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Parshat Vayakhel-Pikudei 29 Adar 5761, 24 March 2001 |
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Parshat Vayakhel-Pikudei 29 Adar 5761, 24 March 2001 |
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Shabbat Shalom: Parshiot Vayakhel - Pekudei Exodus: 35:1- 40:38Efrat, Israel - What is the single most G-d-like trait a human being ought to internalize if he truly wishes to walk in the path of the Divine? What is the most important message of the Sabbath, the one day dedicated to G-d? There is one identical answer to both of these questions, a response which emanates from three difficult textual issues concerning Vayakhel - Pekudei. First of all, virtually all of the material concerning the Sanctuary found in this week's double portion has already been presented in Terumah - Tetzaveh. In the earlier Biblical portions, G-d commanded Israel to erect a Sanctuary with all of the ritual object furnishings such as the ark, the menorah, the table, the incense and sacrificial altars, the beams and the special priestly garb - and in these latter two portions the Torah tells us that the mission was accomplished. But we do not merely hear the expected verse, "And Moses and Israel did as the Lord commanded." Instead, we are "treated" to another painstaking description of each of the objects, repeating all of the details we have already heard. Why? Secondly, the two Sanctuary narratives are interrupted by a middle Torah portion, Ki Tisa, which basically records the tragic incident of the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf - with a command concerning the Sabbath entering the picture both at the beginning of Ki Tisa (after the initial Sanctuary description and before the worship of the calf in Exodus 31:12-17) and at the beginning of our portion Vayakhel (following the Golden Calf and before the final Sanctuary narrative in Exodus 35:1-3). The strange order is therefore Sanctuary Sabbath Golden Calf Sabbath Sanctuary, which is made even more curious by the fact that most commentaries, including Rashi, date the worship of the golden calf as having occurred before the Almighty gave the commandment to make a Sanctuary! So why the repetition, why the non-chronological intrusion of the Golden Calf episode in the midst of the Sanctuary narratives, and why surround the Golden Calf story with the references to the Sabbath? Let us begin our exploration with an attempt to understand the significance of the Sabbath. There is a beautiful midrash which pictures a dejected Adam meeting a jubilant Cain. Cain explains his joy by telling his father that he has repented and has been forgiven. Declares the newly exiled Adam, " 'So great is the power of repentance, and I did not know it'! Immediately Adam cries out in song 'A psalm is the song to the Sabbath day'" (Midrash B'reishit Rabbah 22, 13).From this conversation between father and son after each had sinned egregiously, we may correctly conclude that the Sabbath day expresses Divine forgiveness, G-dly acceptance even of serious evil-doers. The basis for this concept may be the fact that the Sabbath is a fore-taste of the world to come, a promise as well as an experience of the return to Eden despite the exile and alienation which is the result of transgression. One midrash sees Sabbath forgiveness as emanating from the possibility of atonement for Sabbath transgression by bringing an offering to the Temple (Kohelet Rabbah 1,1), another insists that the merit of the Sabbath saves every sinner from Gehinnom (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 18), and the Bet HaLevi profoundly understands the constant renewal of Divine creation every day - to which we testify on the Sabbath - as obviating the cause-and-effect time sequence of events, thereby allowing for repentance and forgiveness. I would suggest that if indeed the Sabbath day is sacred time spent in Divine fellowship in order that we come to know, love and emulate G-d, then we must understand that the primary definition of G-d's ways is "Lord, Lord, G-d of Compassion, and Undeserved Grace, Long-Suffering (acceptingly tolerant), full of Loving-Kindness and Truth." (Exodus 34:6,7).The midrash even goes so far as to explain the repetition of G-d's name: "Lord, Lord" as meaning "I am the Lord of love before you sin, and I am the Lord of love after you sin." Hence we see that the essential definition of G-d as we are able to apprehend is for forgiveness. Whether one accepts any or all of the above explanations it is indubitably clear that the Sabbath stands as the message of ultimate and unconditional Divine forgiveness as long as there has been repentance. Now, I believe, the Biblical textual order becomes understandable. Our prophetic, midrashic and mystical traditions all depict the relationship between G-d and Israel as comparable to that of a lover and a beloved - with even the arch-rationalist philosopher Maimonides describing love of G-d as the love pangs of a lover for his beloved (Laws of Repentance 10,3). From this perspective, the erection of the Sanctuary may be seen as the building of a nuptial home - with the newlyweds jointly and excitedly involved in each detail of every acquisition: the table, the ark-closet, the candelabrum, the wedding trousseau of clothing. But tragically, barely forty days after the wedding at Sinai, comes the unfortunate betrayal of the Golden Calf - nothing less than an adulterous fling when the bride panics under the illusion that her groom has deserted her. The G-d of Compassion and Forgiveness nevertheless accepts Israel back in repentance - and the couple resumes the decoration of their home/Sanctuary precisely as they had before the tragic episode, without missing a beat and faithful to every detail. Vayakhel-Pekudei testifies to the "forgive and forget" Undeserved Grace of the Almighty, enabling the couple to resume their relationship precisely as it had been before the grave transgression of adultery. "To err is human, to forgive Divine." The sin of the Golden Calf is both preceded and followed by the Sabbath, the day which more than any other expresses Divine forgiveness. May the Sabbath teach every one of us mortals created in the Divine Image to internalize G-d-like compassion so that we may truly walk in the ways of our Parent-in-Heaven. Shabbat Shalom.
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