Exodus Cycle Two Terumah 25:1 to 27:19

Terumah

Terumah refers to an offering. How then does it differ from korban? It’s a lifting rather than a coming near. It feels less hesitant, more direct. Reference to it in Mishnah (Berakhot) leads to the reciting of the evening Sh'ma.

To me, it’s taking the heart-light to a point in which there is an eternal witnessing with God, a flash of mutual transmission. It’s the cutting edge of love rising into the love-center found at the zenith of complete nothingness. It’s a movement and flow beyond the vertical horizon. Yes, we are being instructed to travel far from home. Or maybe to go home. We’re to move beyond the inter-connections we so want to name. We are to create the offering that enables us to clinch that point between two cherubim. In all, we are to cause ourselves to become one sacred action, the heart knowing itself, the heart feeling itself, the heart searching and finding, the heart trusting, the heart contouring and cutting, hammering and molding, the heart in its detail, concealment, protection, its connection and return, the heart in submission.

So first let’s see the heart knowing itself. In line 25:1 we read they will take from me an offering from all men whose heart impels them to give. The word lev is written, a given, the ground work from which we can catapult ourselves. This is great. We don’t have to be interpretive. We just have to know how to read. We are being told directly we can use the heart as a channel to come to a place of daat with God. Take a small step and we are being told that God connection with someone we love comes from heart knowing heart. The focus is not on the mind. It doesn’t say…they will take from me an offering from all men whose mind impels them to give…So then, the next question is, how do we connect daat with the central point tiferet? The point between the cherubim?

Well, the heart has to feel itself, be aware of its vessels, its throbbing and very real center, its coverings, the measurements, how it connects with corners and rings, the rush of all work, the oxygen, the nutrients, the pain and labor. It needs to be able to merge the flow of light on the circumference with its core and then cycle it back out again. Feel the repetition of terumah and the verb lokaoch. Feel the continuum, the heart at the forefront, central. It’s poetry. We are in the blood-pumping rhythm word after word with all the many sounds as they push us forward from the gut. We feel ourselves.

Now, the heart needs to find on itself the things to create the offering, outer visual stuff, gold and silver, died skins, oil and spices, wools, red and blue. In other parts of Torah (Deuteronomy 6:6) words are on the heart. These things are important. They are the raw material which, once consolidated and crafted, lead us to the point of all connection. In Terumah they create the tabernacle, the partition, the cover for the ark, the ark, the divine details. What I like to note is that while sacred, these things pulled from the circumference of heart energy, are not the final offering. Once again, they are the raw material, solid but raised to much higher levels when made a piece of the merging whole.

So, the heart has to give up a piece of itself. And this giving up takes trust…the engine behind the action. Where does it come from? Maybe from love recycling inward for eternity, the folding inward of Ein Sof. The trust must be there though, or the heart, as beautiful as it is, won’t grow into ultimate consciousness. In short, if the heart clutches at its gold or at its words, they (and we) fall into a place of stasis. Here and now, let’s say we receive a message. We follow the message without immediate result. We just follow and create. We don’t know what it means. We may never. We may find it leads to another message equally luminous. It is our instruction to see and understand the timelessness of such a pure action.

Now comes the hammering, the molding, thecontouring the cutting, the detail, the actual dexterity and brilliance. Yes, it is a fine craft to be doing the actual labor. It takes great sensitivity to arrive at that deep and clean point, the consolidated moment. Here is where the blue spiral of light can burst out unashamed through its heart-paved tunnel lured by incense, the menorah of one gold mass, the two cherubim with wings slightly raised. It’s this point that can be protected by its very own cellular make-up… the tabernacle, the partition, the cover, the concealment and the ark itself. You see, it’s all created from the same stuff from the same place. The heart light, in other words, is safe because the foundation from which it flows forth is made of the same essence. It’s all from the original terumah (25:1). Science has even proven that a mother’s milk is best for her own baby. The offering is a healing action, sacred. It aligns us with God. No wonder, in Mishnah (Berakhot), we recite the sh'ma when the kohanin enter to eat of their Terumah.

Finally, the instructions given, the product is complete and we have return and submission. In short, the construct for transmission is now here. We are therefore to stop thinking about how well we receive…and all of the experiences we’ve had that prove our receptive intimacy with the divine. We are to move on from reception into the fast zap of transmission. Because the way to connect with God is to cause an offering…to cause transmission.

So may we be the heart that tunnels its light out to the divine in each other. May we help others learn. May we be examples and mentors for each other without fear or judgment. May we focus on the tiny details and learn how to follow instructions that have space for many interpretations…and rejoice in even more raw material as it enters the courtyard. May we respect each other for the message, find the point between the two cherubim, listen and do. May we be very careful not to place the instructions higher than our hearts…higher than God. May we face the radiance and meet God in the core of the love with which we are created.