל המשכן מלא אהבה ישראל וכיסופיהם לקב’’ה. כי המישכן יכליו באו מנדבת לבם ותשוקתם העזה של ישראל ממילא שרתה השכינה עד שלא נשאר פירור ואתר פנוי מיניה כי הכול היה הדור רוח הנדיבות ומאוויי ישראל לפיצך וצבוד טהטה מלא את המשכן
In a text called Iturei Torah, author Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Greenberg (1902-1963) suggests that the mishkan exists due to the generosity of the Israelites. Makes sense, given that in last week’s torah portion, Moses has to ask the Israelites to stop being so giving toward its construction.
…and this is the part where every burned out synagogue treasurer or Jewish non-profit donor development associate goes, “gee, wouldn’t it be AWESOME if our members donated SO MUCH that we had to turn them away?!”
Anywho…
The mishkan, the dwelling place of God (or God’s kavod, whichever), was filled with the ahavat yisrael, the love of the Jewish people — the longing, the yearning to have HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One) amongst the Israelites.
Let me say it simply — the love of the Jewish people fills the mishkan out of a sense of devotion to God.
So what happens? Shechinah, in turn, fill that same place, the mishkan, until there is “not one crumb” of space left (that’s a reference to the Zohar, by the way).
The yearning for God fills our temporal space,
and God’s kavod in turn fills everything.
So, we’re left with some kind of paradox.
The mishkan is not the place, after all.
Because our love fills it, to the point that God’s honor fills it beyond its boundaries.
The mishkan isn’t a tent.
The whole universe is the mishkan.
And God’s presence permeates everything.
So how do we, God’s people, make that manifest?
Through that generosity of heart that built the mishkan in the first place.
This isn’t some wacky woo-woo idea. The prophets argued that the mishkan was not God’s singular place on Earth long before Iturei Torah. Isaiah 66:1 proclaims:
כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה הַשָּׁמַיִם כִּסְאִי וְהָאָרֶץ הֲדֹם רַגְלָי אֵי־זֶה בַיִת אֲשֶׁר תִּבְנוּ־לִי וְאֵי־זֶה מָקוֹם מְנוּחָתִי׃
Thus said GOD: The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool:
Where could you build a house for Me, what place could serve as My resting place?
Good point: God is greater than all these things we make. What vessle could possible contain the Divine? Where in the world could we possibly have a God-free zone?
An important point here: mishkan and shechinah (God’s manifestation) are rooted in the same word, which means “to dwell”. Even the name is a pun. The place where God dwells is the same word as God’s dwelling-ness (not a word, but I’m a rabbi, so I make up words).
God is both the noun and the verb,
the place of dwelling and the spirit of dwelling.
And it all comes from a good heart,
which we would not have if we weren’t longing for God in the first place.
To borrow from Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, God is something like the power that makes for human salvation. Or as I’m going to put it, the power that makes for human potential.
God makes for the kind of generous heart that longs for God in the first place. And this heart brings God to the world. A world where God permeates all things anyway.
And that’s a lot.
And that’s all I have to say this week.
Thanks to Rabbi Les Bronstein of Temple Beth Am who introduced me to this text (and who you can listen to if you join Darshan Training and navigate over to the Community Beit Midrash’s course on American Progressive Jewish Movements).