Closing Message - Rabbanit Bracha
View video version here.
The last five parshiot in the Book of Exodus spill a tremendous amount of ink on details about how to build the Mishkan - and by extension the future Temples. There are many lists of what the different vessels and the priests’ clothing looked like, all the building materials, their exact dimensions, the colorful cloths, the precious gems and metals, and all of this is described twice! First, when God commands it, and another time when the Israelites fulfill the command.
Yet when it comes to what feels like the practical pillars of Judaism, Shabbat & kashrut, the Torah is extremely cryptic! We are commanded to safeguard and remember Shabbat but there is nothing about the 39 melakhot (types of work) that are prohibited nor the myriad of halakhot that define how we observe Shabbat.
And regarding kashrut surrounding mixing meat and milk, it says three times in the Torah: לׂא תְּבַשֵׁל גְדִי בֶּחָלֵב אִמוֹ: "Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk."
But it says nothing about separating meat and milk dishes, having (at least) two sets of pots, or waiting hours after a meat meal to eat dairy ice cream!
If the Torah found it so important to go into such great detail regarding the Mishkan, why would it leave so much room for interpretation regarding Shabbat and kashrut?
Perhaps this is one way to understand it.
The Mishkan and the Batei Mikdash are all about public service, the external trappings of our formal service to God. Perhaps here God is saying: “When it comes to sacred ritual practice, this is precisely the way I want it to be done.” The repetition ensures that we get it exactly right.
However, when it comes to dealing with the intricacies of daily life, God offers us to become partners, defining and fleshing out the minutiae of the Halakhah. By accepting this gift of partnership with Hashem, we naturally take on more personal responsibility for the outcome. And as we know by the vast number of tomes written on the laws of Shabbat and kashrut, our sages took their task very seriously!
This is one facet of our brit, our covenant with God, that is often overlooked. We put our trust in God, but here we see that God puts trust in us. May we recognize our unique two-way relationship with God today - and every day.
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other. Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.
