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Prof. Shlomo Maital and Rabbi Elisha Wolfin discuss Parashat Truma
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Prof. Shlomo Maital and Rabbi Elisha Wolfin discuss Parashat Truma
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In this podcast, the hosts discuss Parasha Tumah, which focuses on the creation of the Mishkan. They also talk about the importance of giving and how it brings happiness and relevance in life. They explore the idea of God dwelling in the Mishkan and its purpose as a transitional object for the Israelites to move on from Mount Sinai. They share personal stories and discuss the common ground between Judaism and Islam. The hosts emphasize the importance of unity and the need to hold on to the pure and holy experiences of revelation. Shalom, once again, from Israel, from Zichron Yaakov, from Kilat Vahavta, Hashmurah Street, number one, second floor, room 317, that's where we're speaking to you from, not from Mount Sinai, but right here from Zichron Yaakov. I'm here with Professor Shlomo Meital, and I'm Elisha Wolfin from Kilat Vahavta, and we're on our third podcast. Shalom, Elisha. Shalom, Elisha. I must say, I look forward to our weekly meetings. They're very enjoyable and enlightening. Me too. So, we're, the parasha this week, we're parasha Tumah, which I just want to mention is also my son's parasha, so I'm particularly attached to this parasha. So, we'll discuss this parasha, and we're talking about the creation, basically the parasha talks about the creation of the Mishkan, a project that spans over the course of 15 chapters, five parashot, 15 chapters, with the golden calf in the middle of it, and then back to the Mishkan. So, what do you want to talk about? So, parasha Tumah, first of all, it's the parasha before the yartzeit for my father, Menachem Mendoz, he passed away in 1994, his yartzeit is on Tet Adar, and this is a perfect parasha to recall his memory, because he was a giver. He believed in netina, from the time he was very young in Bessarabia, which is today Moldova. My grandfather, whom I'm named after, went to America, passed away in the flu epidemic, and left a whole family, my father and kids, back in Bessarabia. My grandmother, Mima Rivka, amazing little lady, had to support a family, and my father went to work as a kid, and I don't know if he ever really formally went to school, and for his whole life he has been giving to us, his children, his grandchildren, his brothers and sisters, supporting the family in the spirit of Tumah, of giving, minidve libeinu, from his heart. So, I'm going to interrupt a second, then. Now I understand where you got it from, I'm not so sure you will want me to say it out on this podcast, but I'm going to credit your grandfather for this, I'm not crediting you. Okay? But both you and Shon are an example of giving, of contributing, of both financial, time-wise, and energy-wise, in every possible way, so now I understand where you got this from. It doesn't only take a village, it takes grandparents. Let me just explain very briefly where this really comes from, Elisha, may surprise you. So for decades I've taught entrepreneurship and innovation startups, and the principle of a startup is to create value for humanity, to make people happier, smarter, wiser, healthier, to create value. I discovered that this is the principle of life as well, especially when you're older, and you find ways to remain relevant after you've been retired and warehoused, and you wake up in the morning and create value for people. When you do that, you find happiness and longevity and relevance, and it's in the spirit of Parshat Shuma. When you give to others, you basically give to yourself. I can totally see that. I can totally see that, and I'm also learning this lesson at last, like, really, like, learning the lesson means kind of starting our lives from being a passive receiver, where we are totally dependent on our parents, on our mothers, for nourishment, for love, and for our basic security, for everything, basically, and we are just really on the receiving end. The most we can give is a cute smile. We learn to smile, but then as time passes, there comes a point in life where we're seeing We transform from receiving and receiving and receiving to beginning to give, but not just to give because life forces us to give. When we have our own children, we're forced to become providers and givers, but it's deeper than that. There's something within us that starts wanting to give, wanting to nourish another, wanting to learn in this magical way that joy doesn't come from receiving yet another gift and another – joy just simply does not come from that, you know? It's a momentary joy that we receive something, but it's a permanent joy when we learn to give, and it does happen with time. Absolutely, and it's interesting with entrepreneurs, Alicia. There are a few entrepreneurs who want to make money, and they usually fail, and the entrepreneurs who want to give to society, they succeed, and they become enormously wealthy, and they do it again, and they work 24-7 again and again because the object is