PARSHAS TERUMAH 5778


“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas
Terumah
1 Adar 5778/February 16,
2018
2 Rosh Chodesh Adar
I
don’t know if there’s anything worse than being a sock. Socks are put on
hastily in the morning and have the inauspicious task of wrapping around a
person’s smelly foot. They quickly become smelly, and often get wet. Then, at
night, they are pulled off, and in the best situations cast into a hamper, if
not just left on the floor. 
Of
all articles of clothing, socks have the highest mortality rate, and the
shortest life span. They can easily develop fatal holes which no longer enables
them to protect the big toe, or they can become stretched out. For those who
are sensory, socks take even more abuse, constantly getting pulled up and stretched
out.
Another
thing about socks, is that they are only worth anything if you have two of
them. Their value lies in their being a pair. I think everyone is familiar with
the phenomenon of socks never returning from the wash. The washing machine
becomes like a black hole and Bermuda Triangle for socks. You put them in with
the rest of the clothing, but then when you take out the clothing, somehow a
few socks seem to escape, and are never seen again. The greatest tragedy is for
its fellow sock who now remains widowed and alone. If you’re like my family,
then you have a drawer full of widowed socks, that will continue to remain
there dormant forever, or at least until something impels us to clean the
drawer.
In
the Mishkan, and subsequently in the Bais Hamikdash, the holiest of all the
vessels was the Aron which was placed in the Kodesh Kodashim (Holy of Holies).
Atop the Aron was affixed the golden Keruvim, and from within them emanated the
voice of G-d, as it were. The Torah relates about the Keruvim, the two angelic
faces of children, “their faces was each to his brother.”
The
Mishkan was covered by a few layers of yerios – curtains/tapestries. The
Torah relates that the yerios were not constructed as one long cloth. Rather,
it was made into two parts, and then they were connected to each other. In the
words of the pasuk, “Five curtains shall be attached – a woman to her sister –
and the (other) five curtains shall be attached – a woman to her sister.”
What
incredible imagery. The holiest place on earth was created by keruvim facing
each other, and the Mishkan was covered by curtains connected – each woman to
her sister!
Last
week, Mevorchim Chodesh Adar, we read Parshas Shekalim, which details the
mandatory half-shekel tax that every Jew contributed annually.
The
commentators explain that the half-shekel represents that although every
individual is valuable (or invaluable), our ultimate worth is when we bond
together. That, in fact, is the introduction to the subsequent special reading
of Parshas Zachor, read the Shabbos before Purim. Parshas Zachor recounts our
defeat over our nemesis, Amalek, and our obligation to remember his virulent
hatred, his mission to destroy us, and his ultimate desire to obliterate all
G-dliness from the world. Such evil can only be overcome with the synergistic
power of our unity.
Sadly,
there is a beautiful demonstration of this concept, in an article in
Times-of-Israel, February 6, 2018, by Jacob Magid:
HAR BRACHA, West Bank — Less than a month after her husband Raziel was gunned down in
a terror attack outside the Havat Gilad outpost, Yael Shevach arrived in the
neighboring Har Bracha settlement Tuesday to console Miriam Ben-Gal, whose
husband Itamar was murdered in a stabbing terror
attack on Monday
.
In a statement on the widows’ meeting
outside the Ben-Gal home, Yael Shevach said the two traced the eerie
similarities in their respective tragedies:
“Both Raziel and Itamar loved life; they both loved to
dress and eat well. Raziel was killed on his way home from a circumcision, and
Itamar was on his way to a circumcision. Raziel’s sister will be getting
married in less than a month, and Miriam’s sister will be getting married in
less than a month,” Yael Shevach added. “We are both educators, both Raziel and
Itamar were Torah scholars, and both of us feel that we were chosen for this
role,” Yael Shevach said, explaining that “role” as one responsible for
strengthening the settlement movement in their husbands’ honor.
Raziel Shevach was shot dead by
Palestinian terrorist on January 9. The father of six had known Ben-Gal, a
father of four, through mutual friends.
Hours after 29-year-old Itamar Ben-Gal
was stabbed to death while hitchhiking at the Ariel Junction in the central
West Bank on Monday, Yael Shevach posted on Facebook that she felt “as if she
gained a new sister.”
“We will get through this together.
Alone,” she wrote.
The only way to adequately achieve “Zachor” – remembering and
overcoming the heinousness of Amalek from time immemorial until contemporary
times, is through the message of “Shekalim” – through unity and with chizuk
from each other.
The miracle of Purim occurred when the Jews gathered
together, adhering to Esther’s clarion call to Mordechai: “Go, gather all of
the Jews…” That unification was the beginning of the end for Haman.
Purim is a national celebration of sanguinity and faith. It
is that spirit which Amalek can never destroy!
Chodesh
Tov & Good Chodesh
Shabbat
Shalom & Good Shabbos,

              R’ Dani and Chani Staum      

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