The Essential Terumah
The specifications for the construction and equipping of the Israelite’s desert sanctuary – the mishkan – occupy two full weeks of the annual cycle of Torah reading. And those specifications are largely repeated later, at the end of the book of Exodus, when the mishkan was actually built.
Parashat Terumah—Exodus 25:1–27:19—opens with God’s command to Moses to collect from the people free-will offerings of gold, silver, and other materials required for the mishkan. It includes specifications for the enclosure itself and for its principal furnishings, including the ark. There are ninety-six verses in Parashat Terumah, and over ninety percent of those are devoted to detail. They tell us about the sizes, numbers, colors, materials, dimensions, and locations of the items comprising the sanctuary. In the following portion, Parashat Tetzaveh, which we will study next week, we will find the specifications for the priestly garments, the eternal flame, the daily sacrifices, and the incense altar.
In our study of this section of the Torah, we very often focus on the details. It is interesting to examine and consider the meaning of all of the numbers and dimensions and the spatial relationships described in the text; to speculate on the meaning of dolphin skins and review the midrashim about the acacia wood. Most commentators do just that. Those who are primarily influenced by the interpretive school of Rabbi Akiva; who believe that nothing—no word, letter, or marking in the Torah—is without specific and important meaning; find the numerology, geometry, and fabrication details of the mishkan a bottomless well of meaning. It is certainly a kabbalists delight.
Maimonides, though, in his Guide for the Perplexed (3.26), implicitly questions the importance of all of that detail. He asks why it should matter to us whether a particular sacrifice should be of a ram or of a lamb. Why should we care whether seven animals are sacrificed rather than eight? Why not ten, or six? Those are examples he uses but his question is just as valid, suggests Rabbi Steinsaltz, if asked of any specific details in the text, including those pertaining to the sanctuary. Maimonides writes:
Note this and understand it. The repeated assertion of our Sages that there are reasons for all commandments … refer to the general purpose of the commandments, and not to the object of every detail. (3.26.5)
If we accept Maimonides’ reasoning; and we discount the significance of the details of materials, sizes, numbers, positions, and relationships among the various components of the mishkan; what then remains? What does an essential reading of Parashat Terumah include? What is its general purpose?
I think it might consist of only the few verses that convey God’s message in its Maimonidean essence:
Exodus 25:1
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃
יהוה spoke to Moses, saying:
Exodus 25:2
דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה מֵאֵ֤ת כׇּל־אִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִדְּבֶ֣נּוּ לִבּ֔וֹ תִּקְח֖וּ אֶת־תְּרוּמָתִֽי׃
Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved.
Exodus 25:8
וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃
And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
Exodus 25:9
כְּכֹ֗ל אֲשֶׁ֤ר אֲנִי֙ מַרְאֶ֣ה אוֹתְךָ֔ אֵ֚ת תַּבְנִ֣ית הַמִּשְׁכָּ֔ן וְאֵ֖ת תַּבְנִ֣ית כׇּל־כֵּלָ֑יו וְכֵ֖ן תַּעֲשֽׂוּ׃
Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you make it.
Exodus 25:16
וְנָתַתָּ֖ אֶל־הָאָרֹ֑ן אֵ֚ת הָעֵדֻ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֶתֵּ֖ן אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
And deposit in the Ark [the tablets of] the Pact which I will give you.
Exodus 25:21
וְנָתַתָּ֧ אֶת־הַכַּפֹּ֛רֶת עַל־הָאָרֹ֖ן מִלְמָ֑עְלָה וְאֶל־הָ֣אָרֹ֔ן תִּתֵּן֙ אֶת־הָ֣עֵדֻ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֶתֵּ֖ן אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing inside the Ark the Pact that I will give you.
Exodus 25:22
וְנוֹעַדְתִּ֣י לְךָ֮ שָׁם֒ וְדִבַּרְתִּ֨י אִתְּךָ֜ מֵעַ֣ל הַכַּפֹּ֗רֶת מִבֵּין֙ שְׁנֵ֣י הַכְּרֻבִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־אֲר֣וֹן הָעֵדֻ֑ת אֵ֣ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֧ר אֲצַוֶּ֛ה אוֹתְךָ֖ אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ {פ}
There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you—from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact—all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people.
Exodus 26:30
וַהֲקֵמֹתָ֖ אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּ֑ן כְּמִ֨שְׁפָּט֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הׇרְאֵ֖יתָ בָּהָֽר׃
Then set up the Tabernacle according to the manner of it that you were shown on the mountain.
(Note: The text is from Sefaria.com which uses the New JPS version.)
There, arguably in just eight verses, is the essence of Parashat Terumah.
In first four verses God tells Moses to collect the materials necessary to make the mishkan and notes that God will show Moses a pattern that is to be followed. In the last four verses God identifies the locus of God’s future communication and reiterates the command to follow the pattern.
In this version of the essential text, the items that invite or require analysis are reduced to only a few key points:
There is some tension between the idea of free-will offerings and the Hebrew verb translated above as “accept.” The more common understanding of the root lamed-kuf-chet is “to take.” The context, though, does support the idea of voluntary offerings. The individual’s heart is inciting or impelling the action according to the Hebrew text. And later, in Parashat Vayakhel, in Ex 36:5-6, we are told that “the people (were) bringing more than is needed” and Moses called for the offerings to end, refusing further gifts.
The text translated above as “among them” in 25:8 uses the preposition represented by the Hebrew letter bet, which is more commonly understood as “in,” “with,” or “at.” The commentators pursue several ideas. Creating the sanctuary will allow God to dwell among the people, in the sense of a physical place around which the people will be arrayed. Or it will allow God to dwell within the people either individually or collectively, in a spiritual sense. Here the idea of the openness of the hearts of those who give as allowing or making space for the entrance of the spirit of God is an interesting interpretive line to pursue.
There are two specific references that tell us that God showed Moses how the sanctuary and its furnishings were to be built. As detailed as the text is, it still allows multiple interpretations in several areas. The variances among the attempts to create models or drawings from the text proves that without doubt. Moses was shown the pattern. He apparently communicated that pattern and its requirements to Bezalel ben Uri and Oholiab ben Ahisamach (Exodus 35 and 36) who undertook and oversaw the work.
The ambiguity of the text on key details of the structure, its furnishings, and its implements makes the argument of Maimonides attractive. The text tells us that the things to be created were to be made according to a pattern that we do not have. We can only be confident in general terms about God’s specific directions. Only Moses was shown the plans.
We know from this text, though, that God will give Moses הָ֣עֵדֻ֔ת ha-edut, the Pact, or the Testimony, and that the Pact is to be placed in the ark. The presence of the Testimony in the ark apparently creates above it a place of unique power and importance; a channel of sorts through which God will communicate; the locus of God’s experienced presence. And that is one of the essential points of the entire process.
All of the detail involved in the creating of the sanctuary, its furnishings, its implements, and all of the detail in subsequent the text about the priests, the sacrifices, the incense, and all the rest, revolve around and support that central function. A place is created from which God will communicate with Moses and through Moses to the people.
The language of Ex 25:22, in which God says “There I will meet with you … I will impart to you … I will command you…,” is in the second person singular. God will meet with Moses, and God will instruct Moses in what he is to communicate to the people.
The creation and operation of the sanctuary has an important function in the unification and organization of the people Israel, of course, but the creation of the place of God’s communication is the explicit purpose of the entire project.