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March 22, 2025 - 22 Adar 5785 Parashat Vayekhel - The Contributions of Everyone
Dear Friends, With Purim over and our joy continuing to increase throughout this month of Adar, we begin to turn our attention to Pesach. Passover will begin on the evening of Saturday, April 12th and we are pleased to announce that we will once again hold a community Seder on the second evening of the holiday, Sunday, April 13th at 6:30PM. You should receive a mailing shortly with all the information you need about our Passover celebration and how to prepare for the holiday, but if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. We are about a week away from the end of the March Mega Food Drive. If you haven’t already brought in some items for donation, please bring some non-perishable food items and toiletries to the synagogue. We have blue bags set up in the social hall, where you can place the items. We are doing great with our collection efforts so far, but let's see how much better we can do! I will be away this Shabbat, but Rabbi Jaymee Alpert will be back to lead services. Please give her a warm welcome and I look forward to seeing you upon my return, next Shabbat. I will confess something to you: the end of the book of Sh'mot (Exodus) can be tough for me. The gathering of all of the precious metals and materials to fashion all of the intricate furnishings of the Mishkan (sacred tabernacle), and even just the listing of what needs to be constructed is dizzying to the point where maybe our eyes begin to glaze over a bit: "...the Tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its clasps and its planks, its bars, its posts, and its sockets; the ark and its poles, the cover, and the curtain for the screen; the table, and its poles and all its utensils; and the bread of display; the lampstand for lighting, its furnishings and its lamps, and the oil for lighting; the altar of incense and its poles; the anointing oil and the aromatic incense; and the entrance screen for the entrance of the Tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering, its copper grating, its poles, and all its furnishings; the laver and its stand; the hangings of the enclosure, its posts and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; the pegs for the Tabernacle, the pegs for the enclosure, and their cords; the service vestments for officiating in the sanctuary, the sacral vestments of Aaron the priest and the vestments of his sons for priestly service." My goodness, that's a lot! While the rest of this book of Torah will go into extraordinary (excruciating?) detail as to precisely how to do so, it is the start of the portion that catches my eye and my heart. In almost rapid fire, we get descriptive terminology as to who should bring these gifts and engage in these projects. We are told, like in Parashat T'rumah, to "Take gifts from among you to Adonai, everyone whose heart is so moved." After the list of items needed, we are told, "Let all among you who are skilled come and make all that Adonai has commanded." And shortly thereafter we are told, "And everyone who excelled in ability and everyone whose spirit was moved came, bringing to יהוה an offering for the work of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the sacral vestments." This is lovely, for sure, but I find it even more meaningful to look at the Hebrew from whence these translations came. The Hebrew phrase "Kol n'div libo" ( כל נדיב ליבו )(whose heart is so moved) might be translated more literally as "the one who offers or volunteers his heart." The Hebrew “Chol chacham lev, (חול חכם לב)" meaning "skilled," actually speaks of those who are "wise of heart." "Kol ish asher n'sa'o libo," ( כל איש אשר נשאו ליבו) which we read as "excelled in ability," speaks of those "whose hearts have been lifted." And "Khol asher nadva rucho," To me, this speaks to the very crux of the human condition and spirit: that the total of our lives and what we do with them is the connection between what is innately within us and how we choose to offer it to the world. It is both nature and nurture, thought and deed, intention and follow-through. And, perhaps most importantly, where we might read such descriptions as limitations on those who can contribute, what we can read instead is that everyone in the midst of the Israelite people, has something within their spirits, hearts, abilities, and skills, to be generous with, to raise up, and to offer for the greater good. Our son Jonah has a framed sign in his room at home that says, "Everyone's different. Everyone belongs." Four words that convey a most fundamental, powerful, and beautiful assertion: whoever you are, whatever little quirks, eccentricities, interests, hobbies, inclinations you have within you - they are all wonderful, because they are what makes you you. There is and will always be a place for you, wherever you go because that's what our tradition teaches us: that each of us has a spark of the Divine, the Tzelem Elohim, (צלם אלוהים) the image of God, within our souls, that makes us both a most unique one-of-one, while also tying us inextricably with every other human being. On this Shabbat and every day, may we strive to make our homes, our places of worship and business - everywhere we go - into spaces where all are welcomed, all belong, and all are both givers and receivers of the best of what humanity has to offer. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
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