The name of this week’s parsha (Torah portion) is Trumah.  I received a request (hi mom 🙂 ) to include the name of the weekly parsha, so there it is.

The parshas are named from the first significant word in them.

The word Trumah has as its root the word Rom, which means to raise up and is the word used to designate certain tithes that only the priests (the cohanim in Hebrew) and their families can eat.  Or, in the case of our parsha, gifts given in order to build the tabernacle (mishcan in Hebrew which means a dwelling place and where we get Shechina, a name for god).

With this as the lead in, our parsha has to do with the directions Moshe (Moses) received from haShem (god) regarding the building of the mishcan or the place that haShem, the infinite one, will live within this finite world.

Let’s see what is involved in the making of the mishcan.  We start off with the people being asked to give specific items to god, given only if it is in the person’s heart to be generous.  After the listing of items, we are told to build a mishcan and then haShem will dwell among them (the people).

The first thing haShem tells Moshe how to make is the ark which will contain the, “Testimony,” that haShem will give over.

Then we read about how to make the cover for the ark and of the two Cherubim that are part of the cover.  When the ark is assembled, complete with the cover and the testimony, then we are told that haShem will speak from between the two Cherubim.

Next we are read of the making of a table and its utensils and we are told that the table is for show bread (lechem panim or bread of faces in Hebrew).  Next we learn about making the menorah and its utensils.

We then read about the making of the curtains, and how they are grouped and attached together.  This set of curtains is for the mishcan.  We then learn about making the tent of the mishcan, and the covering of the tent.  We then continue with how to make the beams of the mishcan.  At this time, we are also told that the mishcan will face to the east, and how the beams, curtains, and tent go together, and where to place the table and the menorah.

Next we are instructed on how to make the altar and its utensils, and then how to make the courtyard for the mishcan.  This includes the beams, sockets, hangings, and pillars.

And that is the rundown of the parsha.  Of course there is a lot of detail that I have left out, and as we know, the fun is in the detail.  To prove this, I think I will give you just a taste of the detail; enough to whet the appetite, but not enough to ruin this tasty dish of a parsha. 🙂

What I wish to share with you is some ideas I had as I was reading the making of the curtains of the mishcan. Now, as I share this with you, I want you to realize that I am only opening up one small sliver of one piece of the significance of the structure.  Each item, the beams, and the tent and the ark, and the menorah and the courtyard, and the cherubim, and, and, and, all can be opened up in manners similar to what I am going to share.

In fact, they, as well as the curtains, can be opened up to even more amazing ideas that what I am going to share.  After all, these ideas came to me when I was just reading the first 5 books of the bible in Hebrew for the second time in his life, and a person who was just taking his baby steps in understanding the world of Torah and the world through Torah…

So, here we go.  The first thing that struck me was the dimensions of each curtain: 28×4.

What is the significance of these numbers?

In Hebrew, letters are also numbers.  The letter Aleph, which is the first letter of the aleph-bet (alphabet) is one, and the second letter, Bet, is two, and so on.

If you take the 4 letters that make up the name of haShem, and treat them as numbers and add them together, you get 26.

This is two away from the first dimension.  If we add two to the name of haShem, we will get 28.  Now, two means myself and another.  So, the 28 could mean, god, and another coming together, ie the place where god and his creation comes together.

Now, the letter Bet, which is two in Hebrew, if you spell it out (Bet-Yud-Tav) spells the Hebrew word for house.  Therefore, the 28 can be not just a place, but THE HOUSE where god meets creation.

Ok, that was fun, but now I want to put that aside and look at the 28 in another way.

28 = 7 x 4.  What is 7?  Seven is the number that represents everywhere.  It is the 4 directions, north, east, south, west, plus up and down, and finally, the center.

And what is the 4?  In the Jewish family tradition, their are 4 worlds.  Starting with the bottom, there is the world of doing (Assiyah in Hebrew), the world of feeling (Yetzirah in Hebrew), the world of the mind (Briyah in Hebrew), and the world of closeness to haShem (Atzilut in Hebrew).  So, the 28 represents everywhere in each of those four worlds.

The width of each curtain is 4.  What does this four represent?

Again in the Jewish family trad, we have a concept of 4 types of people.  At Pesach (Passover) time, they are the wise son, the wicked son, the simple son, and the silent son.  During the holiday of Succot, we wave a lulov which consists of four plants, a Palm frond, a Myrtle branch, a Willow branch and an Etrog (a citrus fruit with both male and female parts).  These also represent four types of Jews:  a Jew who has no awareness to do mitzvot (commandments) and does not do the mitzvot, a Jew who does the mitzvot without being aware of what he is doing, a person who does the mitzvot with intention and awareness, and a person who does not do the mitzvot, but has an awareness to do good things in general.

The teaching around this is that just as you cannot fulfill the mitzvah of the lulav (as the bundle of the four plants is called) without having the four plants, so too, the Jewish people would not be complete without having and including the four types of people.

This is the dimension of width.  So, each curtain is made up of the four types of people filling up all corners of the four worlds.

Now there are 10 curtains.  This represents the 10 fingers in which to do things in this world.

Or, if you prefer, we can call them the 10 spherot or energy conduits between us and haShem.

5 curtains are attached together, and the other 5 curtains are attached together.  This represents our 5 senses.  To fully live in and do in the world, our 5 senses and 10 fingers must be connected to all the ways of being everywhere in all the worlds.

So, in order to make the house or dwelling place for god, we need to be fully aware, with all our senses, that all types of people are required, and we have to be including everything in all the worlds in what we do.

Now, this seems to present a problem, for how can do we include people who are on opposite ends of the spectrum?

Ahhh, this is where the material of the curtains comes in to play.  The curtains are made of red, blue, and purple thread.  Why these colors?

I struggled with this question until I was blessed with an answer during a 3rd meal of Shabbat, late Saturday afternoon.

When you look at a rainbow, blue is on one side, and red is on the other.  These represent people on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Both people might want to find a way to come together, but cannot.  Why?

Well, for a blue person to meet the red person, he would have to leave the blue and go thru the green to the yellow to the orange.  And when she gets there, he has no vestiges of his blueness, of who he is.  The same would happen to the red person.

Even if they compromised in the middle and both became yellow, all the red and blue would be gone.

And this is not a way to include all the people.

So, people are stuck for they see only this way, and it is not a way for people to remain who they are and also embrace one who is different.

There is another way however:  the way through the infinite.

If people turned the other way, and trusted in the infinite, in haShem, and moved forward, they would discover that there is a place where a red person can still be red,and also embrace blue, and a blue person can still be blue while embracing red.

This place is the color where red and blue meet and mesh:  purple, or the third color in the curtain.   And this is what the colors are telling us.

For when we make the curtains and build the house, the infinite one will come down and be with us.  For the verse reads (25:8): “They will make me a sanctuary and I will dwell in them.”

May we all be find a way to embrace and accept the variety that the divine, in its wisdom has included everywhere in all the worlds, and find peace and divinity within.

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

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.