In anticipation of the month of marriage – the month of Nissan – the month of Adar is described as the month of passion that comes just prior. This is the month where the hidden King of the Megilla longs for a home, and his yearning invites us to answer it back, “And they shall make me a Temple, and I should dwell among them
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This week’s parsha, Parashat Teruma brings us to the beginning of a new and surprising stage in the budding relationship between God and the Jewish people - the construction of the Mishkan - a dwelling place for God in the very heart of the Israelite camp. The Gemara in Masechet Ketubot ties in the story of this relationship with the story of a young couple - The son of Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi, who married the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Ben Zimra:
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Rebbi (Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi) went to negotiate the marriage his son to a daughter of Rabbi Yosef ben Zimrah.
It was determined that he (the son of Rebbi) should study Torah for the first for twelve years.
They brought her before him, He asked for it to be made six.
They brought her before him, He asked to wed her first and then to go learn.
He became ashamed and shy before his father.
He (Rebbi) said to him ( his son):You your maker’s wit. It says first “You have brought them and planted them in your estate, A place of calm to sit you have made, oh Lord, A Temple have your hands built”. But later it says: “And they shall make me a Temple, and I should dwell among them (Talmud Bavli, Masechet Ketubot 62b.)
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This story paints a fascinating and genuinely moving scene: The groom immediately falls in love with his bride to be, and against the expectations of his father and of society in general, he asks to marry her right away rather than wait until completing his Torah studies. Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi, the father of the groom, not only does not scold his son for his impatience, but he, quite surprisingly, compares his request to that of Hashem when he commands the building of the Mishkan. At this point, one might ask, how are we to read this story? What is the meaning of this comparison? Is this merely a father trying to see the bright side of his son’s misbehavior? That is possible, but even so, what Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi’s Drush does is call our attention to the surprising element in the establishment of the Mishkan at this time. After Matan Torah, the Jewish People were supposed to make their way to The Land of Israel, to settle the land and only then construct the Holy Temple there. In that case, what is the meaning of building such a temporary structure as the Mishkan?
Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi’s drush on the Commandment to establish the Mishkan turns it into an expression of Hashem’s “infatuation” with the Jewish people, almost a depiction of Him “falling in love” with them, not being able to contain Himself. The budding connection between God and His people breeds a devotion which carries with it a passionate intensity. These qualities will come to characterize the Mishkan going forward - the structure that is dissolved and rebuilt with every new step of B’nei Yisrael’s jurney, the tension between the delicately ornate wooden walls and the soft tapestry coverings - these will continue to represent and recreate a religious experience filled with passion and intense emotions, which is naturally a place of instability…
As a side note, this might open us up to a different view of the long, drawn out and seemingly pointlessly complex list of fine details described in the crafting of the Mishkan and its’ vessels. Only a young couple planning their wedding and their living quarters immediatelyl after could understand this sort of concern for detail. Questions of “substance” – from the wedding gown the bride will wear, to the size of the refrigerator to the precise placement of the bookshelves in the living room – carry with them, in this context, a delicately, passionate intimacy. These small things, the little details, are what gives a craftsman love for his work, and what gives richness to the love in the life of a young couple. And so, this image of the Mishkan, as a place of budding romance, invites us to reread these lists as statements of desire and deep, delicate infatuation.
As we approach the month of Adar, it seems appropriate to bring here the words of Rabbi Me’ir Alter, the first of the Rebbes of Gur, who ties in the building of the Mishkan with the unique energies of this month:
During the whole of the month of Adar the desire (of God) for Israel is awakened, this is the meaning of Adar, as in dira (dwelling)… And before the coming of the month of Nissan, the month of redemption, the month prior awakens the desire that was then, before the completion of the Mishkan. And as such, each and every Jew must awaken the desire in his heart to give himself, his possessions and even his very life to Hashem, to deeply desire to merit working for the sake of God with all his heart and soul.
(Hidushei Ha’Rim on the Torah, Terumah)
In anticipation of the month of marriage – the month of Nissan – the month of Adar is described as the month of passion that comes just prior. This is the month where the hidden King of the Megilla longs for a home, and his yearning invites us to answer it back, ‘To work for the sake of God with all our heart and soul’.
