Mark Call

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a two-part look at parsha, “Terumah” (Exodus 25:1 -27:19) and an apparently sudden “shift” from instruction about commandments and judgments following the giving of the Covenant at Mt. Sinai to some detailed contruction information about the ‘mishkan’, or tabernacle.

And certainly one of the first questions that might come to mind is “why?” Why now, why the level of detail, and why the emphasis on “terumah”, or freewill offerings, gifts, at this point in the story? Those are a few of the elements that make up the Erev Shabbat “overview”.

The Sabbath day teaching suggests that one of the interesting aspects of this parsha, especially in the context of ‘current events’, is that it’s almost a “time out”.

Moses is up on the mountain, if we’ve read ahead, we already know what’s going to happen next (and so does Yah!) and there’s already a plan in place to begin the process of restoration. And He gives people the opportunity to learn to give, too.

What does learning to give – from things that were all from Him anyway! – have to do with dealing with tests we still have to face?