Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Hashem calling upon the Children of Israel to contribute thirteen materials toward the building of the Sanctuary—gold, silver and copper; blue, purple and red-dyed wool; flax, goat hair, animal skins, wood, olive oil, spices and gems. On Mount Sinai, Moses is given detailed instructions on how to construct this Sanctuary so that it could be readily dismantled, transported and reassembled as the people journeyed through the desert. Within the Sanctuary’s innermost chamber, behind a woven curtain, the ark containing the tablets of the testimony engraved with the Ten Commandments would be housed. Upon the ark’s cover would be two winged cherubim hammered out of pure gold. In the outer chamber would be the seven-branched menorah, and the table upon which the “showbread” was arranged. The Sanctuary’s three walls would be fitted together from 48 upright wooden boards, each of which was overlaid with gold and held up by a pair of silver foundation sockets. The roof would be formed of three layers of coverings: tapestries of multicolored wool and linen; a covering made of goat hair; a covering of ram and “tachash” skins. Across the front of the Sanctuary would be an embroidered screen held up by five posts. Surrounding the Sanctuary and the copper-plated altar in front of it would be an enclosure of linen hangings, supported by 60 wooden posts with silver hooks and trimmings, and reinforced by copper stakes.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃ Let them make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them… - Shemot (Exodus) 25:8, Parshat Terumah
Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn taught on these words that Hashem spoke to Moses from the burning bush (Shemot 3:5)
שַׁל־נְעָלֶ֙יךָ֙ – Remove your sandals… Rabbi Moshe said, “Remove the habitual which encloses your ‘foot’ – that which comes between you and your experience of the world – and then you will know: הַמָּק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתָּה֙ עוֹמֵ֣ד עָלָ֔יו אַדְמַת־קֹ֖דֶשׁ הֽוּא – the Place upon which you stand is holy ground… That is, the place upon which you find yourself is holy; for there is no aspect of human life within which we cannot find the holiness of the Divine – everywhere, and at all times.” This is meditation. וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ – Let them make for Me a sanctuary… The Mikdash, “Sanctuary,” comes from the root קדש kadosh, which means “holy” or “sacred.” The actual meaning of קדש is “separate,” but not in the ordinary sense. In the case of a troubled relationship, the word “separate” connotes distance, disconnectedness, alienation. But kadosh is the opposite. In a Jewish wedding ceremony, we hear the words: אַתְּ מְקֻדֶּֽשֶׁת לִי At meKUDESHet li – “You are holy to me.” The betrothed couple becomes “separate” because they are each other’s most intimate, and therefore separate from all other less intimate relationships. So, the separateness of קדש kadosh points not to something that is distant, but most central. It points not to alienation, but to the deepest connection. וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם – and I will dwell among them… The Mikdash is the place that the Divine quality of קדש kadosh dwells and communes with the Israelites, as it says – שָׁכַנְתִּי shakhaniti – I will dwell. This root of shakhaniti, שכן, is also found in the other word for the Sanctuary, Mishkan, as well as the word for the Divine Presence itself, Shekhinah. And what is the main function of שכן– this communing with the sacred? The Israelites came to the mishkan, and later the Temple in Jerusalem, to heal their separation from the Divine – separation in the ordinary sense of the word. They brought their fruit, their grain and their animals to be offered on the fiery altar in order to heal the disconnectedness and alienation caused by their own transgressions. The word for a sacrificial offering is korban, from the root קרב which means not sacrifice, but nearness, closeness, intimacy. Where was this Mikdash placed? Was it separate from the camp, off at a distance? No – it was in the very center of the camp. And within the very center of the Mikdash was the most holy – the kadosh kadoshim – the Holy of Holies – the Center of the Center. This representation of the sacred in space and architecture is not mere ritual magic from the past. It is a pointer to the true sanctuary of Presence within your own life. There can only be one center of your life, and that center is the one place that life is actually being lived – this moment. You are never separate from this moment, and yet – are you truly dwelling within it? וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃ Asu li Mikdash v’shakhanit mitokham – Let them make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among/within them… There is a Divine call – It calls to us equally in pain and in joy, in excitement and in boredom. It says, “Come to the center. Build me a sanctuary.” How do we build it? The essence of the sanctuary is not the structure, but the space within the structure. The structure is already there as your body, your mind, your heart. They become a sanctuary the moment you allow there to be a space. The space completes the structure. Come into that space – come into your body, come into this moment. Bring your korban to the altar. Is there pain? Is there fear? Is there regret? Is there embarrassment? Bring it all. Let the fire upon the altar of the present moment burn away the separation; this is meditation. If it hurts, let it – the pain is temporary, and gives way to the Sacred. Because from within the space of allowing yourself to feel whatever needs to be felt, there is the possibility of transmutation – the energy of separation and pain becomes the energy of love. And from this love there is the possibility of external healing as well – the healing that happens between people through deeds of love. The sages taught that it is for the sake of love that the universe has come into being, that when we do acts of Hesed, of loving kindness toward one another, we make the world itself into a Sanctuary, into a home for the Divine. That is our tremendous potential: to uncover this fundamental quality of sacredness – first within ourselves, through Presence, and second toward others, through our words and deeds. This is the Path of ק Koof, “Sanctification.”
Read past teachings on Terumah HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below:
0 Comments
Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah continues with the mitzvot given at Sinai, this time focusing on civil laws, including the laws of the indentured servant, the penalties for murder, kidnapping, assault and theft, redress of damages, the granting of loans, the responsibilities of the “Four Guardians” (unpaid guardian, paid guardian, renter and borrower), the rules gover governing the conduct of justice by courts, and laws warning against mistreatment of the ger, the stranger – “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Also included are other ritual laws: the observance of the seasonal festivals, the agricultural gifts that are to be brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; the prohibition against cooking meat with milk, and the mitzvah of prayer. The parshah also contains the special words we use in our meditation that the Children of Israel proclaim at Sinai: נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָֽע na-aseh v’nishmah – “We will do and we will hear.” The parshah concludes with Moses ascending the mountain and remaining there for forty days and forty nights to receive the rest of the Torah…
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּשִׂ֖ים לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃ כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחׇפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם׃ These are the judgements that you shall set before them: When you acquire a Hebrew slave, six years they shall serve— and in the seventh year they shall go free, without payment… - Shemot (Exodus) 21:1-2, Parshat Mishpatim
There is a Midrash in which the ministering angels challenge Hashem: “You have given Moses the task of writing down the Torah. What is to prevent him from saying that it is he who gives the Torah, and not You?” Hashem replied, “This he would not do. But, even if he did, he would still be keeping faith with me.”
The disciples of Rabbi Yitzhak of Vorki once asked him what this story means. He answered with a parable: Once there was a merchant who wanted to go on a journey, so he trained an assistant to work in his shop. He spent most of his time in an adjoining room, from which he could hear everything that the assistant was saying next door. During the first year, he sometimes heard his assistant tell a customer, “The master cannot let this go for such a low price.” During this time, the merchant held back from his journey. Over the second year, he occasionally heard his assistant say, “We cannot let it go for such a low price.” The merchant still postponed his journey. But in the third year, he heard his assistant say, “I cannot let this go for such a low price.” It was then that he commenced his journey. The merchant’s assistant coming to identify with the merchant himself points to an inner transformation: that is, from thinking of the Divine as something separate, to knowing the Divine as the deepest dimension of your own being. This transformation is similar to going from having a boyfriend or girlfriend, to being married and fully committed. Before marriage, there may be some commitment, but at the end of the day, you are always free to go to your separate homes. In marriage, that “freedom” is over; there is only one home. Does that mean that “marriage” is a permanent state in which the relationship is constant and perfect? Of course not! Like all living things, it is in motion. It needs attention and nurturance. And yet, there is something that changes completely when two people decide to have one life together, to be one family. כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד – When you acquire a Hebrew slave, six years they shall serve… The word for slave, עֶבֶד eved, is the same root as יַעֲבֹ֑ד ya’avod, “serve.” אִם־אֲדֹנָיו֙ יִתֶּן־ל֣וֹ אִשָּׁ֔ה וְיָלְדָה־ל֥וֹ בָנִ֖ים – If his master gave him a wife, and she gave birth to children… The master of the slave is called an אֲדֹנ adon – “lord”. But these two words, עֶבֶד eved and אֲדֹנ adon, also have a completely different connotation: God is sometimes called Adon, and a holy person is called an Eved Hashem – a Servant of God. The ultimate spiritual goal is to become an Eved Hashem – meaning that your separate, egoic self-sense becomes subordinate to the Reality of the One. In this state, you no longer live for yourself, you live for God. In fact, “you” don’t really live at all; there is no separate “you” – there is only God. Seen metaphorically, then, the Hebrew eved who goes free is like someone who has a spiritual experience, but when the experience is over, s/he goes free from it; it is temporary. וְאִם־אָמֹ֤ר יֹאמַר֙ הָעֶ֔בֶד אָהַ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־אֲדֹנִ֔י אֶת־אִשְׁתִּ֖י וְאֶת־בָּנָ֑י לֹ֥א אֵצֵ֖א חׇפְשִֽׁי׃ – But if the slave declares, “I love my master, my wife and my children; I do not wish to