In the late 1990’s, I was teaching middle schoolers at Shearith’s religious school. Before class one Sunday morning, I stopped the rabbi in the hall and told him that the time had come – I was going to discuss a really big issue that day – the elephant in the room. The rabbi had a look of deep concern – what was I going to bring up to these adolescents? “Today,” I said, “We’re going to discuss . . .Gd!!” the rabbi was greatly relieved and joked that yes, in a religious school, the subject of Gd may well indeed belong. So today, I’m going to do it again – a really big subject.

I signed up for this d’var based on the calendar, not knowing which subjects were included in the parashah. When I reviewed it, I found the dreaded verse – Leviticus, 18:22, and knew my time had come to discuss it. “A man shall not lie with another man as he lies with a woman. It is an abomination.” And later in the parashah, 20:13, the death penalty is invoked as punishment for homosexual relationships. There are lots of other possible topics in this combined parashah, but I can duck this subject no longer. And just as Fred did several years ago, I’m going to take a stab at this.

Now as we are all too familiar with, the Torah has issues – in many ways, women don’t count as much as men, slavery is allowed, whole populations should be wiped out after war. Gd speaks in real words . . . and seems to have anger management issues! And on and on.

But the truths of the Torah lie not in concrete measures and quantities, but in values. For instance, one truth of the Torah is that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. Pharaohs and tyrants are ultimately brought down. The downtrodden are depicted as Gd’s very children. We live those truths and so many others by separating the holy from the profane, and we use our various rituals as means of depicting which is which, thus constantly reminding ourselves of that separation. But the actual words of the Torah are not necessarily to be taken literally.

For the most part, the Orthodox have no conflicts with literal translation. The Torah is the word of Gd, and that’s that. To not follow it is to be doomed. Of course, the Torah also states that recalcitrant children should be stoned to death. Well, that was never intended to be taken literally, they claim. Well, so they already concede that the Torah, as Heschel said, is one big midrash. Some of the Torah is to be taken literally. Other portions, not so much. Who, exactly, arbitrates that?

The Reform regard the Torah as just stories and suggestions, not feeling bound by its commandments. It was produced by Judaism in its infancy, and they have little regard for its dictates. Homosexuality? No problem for them. They take into their congregations Jews, non-Jews . . . whatever. Just be a good person, the Reform say. Well fine, but there’s nothing especially Jewish about that. And who, exactly, decides what being a good person is, anyway?

The Conservative movement has it right. Issues like homosexuality are taken very seriously. Words of the torah are halakhically binding, but those words must be interpreted in the context of their times, changing very slowly, but not set in . . . stone . . . as it were! So slavery was accepted by the world as a whole when the Torah was written. It was not banned in the Torah, but it was tightly regulated and restricted. This represented a marked change from the norm of those days. Only much later was it completely banned. And in its perhaps most major split with Orthodox custom and belief, we Conservative Jews regard women in a fully egalitarian manner.

We Conservative Jews have always regarded the words of Torah as being, perhaps, Divinely inspired, but informed by the values of the time. And that’s true of so many consequential documents. Our very Constitution, for instance . . . We hold these truths to be self evident that all MEN are created equal? Come on, now, Tom (Jefferson)! So we adapt. We yearn for wisdom and connection, and the Torah has bound us together and has changed the world in the most profound ways.

So where does this leave us – how does all this apply to those verses concerning homosexuality?

The Conservative movement dipped its collective toe in the water in the 1990s, found the water too cold, and recoiled from taking a stance on the tougher implications of the verses. The 25 rabbis that comprise the CJLS – the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards – tackled the issue again some years later, and in 2006 issued a responsa – a decision that represents the position of the Conservative movement. Not surprisingly, it straddles the fence.

And it does so because it recognizes that some issues can’t be tidily wrapped up in a single conclusion. The way these responsa work is that if a certain number of rabbis among the members of the CJLS are of a particular opinion, that opinion becomes a valid standard that other Conservative rabbis may follow. In this case, two were adopted.

One view was that a specific act – anal intercourse – was forbidden, but that other behavior was fine. This view held that gays and lesbians could apply to rabbinic schools and that Conservative rabbis could perform commitment ceremonies. It was a relatively liberal stance that was accepted by 13 of the 25 rabbis on the committee.

The reasoning was that the specific act in question was expressly forbidden in the Torah – and thus was “biblical” – but the other restrictions were not in the Torah – they were rabbinic, and could thus be reinterpreted. They further maintained that kavot habriyot – human dignity – mandated that other restrictions be lifted.

