Being in seminary I always eat at other peoples houses; after learning about this parasha I got so much more excited to have my own home in the future and host people just as people are hosting me right now. Now I am at a festival and sharing my food is a way I can bring this weeks teachings into practice.
The topic of the mishkan, the house of hashem which the Jews were traveling with in the desert on the way out of Egypt, takes up almost 5 chapters of the Torah and is therefore mentioned more than almost any other topic, making it a central idea. Parashat Terumah gives us a detailed account of how Hashem wants the Mishkan to look like. Why does Hashem want a mishkan? It says in the Torah: make me a mishkan so I can dwell in them – G-d wanted a dwelling place down here on earth where we can connect to his divine presence through sacrifice of animals (alluding to our own inner animal which we separate ourselves from) and spice-offerings. We read about all the different aspects in detail- what things we find in the mishkan, what it should be made of, the placements. Every single aspect carries deep ideas and elevations within them, I choose to focus on the shulchan. It was found in the outer chamber of the mishkan (Kadosh) and made out of wood and pure gold. Its framework and trays held loafs of bread which faced each other – they always rested in there, the shulchan was never empty and rebaked once a week. The idea of the shulchan is the reminder that hashem constantly sustains us with our material needs; from the Zohar we learn that from the shulchan the blessing and sustenance to all the actual tables in the homes came.
In our times, we don’t have a physical place for G-ds presence to rest anymore.
Nor do we possess a shulchan to bring blessing upon our food. Instead, we need to make our very own tables a source of blessing. By sharing our food and being generous, by hosting people we emulate Hashem (the shulchan in the mikdash) and create this energy of blessing ourselves. When we look deeper in the passuk „make me a mikdash and I will dwell in them“ one surely asks himself: why „in them“? Chassidut gives us a deeper explanation – „in them“ doesn’t only refer to the mikdash itself but each and every single one of us. If we open up, share our food and are generous, by hosting people we emulate Hashem (the shulchan in the mikdash) and literally create a dwelling place for Hashem within ourselves. Hashem wants to dwell inside of you but it is you who needs to make space by fulfilling His will. Once we allow Hashem to enter, we should only see blessing and fulfillment in our lives.
So many chapters about what Hashem wants his house to look like. Look deeper; what is the reason for this emphasis? Maybe Hashems most important wish is for us to make sure we put in a lot of effort and thought into what our own house looks and works like, wether it is our actual house or ourselves as an individual.
There is so much depth to be found in the idea that Hashem wanted a physical dwelling place down here and now that it’s gone, it’s ourselves and our tables that are this very mishkan, it just changed its form. We carry so much power with our actions and by making them beautiful and filled with love, Hashem will dwell down here among us.
May we all be able to be a source of blessing and sustenance for others in our present or future home when we are married, emulate Hashem and feel His presence !
Shabbat shalom and chodesh tov!! This month will be crazy and filled with so much happiness b‘h!!❤️