 | After community conflict, there are exactly two choices. One option is to stew in it, holding onto the conflict's source or how people acted during the conflict. The other option is to heal by building a worthy future together. Actually, when it comes to spiritual community, there is only one real choice. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Vayakhel 5785 (2025)
The Golden Calf episode might have ended the Jewish narrative, full stop. Inspired by fear, the Golden Calf utterly repudiated the Ten Commandments, the Covenant and the core of relationship between God and the people. The end, right?
Not the end. Just the beginning.
The fact that Torah, Covenant and Judaism didn't end right then and there teaches us much about the nature of true spiritual relationship – enduring, generous, forgiving, transforming.
The Golden Calf of last week's Torah portion arose because the people were afraid that Moses' delay atop Sinai meant that they'd have no leader. Fear drove rebellion and conflict. But it wasn't over. Immediately after the Golden Calf episode, God called Moses up Sinai a second time to receive a second set of covenantal tablets. The first set that Moses shattered on the Golden Calf would be kept with the second tablets. Our ancestors would keep the broken with the whole in the Ark as a constant reminder.
Which meant that they needed an Ark, which meant that they needed to build one.
The first impulse for a Mishkan – traveling physical focal point for Shekhinah, the Indwelling Presence – arose several portions ago, but only in this week's Torah portion immediately after the Golden Calf would the people undertake to build it. The Mishkan would include the Ark of the Covenant.
Put another way, immediately after the breaking, the building.
The fact of the Golden Calf episode underscored that the people needed a tangible focus for spiritual relationship at that early point in their spiritual relationship. God now obliged by telling Moses to organize the community to build the Mishkan to serve that need.
Covenant would continue. God responded to conflict's underlying impulse albeit without letting base instincts govern: spiritually, the people needed to evolve. In turn, the people took a leap of faith to evolve beyond rebellion (for now) – and without hewing to hard feelings.
How do we know? Because building the Miskhan needed everyone, and "everyone" is exactly what happened.
It wasn't just some folks who donated time and treasure to this cause – maybe those closest to Moses, or those wanting back into good graces. It was "everyone" who donated physically to it, "everyone" volunteered to collect and haul and weave and chop and solder (Exodus 35:20-29). "Everyone" was so generous that, for the first and maybe last time in Jewish history, there was too much: the people needed to be told to stop (Exodus 36:5-6).
Even more extraordinary is that, during this building phase, there was yet no "proof" of God immediately present. After all, the whole point of the Miskhan was to give the people what they seemed to need, yet there was no Mishkan until the people built it – a spiritual Catch-22. The same people who went sideways with the Golden Calf for lack of security and trust, now demonstrated tremendous security and trust by giving their best. They took a leap of faith.
Only then, in next week's Torah portion, would the Mishkan be finished, and "turned on" so the Divine Presence would abide among them – the builders after the breaking, the folks who took a leap of faith.
It took "everyone." It always will.
Vayakhel 5785 (2025)
The Golden Calf episode might have ended the Jewish narrative, full stop. Inspired by fear, the Golden Calf utterly repudiated the Ten Commandments, the Covenant and the core of relationship between God and the people. The end, right?
Not the end. Just the beginning.
The fact that Torah, Covenant and Judaism didn't end right then and there teaches us much about the nature of true spiritual relationship – enduring, generous, forgiving, transforming.
The Golden Calf of last week's Torah portion arose because the people were afraid that Moses' delay atop Sinai meant that they'd have no leader. Fear drove rebellion and conflict. But it wasn't over. Immediately after the Golden Calf episode, God called Moses up Sinai a second time to receive a second set of covenantal tablets. The first set that Moses shattered on the Golden Calf would be kept with the second tablets. Our ancestors would keep the broken with the whole in the Ark as a constant reminder.
Which meant that they needed an Ark, which meant that they needed to build one.
The first impulse for a Mishkan – traveling physical focal point for Shekhinah, the Indwelling Presence – arose several portions ago, but only in this week's Torah portion immediately after the Golden Calf would the people undertake to build it. The Mishkan would include the Ark of the Covenant.
Put another way, immediately after the breaking, the building.
The fact of the Golden Calf episode underscored that the people needed a tangible focus for spiritual relationship at that early point in their spiritual relationship. God now obliged by telling Moses to organize the community to build the Mishkan to serve that need.
Covenant would continue. God responded to conflict's underlying impulse albeit without letting base instincts govern: spiritually, the people needed to evolve. In turn, the people took a leap of faith to evolve beyond rebellion (for now) – and without hewing to hard feelings.
How do we know? Because building the Miskhan needed everyone, and "everyone" is exactly what happened.
It wasn't just some folks who donated time and treasure to this cause – maybe those closest to Moses, or those wanting back into good graces. It was "everyone" who donated physically to it, "everyone" volunteered to collect and haul and weave and chop and solder (Exodus 35:20-29). "Everyone" was so generous that, for the first and maybe last time in Jewish history, there was too much: the people needed to be told to stop (Exodus 36:5-6).
Even more extraordinary is that, during this building phase, there was yet no "proof" of God immediately present. After all, the whole point of the Miskhan was to give the people what they seemed to need, yet there was no Mishkan until the people built it – a spiritual Catch-22. The same people who went sideways with the Golden Calf for lack of security and trust, now demonstrated tremendous security and trust by giving their best. They took a leap of faith.
Only then, in next week's Torah portion, would the Mishkan be finished, and "turned on" so the Divine Presence would abide among them – the builders after the breaking, the folks who took a leap of faith.
It took "everyone." It always will.
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