Another view was more restrictive, accepting that although homosexuality was not a choice, but rather was innate, still, although rabbinic in authority, there was not enough justification for reversing the prohibition against all types and forms of homosexual behavior. They felt that the definition of human dignity in the competing responsa was contrived. Restriction from the rabbinate was maintained, and no rabbi could officiate at a commitment ceremony. This position garnered an equal 13 votes.

Wait – how could 25 rabbis yield 26 votes? And there were additional votes for a couple of other positions as well! This is so Jewish . . . it seems that this is not like an election, where one candidate or another is chosen by the voter. It’s more like a buffet – Cherry pie? Fine, I’ll have a piece. And yes, I also would like a chocolate chip cookie. Rabbis could vote for one position, another, two of them, or ALL of them!

So it seems that one rabbi wanted to maintain the pluralism of the movement, and felt that precisely equal votes for these two positions would dramatically express just that. So he voted to accept both!

As I looked at all this, read the responsa, read commentaries, and so forth, it will not surprise you that I personally come down on the more “liberal” side of this. Our understanding of human nature has evolved enormously. Would a compassionate Gd have made a human with evil written directly into his or her DNA?

Of course not.

I encourage you to read the various positions and commentary about this topic and see what you think.

In my view, though, we’re all Gd’s children. Every one of us.

Shabbat Shalom!

James Rosenberg – opening and closing.
Members of the Kehillah – voices of the rescuers and the rescued.

Shabbat Shalom    Thank you for joining us at the Kehilla’s Yom HaShoah Commemorative Program.

Yom HaShoah, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. Today, we celebrate the Rescuers, and those Rescued.

Thousands of Jews were saved by people who risked their lives to rescue Jewish people that they knew, and more that they did not know.

AND, many of the Rescuers were non-Jews. And, whether a Jew or not, if a Rescuer was found out by Hitler and his henchmen, he was a dead man, as was his family.

Before I introduce you to a few Rescuers and those Rescued that survived the Holocaust, and are here with us today, I want to share a brief poem written by Primo Levi, a famous Author, Poet, and Chemist. He was a RESISTER, arrested because of his actions, and deported to Auschwitz.

These words will help you to understand his vision of the Holocaust, and set the stage for the people you will meet shortly. In his poem SHEMA, Mr. Levi attempts to redefine the traditional prayer of the Jewish people.

His poem commands a single-minded focus not on the unity of God, but on a subset of God’s creatures, people living in chaos, turmoil, and total disarray, coupled with abject poverty, despair, and hopelessness.

The poem’s last few lines represent potential curses, and they present a contemporary warning – please listen closely.

If we do not awaken, if we do not use our blessings of privilege to improve the situation of those who suffer hardship, adversity, and misery, we are denying our own power to create change. And, as such, there can be serious consequences for our failure to take action.

SHEMA
A poem by Primo Levi

You who live secure
In your warm houses,
Who return at evening to find
Hot food and friendly faces:

Consider whether this is a man,
Who labors in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a crust of bread
Who dies at a yes or a no.

Consider whether this is a woman,
Without hair or a name
With no more strength to remember
Eyes empty and womb cold
As a frog in winter.

I commend these words to you.
Engrave them on your hearts
When you are in your house, when you walk on your way,
When you go to bed, and when you rise.
Repeat them to your children.

THE Potential CURSES;    A  WARNING…

Or, may your house crumble,
Disease render you powerless,
Your offspring avert their faces from you.

All readings is from the the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

Eleanor Roosevelt

“What has happened to us in this country? If we study our own history, we find that we have always been ready to receive the unfortunates from other countries, and though this may seem a generous gesture on our part, we have profited a thousand fold by what they have brought us.”

Mrs. Roosevelt wrote this in a newspaper column supporting the Wagner-Rogers Bill, which would have allowed 20,000 Jewish children to enter the United States. Because of widespread public opposition, the bill was defeated in February 1939. From “My Day,” her syndicated newspaper column, January 23, 1939.

Sir Nicholas Winton – The Power of Good

“I mean, after all, you didn’t need any special knowledge to bring children out. You needed a lot of effort and work and initiative and dealing with authority and all that, but that was general knowledge. It wasn’t any particular knowledge.

Not like the workings of the stock exchange where you had to know how it worked and what the commissions were and what you had to do and when you had to do it and for whom you had to do it and what the price was and remember the price while you were doing something else.

