MHA-FYOS Dean's Blog

This week’s parasha , Parashat Terumah, presents the plans for the building of the mishkan – the Tabernacle – and its vessels. The first vessel described in the parasha is the aron – the ark. Once the mishkan was completed, the aron held the sh’ne luchot habrit – the two tablets of the covenant – and was placed in the kodesh hakodashim – the holy of holies. The Torah (Exodus 25:10) writes, “And make an ark of sheetim wood; two-and-a-half cubits in length and half a cubit in width and one-and-a-half cubits in height. And you will cover it in pure gold – you will cover it inside and outside; and you will make on it a gold crown around.” In these verses, the Torah describes four qualities of the ark – its material ( sheetim wood), its dimensions (2.5 x 0.5 x 1.5 cubits), the requirement to cover it in gold on the inside and outside and its gold crown. Many of our chachamim offer remazim – lessons hinted to by the verses – derived from the Torah’s descriptions of the vessels of the T...

This week’s parasha presents ma’amad Har Sinai – the Revelation at Sinai.  All of b’nei yisrael stood at the foot of the mountain and heard the Almighty proclaim, “ Anochi ”. Thunder and Lightning. An elaborately orchestrated choreography. The author of the Akedat Yitzchak – Rabbenu Yitzchak Arama (I heavily consulted the translation by Rabbi Eliyahu Munk) – is bothered by a problem. This elaborate scene at Mount Sinai is unparalleled in human history.  It would seem to have been aimed at conveying a purpose completely beyond anything man had ever experienced. When we look at the Aseret HaDibrot – The Ten Commandments – we do not see any new philosophic insights. On the contrary, says Rabbi Arama, most of these commandments could easily have been legislated by human legislators of average intelligence interested in a well-functioning society! Murder, theft, adultery, honoring one’s parents. What great purpose is behind such an extraordinary event? One might...