From rafi@brijnet.org Wed Feb 12 15:48:34 1997 Received: from mailhost.dircon.co.uk (mailhost.dircon.co.uk [194.112.32.10]) by shamash.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id PAA04179 for ; Wed, 12 Feb 1997 15:48:32 -0500 (EST) Received: from du5-059.pool.dircon.co.uk (du5-059.pool.dircon.co.uk [194.112.39.59]) by mailhost.dircon.co.uk (8.8.4/8.7.3) with SMTP id UAA13068 for ; Wed, 12 Feb 1997 20:46:41 GMT Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19970212204639.5767bcce@popmail.dircon.co.uk> X-Sender: rafi@popmail.dircon.co.uk X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (16) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 20:46:39 +0000 To: daf-hashavua@shamash.org From: Rafael Salasnik Subject: daf-hashavua Terumah 5757/1997 Teruma-5757 _____ __ _ _ _ | __ \ / _| | | | | | | | | | | __ _| |_ | |__| | __ _ ___| |__ __ ___ ___ _ __ _ | | | |/ _` | _| | __ |/ _` / __| '_ \ / _` \ \ / / | | |/ _` | | |__| | (_| | | | | | | (_| \__ \ | | | (_| |\ V /| |_| | (_| | |_____/ \__,_|_| |_| |_|\__,_|___/_| |_|\__,_| \_/ \__,_|\__,_| U N I T E D S Y N A G O G U E - L O N D O N (O) #################################################################### Terumah Vol 9 No 23 15 February 1997 8 Adar I 5757 Shabbat ends in London at 18:03 Copyright 1997 United Synagogue Publications Ltd. ========================================================================= THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY: BRIJNET - British Jewish Network - UK branch of Shamash - Creates awareness of the internet in the community - Helps organisations & individuals to participate in the Jewish internet - Creates/maintains a useful quality communal electronic information database --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE COPIED OR TRANSMITTED ON CONDITION THAT THE MESSAGE INDICATING THAT IT IS COPYRIGHT UNITED SYNAGOGUE - LONDON & WAS PROVIDED BY BRIJNET IS INCLUDED ============================================================================ TERUMAH - Rescuer and Rescued by Rabbi Adam Hill, Leicester Hebrew Congregation ----------------------------- Today's Parashah gives us some fabulous insights into the Mitzvah of Tzedakah. We must be careful to translate this word properly as whilst it is commonly used as the term for 'charity' its true meaning conveys that it is a form of 'correct' behaviour. The Chazon Ish (Rabbi Isaiah Karelitz - in Emunah, Bitachon VeOd p. 21) points out that ethical imperatives are equitable with halachah as it is halachah which directs our attitude as to what is and is not ethical. Abraham Ibn Ezra states the Mitzvot are given to us in order to purify us so that we can attain a higher level of being. Tzedakah is not an action that solely benefits the recipient. The major beneficiary is society as it shows by giving to others that it thinks and cares about those who are less fortunate. Tzedakah is not purely monetary as giving time, support and even a smile can be seen as 'correct' behaviour. Our Sidra this morning starts with the phrase "You shall take for Me an offering, from each individual whose heart volunteers shall you take My offering". The 'offering' from which the Sidra receives its name is known as Terumah. This word has its root from the verb Leharim meaning "to separate by elevating". Rashi explains that the Terumah will be used for wave offerings which were lifted up and waved. This can also be understood in a plainer sense as elevating its purpose. Once an offering has been made to the Temple, or any other communal need, that offering acquires new status. It is no longer cash, animal or plant but becomes Hekdesh - an object for 'holy' rites. Kodesh also refers to separation whether for positive and negative. Shabbat is on a pedestal as Kodesh, a harlot is to be shunned as a Kedeshah. A society that gives Tzedakah is an elevated society. Implicit in our verse is that "To the Lord is the earth and its bounty". Whilst being a benefactor might seem to be for the privileged it is merely giving that which belongs to G-d. In the scenario of our Sidra, G-d wishes for a donation from those willing "for Me". Hence we are told that those who are involved with Tzedakah will be repaid many times over for their trust in He who provides for all. When the Bnei Yisrael left Egypt they gathered "gold and silver vessels as well as clothing" and departed with "great wealth". Each individual could have given all of the funds necessary for the building of the Mishkan, however, our verse necessitates that we take from each person able to give. Tzedakah must be a communal venture. When wishing to build a new Yeshivah in Radin the Chafetz Chayim insisted on the money coming from all the townsfolk rather than just one or two affluent individuals. He explained that due to the model given in our Sidra, communal concerns must come from the community. It is easy as an individual, as one of a community, to be taking and using facilities without giving. We are reminded of the need to always think of giving. Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky narrates a story where a miser drowns; when his would-be rescuer shouted for him to give his hand he withdraws it. Had the person about to be rescued shouted to take his hand he would have survived. May our hearts always volunteer to work for the good of our society, both as local and international Jewish Communities as well as in the lands where we reside. --------- The eight categories of giving Zedakah in descending order of merit ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Providing a person with a gift or a loan, going into partnership or finding or providing employment to prevent the person having to rely on charity. 2 To give charity with the donor and recipient being unaware of each other; included here is giving to a charity fund. 3 Giving charity where the donor is aware of the recipient, but the recipient is not aware of the donor. 