Exodus - Cycle One - 2501-2719 - Terumah

It’s not easy to stop what we’re doing, get out of the rush. We’re so busy. Chances are we are re‐creating what is already there. In any case, we run the risk of spinning out, losing touch. So let’s look at Terumah. We begin with God spoke to Moses saying. The expanse of speaking is fused into one point which is then gifted to Moses. This is not unique in Torah.

Here though, Moses is then told to speak to us, to the Israelites. In other words big stuff comes from God, is said to Moses, gets spread and spoken by Moses (so we can take it in) and then offered up in material form. It’s a spherical process. What we get, who we are in our hearts, we’re giving back. Even in Devarim (32‐9) it is written God’s portion is his people.

Here’s the question. Why can’t God just say to Moses, Moses say to us and we say to God? That would simplify things. Well, maybe Moses can’t say. Maybe that kind of alchemy is too hard to do, even for a prophet. Maybe Moses can just speak. Maybe we (the Israelites) can’t understand what is said, only what is spoken. An abstract point from the upper world is hard to accept. It can be terrifying (Zohar). Clearly not even a prophet can embrace and offer such an abstraction without danger. So, it takes three parties, the prophet, the Israelites (us) and God. Now, the next question. How do we find the point of what is spoken? Well, we get a hint in Terumah. Problem is, it is defined not as itself, only by what it is between. I will commune with you there, speaking to you from above the ark‐cover, from between the two cherubs on the Ark of Testimony.

Now, we ask, the point is where? Between two cherubs? It’s not like God has just handed us a cell phone even if we think we know the number (stay tuned for the gilded calf). And no, we’re not going to be able to see this place because it could be one in a million. Only Moses, it seems, can know. And even he usually hears God’s voice in general in the Tent of Meeting. We have to wait for Numbers (7‐89) for it all to come together. Moses came into the Tent of Meeting…he heard the voice speaking to him from…between the two cherubs…

So in a world that expands in a breathtaking network of gilded weavings, covers, cubicles and rings…that shines with awesome structure…sometimes it’s good not only to construct more protection…more reds and blues of blood and fire…but to return to the Tent of Meeting and try to hear through the memory of Moses not only what is spoken but what is said.

How do we do this? Well, first, we might tell everyone we won’t be back for a good five hours. We get in the car and drive somewhere secluded. We hike up the path and pass madrone trees, bark like carved armor. We see tracks, deer and bear maybe, hear the call of birds above and people below. We take off our shoes and walk on the ground. Our hearts are beating as if being forged into the earth and our breath feeds our lungs in one sculptured flow.

We get to a clearing. There’s two small madrone trees leaning on each other like children, a rock between. Ten feet away there’s a third madrone. The rock is crowned by the sun. In the center there’s a view of Mt Ashland. Today, there’s also a circle (three feet wide) with the words God loves you. It’s a temple and shining, as if each thing is carved from one piece of gold. You sit on the rock, glance at north south east and west. Finally, intricate patterns of light extend beyond branches, their leaves like big gold spoons. You are welded with the world, the gold in you clasping the radiance with ease and joy. It’s a paradise, your home, your enclosure. Giant beams hold up a canopy of green. Golden beams encase each plant and pebble. Each ray is woven into a fine tapestry of life and death, earth and sky. There’s no space for darkness. You could sit forever but there’s work to do. You begin. You bring this gold to your core. You feel how it merges into one point between the faces of heart and soul. You don’t know what you’re doing really or why. You just know you’re sitting on a rock between two small madrones. You know there are sacred words, offerings and an altar in you that need connection with a finer light. So you call in the names of God and musical notes and prophets. You bring a cover of gold and wrap your wings around it and you. Scraps of darkness are pushed out. Light/fire rises through the seven sefirot to a place you can’t describe. Really, you can’t give any of this a name anymore. Except maybe one. Love.

Hours later you prostrate yourself before God, let the earth touch the point between the two temples of your brain. You smell and taste the smell. On the hike down you sit and watch the path below. You laugh and wonder how anyone can be so great to bring this to the workings of man. How does Moses hear not only what is spoken but what is said and then speak? You pray for strength. You keep this image of yourself, pound it into layers of purity. This, after all, is who you are.

So, may we all be the point between the two cherubs. May we know that we are love manifested, the source of absolute beauty, the witness of an intricate and fantastic expansion of solid joy. May we keep reaching to hear what is spoken and speak it to others. May we, like children, learn to breathe the silence crowned by God. May we rise with the birds and laugh with the people on the path. May we rest at peace in the center of divine radiance.