The Derasha is dedicated to the memory of Judah Hertz (Yehuda ben Yisrael Chaim, a”h), who passed away in LA yesterday. The father of JSN founding-class member Sandy Gordon, Judah was a developer whose company had broad impact on the commercial and residential scenes in Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans and other cities. A builder of many Shuls and Yeshivot, including EB, he assisted in the development of Jewish infrastructure all over the world. Our condolences go to Sandy, her brothers Yitzi and Zevi, daughters-in-law Jael and Liba, our dear friend son-in-law R’ Yisroel Gordon, and to his many grandchildren. Yehi Zichro Baruch.
Anyone can see that the 10 statements at Har Sinai are a pinnacle experience in the Torah. They don’t make movies about the common or the everyday. When I spoke in Beit Midrash this week, I called the 10 statements “Marquee Torah,” and I tried to explain one approach to what made these statements emblematic of the whole of the Torah.
But a question applies here as it does to every pinnacle: What comes next? The rest of the book of Shemot will be dominated by the preparations for, and the building of, the Mishkan. The Ramban says that the Mishkan is the continuation of the Har Sinai experience; it mobilizes the mountain. What happened on Har SInai was never meant to deliver inspiration that would somehow linger for all time. It was supposed to inaugurate a new relationship that was to be sustained, and would therefore have to travel. The Mishkan is how it travelled. [The interposition of Parashat Mishpatim between Yitro and Teruma is significant, but that is for another day.]
The two sides of our rendezvous with Hashem can be discerned in the Mishkan. It was recognizably true in terms of the way it allowed the revelation to resume. At the beginning of the book of Vayikra, Moshe Rabenu is called into the Mishkan and the discussion on Har Sinai picks up. Commandment after commandment, not just in terms of offerings in the Mishkan itself, are given there. The Ramban says that the intensive list of commandments in Parashat Kedoshim follow the pattern of the 10 statements, an very explicit echoing of the Har Sinai experience.
But the life-changing experience of Har Sinai has to be captured and carried on from our side as well. The Mishkan will be a place where we can come close to Hashem as we felt close at Har Sinai. Eventually, of course, we will have to find a way to make it work even outside of the Mishkan. But the model for that life begins with the Mishkan. The worship experience there will be the basis for all worship everywhere. It will teach us how to come close not just for a day but for a lifetime, and for generations.
The foundation for this is already outlined immediately after Har Sinai. The Parasha ends -- after the pinnacle encounter -- with three quick commands. These commands set the rules for how we can approach Hashem. The Jew were told
Do not make any gold or silver gods,
Make an earthly altar for offerings; if it was eventually a stone altar, it was not to be forged with steel weapons
To reach that altar, there should not be a stairwell, but instead a ramp, so that lifting one’s feet would not show any nakedness.
What are these guidelines? The first is not about other gods as deities. That was already commanded in the second statement at Har Sinai. It refers to representations of anything associated with Hashem -- angels, the stars, etc. It expands the sense of preserving Hashem’s oneness and uniqueness. The second is to make sure that nothing associated with bloodshed is used in constructing the altar. Finally, the third is about removing even the slightest, seemingly harmless, nakedness from this holy encounter. In small ways, the three echo concerns about idol worship, murder and sexual immorality, the three cardinal sins. Ridding the Mishkan of any and all traces of these sins creates the conditions for proper worship.
All of these either dilute or defame the divine encounter. Idols are an adulteration of the relationship. Sexual immorality makes for a distraction from it. And the rage that brings murder is a direct nullification of the peace and comity that should characterize all meetings with the divine. If we are trying to create a place where Hashem’s name can be said, and where He can come to bless us (20:21), none of this can be present. We know that what some speculate is the site of Har Sinai is something of a tourist destination today. But that site has no residual holiness in the eyes of the Halacha. There is no reason even to visit outside of idle interest. Whatever happened there has disappeared. When the Jews marched away, the encounter marched with them. We are still enjoined to guard the conditions of that encounter. if we succeed, then Har Sinai has continued to travel, as it was meant to do, with us.
Congregation Emek Beracha 4102 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