to create value, not to make money. Incredible, incredible, beautiful. Yosef, you've also prepared some questions and points for conversation. Yes. So, in Parsha Truma, we the Jews, we're at Mount Sinai, and we're about to receive the Torah, and it's a huge moment. God has chosen us as his people, as his children, but then in the Parsha, Alicia, there's a whole thing about building a Mishkan, and God says that he's going to live there. In the Mishkan? Really? He's going to live in the Mishkan? What is this whole thing about, Alicia, about the Mishkan, that will travel? Yeah, yeah. It has puzzled me for many, many years, this idea of God, and this Parsha is a real turning point. Up until now, God was everywhere. God dwelt in the heavens and on earth and in the four corners of the cosmos, if the cosmos even has corners. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, as Moshe is on Mount Sinai about to receive the tablets, all they talk about, they don't even talk about laws, they don't even talk about Ten Commandments, all they talk about is building this tent, the Tent of Meeting, which is very surprising for God to dwell in. Why would God want to limit God's self to a little tent for a people, a group of nomads in a desert? And what I'd like to suggest is one possible explanation. There are many possible explanations, but one that I really like is the idea of helping the Israelites, preparing themselves to depart from Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai must have been a very special mountain. I want to remind ourselves that Mount Sinai is the same mountain where Moshe encountered God for the first time with a burning bush. It actually says, Har Elohim, it's the Mountain of God. And just to remind ourselves also, that's the territory of Yitro, and it was there at the burning bush encounter that God says to Moshe, you will bring the children of Israel back to this mountain. And now they're back at the foot of this mountain, Moshe's up on the mountain. I'm sure he missed God terribly the year that he had to go back to Egypt to negotiate with Poah and came back with the people. And I think they were mesmerized too. They were like, wow, this is an amazing encounter. They already had this encounter with God. It wasn't the giving of the Torah, it was the voicing of the Torah. They weren't given the tablets yet. And it's time to move on, because they're supposed to leave Mount Sinai, the Mountain of God, and move to the Promised Land. How do you leave this nourishing place, this beautiful place? So I'd like to suggest that basically the whole Mishkanah idea is like a transitional object where you can leave Mount Sinai, it's okay, take God with you in a little tent of meeting that will be in your midst, and move on. And indeed, God said, you know, I'll dwell within you. So before we talk about the separation from the Mountain of God, I have a small personal story, Elisha. Good, I love your stories. My wife Shona and I made Aliyah in July 1967, just after the Six-Day War. Not long after, we did a teulah trip to Sinai with a group of students from Tel Aviv University. We stopped at Santa Catarina, which is a monastery of monks, at the foot of Jebel Musa. Jebel Musa in Arabic is Moses Mountain, which the Bedouin, the Arabs, say is Har Sinai. Whether it is or not, I don't care. It was a great experience. We woke up at four in the morning, we walked up the mountain, we watched the dawn from the top. It was a spiritual experience. The point is, it's a holy mountain for the Muslims as well. But not only that, in the Quran itself, they have five prophets. Those five prophets are Moses, Abraham, Noah, Jesus, and Muhammad. Muhammad, as a prophet, is on a par with four Jews. We have so much in common with our Muslim brothers, and it's painful that we are confronting them often with enmity on both sides, on ours, on theirs as well. When the Quran itself, which is the basis for even the Islamists, who believe in it so strongly, we have forefathers in there that are common to both of us. And we encounter this at Jebel Musa, at Har Sinai, which should be a uniting factor for us rather than a dividing one. Yeah, so, yeah, it's human tragedy. It was Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs, whom we're studying actually now on our Torah, the Parsha study, on Shabbat mornings, who in his beautiful book, Not In God's Name, basically addresses this issue. Where does the nexus and where does this hatred, where does all of this really stem from? Where does it come from? There's so much common ground in that. What I'm taking from your comment is that the encounter at the mountain is so pure and holy, and I'm sure it is a very uniting experience, an experience of oneness, not just with your fellow Jew, but with all of humanity, with all of creation. And then as we get further away from the mountain, that experience of revelation, the more we hold on to the particulars of what we heard at the mountain. And we start becoming very zealous towards the particular message. And it's interesting that Jewish theology has a whole issue with the further away we are from Mount Sinai, time-wise, historically