What the Hidden Ark Says About You | Parshas Terumah

Okay friends, paras truma. In parasuma we talk about the donations that is being collected by Moshe for the construction of the mish of the mishkan of the tabernacle of the sanctuary for God. And the Torah says make for me a sanctuary I will dwell in it or in them. That's what God says to Moshe to instruct the Jewish people. Um let let's understand the context of the purpose of this tabernacle. Both the historical context as well as the spiritual context. So first of all this tabernacle this Mishkan is portable. It's a portable sanctuary for God. And it wasn't going to be portable or temporary um long-term cuz once we get to the land of Israel and once D King David conquers Jerusalem, Solomon builds the permanent temple. So while we're wandering the desert on our way to Israel, we have this portable temple. We have this portable sanctuary. Once we get that's 40 years once we get to Israel by the time we had conquered Jerusalem that was 400 years but even at that point there was still permanence to the tabernacle because it for the most most of the time for like 375 years it remained in Shilo and then finally the permanent structure which was not so permanent the bas but what is the purpose of this sanctuary like why can't we find God anywhere or everywhere? Why can't we just God is everywhere? That is that is like the reality. That is the the definition of God that the Rambames writes um in the beginning of his compendium of his compendium a interesting proof by okay this is in parenthesis but an interesting rational proof that God must be everywhere because if he was confined to one place he would have to have a body. He would have to have parameters. He would have to have limitations which is what essentially a body is. But if you believe that God does not have a body because God is not a human then you can also believe that he doesn't have parameters which is essentially what a body is which means he can be everywhere. Now why we don't sense him everywhere his presence he hides himself but where he allows us to experience him is in the sanctuary but the context is like this. Several parishes ago, we had the first and at this point in history, the last mass revelation at Mount Si where God for the first and last time up until this point revealed himself to everybody or at least to all of the Jewish people to three million people. Three million people experienced the oneness, experienced the truth of God. The way the Ramban themanities frames it is that at Mount Si we experienced God in public and then right afterwards he tells us build a sanctuary build the tabernacle so we could experience him in private and that's why in the sanctuary in the tabernacle and and this is paralleled in the base of Miklas as well there were layers there were layers of of holiness until you got to the most deep layer the shakashim the holy of holies whom only the cohen god the high priest can enter on yum kiper where the ark of the covenant is that that that that's like the what's the word that's like the center that's like the center of of existence the way the the alter writes in Tanya like the brain is like the the center for where you experience the soul the soul is everywhere in the body, but the brain is like where you're going to experience it most, where you're going to have that consciousness. Okay? God is everywhere in the world. He's certainly everywhere in the bas. But the consciousness of it, the brain of it, the source of it, that's the holy of holies. The context is though is that when we experienced him in public at the Sinai revelation, it didn't really take. We kept dying. God kept having to reveal himself. So much so that he couldn't even convey all the ten commandments to us. After the first two, the Jewish people told Moshe, "We can't handle it anymore. Why don't you be our intercessor? Why don't you hear it from God and just convey it to us?" The inspiration that we did get from that, despite dying and being revived, also didn't last. 40 days later, we cheated on God by sinning with the golden calf. So God says, "Okay, this isn't working, guys. It's not working. Why don't I have you build a home for me, and you'll invite me when you're ready?" Because obviously me just showing up, that's not doing it. That's not cutting it. So why don't you build a home? I'll tell you exactly how to build. I'll tell you how exactly how to perform those services and you'll invite me when you're ready and you'll be able to experience me on your terms in a way that's not overwhelming in a way that's not physically overwhelming where we literally expire. in a way where it's not spiritually overwhelming where we just lose that inspiration because it came at such a a high dose and that's in parasuma. Now when exactly we were commanded to build it and when it was actually built is unclear but what we do know is that it was finally built or finally established Rosh Kodesh Nissan the beginning of