When you Choose Shabbat, you choose to learn that every Shabbat is different and this Shabbat is special indeed as it is also Shabbat Shekalim as well as Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Adar.
This week we read from Parashat Terumah (תְּרוּמָה) is the 19th weekly Torah portion in the annual cycle of Torah readings. According to Wikipedia, Terumah (תְּרוּמָה) contains 4,692 Hebrew letters, 1,145 words, 96 verses and makes up 155 lines of a Torah scroll. Terumah opens as G-d tells Moses to collect donated materials in order to build a dwelling place for G-d called the Mishkan (Tabernacle). G-d describes how to build the vessels that will fill the Mishkan – including the ark, table, menorah, and sacrificial altar, as well as the Mishkan’s walls and curtains.
Rabbi Michael D Klein of Temple Torat Emet offers his insights on this week’s Torah reading, Terumah for Shabbat, March 1, 2025 aka 1 Adar, 5785:
“The Torah is taking us on a journey! First, we read the story of liberation from slavery in Egypt. Then we marched into the desert and approached Sinai where we received the Laws that would define and govern our existence as a people. Now we are told, “build me a sanctuary so that I might dwell in their midst”. Why the transition from the grand events of liberation and the revelation of the Laws to the seemingly mundane details of how to build the sanctuary? Further, why does this special Shabbat Shekalim emphasize even more the collection of the half shekel to complete the census whose proceeds helped support the maintenance and upkeep of the Sanctuary?
The Torah is telling us that one of the most important ways to show our commitment to G-d is by focusing our efforts based on our capabilities. If one is skilled in woodworking or weaving then they can contribute their skills toward construction and design of the articles in the Mishkan. If one is blessed with wealth, then they can help by contributing their resources toward the purchase of whatever is necessary to build and develop.
Everyone has something to contribute, and by involving each person according to their skills and resources we are able to feel closer to G-d because of our sacrifices of time, skills and resources. Yet, when counting each individual during the census, no one gives more or less than half a Shekel-each person is equal in G-d’s eyes. Thus, the effort of building the Mishkan is specifically commanded to bring us closer to G-d and to each other by team building and cooperation. No detail is insignificant, no job or contribution is unimportant.
G-d is giving us the framework by including us as partners in observing the Laws of the Torah but by also building a just society where all are equal and all can meaningfully contribute based on our individual skills and resources. We can pool our abilities to build and heal a world that often seems broken and by doing so can bring the world closer to G-d and G-d closer to us by exerting our effort in creative and mindful ways!
Questions to Consider:
- How can each person experience the holiness of the Mishkan inside their own home?
- Why do the details of the Mishkan include 3 arks?
- What does the requirement of half shekel teach us about giving Tzedaka?
- How is the commandment of half shekel tied to the coming holiday of Purim?”
Rabbi Michael D. Klein attended Yeshiva College of South Florida and served as Torah Reader, Hebrew teacher, Chazzan and spiritual leader of various synagogues throughout South Florida. In January 2015 he became Ritual Director, Bnai/Bnot Mitzvah instructor and 7th grade Hebrew instructor for Temple Torat Emet of Boynton Beach. In October 2019 he was accepted into an accelerated track and received his smicha from Yeshiva Adath Wolkowisk and has been the Rabbinic leadership of Temple Torat Emet since August 2020. In September of 2022 he was appointed Rabbinic and Spiritual Advisor of the Florida Region of FJMC.
Choose Shabbat; choose to celebrate, to light candles, sing songs and learn a little Torah.
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