02-28-2022, 11:14 PM
I wanted to share something I read in reference to this weeks parsha, specifically, from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt"l, (from the book Exodus: The Book of Redemption).
In one of his essays related to the parsha, he talks about nation building. He reference in Exodus Chapter 1 how in the first description of the Israelites as a nation, Pharaoh calls them an "am". a people. Rabbi Soloveitchik points out am is a community of fate, not faith. For later the Torah uses the word "edah" and that am shares a past and edah shares a future.
The people who Moses leads lack the moral maturity to become a free nation. At just about every stage they complain which can be that of a slave mentality. They are not yet a people of faith, trusting in G-d. They cannot see beyond the present even though they witnessed some of G-d's greatest miracles.
Then came the revelation at Sinai and yet a mere 40 days later they made the golden calf. What more needed to happen to transform them into a cohesive group with a sense of identity and mission?
It's at this point, at the beginning of this weeks parsha that Moses commands the people to construct the Tabernacle. It's as if G-d said - If you want to create a group with a sense of collective identity, get them to build something together.
It is not what happens to us, but what we do that gives us identity and responsibility.
What transformed the Israelite's is not what G-d did for them, but what they did for G-d.
Until the building of the Tabernacle, the story of the Israelite's is a sequence of events in which G-d acted for the people. He liberated them, divided the sea for them, gave them water from a rock and food from heaven. During all that time they quarreled and complained.
Yet during the construction of the Tabernacle, there were no quarrels, no complaints. The people gave their wealth, their time and their skills. Actually, they gave so much that Moses had to issue an order that they should stop.
This is behavior we have not seen before. The Israelite's were indeed transformed - not by a miracle, but by their own efforts,
What we do changes us, not what is done for us.
In one of his essays related to the parsha, he talks about nation building. He reference in Exodus Chapter 1 how in the first description of the Israelites as a nation, Pharaoh calls them an "am". a people. Rabbi Soloveitchik points out am is a community of fate, not faith. For later the Torah uses the word "edah" and that am shares a past and edah shares a future.
The people who Moses leads lack the moral maturity to become a free nation. At just about every stage they complain which can be that of a slave mentality. They are not yet a people of faith, trusting in G-d. They cannot see beyond the present even though they witnessed some of G-d's greatest miracles.
Then came the revelation at Sinai and yet a mere 40 days later they made the golden calf. What more needed to happen to transform them into a cohesive group with a sense of identity and mission?
It's at this point, at the beginning of this weeks parsha that Moses commands the people to construct the Tabernacle. It's as if G-d said - If you want to create a group with a sense of collective identity, get them to build something together.
It is not what happens to us, but what we do that gives us identity and responsibility.
What transformed the Israelite's is not what G-d did for them, but what they did for G-d.
Until the building of the Tabernacle, the story of the Israelite's is a sequence of events in which G-d acted for the people. He liberated them, divided the sea for them, gave them water from a rock and food from heaven. During all that time they quarreled and complained.
Yet during the construction of the Tabernacle, there were no quarrels, no complaints. The people gave their wealth, their time and their skills. Actually, they gave so much that Moses had to issue an order that they should stop.
This is behavior we have not seen before. The Israelite's were indeed transformed - not by a miracle, but by their own efforts,
What we do changes us, not what is done for us.