Nissan and when this sanctuary this temple has finally been established there was the various gifts of the Jewish tribes 12 different gifts all different tribes, each tribe giving their gift. And the way the Torah describes it is it was Moshe. It was the day Moshe had concluded in establishing the Mishkan. Rashi points out something interesting. It says the day Moshe concluded, there's different words in Hebrew for conclude. The word it chose was kalot, which can also be a variation of the word kala, bride. And Rashi says that the Jewish people were standing under the like a bride. The sanctuary was like a ka was like a marriage canopy. In other words, the sanctuary is that space of intimacy with us and God. And and this idea of intim intimacy of deep connection with us and God is reflected time and time again in many different spaces um throughout the temple. I'll give you another example. The ark, the aron, the covenant that has inside of it the lucas that has inside of it the tablets had the kuruim on top. How do you say kuruim in English? I don't know. I don't think there's an English word for kuruim. They say sherubim, right? Or keruim or something. I don't know. Okay. It has the kim on top. Why? It it usually that's usually antithetical to Judaism to have images of of golden faces. Um that's usually and this is the exception a symbolism of idolatry. But the commentaries explain that it's actually a symbolism of intimacy because it was a male and female facing each other and it was a symbolism of intimacy, a symbolism of our intimacy with God in the holy of holiest of places. The Ramban, by the way, Nahades wrote an entire letter on the spiritual on on the Jewish approach or perspective of marital intimacy. And he says many religions believe that intimacy is a necessary evil. It's unholy. It's sin. It has to get done so there could be reproduction. And my monity says no that is not the biblical perspective at all. And one of his proofs is the mere existence of the kuruven which are there to teach us that the sanctuary is a space of intimacy of deep connection with God. This structure of deep connection with God had become even more solidified in the construction of the permanent structure of the bas which by the way again this is in parenthesis. We have to have a separate discussion a separate class on this. The Torah goes through great lengths of describing in such great detail a structure that is temporary. And when it comes to the permanent structure, we just know what King Solomon was given through divine intervention. But but it wasn't really uh it's not really discussed in the in the five books of Moses in the Torah itself, which is an interesting thing. But this was finally transferred to it's and this is alluded to in the Torah. God kept saying, "You're going to build this in the space that I will show you in in Jerusalem." Mymonities in his laws of the basendium in the Mishna Torah describes in depth what the B mikdash looked like. He describes in depth how it was built, what in what its rooms were like. He and he goes through all the details and in one of his in one of the passages there the Rambam my monities describes he's describing the keshakashim the holy of holies in the holy of holies it was a very simple room a small room again only the ken guttle would enter once a year in yum kiper there was a stone. On that stone was the ark of the covenant, the arabis, the kim on top. Within it was the luos, the tablets, both the broken tablets and the whole tablets. And my is describing this in great depth. And then mymones goes on to tell us an interesting historical fact. What happened to these lis to the tablets? What happened to the aron to the to the ark? where'd it go? So he says that when King Solomon had originally built the temple, he built a tunnel. Our tunnels preceded their tunnels. He built a he built a tunnel under the Holy of Holies all the way deep down because he knew that this building wasn't going to last permanently. It was going to be destroyed ultimately and it's going to be rebuilt ultimately as well. So he had built these tunnels under the holy of holies to hide the ark of the covenant, to hide the lice, to hide the tablets. Who ended up hiding it? King Yoshi Yahu. And this was hidden before the Babylonians came and destroyed the temple. Just just to put things on a historical a very vague or general historical timeline here for a second. The commandment we're discussing in our para is within a year or so after we had left Egypt. We're then in the desert for 40 years. Joshua then brings us into the land of Israel. 