Parsha Terumah: Trails of tears

By JODY “YAACOV” GOTHARD

If the Hebrews in the desert had insisted on forming a Union and a founding a limited liability partnership before risking their stiff necks at the Mishkan construction site, a likely name for their start-up would be, “High Priests High Priced Mobile Creations.” For in telling Moses “Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell within them,” G-d is telling his recently freed slaves four things: you are spiritual, you are materialistic, you are co-creative, and you are mobile.

The Hebrews had only been in the desert for a few months, and despite G-d’s preference, most of them would remain there until they died. The fact that our birth as a nation happened in the mostly uninhabitable Sinai Peninsula was both a warning and a blessing. When Moses set up the completed Mishkan, or sanctuary, the carrying staves remained in place in the attached hoops, mobile and ready to move at a moment’s notice. The obvious caveat was never get too attached to any particular place, for your true home is G-d’s home, and your survival during your wanderings, now and in the future, depends on your faith in Him.

When G-d’s protective cloud hovered over the camp, the Hebrews stopped traveling, and the Mishkan, which included the ark containing the twin tablets, was re-assembled. When the cloud moved in front of the camp, The Hebrews packed up and physically followed the commandments wherever G-d led them, until they trusted Him enough to literally follow the commandments on their own volition. Our wanderings as a people have continued worldwide through numerous hostile environments, giving us extremely challenging opportunities to increase our faith while also serving as a conscience, as a light unto the nations. Throughout our many exiles, our nation’s birth outside of the land of Israel has been a key to our survival, for we had survived a harsh desert environment before we entered the Promised Land, so we knew we could survive without the land upon during our multiple exiles. The Cherokee Nation is not the only tribe to have walked a Trail of Tears. Our tribe has also experienced numerous mid-winter death marches, not only into slavery after the loss of our sovereignty, but directly into the mouth of pure evil and almost certain death.

The 15,000 Cherokees’ spirits were crushed upon their forced removal from this very land where we sit because every facet of their religion and culture was deeply rooted in their connection to the Southern Appalachians, which is still known as “G-d’s Country.” They were intimately connected to the land, the animals, the trees, the rivers, the wind, and the connecting spirit, which they called “the spirit that moves through all things, which we call Elokhim. When they lost their land, they lost the origins of their entire religion and culture, and many of the 10,000 who survived that brutal walk to the arid Midwest also lost hope.

Our Jewish trails of tears, on the contrary, were remarkably accompanied by hope as well as despair, based on our miraculous existence before we lived in Ha Aretz, the land, and based on G-d’s promise of future redemption. This ultimate redemption could have happened during the Holocaust victims’ last walk to extermination, it could happen here, and it could happen now. It perhaps only needs one last person doing one extra act of kindness to tip the scales, to create the critical mass, and usher in the Messianic era. And that walk will be a walk of joy, of peace, and of harmony, for according to Likkutei Sichos, as adapted by Eli Touger, “from “the mountain of G-d’s house” will spread forth light and holiness, motivating all people to learn G-d’s ways and “walk in His paths.”

That last step that any of us, or any one at all, might decide to take, to do a good deed, to turn the tide forever, to transform our human trail of tears into a victory march of celebration and joy, can happen at any time, and it can happen in any place. The ultimate goal of many Buddhists and Hindis is to achieve enlightenment so that they can permanently escape from the cycle of samsarah, from reincarnation into this world of suffering and delusion. G-d’s ultimate goal for us, according to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the Founder of Chabad and Author of the Tanya, is stated in today’s Parsha. “They shall make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell amidst them,” he says, “is what man is all about; this is the purpose of His creation and the creation of all the words, higher and lower – that there be made for G-d a dwelling in the lower realms.” Like the Buddhists and Hindis, we also want to elevate ourselves, to bask in the glory of G-d’s love. Unlike the Buddhists and Hindis, however, we want to take the whole world up with us.

While there are distinct parallels between the story of the creation of the world (G-ds temporary home for us), and the creation of the Mishkan (Man’s temporary home for G-d), only one chapter of the Torah is devoted to the creation story, while 13 chapters are devoted to fashioning the mishkan and training the priests. Our job is seemingly 13 times more difficult than G-d’s job.

