Mark Call

This week’s Torah portion from the annual cycle is a major ‘shift’ from the mainline story of the Exodus. After Moses heads up the mountain, for forty days and forty nights, the focus is now on getting ready to build something.

And why? Why now? It’s almost like He knows something, before we get to that part of the story. It turns out, there’s even more to it than that.

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a provocative two-part look at parsha Terumah, Exodus chapter 25 through almost all of 27, which begins with the command from YHVH to “take for Me an OFFERING.” From a specific group of people, of a specific list of items, and for a specific purpose. The Erev Shabbat reading gives the details, of which there are many:

The impressive level of detail is this description is certainly one of the most memorable aspects of this parsha. It’s also at the heart of what might even be called ‘controversy.’ Why so much detail about a mobile tent in the wilderness? After all, it was later replaced by the temple, twice, and destroyed, twice. Some will again even claim that it’s “Old” testament, and therefore ‘done away with’ – like those temples. We may have even heard it called “boring.”

And yet, as Mark reminds us in the Sabbath day midrash, there is “no idle word” in His Torah.

Teruman: “That ‘boring DETAIL’ is a Big Flashing Red HTML tag – if we see it”