They shall make an ark of acacia wood,

two and a half cubits its length, a cubit and a half its width,

 and a cubit and a half its height.

(Shemot 25: 10)

                                               

 

Abba Hanan said in the name of R. Elazar: One verse says, You shall make yourself an ark of wood, and another verse says: They shall make an ark of acacia wood, How can this be? The one applies to when Israel do the will of the Omnipresent, the other to when they do not do the will of the Omnipresent.

(Eruvin 3b)

 

When they do the will of the Omnipresent - then the Temple service bears their name.

They shall make an ark of acacia wood. The expression ve'asita - and you shall make - is used in connection with all the artifacts [in the Tabernacle]: and you shall make a covering; and you shall make a table; and you shall make a menorah; but here it says they shall make. The Sages expounded upon this (Shemot Rabbah 34:2): "R. Yehudah bar Shalom said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "Let everyone come and be involved with the [construction of] the Ark, so that everyone will merit [having] the Torah, and this intends that they will all volunteer [to help with the construction of the Ark].

And according to the plain meaning of Scripture, the Ark was a kind of special box in which the Tablets could be kept, and since Torah came first the [construction of the] Ark came before that of the other artifacts. And it was called aron as in orah [light], for the Torah within it is called or - light.

(Rabbeinu Behayeiy Shemot 25:10)

 

A Man and a Woman - if They are Meritorious - the Shekhina Dwells Between Them

Diana Villa

After all the raw materials needed for building the Tabernacle are listed in the beginning of the parasha, God tells Moses: And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell in their midst (Shemot 25:8). The commentators took note of this odd formulation; instead of in their midst it should have read - inside it. R. Hayyim ben Atar explains: "He did not say "inside it" in order to say that the place they sanctify for His dwelling shall be in the midst of the Israelites" (Or HaHayyim on the verse).

The midrash employs this verse to explain that the People Israel is "a nation amongst whom dwells perpetual peace" (Bereishit Rabbah 66). What did the Sages mean when they spoke of "peace" - shalom? Were they talking about tranquility? The lack of a state of war?

The words of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel will help us understand the deep meaning of shalom. He said: "The world stands upon three things - on justice, on truth, and on peace" (Avot 1:18). In what sense does peace serve as a foundational pillar of the entire world?

The Jerusalem Talmud points to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's underlying message by stating, "And the three of them are one: justice is achieved, truth is achieved, peace is achieved" (Ta'anit 4:2; 68a) It is only when the court seeks the truth and rules justly that balance returns after it had been disrupted by an improper situation and then people can feel at peace. Just legal rulings allow people to get their lives back. .

I would like to relate to a situation in which shalom - in the sense I have defined - is lacking. Thousands of Jewish women, both in Israel and abroad, suffer from a state of terrible imbalance: these are the agunot [women who remain trapped in marriages against their will]. I am bringing this up because across the Jewish world Ta'anit Esther will be observed as the International Agunot Day. That day will contribute to increasing people's awareness of the predicament suffered by those women; it offers us an opportunity to take precautions so that we or our loved ones will not fall into this trap from which it is sometimes very difficult to escape.

The spouses of these women act like their ba'alim ["husbands" or "owners"] in both senses of the word. These women have no control over their own futures; they are dependent upon their spouses' good will to end this unhappy chapter of their lives. Some of them are young and want to remarry and have children with a different husband. Their biological clocks are ticking. Some of them have been psychologically or physically mistreated; their lives may be in real danger. Even if the civil courts imprison a man when there is proof of his violence, he can still drag out divorce proceedings for years in the rabbinical courts. It seems that despite the halakhic principle, "Danger [to life] is more serious than a halakhic prohibition" (Hulin 10a), these women are allowed to live in real danger.

Jewish law requires that every get [write of divorce] be delivered of the husband's free consent.¹ If he is forced to give the get, it is considered invalid and defined as a get me'useh - a coerced get. His wife will continue to be married and if she has children from another man they will be considered to be mamzerim [bastards]. Since many rabbinical courts are very concerned about any suspicion of a get's invalidity, uncooperative husbands enjoy a great legal advantage.

From Talmudic times to the present day, several halakhic solutions have been forwarded to this problem. Some of these were used by courts across the generations, while others were rejected but have attracted new interest in recent years. Similarly, several ideas have been proposed for avoiding situations of aginut, some of which have been more favorably received by rabbinical courts and some less favorably. Many rabbinical courts are paralyzed by concern for the severe consequences of allowing a woman to remarry another man on the basis of an invalid get. The public is unaware that many solutions do exist, and not all of them are revolutionary.² They cannot all be rejected!

