Terumah 5784
By Ruth Jampel
Shabbat Shalom, and Mazel Tov to Michael and all his family on his second Bar Mitzvah.
What a parasha you had all those years ago…I wonder what your 13 -year -old self made of it…
When Steven first asked me to say a few words on Shabbat Teruma, the parasha didn’t really speak to me..
Neil thought it fascinating but he’s an engineer and putting things together interests him.
I know that last year Rachel Morris gave a fabulous sermon on it, but, again, she has the skilled knowledge of a structural engineer .
I’m often asked by children I teach which Torah story I like the best. and I don’t think it would be Teruma…… there’s not much narrative , it’s full of detailed lists of instructions , it’s quite scientific ,specific ,there’s not very much in it for an idiosyncratic Jew like me to relate to…..
Perhaps, I thought,,I could talk about how all the elements of the Jewish people come together and how we all have a role to play ,like all the various components listed in the building of the Mishkan.
Or maybe I could explore the Chasidic idea of the materials donated for the Mishkan corresponding to the components of the human being, “gold” being the soul; “silver,” the body; “copper,” the voice; “blue,” the veins;
Perhaps I could think about numbers and gematria and all the specific measurements involved…
Nah, not really grabbing me, but then,thank goodness for the Cherubim…what really grabbed my imagination were the kravim, the Angels
“You shall make a cover of pure gold…. Make two cherubim of gold—make them of hammered work—at the two ends of the cover. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end; of one piece with the cover shall you make the cherubim.
The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, shielding the cover with their wings. They shall confront each other, the faces of the cherubim being turned toward the cover. (21) Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing inside the Ark the Pact that I will give you. (22) 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.”
Golden cherubim ? In the holy of holies? Where 3 of the 10 most famous commandments focus on the Oneness of G-d, , our being forbidden to pray to graven images,…..curious…
As Maimondes declares , in the Guide for the Perplexed,
“It is known that the heathen in those days built temples to stars, and set up in those temples the image which they agreed upon to worship…We were, therefore, commanded to build a temple to the name of G-D, and to place therein the ark with two tables of stone, on which there were written the commandments “I am the Lord,” .
Bnei Yisrael had just left a country where people built temples full of statues.. …yet here are TWO golden statues…However, these cherubs “ are to face one another;” ,proving they were not intended to be deities to be worshipped, or they would have faced their onlookers so they could bow down to them. What’s more, though their wings were pointing upwards, their faces were looking down at the lid,at the space from which G-D’s words would emanate to Moses, and the area in which the Torah was kept.
And, of course, they were in a place that was inaccessible to the people on pain of death. Their function therefore was merely to be servants of G-D rather than His competitors, just as the cherubs (seraphim) in Isaiah 6,2 were perceived as G-D’s servants standing in attendance before G-D’s throne.
And yet, l even though I’m a relatively well- educated Jewish person, I still found I didn’t really know much about angels and Judaism….
Do we believe in them ? Did we believe in them ?
Yes there are the angels that visit Hagar and Avraham, angels in Jacob’s dream, and even Moshe Rabbeinu received his first prophecy through an angel. “And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire”.
Yet not many of the angelic figures in the Bible are identified as such. The three visitors who came to Avraham and Sarah are described in the text as anashim/men. It’s the RABBINIC sources that indicate they were angels…
Likewise, the angel that appeared to Jacob is described merely as ish, or man.
The function of these angels is to deliver specific information or carry out some particular function. Divine intervention, as it were…
In later biblical texts, angels are associated with visions and prophesies, though no proper names are given until the Book of Daniel where we meet the angels : Gabriel and Michael.
Later rabbinic and kabbalistic sources expand on the concept of angels even further, describing a broad universe of named angels with particular roles in the spiritual realm.
So, what is the current Jewish view on angels…..? Aren’t they a little bit Christian…?
While many Jews relegate the supernatural beings to the Christian realm, Prof. Mika Ahuvia reveals a deep cultural and religious connection.
Key parts of Jewish liturgy today have centuries-old links to angels. In fact, we’re about to declare the Kedushah prayer in the Amidah, beginning with “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts” — which comes from Isaiah 6:3, where it is uttered by the Seraphim to G-D in the Temple in Jerusalem.
On Yom Kippur we dress in white, and don’t eat or drink…like angels.
Ahuvia describes the Kedushah as eyewitness testimony for many Jews about “how G-D preferred to be worshipped.”
During the talmudic period, in roughly 300-600 C.E., incantation bowls were in common use in Babylonia by Jews as well as other groups. The magic bowls used by Jews ,written in Aramaic, had incantations against demons and so on, and frequently refer to the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. These magic bowls suggests the extent which Jews, like other people of late antiquity, took for granted the existence of special powers in the universe.
And of course so many of us believe in a spiritual dimenion…How many of us have a Hamza sign or evil eye necklace at home….?
Judaism is a philosophy as well as a religion …we have fashions in thoughts and ideas…and of course we’re affected and influenced by the wider societies in which we live…
Don’t tell me the old English tradition- still seen in Princes’ Road Shul, Liverpool- of wardens wearing top hats is commanded in a holy text….
The modern Jewish attitude to angels tends to regard the traditional references descriptions as symbolic, poetic, or representing an earlier world-concept. Reform Judaism has either completely removed from their tefillah all references to angels or where they remain have understood them in poetic or mythological terms.
Yet angels- these divine messengers, these divine forces- play an active role in the Ultra -Orthodox world. My sister, part of the Belz Chasisidic community, prays to angels for protection every night.She declares
“To my right Michael and to to my left Gabriel, infront of me Uriel and behind me Raphael, and over mt head G-D’s Shekinah (the presence of G-D)”.
I too, now say this nightly.
Divine forces- for wonder, for health, for light, for comfort – and surrounding us all, the Shechinah.
And so we return to our cherubs….
Torah teaches that G-D spoke from within the empty space between the two kruvim. And Talmud teaches that the kruvim faced each other when we followed the mitzvot,and turned away from each other when we did not.
We are a broad church, so to speak, and have room for rationalists, kabbalists, angel-believers and purists… Angels, messengers, manifestations of G-D, divine interventions, a spiritual dimension…there’s room for all of this in our religion.
We know what the mitzvot are but must also try to be accepting of how people choose to follow them.
Unlike that so-called comedian at the Soho Theatre last week, we are able to appreciate a multiplicity of views and approaches, whilst also knowing right from wrong.
What we do know is that we are all made in the image of G-D and need to act and treat others accordingly.
Shabbat Shalom