Shavuot Tov my JTF friends,
I would like to share some lessons which we learned during Torah reading today, Parasha Vayakhel-Pekudi and also Shabbat Parah.
First I will discuss a chidush/new idea which touches on a topic I wrote about concerning the question of asking non-observant Jews to attend your Seder. In my response I said that all Jews were a part of the community and should be invited to the seder unless they are hostile self-haters who will interfere with the traditional seder. What I learned was that in Lashon HaKodesh/The Holy tongue the word for community is Tzibur.
This word, Tzibur, is spelled with three letters, Tzaddik, Beit, and Resh...
The Tzadik stands for the Righteous Jew who has Torah wisdom and mitzvahs in his merit.
The Beit stands for the Benoni, the average Jew, who has many mitzvahs but also has many transgressions, and in balance is average.
The Resh stands for the Rasha, the wicked Jew, who has more transgressions than mitzvahs, but still have a chance of making teshuva.
Thus the Jewish community is composed of all three types of Jew, the Tzadik, the Benoni, and the Rasha...
But this weeks Parasha retells the narrative of the Children of Israel donating the materials which would be used to construct the portable Tabernacle called the Mishkan which traveled with them during their travels in the desert. The Torah enumerates all the components and the vessels which composed the holy Sanctuary. Also discussed were the special clothing that the Kohane, priests, would wear during the service.
The Torah clearly states that there are certain creative acts which are forbidden on the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath rest takes precedence over the task of building the Holy Sanctuary which Hashem promised them he would occupy. This is where we learn that the work which was required for the building of the Sanctuary is the forbidden work on the Sabbath, and there were 39 different creative labors which were required to build the Mishkan.
This week we read a double Torah portion, when we read two consecutive portions in order to align the readings with the number of months in a year. This is the first double portion of this year. Last year was a leap-year and there were many double portions. The second portion read today was Pekudi which is very specific concerning the accounting of which tribe gave how much of what.
This week we also read the special Shabbat Parah section from Parasha Chukat concerning the Red Heffer which was required in order to purify a person from the impurity which is obtained through contact with the dead. This purification was required in order to perform the inauguration of the sanctuary.
Here are some interesting and entertaining videos on the Parasha:
This video was made during a year it was Shabbat HaChodesh, but this year next week is Shabbat HaChodesh...
Topic: Come Together : Messages from Parsha Vayakhel-Pekudi (Read 2338 times)