Making a Temple of our Lives

February 21-22, 2014 / 22 Adar I 5774

Shabbat Vayak’hel

Torah: Exodus 35:1 - 38:20 / Haftarah: I Kings 7:40 - 7:50

“Making a Temple of our Lives”

Dear Friends,

What if every Jew could take part in creating the portable Temple of our ancestors’ desert wandering? That is the theme of this week’s Torah portion.  Moses called upon every member of the Children of Israel to make donations towards the construction of the Mishkan, the portable tent where God’s presence would be worshipped.  The donations came in and the construction began.

When our people settled in the Promised Land, the portable Mishkan tent was exchanged for local worship sites amongst the tribes and then, eventually, a central Temple in Jerusalem.  Now that the Temple is destroyed and our Jewish people are scattered to every corner of the earth, what is to substitute for our central place of worship?  Ceertainly our synagogue building could be just the place.  Yet, our ancestors had another, even more powerful idea in mind. Our sages taught that our dining room tables would become mini-altars, replacing the Jerusalem Temple as the place where our Jewish tradition would centralize and grow.  Our dining room tables would be the place where we would celebrate Shabbat and the festivals and where the love of our Jewish faith, heritage, and tradition would be passed on from parents to children. But, rebuilding the Temple at our tables has to be about more than food and songs.  It must be about learning and growing Jewishly.

So my solution to ‘rebuilding’ the figurative portable Temple in our day involves both celebrating Jewishly and learning Jewishly, worshipping Jewishly, and growing Jewishly.  In essence our lives and our souls are our Temple.  And each time we learn something Jewish and incorporate it into our lives, our people is strengthened and the world is renewed.

Our synagogue has a profound role to play in promoting Jewish learning and celebration.  That’s why I am proud to begin the five-part “Crash Course in Basic Judaism” lecture series next week, on Monday, February 24th.  I encourage you all to join in the study, for it will inspire you with new knowledge and wisdom about our magnificent Jewish heritage and tradition. The course will guide you on the road to bringing Jewish learning to your dining room table to share with your families.  Through learning, you will join in the millennia old process of building the portable Temple of our hearts one lesson at a time.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow