Community Torah Corner, March 15, 2024

We began the annual Torah reading so many months ago with the start of the universe, with the birth of humanity, and finally, the beginnings of the people of Israel (literally, the children of Israel). B’reishit gave us universal and particular beginnings.

 

Sh’mot gave us something different: peoplehood and purpose. We came together as one in the Exodus and received the ultimate gifts at Sinai—Torah, and with it, purpose and guidance.

 

This week we conclude Sh’mot, and we do so by completing a circle of creation and connection. Rabbi Shai Held teaches in his new book Judaism is about Love that God’s creation of humanity was an enormous act of love, of hesed. If this act were all, dayeinu, but God didn’t stop there. An additional act of hesed, the rabbis teach, was in God’s making it clear and explicit that we’re made in God’s image. It’s one thing to be alive. It’s another to understand the true meaning of life. 

 

With this understanding, we return, we reciprocate, we complete the circle. We finish the work of building the mishkan. God brought us into the world, and now we do our best to bring God into the world. Indeed, we finish the book of Sh’mot knowing that כבוד ה׳ מלא את המשכן, the glory of God filled the mishkan (Exod 40:34).

 

The mishkan was only the beginning. The rest of Creation is waiting for our finishing touch. Every time we perform a holy act, every time we make life better in some manner, we reciprocate. And in great part, we do so through our children, in raising knowledgeable and caring mensches who understand and are committed, in turn, to being part of this sacred cycle.