It was nothing like that in dealing with children. No, it was quite different.”

—————————

In December 1938, Nicholas Winton, a 29-year-old London Stockbroker, was about to leave for a skiing holiday in Switzerland, when he received a phone call from his friend Martin Blake asking him to cancel his holiday and immediately come to Prague: “I have a most interesting assignment and I need your help. Don’t bother bringing your skis.” When Winton arrived, he was asked to help with children in the Concentration Camps, in which thousands of refugees were living in appalling conditions.

Winton organized the rescue of almost 700 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia, Czech Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”, arranging for their safe passage and finding foster families for them in Great Britain. 

In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity. October 2014, he was awarded the highest civilian honor of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion.

Sir Nicholas Winton died at the age of 106.

Jerry von Halle

“When I got back to Amsterdam, I got on the phone and I called my teacher; it’s the only person I knew. Not the only person I knew, but the only person I knew who might be able to help us. And the teacher … I called him on the phone and I said, ‘Here we are. This is what happened. My father was arrested; my mother and I are here.’ And again without, without thinking for one second, he says, ‘Come right over.’

So this is 1943. We are walking clear across Amsterdam from the railroad station, and we wind up, we wind up back at Mr. In’t Hout’s home. Here again, this little, this little apartment – it’s a, it’s a city apartment – we were there and we stayed in one room. My mother and I stayed in that room for two and a half years. Never left the room. Never saw … never saw fresh air.

And it’s, it’s a strange feeling. You know even a prisoner is allowed every day to exercise.”

My father and brother were murdered in the Holocaust; mother and I survived in hiding.

Mr. Halle’s story is one of the personal histories in the Holocaust Encyclopedia, ushmm.org.

Erika Eckstut

“I remember the time in the Czernowitz ghetto when I used to take off the star from my coat, leave my ID, and go out to look for food. I was always hungry and scared. I went to a store that sold food to the clergy, because I knew my father had a priest friend who was an old schoolmate. It was easy for me to go out since I was blonde, blue eyed, and spoke German fluently.

“One day I saw a German soldier beating a man on the ground who was bleeding. The soldier was on crutches and his chest was full of decorations. He stood on one of the crutches and with the other he beat the man. I approached the soldier and in my perfect German lectured him on how wrong he was to beat a man who did not defend himself. As I was busy giving my lecture, people stood around listening.

All of a sudden a policeman touched my arm and said, ‘That will be enough little girl; let’s go home.’ “At that moment I realized, ‘I can’t go home. If I take him to the ghetto my whole family will be killed.’ So I took him to an opera singer who lived not far from the ghetto. She was, of course, a gentile. When we arrived at the door and rang the bell a beautiful lady opened the door and I said, ‘Mama.’

The policeman at the same time said, ‘Is this your daughter, Madame?’ She ignored him, and pointing a finger at me, she said: ‘I told you once, I told you twice, home and homework.’ The policeman in the meantime kept repeating his question, and, in desperation, she started hitting me in the face. It was so painful that I hardly cared what happened at this point.

Then, as if in a dream, I heard the policeman saying, ‘Keep her, keep her, just stop hitting her.’ After the policeman left, she took me inside, gave me a hug, and asked, ‘Are you from the ghetto?’

“ I have forgotten so many names from during the Holocaust, but I still remember her.” Eckstut’s family survived the Holocaust.

David Bergman

“When we arrived, I had already passed out … three out of the 150 there survived. They were all … the rest of them just lay dead. And what they did is, they picked me up … with the hands and somebody else with the legs and then they threw me in a stretcher … getting ready to take me to the crematorium. That’s where they took … that’s where their objective was. And somehow… somebody who was carrying me noticed a hand moving, that I was still alive.

So at a risk to his life, he took me into a barracks. It was actually like a shower room. And I was dazed at that time, virtually, I had no idea. … And when I came to in the bathroom there, it was … I woke up, and I … I thought I was dead. It was like I was in another world. ‘What are these people doing here? Where am I?’ And I thought, I … I … I was totally dazed. I couldn’t figure out even where I am.

And then somebody came over and told me what happened, explained to me that ‘You were just a few seconds away from being thrust into the crematorium, and they saw that you were still alive.’ They said, ‘You’re the first youth that age who actually made it alive.’ And then they took me and they hid me, you know, secretly in their barracks. So I was not even supposed to have been there. And I became like, to them, like a hero.

