Dvar Torah on Parshat Terumah

The portion of Terumah marks an apparent shift in the Torah's concerns. After the exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandmets on Mount Sinai, and the communication of a wide range of commandments in Parshat Mishpatim, we suddenly become interested, almost to the exclusion of anything else, in the building of the משכן - Tabernacle - the portable Temple which accompanied the Israelites through the desert. For the rest of the book of Exodus, and for the entire book of Leviticus, we basically hear about the construction of the Tabernacle and its vessels, and the order of the sacrifices which were offered there. 

The Ramban (Nachmanides, Spain and Israel, 1194-1270) explains the order of these events in the following way: After the Israelites heard the Ten Commandments, they were then given, in parshat Mishpatim,  a smorgasbord of just about all of the various categories of mitzvot. This was done, the Ramban explains, to accomplish what God had said at the outset was His goal - to enter into a covenant with the Jewish people which would transform them into a "nation of priests and a holy people". To this end, He did what the Rabbis do with potential converts: He gave the people a basic overview of what the Torah is. Upon hearing this overview, in the form of the Ten Commandments and the wide range of mitzvot in Mishpatim, the Israelites agreed, and accepted the Torah.

At this juncture, the Ramban says, the covenant is established, we are God's people and He is our God. This new relationship makes a Temple the obvious next step. The partners in this arrangement are now engaged in a relationship, and a Tabernacle is neccessary as a dwelling place for God among His people, the place which will be the locus of this new, ongoing, interaction. This is why the first thing commnaded after the acceptance of the Torah's commadments is the building of the Temple - it is the logical next step for the two partners in the covenant. 

What is noteworthy about this process is the nature of the laws and commandments which God chose to teach the Israelites, as a taste and example of what the Torah, and the covenant, are all about. Both the Ten Commandments and the laws of Mishpatim contain a preponderance of מצות בין אדם לחברו - commandments concerning ineractions between man and his fellow man, rather than מצות בין אדם למקום - commandments concerning the interaction between man and God. The last six of the Ten Commandments are clearly about how we interact with our fellow men and women, and the fourth commandment, keeping the Sabbath, certainly has elements of social engineering to it, which are stressed even more strongly in Mishpatim: we need a universal day of rest in order to guarantee that the weakest members of our community - servants, strangers, even animals - get a day off.

This concern with laws about the social order, as opposed to laws concerning ritual or worship,  is even more pronounced in the portion of Mishpatim. The vast majority of its laws are about how to run a just and law-abiding society. There are laws about damages, loans, charity, assault, how to treat servants, how to run a legal system, parents and children, husbands and wives, and only a very small amount of material about ritual; a verse or two about Sabbath (and even there the focus is on on the need to give the poor a day off) and the holidays, some kashrut (and that contains the commandment to give certain types of non-kosher food to the dogs), and that's about it. 

The clear message of the choice by God to present these kinds of laws as the material He wants the Israelites to think about when they decide whether or not to accept the Torah and join the covenant, is that those mitzvot with a social and ethical orientation are what the Torah is really all about.  Ritual, worship, the laws that are between us and God, are important, but they are not the main purpose of the covenant. They are, perhaps, what helps us remember and dedicate ourselves to it, what forms the framework of out commitment  to the Torah, but the ethical standards, being a good and decent person, not lying, not oppressing the stranger, helping people who are down on their luck, respecting other people's property, and paying for damage we have done, that's  what God really wants of us. It is our adherence to these standards of behavior which will, ultimately, turn us into a "Kingdom of priests and a holy people". 

This sentiment is expressed again and again by many of the prophets, when they speak of the futility and hypocricy of offering sacrifices, of adherence to ritual, while, at the same time, oppressing the poor and the weak, and failing to run a just society. As Isaiah says: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord...Bring no more vain offerings, incense of abomination they are to me...your new moons and sabbaths...and holidays my soul hates, they are a burden to me...even when you make many prayers I will not hear you, your hands are full of blood. ...Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the orphan, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1; 11-17).

The message is clear. When God wants to teach the Israelites what the Torah is all about, so that they can come to an informed decision and, like converts, choose the Torah and enter into the covenant, he teaches them civil law, justice, and kindness. As Isaiah tells us, without this basis, without a commitment to creating a just, caring, and decent society, adherence to the the ritual elements of the Torah, our Judaism of worship, prayer, kashrut, and the holidays, is worse than meaningless; it is a disgrace, a pointless, hypocritical perversion of the whole point of being a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a chosen people.

Are we living up to God's message to us? To Isaiah's demand that we privelege justice and kindness over ritual? Is this our focus when we educate our children? Is this what we concentrate on when welcoming a convert into our community, as God did, when, before agreeing to enter into a covenant with us, and dwell among us, in the Tabernacle he asks us to construct, he first made sure we knew what His priorities were, and that we understood that a religious Jew is, first and foremost, kind, just, and caring?

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shimon Felix