speaking, the further we are from the original message. Now, the different streams in Judaism, actually, there's a theological argument there. But nevertheless, what I am taking from there, from this idea, is that yes, when we truly have, throughout humanity, an incredible moment of revelation, it's a moment of unity. It's a moment where separation seems to melt away. And the further away we are from that experience, each and every one of us, every religion, every person individually, the more we sink back into our divisiveness. And, no, no, no, no, God said this, he could not have said that, and you must be wrong, and obviously I'm right. And that's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. Absolutely. So, you mentioned the word separation, Elisha, and it's in your drashah. You always find original and interesting points of view on the drashah, and this is especially interesting. So I did some research. Also, confession. I'm married to a psychologist for 55 years. Some of that has sunk in. Separation and attachment. Confession accepted, by the way. Absolved. I don't know if that's what they say. That's what they say. So, here's the theory of psychology by a man named Bowlby. Attachment and separation. Young children from birth are attached to their parents, especially their mother, also the father, and as teenagers they engage in separation. It's part of becoming an adult. We separate ourselves from our family, go off and start our own family. Animals do that as well. This is what's happening. As you know, Amhar Sinai, we are attached to God at our umbilical cord with this Torah that we've been given, this incredible, incredible ethical gift, and then right after that, okay guys, goodbye, goodbye, off you go for 40 years. How in the world can the people stand that? So God, as a compassionate parent, father, to ease the process of separation, provides us with the Mishkan, which will be for people, the place where he is with, I'm with you. You're not really separate. You're separating from the holy mountain, but you're not really separating from me. And I think that's absolutely brilliant. As you know, with teenagers, separation is really tough. That is a hard, hard period. You have a teenager, and I've raised a few little, and man, that can be really, really stressful. But God is managing the process here. Yes, yes. And, you know, in our Bar Mitzvah program, here at Baha'u'llah we have a lot of Bar Mitzvahs, and the very last session of our Bar Mitzvah program is where we all put on tefillin. So we do a whole study on tefillin, and then all the kids, because usually it's a large group, they all take their spots by the tables, and we put on tefillin together. And all the parents just quell, you know, sit opposite and quell and answer, amen, to all the different blessings. But the conversation we have before the tefillin is all about the exodus. So it's not quite this phase yet. We're choosing to end our Bar Mitzvah program with a tefillin, because a tefillin, the first time the tefillin is mentioned is a few palashot earlier, at the height of the exodus, that famous night where Pharaoh finally says, just go, just go. And that's when tefillin is first introduced. And then I tell, I ask the kids, I said, look to your left and right, you know, where your parents are sitting, Egypt, here, you know, sitting beside you, these are your flesh spots. And I've got good news and bad news for you. Now with your Bar Mitzvah, you are beginning the process of leaving Egypt. The story of the exodus is not only a historical story, it's a personal story. Every single one of us left Egypt, left the flesh spots, left our parents. You made Aliyah, you came here. And the good news is that you're going on a wonderful journey, on a wonderful journey of discovery. You're going to one day reach Mount Sinai, and you're going to discover your Mitzvah in life. The bad news, you will very often feel on your own. You'll be sometimes very lonely, and you'll feel lost. In the wilderness, there are no paths. Waze doesn't work in the wilderness, there's no Wi-Fi there. So you're going to have to find your own path, your own way, find an inner compass. And you will miss your parents, and you will long for Egypt, and you will long for the flesh spots. And in a way, this parasha answers this piece of bad news, that yes, you're going to be on your own, but you're not really on your own. Everything your parents gave you until now, everything your parents instilled in you, not just the moral compass, the love, the love, the deep love, saying you're loved, you are seen, you are worthy. That basic treasure that your parents have instilled in you, this will be your mishkan. This will be your mishkan that you will travel with for the rest of your life. And God willing, for many, many years, your parents are still going to be around, and you're going to be able to visit them, and they're going to be part of your life. But one day, for those of us whose parents are no longer alive, mine, thank God, are alive, but for those whose parents are no longer alive, they carry their parents, and they carry their parents' love, and their parents' commitment