That here are these fathers who said, well, if I made it then maybe their children would have made it through. And … since I didn’t get any rations, because I was … The ration was there like a piece of bread—enough to keep them alive till they were actually … were going to be taken to the crematorium. And each one would take a piece of bread they would get, break off a piece and make up a slice for me, so that I could survive. And they said, ‘David, you must survive and let the world know what happened.’”

Bergman was among 150 inmates transported to Dachau in a cattle car from another concentration camp; he was one of three who survived—rescued by fellow prisoners in Dachau shortly before he could be taken to the crematorium. His story is one of the personal histories in the Holocaust Encyclopedia, ushmm.org

Clara Dijkstra

“Let me tell you how Nettie came into my life. One spring day in ’42, I went to visit some friends and there was a woman there named Sylvia Bloch. She was very shaken up because early the next morning, she and her husband had to report to the Zentralstelle, the big Nazi office on the Adama van Scheltemaplein, to go to work in Germany. They had been given a chance to dive under, but the people who had offered to hide them wouldn’t let them bring their little daughter.

‘Why don’t you give her to me?’ I said. ‘I’ll take care of her.’ She looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. ‘What can I pay you to do this?’ she asked. ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Nothing at all.’ “She’d been almost hysterical, but now she calmed down. She left right away, saying she would bring her child to my place as soon as she could. A little while later she appeared at my front door with two-year-old Nettie. She had brought her stroller and all her clothes. When Sylvia was leaving, the child was crying ‘Mamma! Mamma!’

But after a while she settled down, and took a nap. “When my husband came home, he looked at Nettie asleep in the stroller, and said, ‘What’s this?’ ’She’s ours,’ I said. ‘I’ll take care of her; I’ll handle everything. If the Germans come, just let me do the talking.’ My mother wasn’t happy either. She said, ‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it! You worry me so!’ But I told her, ‘Mother, I love you, but it’s already done. We have a child, a Jewish child.’ Then she said, ‘Good for you.’”

Nettie’s parents survived and reclaimed her after the war, but Nettie remained close to Dijkstra throughout her life, nominating her for recognition by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations. This passage is from The Heart Has Reasons, Mark Klempner.

In closing… 

On Yom HaShoah, please think about our Jewish brothers and sisters that we lost, coupled with the 1 to 1.5 million Jewish children that perished. And, when saying a prayer this week for them, please include all of the people that died as a result of the War. These peoples’ lives were cut short – PERIOD. No other way to say it!!!

Take a moment; please think about a WAR of this nature; let’s call it WW III, and it is happening today, on our soil, and all over the EARTH…

How would we feel about such a catastrophic event occurring in our day, our modern times? THEN, think about the fact that the period 1939 to 1945 was somebody else’s modern times – and those people faced, or perished in a nightmarish HELL.

You have seen the news reports showing the cities totally decimated… That’s why we must never forget the total destruction and loss of life; and, why we can never let it happen again…

During my research for this Commemorative Program, I found a MOST startling fact. The Total Number of Deaths attributed to WW II is somewhere between 70,000,000 and 85,000,000 people world-wide (see attached chart). I cannot even fathom a number of such significance, one that is so very large.

It is my hope that the World will never know of such death and destruction at another time. It is my prayer that the World learned from World War II, that we have no need to ever know of such atrocities, coupled with the deaths of millions upon millions of people.

Nobody needs to die needlessly, if we all work together towards peace, coupled with one another’s success on Planet Earth.

Re’eh is Hebrew for See (1)-In the beginning of this parasha Moses asked God for the ability to grant the Jewish people the opportunity to see divinity and perhaps the future – through God – similar to the gift God gave Moses – After all – it would make it easier for the Israelites to get the message of Torah – RIGHT?  I mean – much less need for study or reading and understanding

In other words God wanted everyone to hear or listen instead –

In this parasha God also directs Moses to instruct the Israelites on issues such as

• self-mutilation (Deuteronomy 14:1–2);
• dietary rules (Deuteronomy 14:3–21); laws about tithes (Deuteronomy14:22–25), debt payments (Deuteronomy 15:1–11), the release and treatment of Hebrew slaves (Deuteronomy 15:12–18), Sacrafice of firstlings (Deuteronomy 15:19–23).
• AND Moses reviews the correct sacrifices offered during festivals such as  — Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot (2)

Essentially the Torah has already been given to the Jews God wants Moses to do a quick refresh/reminder about perhaps on the highlights in the Torah and what was given to the them (3)So the Parasha actually starts out with the word Re’ eh or See  or sight  “LIKE” –

see what I mean

I can see clearly

Do you see what I mean Re’eh is more than the physical act of seeing – It is about listening to and following the laws of Torah because we heard the commandments correctly.

