February 20, 2010 | 6 Adar 5770 

Last week’s Torah Portion, Mishpatim, and this week’s parasha offer a paradigm for some important aspects of Jewish life and, more specifically, congregational life in the 21^st century.

Mishpatim represents a significant shift in the focus of the Exodus narrative itself and on how God is to be experienced.  Up to this point (through receiving Torah at Mt. Sinai), the Book of Exodus focuses on Moses and on his actions to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.  God has been present in “big” ways…through traumatic plagues, the incredible parting of the Sea and in the frightening thunder and lightening of Sinai.  Now, beginning in Mishpatim, God is to be seen in the routine…in living a prescribed life that inculcates concern for people and fidelity to God’s ways.  As a corollary of that change in the nature of experiencing of God’s presence, the Torah now focuses less on the Israelites’ leadership and more on the people themselves.  They can now recognize God’s presence in their everyday actions.

This week in Parshat Terumah we learn that other actions the people undertake may also invoke God’s presence:

The Lord spoke to Moses: Tell the Israelites to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him…And let them make (“ve-ahsoo”) Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:1, 2 and 8)

As was the case beginning in last week’s Torah Reading, the people, their actions and the outcomes of those actions become the focus.  As a result of what the people do, and not what Moses or any single leader does, the community will create something significant, and God’s presence will be clear to all.

Taken together, these two parshiyot serve as a worthy paradigm for today.  First, God’s presence is to be felt not just in the “big” moments of our lives.  God’s presence also lies in the details of everyday Jewish living…not just in what we tend to call “rituals” but in how we interact with people in respectful and caring ways.

Second, no single individual, no matter how skilled or charismatic, can create an entity that evokes the community’s recognition of God’s presence.  “Ve-ahsoo” – The phrase “Let them make…” reminds us that it is members of the community, joining together in common cause, that evokes recognition of the divine.

If I were to pick a single word that captures the nature of successful congregations in the 21^st century, meaning in large measure that they serve to evoke an awareness of God’s presence, I would pick the word “engagement.”  The Israelites would eventually succeed in bringing that awareness of the divine to their desert community not because they had built the Tabernacle, but because they had joined together in bringing the materials necessary for its construction.

It is no different today.  When growing numbers of people come together to actively engage in the life of the congregation and, as a result, create relationships that matter, God is very present.   

Every year this portion of the Book of Exodus provides us with an opportunity to reflect on this timeless paradigm for Jewish life, in general, and congregational life, more specifically.

May we have the wisdom and commitment to emulate it.  Shabbat Shalom.