The weekly Torah portion of “Teruma” comes after the Torah has been given at Sinai and after the portion of “Mishpatim,” the first exposure to the legal system we will come to call Halacha. In the portion, we have a detailed description of the building of the Tabernacle, which will be repeated after the sin of the golden calf in the last two portions of the Book of Exodus: “Vayakhel” and “Pekudei."
One of the major questions that arises in the commentaries around the Tabernacle is whether the physical space with its opulence, precise dimensions, and sacrifices represents an ideal framework for worship or a de facto framework as a result of the sin of the golden calf. Both interpretive directions make sense: The sin revealed an intense need on the part of the people to have some sort of manifestation of the divine in their midst in order to have a focal point for their worship. The Tabernacle, with all its gilded accessories and rich fabrics, provided such a framework, but it was a concession to the weakness of the human need for physicality.
On the other hand, given the milieu of the ancient Near East with its temples and sacrifices, this was God’s way of reinforcing the chosen-ness of His people by opening a similar vehicle for worship – but toward one God. The Tabernacle was the only option for sacrificial worship, so it could be tightly contained and overseen by Moses and Aaron and his sons. The earthly residence would mirror the heavenly one where God was presumed to “dwell.”
There are a number of midrashim (non-literal interpretations) that reflect the relationship between God and Israel as manifested in the Tabernacle. The metaphor of father and daughter is explored. While the father is always God, the daughter is either the Children of Israel or, interestingly, the Torah.
Unmarried daughter
Song of Songs Rabbah 3:9
“‘King Solomon made himself an 'apirion’ (Song of Songs 3:9). R. Azariah in the name of Rabbi Judah ben (son of) Simon interpreted the word apirion (palanquin, pavilion) as referring to the Tabernacle. Said R. Judah ben R. Ila’i: It is as if a king had a young daughter. Before she grew up and reached maturity, he used to see her in the street and speak to her in public, in an alleyway, or in a courtyard; but after she grew up and reached maturity, he said: ‘It is not becoming for my daughter that I should converse with her in public. Make her therefore a pavilion and when I need to converse with her, I will do so within the pavilion.’
“So it is written: ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him’ (Hosea 1:1). In Egypt, the Israelites saw God in the open... At the Red Sea, they saw Him in the open... At Sinai, they saw Him face to face and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey’ (Exodus 24:7) and they had become a whole nation, [so] the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘It is not becoming for My people that I should speak with them in the open.
‘Let them therefore make for Me a Tabernacle and whenever I need to speak with them, I shall speak with them from the midst of the Tabernacle.’ And so it says, ‘But when Moshe went in before the Lord that He might speak with Him…’”
In this very rich metaphor, R. Judah ben R. Ila’i distinguishes between the relationship a father has with his daughter before and after maturity. In rabbinic halachic literature, the father is responsible for caring for his daughter until puberty; after that, she becomes a legal adult. Here the idea is that maturity changes the relationship.
This is then applied to the evolving relationship with Israel. It cannot remain in its initial stages of grand gestures and miracles. There must be a diminishing to allow for the daughter (the nation of Israel) to grow without the all-seeing all-knowing eye of the father (God) in direct view. The midrash suggests that this is a healthier and longer-lasting model for closeness, similar to the shift that happens as a child grows into an adult.
Married daughter
Exodus Rabbah 33:1
“‘And this is the offering you shall take,’ as it is written ‘For I give you good doctrine, forsake not My Torah’... God, however, said to Israel: ‘I have sold you My Torah but with it, as it were, I have also been sold,’ as it says, ‘that they take Me for an offering’ (Exodus 25:2).
“This can be compared to a king whose only daughter married another king. When [her new husband] wanted to return to his country and take his wife with him, [her father] said to him: ‘My daughter whose hand I have given you is my only child. I cannot part from her, neither can I say to you, “Do not take her,” for she is now your wife. This favor, however, I would request of you: Wherever you go to live, have a chamber ready for me that I may dwell with you, for I cannot leave my daughter.’
“Thus God said to Israel: ‘I have given you a Torah from which I cannot part, and I also cannot tell you not to take it; but this I would request: Wherever you go, make for Me a house wherein I may live, as it says, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (Exodus 22:8).”
The message of the parable is clear: God, the father King, gives his daughter, the Torah, to the Children of Israel – the king who becomes his son-in-law. This is an amazing comparison: God is first Israel’s royal equal. But then, God is at the mercy when He gives them His daughter, the Torah.
A couple can choose to include God in their marriage or exclude Him. The Torah, like the daughter, now belongs to the Children of Israel, God’s new son-in-law. Since bringing God into their lives of Torah is at their jurisdiction, His “vulnerability” is exposed and He asks to dwell among them so that He can remain close to His beloved Torah and not be forgotten by the Children of Israel when they depart Sinai.
Take Me
Leviticus Rabbah 30:13
“I said to them, ‘And you shall take for Me an offering so that I may dwell with you, and you shall make Me a mikdash.’ It is as if to say that the Holy One blessed be He said, ‘Take Me and I will dwell among you.’ It is not written ‘take an offering’ but rather ‘Take Me – it is Me that you are taking.’”
Without a deliberate choice by His people to bring God into our rituals, prayers, and study, God and His people would be distanced and remote. This portion teaches us that, to paraphrase Abraham Heschel, while we are in search of God, He most revealingly is also constantly in search of us. ■
The writer teaches contemporary Halacha at the Matan Advanced Talmud Institute. She also teaches Talmud at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, as well as courses on sexuality and sanctity in the Jewish tradition.