I gave the following Dvar Torah at the Colorado Jewish Community Relations Council Meeting on Thursday 14 February 2013
Has G-d come back to dwell amongst his people at this time? I thought this was a timely question to ask, especially with all that is going on in the world – The middle east uprisings of citizens, the tensions between the Palestinian’s and the Israeli’s, between North Korea and its neighbors and the US, the issues in Mali and other African nations, Pope Benedict XVI being the first to resign in 600 years, and the issues we have right here in our own backyard.
Moses is told by Adonai to tell the people of Israel to bring him gifts so that they may build a sanctuary so that Ha’Shem can dwell among them. This Tabernacle that g-d has ask his people to build is a place that is holy, a place for the Tablets of the Pact to be kept, a place that the Israelites can send their holy energy so that they may know g-d.
I believe that G-d is with us today. But we must believe that Ha’Shem is with us. It is not the physical items that draw g-d to us or have him dwell amongst us but rather it is those physical items that allow us to remember that g-d is truly amongst us and that we only have to open our hearts to Ha’Shem to know Ha’Shem is there. Just as the Tabernacle was not a fixed location and the Israelites can take it with them, so shall we be able to take the holiness of Ha’Shem with us wherever we go and know that he dwells amongst us and not in the place of the tabernacle.
For example, we, as Jews, don’t symbolize Mount Sinai as a holy place, nor do we pilgrimage there for any reason. We know that wherever we are and know that g-d is amongst us, that we are in a holy place.
Just as Adonai is amongst us, may we remember that we are amongst our community providing the relations to the greater community of Colorado and relating any issues back to our own organizations. May we let Ha’Shem dwell amongst us as we go our ways.
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