Did you know that the verb ‘SEE’ is used more than 400 times in the Torah? (4)

A couple of other significant areas of the Torah where the word Re’eh is found(4):  Genesis 41:41, When Pharaoh says to Joseph, “Re’eh, I put you in charge of all the land of Egypt” after Joseph has proposed his plan to save Egypt from famine. Or when Moses has doubts about whether Pharaoh is listening to him, God replies: “Re’eh, I place you in the role of God to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:1)

In each of these cases these are references to a future for-seenimpact It can be tough writing a D’var and expect everyone will listen for relevant meaning following the Shacrit service and before all Torah readers recite their practiced Torah portions – Can you imagine LISTENING for the message and meaning chanted from Torah?So it was during the period when Torah was given to the Jews – Not many were actually able to read or chant TorahTorah was actually read to all by a few who knew what and how to read – Supposedly started by Ezra the Scribe way back in 547(5)To get the attention of Jews TO LISTEN to Torah portions – Cantillation or Trope or a melody was added It really helps to get the attention of others when making  an important point so your audience or individuals you communicate with are prepared to listen for your message.

Ask a teenager

Ask a teacher

Ask a parent

Ask a comedian

Ask yourself how easy this is for you to get others to really listen and  Hear your message – For me that’s where God and Moses were coming from – God said to Moses I give this Re’eh to a select few -You being one of the few and everyone else should LISTEN to you.

So we may say, “Look, this is what I want you to understand” or “Do you see what I mean?”  When perhaps all we are really asking for is to be heardThe word Re’eh metaphorically is used in the Torah to cause those who were listening to pay attention to what was happening or was about to happen and focus on the upcoming importance of what was to be shared Perhaps this is why the evolution of phrases such as: Mazel Tov – Yasher Koach and Baruch Tihiye are used today when we acknowledge what we HEARD or LISTENED to. Re’eh helped the Israelites recognize that the future would be different based on information they had heard or were yet to hear about for choices in how they were to live in the context of Torah.  So no need to take notes.

Pay back the person who’s speaking with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm shown by the expression on your face, in your posture, in Your questions or in the response you offer to the speaker. Play back what you hear in your own words, using your particular situation.  Build on what you have heard by making it your own.

Take what you have heard and make it the foundation for your next

Ideas. (6)

1)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re%27eh

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re%27eh

3) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/torah-portions/parashat-reeh/

4) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/seeing-is-believing/

5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra

6) http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/02/how-to-listen.html

The rabbis of the Talmud and Midrash were very sensitive readers of Torah.  After all, they studied these sacred words day and night, always seeking new interpretations, and novel implications of our special love relationship with God.  In the process of their studies, they uncovered nuances and insights that can continue to guide us on a path of righteous and holy living.

One of their remarkable insights was to notice the unusual wording found in this week’s Parashat.  In speaking of a series of sacrifices to be offered on the Altar in the Mishkan, the Torah says, “This is the torah of burnt offerings…” Why, they wondered, did God use the word “torah” which means teaching or instruction, rather than just saying the more expected “these are the rules…?”  Surely there must be some deeper lesson here, some significance that is worthy of consideration?

In the Talmud, the sage Resh Lakish asks the same question: “Why does the Torah say, ‘This is the torah of burnt offerings?  In order to teach that if someone studies the laws of an offering, it is as though they had actually offered the sacrifice themselves.”

Resh Lakish offers a remarkable notion: that study is vicarious action, that reading about something with sufficient imagination and identification constitutes doing it.  Upon that idea, the entire enterprise of Judaism stands and thrives.

Think for a moment about some particularly vivid dream or fantasy you have.  Now think back to a distant memory.  Does one seem more real or vivid than the other?  Chances are good that your recurrent fantasy feels a lot like a memory, that a particularly captivating scene from a movie assumes the same contours as some event you actually lived through.

Perhaps one of the key characteristics of a human being is our ability to use imagination and fantasy to extend our experiences beyond the limits of our own bodies, our own vision, and our own knowledge.  Through the use of our minds, through the integration of reading, of art, and of conversation, we expand to encounter people long dead, places we’ve never been to, and ideas that other people have thought and articulated.