4 Giving charity where the recipient is aware of the donor, but the donor is not aware of the recipient. 5 To give to the poor before being approached. 6 To give properly after being approached. 7 Giving less than is appropriate but giving graciously. 8 Giving resentfully Shulchan Aruch, Yore Deah 249:6 --------- Are buildings more important than people? ----------------------------------------- When David returned from slaying Goliath, the daughters of Israel showered him with gifts of gold and silver, which he dedicated to the Temple. When a famine followed, he was asked to give some of the gold and silver to the poor. He refused. G-d said to him: "As you did not undertake to preserve life with the silver and gold in your possession, the Temple will not be built by you but by your son Solomon." (Midrash). --------- Parallels to the Mishkan ------------------------ by Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, Hon Sec, Anglo-Israel Archeological Society The Torah gives us an extensive description of the Mishkan and it is described in much more detail than the Temple is in the Book of Kings. This enables us to make a comparison with other temporary buildings and their furniture. The basic layout of the Tabernacle was a tented structure, divided into two sections, the Kodesh and the Kodesh Kodashim. The whole standing in a tented courtyard in the middle (most of the time) of the Camp of Israel. There is a parallel to this in the camp of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army outside Lachish. The royal tent is in sections constructed of timber posts and curtains and stands in a fortified enclosure that represents the army camp. The parallel is not exact and we would do better to go back another 600 years to Egypt where we have a representation of the camp of Rameses II at the Battle of Kadesh (in Syria). Inside the army camp, which is surrounded by a wall of shields, stands a separate enclosure with the royal tent inside it. The tent is in two sections, a larger one and a smaller one which contains the cartouche and name of the Pharaoh flanked on each side by a double-winged eagle-headed figure. The picture is quite worryingly close to the Mishkan, the Aron (Ark) and the Cherubim. It dates from about 1260 BCE and is carved on the walls of the Temple at Abu-Simbel. Both these examples are of army camps, but then the Camp of Israel in the Midbar (desert) was a camp of war. We can go back further in the Egyptian records, to the treasures of Tutankhamen, which date from 1400 BCE. His tomb included a lot of furniture overlaid in gold and particularly the royal shrine, which was carried on staves made of wood covered in gold sheet both inside and out. Even earlier is a wonderful portable tent made for Queen Hetep-heres and which consists of a wooden framework of gilded poles and curtains and contains a wooden armchair, a sedan chair and a bed all overlaid in gold. Amazingly it dates from 2,600 BCE and the workmanship is exquisite. We also have to acknowledge that most Egyptian tombs show representations of offering tables with loaves of bread. There is one from the earliest period with a table of eight loaves, one of the royal councillor Tjetji with ten loaves and several later ones with exactly twelve loaves on the table. With the making of the Mishkan we have indeed, as the Targum translates it, "emptied the Egyptians". (Shemot 12:36) --------- KINGS ----- Asa of Judah Asa fought two wars against Zerach and against Baasha of Israel. To defend his territory he fortified cities and raised a standing army of 500,000 men. Only 2 Chronicles 14 mentions the war with Zerach the Cushite, the Ethiopian, who is unknown from any other source. According to Pesachim 119a he was a king of Ethiopa who extended his rule over Egypt; he took the treasures of Rehoboam from Shishak I of Egypt (who had taken them from Rehoboam); Asa recovered them from Zerach and then used them as a bribe to the king of Syria. Others suggest he was Pharaoh Osorkon I, of the 22nd Egyptian dynasty, founded by Shishak I. Or, he may have been the chieftain of a group of Ethiopians, possibly their governor, appointed by Egypt, who lived in the south of Eretz Israel, and whom the Egyptians, supported with troops and military materiel. The 22nd Dynasty of Egypt was of Libyan descent. Asa called on the Lord for help and Zerach was defeated. "If your people go out to battle....and they pray unto the Lord toward the city which You have chosen....then hear You in heaven their prayer and supplication and maintain their cause." (Prayer of Solomon, 1 Kings 8:44-45). The spoil was taken to the Temple. In contrast to this faith in G-d for victory, was Asa's re-action to the invasion of Baasha, King of Israel. The dating of the war, a year after Zerach's invasion, raises some problems. According to 2 Chronicles it took place in the 36th year of Asa's reign, but Baasha had died in the 26th year of Asa's reign (1 Kings 16:8). The number 36 has therefore been explained to the 36th year after the division of the kingdom when, according to Seder Olam Rabba and Tosefta Sotah 12, the kingdoms would be re-united, but of course were not. Solomon was married to the daughter of the king of Egypt for 36 years, which is the basis for years of division and subsequent re-unification. ..../to be continued next week Typeset in-house and published by United Synagogue Publications Ltd. ============================================================================ To receive the electronic version of Daf Hashavua send an e-mail to listproc@shamash.org with the subject left blank and the following one line message: sub daf-hashavua (where you substitute your own name for first-name last-name) .