go free…” When the eved does not want to go free, he is brought to a doorpost and declares that he loves his adon and his new family and that he wants remain an eved. His ear is then pierced against the doorpost and he becomes a slave forever. In a similar way, to become an Eved Hashem means that you commit to Reality as your Lord, your Master, your God. Reality also becomes like your family – your home base – the place you live, not the place you merely visit. Does that mean that you are now a perfect eved? Of course not! Just as in marriage, you can and must get better at it. There is risk – failure is possible. But you have stepped into marriage with the Beloved. All of the rituals of Judaism are really expressions of this basic commitment, this brit, this “covenant” with the Divine. How do you take this step? וְהִגִּישׁוֹ֙ אֶל־הַדֶּ֔לֶת א֖וֹ אֶל־הַמְּזוּזָ֑ה – He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost… The word for doorpost is מְּזוּזָה mezuzah – the same as the ritual scroll traditionally fastened to the doorposts of Jewish homes. And what is the first word of the text written on the mezuzah? Sh’ma – “Hear!” Hearing, unlike seeing and tasting, is the sense that we cannot shut down; our ears are always open; we cannot shut our ears to escape the sounds around us. Similarly, we cannot escape Reality. There is nothing but Reality, everywhere! To step into Reality, then, is actually the most simple thing. It means dropping the excess commentary of the mind and being with what is, as it is. It means being an open ear; this is meditation. וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים – These are the judgements… At the deepest level, there is only one spiritual מִּשְׁפָּט (judgment) to ever make: commit or don’t commit. Hear or refuse to hear. Awaken now from the dream of the mind-created self or live in the dream. Are you ready to commit to Reality as It steps up to you in this moment? Are you ready to give up the false dream of freedom from Reality and embrace the true freedom, which is to surrender as an Eved Hashem, attentive in the heart of stillness to the flow of life as it unfolds? This is Jewish meditation of the Path of צ Tzaddi, Devotion to God.
Read past teachings on Mishpatim HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below: 
Parshah Summary – P’shat
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro (Yitro), hears of the great miracles which God performed for the Children of Israel, and comes from Midian to the Israelite camp, bringing with him Moses’ wife and two sons. Jethro advises Moses to appoint a hierarchy of magistrates and judges to assist him in the task of governing and administering justice to the people.
The Children of Israel camp opposite Mount Sinai, where they are told that God has chosen them to be a “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation.” The people respond by proclaiming, “All that God has spoken, we shall do.” On the sixth day of the third month (Sivan), seven weeks after the Exodus, the entire nation of Israel assembles at the foot of Mount Sinai for the Giving of the Torah. The Presence of God descends on the mountain amidst thunder, lightning, billows of smoke and the blast of the shofar, and Moses is summoned. God proclaims the Ten Commandments, instructing the people of Israel to be aware of God, not to worship idols or take the Name in vain, to keep Shabbat, honor their parents, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to bear false witness or covet another’s property. The people cry out to Moses that the revelation is too intense for them to bear, begging him to receive the Torah from God and convey it to them instead…
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֵ֛ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לֵאמֹֽר׃ אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִ֑ים׃ God spoke all these words, saying: I am Hashem your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage… - Shemot (Exodus) 20:1, 2 Parshat Yitro
Once, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz of Peshischa (known as “the Yehudi”) was asked to examine the thirteen-year-old Hanokh in the Talmud. (Hanokh later became the rabbi of Alexander). It took the boy an hour to think over the passage which had been assigned to him before he could expound it. Once he had done so, the tzaddik cupped his hand around Hanokh’s cheek and said: “When I was thirteen I plumbed passages more difficult than this in no time at all, and when I was eighteen, I had the reputation of being a great Torah scholar. But one day it dawned on me that a person cannot attain to perfection through learning alone. I understood what is told of our father Abraham: that he explored the sun, the moon, and the stars, and he did not find God, yet in this very not-finding, the Presence of God was revealed to him. For three months I mulled over this realization. Then I explored until I too reached the truth of not-finding.”
