Our parsha summarizes the material, artifacts, individuals and efforts which were involved in constructing the Mishkan.
Weights, measures and calculations play a significant part in the substance aspect of our lives (i.e. finance, in the laboratory, navigation etc.); but calculations also play a most significant part in our spiritual lives.
There are four methods to analyze our spiritual level while we are still in this transient world.
There is an ongoing debate among scholars: Does man make history or does history make the man?
Had there not been a Second World War the talents of a man like Churchill would never have come to the fore. On the other hand, it was his talent that navigated the nation through the war.
That is the gentile way of analyzing the two sides of the coin; but like all things there is the Jewish way.
In many cases, the timing of a mitzva is as meaningful if not more so than the act itself.
The tragic events of the Golden Calf and its implications to this very day, erupted from a mistake in timing. Moshe informed the nation that he would descend from Mount Sinai 40 days after his ascent. However, according to the calculations of the erev rav (mixed multitude) 40 days had passed and Moshe had not returned. They concluded that Moshe had died on the mountain, giving rise to their evil influence on the Jews and the transgression of the Golden Calf.
One needs a scorecard to keep track of the sides and the initiatives of what is now transpiring in the Arab Gehennom of the Middle East.
Assad of Syria is from the minority Alawian faith which is attached to Shi’ah Islam, and he, as his father before him, tyrannically rules over a Syrian Sunni majority.
Sunni rebels or militants from many countries are fighting this Assad regime. To date close to a million people have been killed in Syria during the five years of conflict. Another eight million have lost their homes, forced to become refugees, with great numbers breaking down the walls of Europe destitute and in desperation…
The immune system protects the body from disease and infection. There exists a little-understood phenomena known as ‘autoimmune disease’, where suddenly the immune system attacks the body’s healthy cells.
Can such a phenomena exist in the spiritual world, where the Torah and mitzvot are our immune system to strengthen our yetzer tov and protect us from the ‘yetzer hara’? Can otherwise seemingly healthy, observant Jews, and even spiritual leaders, use the Torah to attack itself?
Running through our parasha is an unseen undertow of meaning within the physical structure of the mishkan (Tabernacle) and its functions in the desert encampment.