One may hope that the rabbinical courts appreciate that by dragging their feet in processing divorces they have become a target for public disapproval and that they will soon begin to utilize all of the options offered by both Jewish and Israeli law to improve the situation. Meanwhile, the International Agunah Day affords us an opportunity to consider how each of us can try to help avoid such problems in the future.

renuptial agreements for the avoidance of aginut [the state of being an agunah] offer a solution that has been accepted by important rabbis and dayanim [judges in batei din - Jewish courts] and its halakhic validity has been recognized by batei din.³ These are not property agreements meant to protect the personal property of each member of the couple; rather, they require a recalcitrant spouse to pay large monthly sums of money.⁴ In recent years many couples, especially from the national-religious community, sign such agreements and even announce the fact while standing under the bridal canopy in order to encourage their friends to do likewise. In this way both partners can enter marriage bearing equal rights. In practice, spouses who sign such agreements before marrying are not likely to be recalcitrant in denying divorce if the marriage falls apart⁵ because they know that it would bring into effect the sanctions to which they had earlier agreed. Thus, both the couples and their children are spared unnecessary suffering.

Every couple marries in order to be together forever, and break-ups are sad and difficult.⁶ Judaism recognizes that divorce is possible in such cases (30% of marriages in Israel end in divorce) and sometimes we see the ugly phenomenon of recalcitrance.

Returning to the beginning of our parasha, we find the People Israel being asked to make donations towards the construction of the Tabernacle in which the Holy One, blessed be He, will dwell. He will not merely dwell within the Tabernacle, but more importantly, He will dwell among the Israelites (and I will dwell among them) and also foster peace between them.

There is a famous principle in Judaism: "Do not depend on miracles." We are obliged to contribute to a better emotional climate, to help reduce the damage accompanying divorce as much as possible, and to prevent women from suffering for years as agunot. It is certainly not God's will that they suffer so. If we do our part, we will open a passage through which God's spirit will be able to settle upon the members of the couple, allowing them to conclude that stage of their lives peacefully and with mutual respect.

1. Ever since the decree known as Herem DeRabbeinu Gershom was enacted in the end of the tenth century, the woman must also freely consent to receive the get, but refusal by the other party has much worse ramifications for the woman, since, if she has children with another man, they will be considered to be mamzerim. See: Halakhic Solutions to Get Recalcitrance ICAR: Jerusalem 5768 (available online at http://www.icar.org.il/files/ENGLISH%20BOOKLET.pdf). For an account of the situation of agunot in Israel, see Diana Villa & Monique Susskin-Goldberg, Prenuptual Agreements: A Solution for the Agunah Problem of Our Time, The Schechter Institute Of Jewish Studies: Jerusalem 5767, pp. 14-17 (available at: http://responsafortoday.com/eng_index.html in the "To Learn and to Teach" menu).

2. See Diana Villa & Monique Susskin-Goldberg, Za'akat Dalot: Halakhic Solutions for the Agunot of Our Time, Center for Women in Jewish Law, The Schechter Institute Of Jewish Studies: Jerusalem 5766.

3. Such prenuptial agreements come in a variety of formulations, and it is imperative to check with a rabbi, attorney specializing in family law, or rabbinic court advocate to make sure that an agreement is halakhically valid before signing it.

4. This relates to egalitarian agreements. Some of the agreements only penalize recalcitrant husbands. Such one-sidedness recognizes that halakhah puts the wife at a disadvantage in divorce proceedings, since the consequences of the husband's recalcitrance are more severe.

5. The attorneys and rabbinic court advocates with whom I work at ICAR tell me that in such cases the agreements are never tested by the batei din, since the parties do not attempt to sabotage the divorce process.

6. The Talmud (Gittin 90b) cites R. Elazar as saying: "Anyone who divorces his first wife - even the altar sheds tears for him."

Diana Villa is a lecturer in Talmud and Halakhah in the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem and chairs the Halakhah Committee of ICAR - the International Coalition for Agunah Rights.

 

And this is the contribution that you are to take from them… - to the exception of one who contributes that which is not his.

(J. Terumot 1:1)

 

Giving Equally and Humbly

Here is another explanation why the first two contributions (terumot) are ordered specifically in God's name, whereas the third is not. Wherever we find humility and submission among mortals, there we find the secret might of Holy One, who dwells among the oppressed and the meek; but wherever there is the slightest hint of pride, the Holy One refuses to bestow his name. Therefore, the first two contributions, which were given equally by all, for The rich are not to pay more, and the poor are not to pay less, and no one can boast "My contribution is greater than yours", these God attributed to himself:

1.  The first is preceded by And they may take Me - to my Name. We have already explained, at the beginning of Parashat Miketz, and on the verse Every place where I call my name to be recalled I will come to you and bless you, (Shemot 20:21) - every letter of His great name points to humility.

