Friday, February 17, 2012

The Temple Institute: These Are the Ordinances

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

The Temple Institute?

So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

"These are the ordinances"
(Exodus 21:1)
Shvat 24, 5772/February 17, 2012

Just before the revelation at Mount Sinai, Moshe Rabbenu - Moses our Master - was working day and night, sitting in judgement before the people. The entire nation would approach "his honor" with problems great and small. Moshe's father-in-law Yitro saw right away that such a system was unsustainable. Neither Moshe nor the people could suffer such a situation for any length of time. Moshe needed help and the people needed shorter lines. No sooner had Yitro made his proposal to reform the judiciary by training judges and establishing separate courts, than Torah makes an abrupt switch.

From the mundane world of litigation we take a quantum leap into a word of heavenly revelations unparalleled in the annals of mankind. G-d speaks in first-person to an entire nation. The upper reaches of Sinai are enveloped in fire and smoke, yet the mountain is not consumed. The sound of trumpets and rams horns fill the ears of all in attendance as G-d hands down to every man, woman and child the Ten Commandments, the foundations of the Torah covenant that will accompany and guide Israel and all mankind through the end of time. And then Torah makes an abrupt switch.

This week's parashat Mishpatim opens with a lengthy dissertation concerning the principles of possession and ownership and property and restitution. Torah spells out in detailed but concise terms just who is responsible for what in any number of archetypal scenarios, in effect laying down legal principles that will remain always viable and relevant even as antiquity turns into modernity. And then Torah makes a hairpin turn.

The seasons and the nature of the yearly cycle of holy days are laid out before us. Festival observances that we have hitherto not heard of are suddenly being related to us in great detail. And then Torah makes a hairpin turn.

Various warnings and various promises are set out before us. We mustn't "cook a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 22:19) G-d is "sending an angel before [us]." (ibid 22:20) G-d will destroy our adversaries in Canaan. (ibid 22:23) We mustn't "prostrate [ourselves] before their gods." (ibid 22:24) And so on. And then Torah makes an abrupt switch.

We are back at Mount Sinai, and G-d is inviting "[Moshe] and Aharon, and Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel" (ibid 24:1) to approach the Mount. Altars will be erected and offerings will be made. And then Moshe and Aharon, and Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel will "perceive the G-d of Israel, and beneath His feet [is] like the forming of a sapphire brick and like the appearance of the heavens for clarity." (ibid 24:10)

The dramatic transitions, the wild swings from the earthly to the ethereal, from the mundane to the lofty, from the everyday to the extraordinary, from the profane to the divine are exhausting. So many different modes of consciousness, so many new disciplines and ways of perceiving and understanding, all at once. And we have just now emerged from a slave society where drudgery and weariness numbed our days and oppressed our nights. Our new intimate relationship with G-d, and with it our newfound abilities, newly gained privileges and newly assumed responsibilities are all so great that we are in danger of being overwhelmed. Rising up each morning and making our way to Sinai and back down, from majestic revelation to painstaking civil judgments seems every bit as exhausting and ultimately self defeating as the scene we first witnessed through Yitro's eyes, of Moshe sitting day and night before the endless line of justice seekers.

Perhaps G-d, like Yitro, was also observing the exertion of His people as they made the commute each day with so much ground, and so much heaven, to cover. For G-d is about to make a proposal very much in the spirit of Yitro's proposal. A little idea, a simple plan, a modest proposal, really, that will ease the strain and increase the well being of the people of Israel. We won't read of the proposal until next week's parasha, but it really belongs in this week's parasha, in that it is the answer to the question that has arisen time and again throughout parashat Mishpatim. How can we sustain our new found relationship with G-d without wearing ourselves down? "Build for Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell amongst [you]" (ibid 25:8) G-d is about to tell us. Let us live together, side by side, so that your journey to My world won't be quite so taxing and My journey to you won't be quite so terrifying. A sanctuary, a Tabernacle, a Holy Temple - a profoundly practical idea whose time has come.

Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, and join Yitzchak Reuven and special guest host, Tzvi Richman as they try to define that undefinable energy-charged place where heaven meets earth. How does the building of an earthen altar mark the perfect transition from the revelation at Mount Sinai to the civil ordinances discussed in parashat Mishpatim? Is the altar itself a mini-Sinai? It's hard to believe, but there were people who stood at Mount Sinai, witnessed the fire and the smoke, saw the sounds of the shofar, and heard G-d's voice with their own ears, but still didn't get what it was all about. G-d offers us freedom, but we must release ourselves from our own self-imposed bonds in order to attain it.

The Upcoming Month of Adar and the Half-Shekel Contribution: This upcoming Thursday and Friday (February 23-24) mark Rosh Chodesh Adar - the beginning of the new month of Adar, the twelth and final month of the yearly cycle that begins with Nisan, ("the first of your months" Exodus 12:2), the month of the exodus from Egypt. When the Holy Temple is standing and the Divine service is being performed daily, the month of Adar is full of preparations for the upcoming Passover pilgrimage festival which begins on the 15th of Nisan. In addition, the month of Adar is the month that the half-shekel is collected, throughout the land of Israel and beyond. To learn more about the half-shekel contribution, please click here.

This week's Return of Prophecy teaching by Rabbi Avraham Sutton, is entitled, "Day Five: Where We Are Going To: We study the six days of creation in order to gain an understanding of where we are coming from. Only then can we begin to imagine where we are heading to." Click here to view.

This week's Bat Melech teaching by Rena Richman, is entitled, "The Well of Miriam, Part I: The prophet Miriam: Sanctified and dedicated to her people. In this all-new series, Rena explores the life and work of this great leader of Israel." Click here to view.

Immediately following the majestic Sinai revelation Israel finds itself involved in an intense study of civil laws. It is these laws which form a just society and cement proper and respectful relations between neighbors which, in turn, paves the way from earth back to heaven, and creates the sapphire brickwork that binds Israel to G-d and G-d to Israel. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's teaching on parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18).