400 years later or so, give or take, King David conquers Jerusalem. King Solomon begins to build the temple. And again, my monies tells us that in addition to the temple, he built those tunnels to hide the ark, knowing that the temple wasn't going to last. How long did it last? For 410 years, it was destroyed by the Babylonians by King Nuhanar. We were exiled to Babylon. Then the story of Porm takes place. Then after 70 years, we finally go back for temple number two. Okay, that's just a general historical timeline. Here's the thing though that the the the message that I'm trying to get at here. Mymonities wrote Mishna Torah. He wrote essentially an encyclopedia of Jewish law. The Talmud has plenty of Jewish law, but it's formatted as discussion with tangents. Not everything is law. There's a lot of agadada, right? There's a lot of homalytic stories, lessons, ethics. There's a lot of debate there. So if you want to know Jewish law and be competent in Jewish law, it's very difficult to do it directly from the Talmud without filtering it through codification such as the Rambam, such as my monities code of Jewish law where he creates an encyclopedia of organized laws. All the laws of the temple are here. All the laws of fillin are here, right? And he organized it into 14 different books, 14 different sections. We had just had the the sum, the culmination, the celebratory culmination a couple weeks ago. But here's the thing, guys, with the Rambam. The Rambam, anything the Rambam writes in his book, you could assume is law, not theory, not philosophy, not history. At least that's usually the case. Which begs the question, why is the Rambam telling us that King Salman had built tunnels to ad hive to to hide the ark and that king had put that ark there prior to storming the temple. Why is that necessary information from aik standpoint? That's good history. And again, my monities isn't making this up. He's quoting the Talmud. It's no question why the Talmud would mention that. The Talmud does mention historical fact. But my monities is telling us practical law. Here's how you build a temple. Why is he telling us historical fact? Why is he telling us that King Solomon did it? Why is that relevant? Why is he telling us that king of Yahu had put it in there generations later? Why is that relevant? Now uh the these are questions that I had come across in learning a an essay from the lab and the para and I I must admit that I had read that passage in my monities several times and had not come not have thought not did not think of that question which is commentary on me having to up my game and focusing better in learning the ramp I'm fine But there's a message here. There's an important message here. And this message is really a paradigm shift in how we view the bas. The Rambam is telling us don't just look at the basel as best case scenario ideally you have the holy of holies. You have the ark inside and in case of emergency in a less ideal situation, you guys aren't behaving. You guys aren't being ethical. You guys are doing idolatry. God is going to send in to destroy the temple. Okay, worst case scenario, we'll hide the ark somewhere. It's a plan B. No more temple. At least we have the ark. But that that's how I understood it. But that's not how the Rambam understood it. The Rambam understood this not as King Solomon being cynical. One day this will get destroyed. Can't trust these people. I'm going to I'm going to make a hiding space and I'll let Oi Yahu know so he could hide it there. If that were the case, it wouldn't appear in the Rambam because the Rambam is not a book of philosophy and not a book of ethics. It's a book of Allah. What the Rambam is insinuating here guys and this is important is that those tunnels are part of the plan. Those hidden caves are not um it's not a plan B. It's a plan A. It's an extension of the Holy of Holies. So it's not that the ark was removed from the Holy of Holies and put in a different place for safekeeping. That tunnel is an extension of the Holy of Holies. This is why they tried digging tunnels in 770. No, I'm kidding. Okay, bad joke. Um um but but those tunnels are an extension of the Holy of Holies itself. And here's what the Rambam is telling us. You ready? The BA mikdash unfortunately gets destroyed and that's a calamity. That's a big calamity. We still mourn for to this day on Shabbah. Yet what got destroyed was the surface, not the depth. There's a part of the basa mikdash that still remains to this day and never gets destroyed and always remains because here is the thing guys, here's the rule. Um, this is true spiritually and psychologically and emotionally and apparently it's true structurally as well. Never thought about it this way. But there is no such thing as perfect destruction. There's no such thing as nothing. Nothing is completely destroyed. Nothing good is completely destroyed beyond repair. Because even when the entire base of Mikdas is destroyed, King Solomon built a permanent part of it that lays deeper that still remains that is not a separate part, a hiding space for safekeeping, but is literally part of the bas and it remains. Um I I'll give you another example revival of the dead which is one of the 13 one of the 13 principles of Jewish faith that my modernist talks about is the belief in Mason the belief that there will be a revival of the dead in the messianic