According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his article “Two Narratives of Creation,” “It is not difficult for an infinite, omnipotent creator to make a home for humanity. What is difficult is for human beings, in their finitude and vulnerability, to make a home for G-d. Yet that is the purpose, not only of the Mishkan in particular, but of the Torah as a whole.”

Think about it. G-d chose to occasionally bring his presence into a small, sanctified, man-made 20-cubit Holy of Holies. Our job is to transform the entire rest of the G-d-made world into a permanent home for his presence, and as the common expression goes, “It’s a Jungle out there!” We have a lot more mountains, oceans, deserts, villages, cities, boardrooms and jungles to purify than G-d’s mere 20 cubits…..or do we? As Eli Touger points out, The Ark of the Convenant was 2.5 cubits long, yet when placed in the Holy of Holies, there were still ten cubits between the Ark and both sides of the Holy of Holies. In other words, the physical ark occupied no space.

When we think of heaven, do we imagine G-d’s essence, Adoshem, floating somewhere up there above North America? Couldn’t heaven just as easily be floating above South America? In actuality, Heaven IS above, below and in North America AND in South America at the same time. The Mishkan, created by man, teaches us that G-d exists in 20 cubits, 20 universes, and completely outside of creation, simultaneously. This physical world, created by G-d, is the only thing that exists in time and place. True reality, G-d’s heavenly essence, exists everywhere, including right here, slicing through our very bodies, these tables, and the walls of this building. So if G-d is already here, in each one of us, in our mountains and deserts, in our warm homes and dark allies, in our dreams and in self-doubts, if he is already here, why is it necessary to make a dwelling place for Him?

According to Rabbi Simon Jacobson’s Meaningful Life.com website, “What does it mean to make our world a home for G-d? A basic tenet of our faith is that “the entire world is filled with His presence” and that “there is no place void of Him.” So it’s not that we have to bring G-d into the material world – He is already there. But G-d can be in the world without being at home in it.”

G-d’s essence if as pure as the cool, revitalizing mountain breeze, as soothing as the rhythmic waves lapping onto shore, and as loving as the Earth’s warm, life-sustaining core. With His breath he breathed part of that pure powerful love into us. As we pray in Shachrit each morning, “Elohai Neshamah She Natatah Be Tehorahi,” Lord, the soul you placed in me, she is pure.” Just as a person’s soul will flee from their body in moments of intense violence or trauma, so will G-d’s pure and loving essence not feel welcome in times of war, cruelty and abuse among his children. A parent who always acts as a referee will never let his or her children figure out how to get along by themselves. G-d may visit continuously, through his angels, to keep each of us alive and accident-free long enough to fulfill our purpose, but would His pure loving soul feel comfortable permanently dwelling in the world as it is now? With our level of interpersonal communication, our personal poetry at gutter levels from the highest elected officials to the petty Facebook instigators, from local human trafficking to social media slandering, from minority scapegoating to road rage? The answer is obviously no, we have a long way to go.

So why didn’t G-d just create this world with divine knowledge already enlightening an era of love and cooperation, without the struggle and pain to find hope in the long march, to grope for direction in darkness as we blindly seek to stay on our erratic spiritual paths? Why do we have to work so hard to chisel from the cold, hard facts of life, a more refined and beautiful home for G-d?

“Why was man’s activity necessary?” asks Eli Touger in his article “A Dwelling Among Mortals,” which was adapted from the Rebbe’s Likkutei Sichos. “Because G-d’s intent is that the revelation of His Presence be internalized in the world, becoming part of the fabric of its existence. Were the revelation to come only from above, it would merely nullify worldliness. When G-d revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, the world ground to a standstill…no bird chirped…the mountain became holy and therefore, “all that ascend the mountain must die.” When however, G-d’s Presence was withdrawn from the mountain, the Jews were allowed to ascend it, for the fundamental nature of the mountain had not changed; it remained an ordinary mountain.”