to them. They carry it with them, just like a portable mishkan. So Elisha, you raise the issue of your Bar Mitzvah class, and you deliver a wonderful message. There's a dark side to this. I write a column for a fortnightly magazine. My next column is called Teens in Trouble. I've read a report from America, from the CDC, and a report done in Israel about mental health crisis among teenagers. And it's shocking and awful, Elisha. Two-thirds of teenagers say that they have had bouts of depression. A quarter of teenagers say they have a suicide plan. We see awful cases of people doing harm to themselves. And it's not being addressed properly, neither in America nor in Israel. And it's almost a worldwide crisis. It began before COVID, and it's become much worse during COVID because of two things, social isolation and social media, which are terribly destructive for children. And there's research on this. So God has taken care of us in our separation from Har Sinai, but we're not doing a good job with our young people. Yeah, it's really interesting what you're saying. First of all, it sounds tragic. And having a teenager at home myself, I can totally understand everything you're saying. We have the CDC at home. And that's a really good point. And if we look at Parashat Tuma, if we look at Parashat Tuma as a model that can maybe help us here, and I'm thinking here, this is a spontaneous thought. I hadn't given it enough thought. I always wondered, you know, what are parents required to give their children? And we're very busy preparing our kids for life in the academic level. Are they going to make it in life? Are they going to be wealthy enough? Will they be able to pay their bills? And I'm wondering if that's been the wrong focus. If the focus should not be, the academic will come. That's fine. The focus should really be love, love, and more love, and attachment, and a sense of worth, a deep, deep, deep sense of worth. And it's also a lesson to myself. I know that I think we made a lot of mistakes along the way of emphasizing study and learning and achievements, and that will come. That will come. If the foundations are strong enough, if we build the Mishkan right, then God will dwell there, love will dwell there, and the children will feel much safer and achieve all the external goals. Absolutely. So another idea that your drashah inspired in me was to look up an old book. It's by a writer named Gail Sheehy. The book is called Passages. It's from 1977. That's 45 years ago. And the point is that at various ages, we are all doing transitions, just as the children of Israel are doing on Sinai, transitioning to their long, long journey into the desert. She talks about the trying 30s, and the catch of 40s, and the refreshed or resigned 50s, and I can talk about the trying 80s because I'm 80 years old. Passages are what we all go through, and not just in teenage years. We continually go through transitions, just as the children of Israel were going through them, and it's really an art, Elisha, how do you navigate passages? And one answer I found comes from the world of entrepreneurship. My whole world is entrepreneurship, so that's what pops up all the time. But in entrepreneurship, I have a wonderful quote from a great entrepreneur named Guy Kawasaki. He was the marketing guru for the Macintosh. He was the one who sold Macintosh. And his mantra is, make meaning, not money. So we teach our kids, and I was taught this, you've got to make a living. That's why I became an economist. But the truth is, when you look back from the vantage point of 80, you look back and you look for meaning, not for money. What was the meaning of my life? So we love our children by helping them find the meaning. Why were you put here? What's the meaning of your life? What is the purpose of the children? Why are we sending you off in the desert to the holy land? What's the purpose? To bring light to the world, to bring ethics to the world. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. First of all, thank you for this perspective. First of all, it's not only teenagers. We're going through passages throughout our lives, and it's a very deep insight. And I totally agree with you. In fact, if I'm connecting to what you're saying, and now connect, just like entrepreneurship is your world, Torah is mine, I can't say a lot about entrepreneurship. But I can say a thing or two, maybe, about Torah. So perhaps the building of the Mishkan is indeed not a one-time thing. Maybe you're answering now the question of why 15 chapters? Why five parashot? As opposed to the creation of the world, which was two chapters. Two chapters, it's a third of one parashah for the whole creation of the world. And this little tent receives 15 chapters. So I'm thinking maybe it's a reminder that building the Mishkan is a never-ending process. We're always building the Mishkan. We're always building that place within us in which God dwells, in which the light, in which the source, in which every person connects to God differently. But this idea of the Mishkan, if I connect to what you're saying, we're not talking about a past event. We're talking about a