Teruma: Buliding our Aron
Originally by Jamie Weisbach, IfNotNow Chicago.
In parashat Teruma, G-d begins to give the Israelites the instructions for the construction of the Mishkan, the travelling sanctuary that would serve as the focal point of their religious and communal life. The construction of the Mishkan is the first project the Israelites take on as a people — almost as soon as they are out of Egypt, G-d instructs them to begin building. Their very first act after leaving Egypt is to begin building the institution that will carry their spiritual lives for the next thousand years, and which is capable of being G-d’s own dwelling place on earth.
Nested in the long and extremely detailed building plans of this parashah, the Rabbis picked up on an interesting linguistic quirk. Most of the commandments relating to the construction of the Mishkan are given in the singular form “v’asita” — “and you will make”. However, the commandment to build the aron — the ark which would contain the Torah — is given in the plural form “v’asu” — “and they will make.” Why this switch to plural language, and is it only used for the aron? Several midrashim pick up on this difference in language and attempt to understand why the commandment of the aron is worded differently from the commandments for all the other pieces of the Mishkan.
One of these midrashim, Midrash Shemot Rabbah, suggests that this switch to plural language is so that every single Israelite would contribute to the construction of the aron equally, and thus that they would all equally merit to receive the Torah. Unlike all the other construction projects, which could be delegated to a single representative, building a container for the Torah required that everyone pitch in. Only by sharing in this mitzvah would the Israelites be able to create a community where everyone merited to receive the Torah.
Another midrash, Midrash Tanchumah focuses not on whether the whole community would in fact merit Torah, but on the potential for the future creation of false hierarchies. According to the Tanchumah, everyone was ordered to participate in the building of the aron not because building the aron would lead to them meriting to receive Torah, but rather, because the public effect of seeing everyone build the aron together would impress on the minds of the Israelites that all of them had a share in the Torah. In this interpretation, building the aron didn’t make them worthy of receiving Torah — they were already worthy. Rather, this act of collective participation serves as a public witness to their merit and as a testimony against any one Jew who might argue that they somehow had a greater share in Torah than another Jew.
While our central institutions in Jewish life are different than those described in this parashah, the central purpose of them is still the same — to hold and create Torah, and to make space for G-d’s presence in the world. Just as the Israelites in this parashah are charged with the task of building the Mishkan, so too, we are charged with the construction of Jewish institutions and communities that can carry on the holy work that was begun so long ago. And just as in the Mishkan, many tasks can be delegated, but the task of building the moral core of our communities must be undertaken collectively.
I would argue that in the American Jewish community today, we suffer from the problems described in both these Midrashim — we are a community where much of the work, knowledge, and power has been delegated to a small few, and where many Jews think that their share in Torah is greater than that of other Jews. Instead of all of us pitching in to build the communities that will hold our Torah, the American-Jewish community has allowed rabbis, donors and Federations to do the building for us, and thus allowing them to think and act as if they therefore have a claim to Torah that we do not.
The Talmud, in Masechet Yoma, notices that when the same commandment to build the aron is repeated again in Parashat Ekev, the command there is worded in the singular, like all the other commands of the Mishkan — v’asita. Abba Chana, in the name of Rabbi Elazar, notes that one of these instances is when Israel is doing G-d’s will, and one is when Israel is not doing G-d’s will. When the Jewish community fails, the construction of our communities is worded in the singular — because our communities are so narrow that only a small minority is allowed to contribute. When the Jewish community succeeds, this commandment to build the aron can once again be worded in the plural, and the holy work of bringing Torah into the world can once again be done by us all.
