I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7:00 pm PDT on my cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.
This week we study Parashat Vayakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and Parashat Pekudei (Exodus 38:21-40:38).
* The Torah often reads to me like it was written by an accountant. In my experience, accountants are among the most ethical people I know. They are exact. It’s hard to be a good person if you’re sloppy. Torah is all about attention to detail. And accountants are discrete. They know a lot about people’s lives.
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “Accountability is the name of the game in Jewish life. The Torah teaches us that “adam muad lolam” – a person is always liable and responsible for one’s actions and behavior.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “At the conclusion of the reading of this parsha, the congregation this Shabbat rises and proclaims “chazak, chazak v’nischazek.” – “Let us be strong, let us be strong and let us strengthen others as well.” Part of being strong is the realization of the necessity for being responsible for one’s deeds, behavior and words.”
After I got tossed from this synagogue, I did a lot of sniveling on my blog about how much it hurt me. And this bloke, I don’t even know his name, kept saying to me, “Be strong. Jews don’t respect those who are voluntarily weak.”
So what does it mean to be strong? Not many Torah Jews are emo boys. According to Wikipedia: “Emo has been associated with a stereotype that includes being particularly emotional, sensitive, shy, introverted, or angst-ridden.”
* There’s a lot of repetition in these final chapters of Exodus. Rabbi Wein writes: “One must train one’s self to be honest, to resist temptation and shoddiness. Goodness and truthfulness are conditioned by habitual behavior more so than by inspired sermons and learned treatises.”
* From Chabad: The Rebbe explains that the Torah wants to emphasize that there will always be two versions of G‑d’s home on earth: the ideal version, as G‑d envisions it and describes it to Moses, and the real version, as it is actually built in and out of our physical lives.
