Terumah starts a series of chapters that describe the construction of the Tabernacle in great detail. We know that both in Egypt and Mesopotamia temples and palaces were the core of any city and society. It was a matter of national pride to describe them in intricate detail. The more intricate the more authority and power they projected. These structures…
Sefer Shemot
Cherubs
What are we to make of the two golden Cherubs the Torah commanded Moshe to have made to be placed on top of the Ark? The Torah says they faced each other from the edges of the Ark and their wings spread over the cover of the Ark. covered the Ark. Anyone familiar with archaeology will know that throughout the…
Community
Terumah establishes two principles that are more than just legal. The first is the obligation to give to the community. Elsewhere the Torah lays out our obligations to the poor. But communities need support and whereas much of individual obligations to others is left relatively open, when it comes to supporting the community, as here, it is defined. Not only…
A Constitution
The Ten Commandments we read last week, were general statements of principles. After they were given they needed to be translated into effective tools of legislation. It is like the American Constitution. The initial declarations of the Founding Fathers needed to be expanded into constitution. Then the constitution needed amendments to the Constitution. Even so each generation goes on interpreting…
Legal Systems
Once we start reading about the legal system in the Torah, we move away from narrative, human conflict and the passions of life and turn towards system, law and governance. The two are not meant to stand in opposition but to complement each other. No society can function effectively without a legal system, without property rights and social obligations. However,…
Two Versions of Sinai
Last week we read about the revelation that gave us the Torah on Sinai. This week we go into the specific religious and civil laws that expanded the initial ten principles that were inscribed on the two tablets of stone. And then the Torah returns to a recapitulation of the Sinai revelation with interesting differences. In the first version in…