Teruma
Reflection by Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, Or HaLev Teacher
What allows our practice to flourish?
"Parashat Teruma mostly concerns itself with building the Mishkan, the travelling sanctuary in which the Divine would dwell. One of its most famous verses is,
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם.
`Make for me a Mishkan, a dwelling place, a sanctuary, so that I might dwell amongst you`(Exodus 25:8).
I think this instruction is incredibly important for practice.
Practice doesn't just happen. Practice takes a lot of care and preparation. When I prepare to practice, I ensure that I have the setup that I need, the cushion perhaps, or the chair, whatever it is I'm going to use.
That preparation in itself allows practice to deepen. So too, the Mishkan didn't just happen on its own. The Parasha goes into great detail about all of the materials that were required with precision. It describes how the Mishkan was to be built out of the materials that were brought by the people from a place of generosity.
So too, as we practice, it's not that we expect an immediate transformation. Practice is itself a process of deepening, growing, changing. And part of what allows that to flourish and to happen is how we prepare ourselves for practice, whether that's internally, spiritually, mentally, whether that's very practically creating our own Mishkan in our practice space, wherever that may be.
As we move with Parashat Teruma this week, just as we experience again the building of the Mishkan in which the Divine will dwell, so too may we take gentle care with our own Mishkan, inside and around. Shabbat Shalom."