Pekude brings us to the end of the Book of Exodus. The “Mishkan” is completed. Aaron and his sons are anointed, and we see the institutionalizing of the hereditary priesthood. Moses blessed the work and the completion, and, for a brief moment, all seems right.
There have been many comments and thoughts regarding the building and completion of the “Mishkan”. At a recent Torah Study I facilitated, we began to look at the “Mishkan” as symbolic of our own bodies. There is an interesting commentary from Zohar, the basic text of Jewish Mysticism that looks at the myriad of things that went into the creation of the “Mishkan” and the myriad of items that go into the making of our bodies. “Now just as the human body possesses many organs, higher and lower, some being internal and not visible, while others are external and visible, and yet they all form one body, so also was it with the Tabernacle: all its individual parts were formed in the pattern of that above, and when they all were fitted together “the Tabernacle was one”. (Plaut 689)
I suggest that this commentary speaks to us as we grow older. So many of us have become so much more aware of our bodies and the changes that may be taking place, both with the organs we cannot see as well as the external ones. It is easy to lament and fall prey to some despair. Yet, to lock on to the Zohar text, we are all “one”, unique unto our own self. It is a message that Judaism gives us that no matter what that calendar age may be, or what circumstance we, and our bodies, may find ourselves, we are still sacred representations. Our bodies will age, God Willing, and our call is to take care of them, honor them and keep them from as much harm as possible.
The Zohar text alludes to the sense that there is a sense of mystery in all of this. Certainly, when we contemplate the workings of our bodies, there is also present a sense of mystery, even the miraculous. This may be why, in the morning service, we have prayers that give thanks that these miracles continue to work. So, this Shabbat, take a few moments to give thanks for the miracles that are taking place every second within our bodies and to celebrate the mystery that is life.
As is our tradition, as we close a book of Torah: “chazak, chazak, v’nit’chazek”
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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