That ability to transmit abstract ideas belonging to a community that transcends time and place, that sustains values and virtues developed as a timeless gift, is a key human function, perhaps our most Godlike trait.

Judaism recognizes the power and the necessity of cultivated imagination and of projected identification.  To be able to make a fantasy live requires the ability to identify with its characters, to place oneself amidst its action, and to grow in exposure to its values. Far more than simply the memorization of facts or the repetition of concepts, this kind of transforming of the learning process can take place only with the right creativity, sympathy, and openness.

That kind of learning is Talmud torah*, the field of training that deals with the Jewish law, in which the object of study is learned not simply as a matter of satisfying curiosity or expanding skill.  The primary factor that transforms normal learning into talmud torah* is that we approach whatever it is we study for its capacity to teach us something about God, something about what it is God wants from us, something about God’s creation, or something about our partnership in the establishment of God’s sovereignty.

When we study the Torah simply as an interesting document from the Ancient Near East, then even the study of Torah becomes merely academic learning.  But when we study even the functioning of an automobile engine or read a good comic as an expression of God’s bounty in the world or of the Godlike capacity of the human soul to create and to touch another soul, then even the Sunday funnies can be a source of talmud torah.  Talmud torah is not what we study, but how we study.

The heavens declare the glory of God.  And, looking at the sky with the proper intention can reveal something significant about God and creation, and about what it means to be a person and a Jew.  The special trick of rabbinic Judaism is to teach us to see all things as a sacred text, waiting to be read and studied in our constant search for God and for holiness.

And in that search, there is no finer tool than the sacred writings of the Jewish People throughout the ages.  Trained in spiritual openness, rooted in a culture that translated God’s will into living words, the sages, prophets, poets, and philosophers compiled a library of insight, wisdom, elevation, and exultation.

And when we study their words, when we engage in talmud torah*, thereby making their words our own, then it is as though we ourselves performed the sacrifices with a whole heart, as though we ourselves split the sea, received the Torah, or sat in the Great Sanhedrin.

Through the miracle of talmud torah*, we transcend any one age or place, making ourselves one with eternity and everywhere, binding ourselves—in fact—with the One who invites us to participate in thinking the thoughts of the Divine.

Shabbat Shalom!

Today I will speak to you about the dual Parshaot: Vayakhel – Pikudei. Both relate to the building of the Mishkan and the collection of materials for its construction.

You will please recall that when the Jewish people left Egypt, they took with them great wealth bestowed upon them by the Egyptians. Not everyone, however, left with the same amount of wealth. What they got is what they had. In the Jewish camp you could hear the following: “Isn’t it amazing how the Egyptians have done such an about face? Previously they enslaved us and paid us nothing for our hard work. Now they shower us with gifts. Guess the Egyptians must actually have a conscience”. Meanwhile, in the Egyptian camp, you could hear the following:” Geh avek! “For those of you not fluent in ancient Egyptian, geh avek roughly translates as “Get out of here you lousy Jews and take your plagues with you!”

Fast forward to the wilderness, Moses gathers the Jewish people and informs them that today they would learn a new concept – Tzedakah. G-d has commanded that a Mishkan be built where His Holy Presence could reside. Wait a minute! Didn’t the Jews already give Tzedakah when a half-shekel was collected? Not really! The half-shekel was a tax used as a means to take a census. Then, one half- shekel and only one half-shekel could be given. Now, people could give as much as they wanted.

Moses explained that he needed to collect gold, silver, copper, wool, linen, animal skins, wood, herbs, oil and precious stones to construct the Mishkan. Part with some of your wealth, he advised, according to what you believe to be appropriate in light of your wealth.

The Jewish people were so generous with their contributions that Moses eventually had to tell them “enough”. What initially seemed to be an insurmountable undertaking now became a reality. G-d could now occupy the Mishkan. His Presence could be observed by a Pillar of Cloud which accompanied the Jewish people by day and covered the Mishkan and by a Pillar of Fire at night. The sin of the Golden Calf had finally been atoned.

What can be learned from these Parshaot? First, we can deduce that charity should come from the heart. It should be given freely and without reservation. Next, we should come to a realization that even the most seemingly insurmountable tasks can be accomplished when a group of people work together. Don’t run away from challenges. Embrace them. Last, we should recognize that our ancestors were one heck of a great group of people.

In conclusion, Moses also reminded the Jewish people that they must observe the Sabbath. This, of course, gives me a golden opportunity to end my D’var by wishing all of you a good Shabbos!