Hi y’all,

Today is the first day of the first month of the year.  Yeah, I know Rosh haShanah (the Jewish new year – literally:  head of the year) is the new year, but I am just telling you what it said in one of the two parshas (weekly Torah portions) that we read this week.  For those who don’t know, the Jewish calender is lunar based and needs to add an extra month every other year or so to keep the month of spring in the springtime.  When that extra month is not there, like this year, we have to double up some of the parshas.  And this week is one of those times.  Now there is so much I want to share with you, and this might seem strange given that the parshas are almost all a repetition of earlier parshas.  Fortunately,  I plan on giving my ideas on why the repetition, along with an idea that came from a Torah discussion group I was in many years ago.  And in honor of us about to become free (Passover is less than a month away), I have a bonus thought or two to share. So stay tuned…

Let’s start with the beginning of the first parsha.  It starts out saying not to work on the seventh day because haShem rested from making the world on the seventh day.  Then Moshe (Moses) tells the people what to contribute, providing they want to contribute.  Why are these together?  To understand this, we need to look at what the mishcan (tabernacle) is.  It is a place in this world for haShem (god) to exist.  HaShem created a place for us, and now we have a chance to create a place for him.  Remember way back when the Torah told us that we were created in haShem’s image?  Well, here is our chance to be like him!  What did she do?  He made a space for us working only 6 days in a row.  This is why shabbat is mentioned first.  We are about to build a place for haShem like she built a place for us, and we also, to be in his image, should work only 6 days and then rest.

Ok, that explains the parsha starting with shabbat, but what about what comes next:  the voluntary contributions?  The answer to that is that haShem didn’t have to make the world.  She did it because he wanted to.  Likewise, the only way to bring haShem here into our world is if we want her to be here.  And how do we show we want him to be here?  By giving the materials and effort from our own free will.  In this way, we again become like haShem who also gave of herself to make a place for us.

Now that we are warmed up, let’s try to tackle all the repetition.  A few weeks ago, we had haShem telling Moshe, in great detail,  how to build the mishcan, and now we have it repeated here.  And on top of that, the Torah keeps repeating “Just as haShem commanded it.”  What gives?  Well, to understand this we need to go way back to the beginning… back to the third day of creation where haShem tells the earth to make fruit trees that make fruit according to its type with seeds in it, and instead the earth makes trees that make fruit that have seeds in it according to its type.  The earth doesn’t do what haShem asked.  He wanted trees that are themselves fruit, and instead the earth provides trees that are not fruit, but make fruit.  Now you might be asking yourselves what do trees have to do with the mishcan and the repetition?  And my answer is that because the earth didn’t follow haShem’s orders, we see it is possible not to do things the way haShem says to do them.  And so, we need the repetition to show us that we did do things according to spec.  This is why we keep reading, “Just like haShem commanded.”

There is one other reason for the repetition.  Remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned how this book, Shmot (Exodus), seems to be very theme based?  Well, now that we are at the end, let me tie the two themes into one and finish the second theme.  The first theme was getting out of Mitzrayim (Egypt).  I described it as instructions on how to get out of a bad habit – how to change your life.  Actually, it is only the first part of changing one’s life.  The second part of changing one’s life, after getting out of a bad habit, is to replace the bad habit with the way you want to live.  In our sacred text, this is the receiving the Torah.  In general you work on project management skills. Now the project might be yourself, or it might be something else like building something.  However, when the project finishes, you should not find yourself stuck without a way to get out of the old project.  The question is: how do we do that?  How do we know we are done?  This requires the last two steps of project management:  doing the work and seeing if the criteria match the results.  These two parshas do just that.  They describe the work and say if the job was satisfactory.  I would say it was given that the work was just as haShem commanded, and that in the end, the cloud of haShem resided in the final product.

Now that we have a couple of ideas on why the repetition, let me share with you a thought that came up from a Torah discussion group Rabbi Hanan Sills led some years ago.  We were discussing the end of the last parsha of Shmot (which we are reading this week) which says that when the cloud of haShem filled the mishcan, the people didn’t travel and when the cloud lifted, then the people traveled.  We were going round and not having any clue as to what was going on here.  Suddenly it hit us.  It was so obvious.  The Torah is telling us that when we are in a cloud, when we are confused and can’t think or see clearly, we should not move or make decisions.  We should wait until the cloud lifts and then the way will be obvious.

God, I like your Torah!

On this “first day of the first month of this year”, I bless that everybody finds it in their heart to make an effort and provide a place for haShem in this world, and to pay attention to the cloud of haShem, for haShem will surely tell you where to go/what to do, and when.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.