Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Teruma #2- For Me?
Parsha Truma begins with Hashem saying, "ויקחו לי תרומה"
“Let them take for Me an offering.” (25:2)
Hashem saying “for Me” seems extra and unnecessary. Wouldn’t it work just saying “Let them take an offering”? Aren’t there no extra words in the Torah? Rashi explains that they should bring an offering in the name of Hashem, keeping Him in mind while they do such an important mitzvah. Where else in the Torah does it unnecessarily say someone’s name? What’s the significance of Hashem’s name being next to “Truma”?
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According to rabbi sacks, the significance of the cherubim is that they face towards each other, and their wings protect the Aron. However, what they really are is remained concealed. So too, we as Jews face each other in our similarities, but our truths are hidden. We “ extend our wings” to protect the Torah and our service to hashem. I really like this idea because it really connects to our daily lives. We are all connected by our Torah learning and our desires to be good Jews.
ReplyDeleteThe way to fulfill the mitzvah of תרומה is to give the kohen a very small portion of your wheat. The Rabbis instituted a set of laws so people wouldn’t give the kohen only one grain of wheat from a whole pile. They said that if one is a generous person they should give 1/40th of your grain which is two and one half bushels of every 100 bushels. An ordinary person should pay 1/50th of your grain which is two bushels of every 100 bushels. Lastly, a greedy person should pay at least 1/60th which is one and two thirds bushels of every 100 bushels.
ReplyDeleteThe word li has a gematria of 40 which is the same as the gematria for Hashem. This shows that Hashem is telling Moshe that one should be a generous person and given the kohen 1/40th of their grain.
I think it's really important lesson that Hashem teaches us not to be stingy, or even average, but that we should be generous to our fellow Jew.
(Chabad.org)
In the pasuk doesn’t “ for me” see like it does not fit (extra)? The Ibn Ezra explains that the reason the torah adds “ for me” is because we literally are supposed to give the offering to Hashem. This means that people have to take a portion of their belongings and give it to Hashem. I really like this answer because if you really think about it, everything belongs to Hashem. Therefore, giving us some of our belongings is showing gratitude to what he gave us.
ReplyDeleteThe chizkuni starts off by saying that some commentators believe that this paragraph was revealed to Moses during the forty days that he had been on the Mountain immediately following Matan Torah , and that already at that time, before the golden calf, he had been instructed to build the mishkan, in which the Aron hakodesh was to be placed that would contain the Luchot.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that this doesn’t completely answer the questions because yes that specifies that for him not the golden calf should a carban be made for him however he doesn’t answer why he would say this if moshe has no knowledge of the golden calf yet.
Rashi comments on this and says that the reason it says hashems name here is to glorify his name and it’s next to teruma because that’s to set something speedster and hashem wants them to glorify his name by setting something aside in his honor.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good take on it, but to me it’s more than just sanctifying Hashems name. I agree more with other points that say we are giving their terumah to hashem. Not only for his honor.