era and that we will come back to life. We will come back to appreciate God's vision for humanity. Well, here's the thing. The body decomposes. Most bodies decompose. There are a few exceptions, but most bodies decompose. So, how are you going to be rebuilt? How are we going to come back? How is that possible? And the answer is because it doesn't, this is from a mid, it does, but but there's a scientific reality to this as well. It does not completely decompose. It's not completely turned into nothingness and like disappeared. The midress talks about I don't know what the science is behind this but the the midress talks about a lose bone bone called the lose some sort of bone in the spinal cord that that never fully gets destroyed and the body is rebuilt from there with with with with modern biology and and genetics I'm sure people can make sense of it as well logical sense of it as well but the point is that an in a stem yeah stem cell research right that an individual a human is never destroyed is never totally gone and is going to come back even after decomposing the temple as well it wasn't destroyed the structure what it looked like on the outside was destroyed but it soul on the inside remained and here is the proof here's the proof that those tunnels were not just a hiding space a a plan B just to protect the ark, but we're literally an extension of the Holy of Holies itself. Who was the king, the Jewish king in rulership during Nuvetar's invasion and abduction and destruction of the temple? It was King Tidki. Who was the king that hid the ark? King Yoshi Yahu, a previous generation, which means he had hid those tablets and the ark, the Aon before destruction was even a conversation on the table, before it was even thought of to be a thing. when the Jews were still at a higher point, which shows us historically that that hiding space isn't just an escape from where we're supposed to be, but it's a part of who we are. There are times where we feel like we've gone through the ringer, we've gone through destruction, we feel like we're falling apart. Relationships feel like they're falling apart. Spiritually, we feel lost. And that might even be the case externally on the outside. But if we dig a little bit deeper, we go into the depths and like Yoshyahu, we just dig a little bit deeper, we're going to realize that we'll find our place. We'll find that arc. We'll find that connection. It's there. I'll I'll conclude with uh one of my favorite stories. There was an old debate, not really a debate, but but a tension I'd say between Sigman Freud and Victor Frankle. Sigman Freud was the father of psychology. One of his prodigies was Victor Frankle. But Victor Frankle saw things very differently because Freud believed the essence of man is self- serving and evil. Frankle believed the essence of man is driven by meaning, not by pleasure. And the truth is Frankle was ostracized from this by the psychological community. Um probably because it's bad for business. You know, it's it's cheaper. It's more lucrative to keep people in their problematic loops and tell them that they're horrible. Um, okay, that's just my take on it. But but the reb was a big proponent of Victor Frankle and was a supporter of Victor Frankle, a literal supporter, not just a philosophical supporter. He literally supported him. He had sent him money. There's a whole story about it. There was once a professor of psychology from the University of Minnesota visiting the Labavaj and he told the rabbi, I understand that you like to be all positive and you're a big proponent of Victor Frankle and you believe that the essence of man is driven by meaning, not by pleasure, that people aren't just self- serving. I could see where you're coming from. People do seem to be nice and good. But I'm a clinical psychologist and I'm a professor of psychology. I meet with a lot of people and they look great on the surface, but when you meet with people, you see a lot of garbage. You see a lot of dirt. The moment you dig into people, you see the truth. And I think Freud seems to be more correct. So the Reb told him that imagine you had a beautiful city, beautiful landscape. If you dig beneath that landscape, you're going to see dirt. You're right. And you know why you see dirt? Because you stop digging. Keep digging and you're going to hit well springs. You're going to hit something beautiful. When we dig into people, when we dig into ourselves, when we dig into relationships, if we do it right, and if we're persistent, we're going to see something beautiful. And if we dig underneath the base and mikdash, underneath the rubble, underneath the destruction, we're going to find that there's a part of us that has never fully been destroyed. That relationship that has a part of it that is still sturdy, that is still stable. That connection to Judaism, that connection to God, that there there's always a a piece of stability there. Okay, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.