Intent For The Matter: Parashat T’rumah

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hands_inTorah Sparks
Exodus 25:1 – 27:19

This Torah portion is devoted to detailed descriptions of all the elements of the travelling sanctuary – the mishkan – that was built by the Israelites to serve as a Tent of Meeting between them and God. The significance of this narrative is that it can serve as a basis for our own contemporary thinking and doing with regard to creating our own sacred spaces.

Moses is charged with constructing all the components of the mishkan. He is directly addressed and each item is introduced with the word “v`asita – and you shall make.” It is as if the entire mishkan will be built by Moses, but, of course, that is not quite so. Moses will delegate these tasks to various skilled workers who, in turn, will work under the supervision of Bezalel and Oholiav. Moses supplies the vision in elaborate detail. The execution of the vision is given over to others.

Yet, there is one, and only one, instance in our Torah reading in which Moses is not directly addressed to make a sanctuary component. That instance occurs at the very beginning. The verse reads: “They shall make an ark of acacia wood.” (Ex. 25:10) The reference is to the box that housed the Torah, the tablets upon which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. Only for the ark is the plural verb used rather than the singular. The meaning seems to be that the ark is to be made by many people and not just one individual. Why?

Nahmanides cites a midrash which draws the lesson from this small grammatical change. The midrash says: “Said Rabbi Yehudah, son of Rabbi Shalom – The Holy Blessed One said, ‘let them all come and work on the ark so that they will all merit the Torah.’” Building an ark for the Torah symbolized our commitment to care for and sustain the Torah as part of our lives. This was everyone’s job. But, practically speaking, how could everyone be involved in making a single box of relatively modest dimensions? Nahmanides further explains: “The ‘work’ [that everyone could do] would be that each one would donate one golden object on behalf of the ark, or would help Bezalel in some small way, or that they would have intent for the matter.”

According to Nahmanides, the ways we can all help in creating a house for the Torah are through financial contributions, personal involvement, or “intent for the matter.” The first two ways are clear, but they are still limited to a group of people with the means to contribute or actually help. How can “all” of us be included? We contribute through our “intent for the matter.” This last way is vaguely stated. Perhaps what he means is that the physical and financial efforts that some of us exert still depend on a general spirit of caring that must permeate the collective. The success or failure of concrete efforts depends on the zeitgeist created by the many who are not directly involved in the doing. Although they are not engaged in a hands-on way with the project, nevertheless, their caring or their apathy will significantly influence the results of the work being done in the more obvious ways.

The ongoing mission of the Jewish people, to carry the Torah and its sacred message forward into the world, depends on all of us creating a zeitgeist supportive of that sense of mission. This intangible contribution, the gift of all of us in actively caring that the project succeed and be realized, is just as crucial as the specific material gifts offered by the few.

But there is an important difference between this way of helping and the other two ways. Regarding the other two ways, it is fair to say that if someone does not contribute in effort or materials, then someone else can double their gift and make up the difference. But if someone does not care enough about the sustenance of the Torah, no one else can supply that missing caring in their stead.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein

image:  “Get Work Done!” © Todd Anderson altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License 2.0

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