The function of the mind is too “find” – to navigate through time by creating an inner context through which we can conceptualize who and where we are, what we are doing, and why; this is essential. But, this creates the side effect of seeing reality through the screen of that map. The mind sees the surface of things – a collection of related but separate parts, and the mind also feels itself to be separate from what it sees וַיְהִי֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר הוֹלֵ֖ךְ וְחָזֵ֣ק מְאֹ֑ד מֹשֶׁ֣ה יְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל׃ And it was that as the voice of the shofar louder and louder, Moses spoke, God answered him in that voice… But there comes a time when that inner map breaks down, and we are confronted by the naked present, in all its Mystery. When we are shaken from the continuity of mind-created context, and the “familiar” disappears, we step out of the Mitzrayim of the known, out of our conditioned mental patterns of separateness. This “wilderness” can be terrifying. And yet, in the unknown there is the possibility of receiving Reality in a very direct way, a way that knows Being as a Whole, as a Oneness אָֽנֹכִי יי – I am Hashem… According to our tradition, this Divine declaration of identity is the first of the Aseret Hadibrot, the “Ten Sayings,” otherwise known as the “Ten Commandments.” But what exactly is the commandment? According to Maimonides (b. 1135- d.1204 CE), in his work Sefer HaMitzvot, this first commandment is simply to believe in God. אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם – who brought you out of the land of Egypt… But if we look at the second part of the verse, there is a deeper message that is not about mere belief, not about events of the past, but rather it is about this moment within which we now find ourselves, this moment through which we too may be brought out of Mitzrayim. אָֽנֹכִי יי – I am Hashem means that the Anokhi – the “I” – is actually Hashem – Divine. Meaning, our own inner identity, and in fact the inner identity of all things, is the Ultimate, Living Presence of Existence; that is what the Divine Name actually means… חָבִיב אָדָם שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם. חִבָּה יְתֵרָה נוֹדַעַת לוֹ שֶׁנִּבְרָא בְצֶלֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית ט) כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה אֶת הָאָדָם. Beloved are human beings, for they were created as images for the Divine. But they are extra beloved that it is made known to them that they are created as images for the Divine, as it is said: “for in the image of the Divine humans were made.” - Pirkei Avot, 3:18 The Israelites are shaken by the terrible awesomeness of the natural world around them, and in that heightened state, the inner identity of nature reveals Itself as their own inner identity. It is not about believing in the idea of a divine entity; it is not about adding another concept to the mind’s ideas about reality. It is about subtracting the conditioned sense of the ordinary imposed by our minds, and recognizing Existence Itself – recognizing That which the mind cannot map. This “knowing” through not finding, that is, not mapping with the mind, is itself liberation – liberation from the burden of time and conditioned identity; this is meditation. וְכׇל־הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹ֜ת – and all the people saw the voices… It does say they heard the voices, but saw! In other words, they perceived everything in a completely new way. It is a kind of awakening. Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about how we can imagine our “cosmic address.” The first step is to notice we are on planet Earth. Next, we can expand our perspective to see that Earth is part of our Solar System. Then, we expand further to see that our sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Even further, we can see the family of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs, called the Local Group. Then, even further, we expand to see the Local Group as part of a larger cluster of galaxy families, called the Virgo Supercluster. And even further, the Virgo Supercluster is one of the many clusters that make up the Observable Universe. But what comes after that? We have come to limits of our map, beyond which is simply Mystery. Perhaps, says Tyson, our whole universe is merely a single bubble in an infinite ocean of bubbles, each one a complete universe. Now consider: where would that “ocean” of universes be? The imagination reaches out toward infinity and comes to stillness כָּל יָמַי גָּדַלְתִּי בֵין הַחֲכָמִים, וְלֹא מָצָאתִי לַגּוּף טוֹב אֶלָּא שְׁתִיקָה. וְלֹא הַמִּדְרָשׁ הוּא הָעִקָּר, אֶלָּא הַמַּעֲשֶׂה. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה דְבָרִים, מֵבִיא חֵטְא: All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the point, but practice; whoever indulges in too many words brings about great error. - Pirkei Avot, 1:17 Ultimately, we don’t and can’t know where or what or why any of this is. And yet we do know: Hinei! Here it is! This practice of finding the limits of thought, beyond which is the simple Mystery of Being, is the Path of ר Reish, of Awe, of Wonder. May our efforts in this Path add momentum to the awakening of our species from the mind-created madness that gives rise to our present plagues of violence and suffering.
Read past teachings on Yitro HERE
Learn Integral Jewish Meditation
Get Free Guided Meditation Below: |
Free Integral Jewish Meditation Instructional Recordings Here.
Daily Meditation on Zoom: Experience our growing community Here Archives
March 2026
|
RSS Feed