2.  The second contribution is termed my contribution.

Similarly, the use to which the contributions were put offers the same message. Just as all contributions were equal, forestalling any boasting, so were the boards - all of equal length. They were at the bottom of the entire edifice, a trodden threshold, the foundations of the entire building. Those who fashion them shall become like them - just as the givers were equal in their contributions, none having excuse for pride over his fellow, so were these boards acquired by the contributions, symbolic of humility, for humility is the foundation of the building upon which the entire House of Israel is established. They are called adanim - which hint at mastery and rule [Trans. note: adan means board; adon means master], because whoever makes of himself a trodden threshold below, is appointed master above, for whoever lowers himself, the Holy One raises him us and makes him the foundation and support for the entire building, just like these boards which were foundation and support for all the edifice. And so the nasi - (highest official) is so called such because he carries the others, for they all depend on him [Trans. note: The Hebrew for "high official" and "carry" share a common root].

(Kli Yakar, Shemot, 25:1)

 

In The Divine Service, Too, We Sacrifice Splendor For The Sake Of Man

And overlay it with gold - It would have been proper for the ark to be completely overlaid with gold, but it would have been too heavy to carry, and the law requires that it be carried on the shoulder, as is written - Since theirs was the service of the sacred object, their portage was by shoulder and so we found that the altar was made of hollow plates, so that it not be heavy.

(Hizkuni, Shemot 25:11)

 

Life, Death, and Holiness Are In the Power of the Tongue

The sin of language is one of speech, not of thought. It [the priest's robe] had pomegranates and bells [on the hem] - which made sounds - to atone for the tongue which is in the mouth, similar to the clapper inside the bell, and the atonement for speech is that one no longer break his pledge and should speak only of holy matters, as is written: And his voice will be heard when he enters the sanctuary, and he will not die, because "lashon ha-ra" - slanderous speech - kills three (Arakhin 15), From this we derive that one who is careful not to speak slanderously will be spared death, as in the story of the vendor who used to announce "Who wants to buy the elixir of life, etc."

(Kli Yakar, Shemot 28:31)

 

Charity is Greater than all of the Sacrifices

There is a positive commandment to give charity in accordance with one's ability. One should be extremely careful about it - more so than with any other positive commandment - because it can lead to blood shed if one does not give it immediately and the poor man dies, as in the incident involving Ben Zoma. We have been commanded several times regarding it as a positive commandment, and it also involves the prohibition not to ignore it, as it is said: You shall not harden your heart, and you shall not close your hand from your needy brother. Anyone who ignores it is considered worthless and similar to an idolater, and anyone who is careful about it demonstrates that he is of the seed blessed by the Lord, for it is written, For I have known him because he commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness [tzedaka - which also means "charity"] and justice. The throne of Israel is founded and the true religion stands only through charity, for it is said: You shall be established in tzedaka (Isaiah 54). Only through charity will Israel will be redeemed, for it says: Zion shall be redeemed through justice and her penitent through tzedaka, and it says, Keep justice and practice tzedaka, for My salvation is near to come, and My benevolence to be revealed. And charity is greater than all of the sacrifices, since Rabbi Eliezer said: charity is greater than all of the sacrifices, for it is written, Performing tzedaka and justice is preferred by God to a sacrifice. Rabbi Eliezer said: Anyone who performs tzedaka and justice, it is as if he filled the world with loving-kindness, for it is said: Lover of tzedaka and justice, the Lord's loving-kindness fills the earth.

(Tur Yoreh De'ah 247)

 

Study as a Sublimated and Updated Substitute for Concrete Action

Do not let it enter your heads for one moment, that these descriptions of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances, the priestly garment and sacrifices, the laws of purity and those dependent on the soil and all the rest of the ordinances practiced in antiquity have no relevance for us today in exile. What use, you may well ask, does it serve us to study them today?

My answer is this: Everything recorded in the Torah is designed to provide us with a permanent source of inspiration and Divine wisdom, to perfect our souls therewith. This is the message of the text (Devarim 29:8): You shall preserve the words of this covenant and do them in order that you may be discerning in all that you do. Our Sages explained: (Sifrei, Re'eh, Rashi on Devarim 4:6): You shall preserve - this refers to the Mishnah (Oral Tradition): You shall do - in its primary sense of actual doing. The doing consists in the study of the text and deriving of the spiritual lessons to be learnt there from by student and scholar, whether during the time they were actually performed or afterwards (when they were no longer in vogue).

Thus our study and explication of the symbolism of the Tabernacle and its furniture today is as relevant now as it was then when they were in full use. In the same way the sacrificial rites are not obsolete even though their actual physical performance is not feasible. For their spiritual lessons remain fresh. Through them man can learn humility before God, in accordance with the text (Psalms 51:19): The sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit.

(From Abarbanel's Commentary, towards the end of parashat Terumah, as quoted by Prof. Nehama Leibowitz in her Studies in Shemot pp. 504-5, Aryeh Newman, translator)

 

 

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