In the center of the Mishkan, atop the ark and emanating from a cloud of smoke between the embracing golden cherubim, G-d’s presence would descend in a cloud of protective smoke, from which he would speak to Moses. Moses would then relay G-d’s wisdom to Joshua, Aaron and the Elders, who would then disseminate the divine knowledge to the entire people. Regarding the laws governing the Hebrews’ interactions with each other, Moses’ initial attempts to be the sole judge and arbitrator of hundreds of thousands of people was, according to Moses’ father-in-law Yitro in Exodus Chapter 18, verse 18, “not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you: you cannot handle it alone.

Indeed, the work of transforming every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every animal, every argument, and every person, from our rough physical natures to a more refined awareness of G-d, is too heavy for Moses or any one of us. That is why this week’s parshah begins with “Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering.” Love and gratitude inspires every one of us to continue our individual struggles to create a dwelling place for G-d, not just so that He can abide in the Mishkan, but “so that I may dwell in them,” in the heart of each Jew, and eventually each person and sentient being, to transform the world from a lonely desert of egoist uncaring, to a universal oasis of unconditional love.

As stated in the Article “The Answer to the Mother of All Questions” on Rabbi Jacobson’s MeaningfulLife.com website, “The material world, in its natural state, is not an environment hospitable to G-d. If there is one common feature to all things material, it is their intrinsic egocentrism, their placement of the self as the foundation and purpose of existence. So to make our world a “home” for G-d, we must transform its very nature. We must recast the very foundations of its identify from a self-oriented entity into something that exists for a purpose that is greater than itself,” says the article, which continues.

“Every time we take a material object or resource and enlist it in the service of G-d, we are effecting such a transformation. When we take a piece of leather and make a pair of tefillin, when we take a dollar bill and give it to charity, when we employ our minds to study a chapter of Torah – we are effecting such a transformation. In its initial state, the piece of leather proclaimed, “I exist;” now it says, “I exist to serve my Creator.” A dollar in (our) pocket says, “Greed is good;” in the charity box it says, “The purpose of life is not to receive, but to give.” The human brain says, “Enrich thyself;” the brain studying Torah says, “Know thy G-d.”

When we try to change the world for G-d, good things happen and connections are strengthened. When we try to change the world for ourselves, bad things happen and connections are severed.

As much as we may dream of it in our youth, no one can change the entire world. Through His instructions on how to create a home for Him, G-d tells us that is not necessary. The Garden of Eden still exists. We wake up to it every day. The name for G-d as Creator, Elokhim, has the same gemmatria as Ha Teva, ‘The Nature.’ We have become so detached from the glory of G-d’s creation, and from our own divine nature, that we forgot that He entrusted us to be the Caretakers, not only of His Garden, but of His rivers, His plants, His soil, and His animals. Our attempts to exploit Ha Teva for our selfish benefit and comfort has resulted in the pollution of the air we breath, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

Our attempts to manipulate and change those around us to conform to our selfish needs have resulted in ego battles, separation, and isolation. Our external battles are merely reflections of our internal struggles between our animal souls and our divine souls. In Terumah G-d is telling us, in order to reconnect with my Garden of Eden, with others, with yourself, and with Me, do not look outside of yourselves for gratification, but look within, look deep inside the heart of the Mishkan, to the Holy of Holies, to the cherubim, the golden angels, whose loving embrace demonstrates my love for you, your love for each other, and your love for all parts of yourselves. Unconditionally love yourselves, accept your own human and divine nature, and I will heal your relationships and your planet as I expand my glory from the 20 cubits of this inner sanctum to the four corners of this world. Bring the healing and transforming energy of this 2-and-a-half-cubit golden ark into your 2-and-a-half-inch heart of gold, make your unique heart offering to the world with generosity, and you will feel the oneness with every one of my creations, with Ha Teva, and with Me. “Make for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell amidst them.”

May each of us take the unconditional love and respect that we have been blessed to find in this community, and with pride in our heritage, and with freedom and power to add our individual gifts to the universal Mishkan that we are building, spread the light of wisdom, love and respect to all people and all species, as we help reinstate G-d’s spirit into this physical Garden of Eden for which we are responsible. May we all see the flourishing and revitalization take place here, now and forever more. Good Shabbas.

(Author Jody “Yaacov” Gothard, a New Orleans native, is president of CareerPro Resumes. He can be reached here.)