present continuous, a building of the Mishkan. And we're continuously building this Mishkan, and it's built through giving. It's built through generosity, generosity of spirit, generosity of the heart. And at every passage in our life, we build another part of it. So maybe the very first part we build as teenagers, and I admit that I do have to look into it a bit deeper, but maybe the first part is building the outer walls. The basic sense of safety in the world. I'm safe in the world. I can leave my parents' home. Not at 13, but let's say at 18 or a bit later. And then when I reach my 30s, I start building, or maybe at university, I start building the part that holds the Torah in it, the wisdom in it, which is also, I continue building that forever and ever. And the Holy of Holies is built later on in life. Really learning intimacy, for example. At first, when we meet another person, we fall in love. That's not the Holy of Holies. That's hormones. It's hormones, and we want to love, we want to be loved. And then we get married. That's not real intimacy. Yes, we have a lot of moments of intimacy, which is great. But we learn very soon after the children are born that that is a very flimsy kind of intimacy. And it's later on in life that we learn deeper layers of intimacy, that it goes way beyond sexuality, and it goes way beyond just outer looks and attraction. We learn to be more vulnerable. And vulnerability is the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies in the Mishkan is where you really encounter God. And it doesn't happen every day. And you have to really prepare yourself for that. And it's a whole topic unto itself. So maybe, thank you for that Torah. Thank you for that message of building the Mishkan through passages in our lives is something we do until the day we die. And one last thought about the Mishkan. You mentioned it's described in detail, in painstaking detail, in five parashat. In entrepreneurship, we teach our startup entrepreneurs design thinking. Design thinking is a way of thinking about how to create value. And the first principle of design thinking is empathy. Who am I designing this for? Who are they? And what are their needs? What makes them happy? What makes them delighted? And this is precisely what God is doing. Who are the children of Israel? And how can I inspire them? How can I strengthen them by this Mishkan? And I'm teaching them, not just by providing the Mishkan, I'm teaching them, you know the saying, God is in the detail? This is precisely, God is in the details. You empathize with people by understanding them so well that you go into every detail to create the Mishkan or whatever you're designing. So there's a deep lesson in here, in those five parashat, and there's a reason for the detail that the Mishkan is described. This is how we need to design our lives. Yeah, that's beautiful. So you're suggesting that the empathy, if it's just empathy and that's where it ends, well, that's good, that's good. But only when the empathy can go so far as it reaches the details of the other person's life, as the empathy about every nut and bolt in a person's life, only then can God truly dwell there. I just want to add that to what you just said, that indeed, whenever, you know, not in the world of entrepreneurship, but when I often tell myself as well as other people, when I am not in a good place for whatever reason, find a cause to give to. Give to that. Do something in the form of giving. And it could be through the minor details. And all of a sudden, the entire experience of the stuckness, of whatever it was, transforms through the process of generosity, of empathy, of seeing someone else's minute details of their lives. Exactly. One closing thought, Elisha. The Torah was written at least 2,500 years ago. It's amazing, amazing to me, every week as we meet, every time in Shul, how incredibly relevant the Torah is. Sometimes I bug you and I ask you, Rabbi Elisha, what do I do with this? What do I do with this idea? And there's always an answer, there's always Torah that is perfectly relevant to 2023, which is quite amazing when you think about it. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. And I have to say, in our conversations, you've been very generous with your insights and your thoughts. So I really appreciate you reading this Torah, and adding your whole layer to it, both understanding and insight and depth. I feel richer and clearer now, which is amazing, because I wrote this Torah a while back, and I got from whatever I got from it. But here, as we were sharing with one another some insights, I feel much richer. It goes way beyond what I could have contributed, but it's a joint venture here. So generosity, generosity of spirit, generosity of the heart, is where God likes to dwell. Absolutely, within us. Within us, within us. So we'd like to wish everyone Shabbat Shalom, and we'd love to hear your feedback. So if you want to write us and tell us what you thought, everyone learns, and we want to grow, and we are asking for your generosity of spirit. Share with us your thoughts. Shabbat Shalom.
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