Sermon - February 16, 2018

Let’s start with a little Torah, shall we:

V’yadaber Adonai el Moshe: ‘Daber el B’nei Yisrael v’yikchu li t’rumah meieit kol ish asher yeedveinu leebo tikchu et trumati.

“The Lord spoke to Moses saying: ‘Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept the gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.’”

V’asu Li Mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham

“And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.”

I will come back to these 3 verses in just a few minutes. Let me give somewhat of an explanation on how I create a sermon:

Generally, when I begin to write a sermon, or as I am gathering resources together, one of the first things I do is read through the Parasha of the week. Then, I turn to my Dropbox and look through my digital sermons to make sure I do not deliver a sermon too close to a previous one. It’s ok to bring over ideas and concepts, but not to redeliver a former sermon of mine! When I was perusing through my digital files this week, I noticed I have never given a sermon on Parashat Terumah, Exodus 25:1-27:19.

Next, I consider what is going on in the world…beginning with my congregational community and going as broad as needed. This week – it was easy to focus on what is happening in Knoxville. Tomorrow at 1 pm, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, there will be a speaker representing the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). TWP is a white supremacist and anti-Semitic organization. Directly from their website:

“We in the Traditionalist Worker Party fight for the interests of White Americans, a people who for decades have been abandoned by the System and actively attacked by globalists and traitorous politicians.”

“The Traditionalist Worker Party is America’s first political party created by and for working families. Our mission is defending Faith, Family, and Folk against the politicians and oligarchs who are running America into the ground. We intend to achieve that goal by building a nationwide network of grassroots local leaders who will lead Americans toward a peaceful and prosperous future free from economic exploitation, federal tyranny, and anti-Christian degeneracy.”

After examining current events, I turn back to the Torah to connect what is going on in our world with the lessons we find in our sacred texts. Last week, I attended a meeting with about 15 UTK faculty members and the Vice Chancellor. Our discussion was focused on whether we should respond and how to respond to this weekend’s speaker.

We all agreed that hate speech of any kind is not welcome on the UTK campus. To quote Chancellor Davenport, “Despite what their social media says, this group was not invited here by anyone at the University of Tennessee, and they are not welcome…As I have said before, hate is wrong. Racism is wrong. Advocating for the exclusion of all but one race is clearly wrong. Also, this group could not be more wrong.”

So, we all agreed that this organization and its speaker is not truly welcome on the UTK campus. However, what next? Some of the discussion focused on programming leading up to tomorrow (including several fantastic educational opportunities including learning with UTK professors on a variety of subjects), the counter protests and continued educational programs beginning next week, after tomorrow’s event.

It is at this point I begin to look for other resources, including quotes from different sources – news outlets, websites, books and other online resources. This week, it was incredibly important to bring quotes from the TWP and Chancellor Davenport. It is vital to show the approaches both TWP and UTK are taking. Let me be clear, no one believes that any of our freedoms, including Freedom of Speech, should be taken away. TWP has a right to speak and UTK has the right to protect and shield its students from hatred of any kind.

Now, let’s turn back to the 3 Torah verses I began this sermon with. You see, there is always a message in the Torah. It is not always easy to make it connect – but this week it is!

“The Lord spoke to Moses saying: ‘Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept the gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.’”

In Exodus 25, verses 1 and 2, God instructs Moses to have the Israelites bring gifts to God. However, there is a condition – “every person whose heart so moves him.” One might argue that God may have expected everyone to want to bring gifts…so, then why the provision? Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra, an 11th century Biblical Commentator and Philosopher, explained, “All contributions to the Tabernacle were voluntary except the half shekel, which was required of all. Contributions in kind were left to generosity, money was not.”  God wanted the Israelites to give charity or gifts out of their own desires to give, through generosity – to God and to our fellow men and women. As the Tabernacle was God’s dwelling place and since God’s presence was a benefit to everyone, gifts to God for the Tabernacle would be beneficial to everyone.

Now, Exodus 25:3:
“And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.”

In this verse, God directs Moses and the people of Israel to build the sanctuary that God will dwell in. However, it is not just the Tabernacle, the physical dwelling place for God, that we are learning about. God intends for the Israelites to open their hearts so that God may dwell inside of every Israelite. First, we are instructed to bring gifts to God, if our heart tell us to…now, we are instructed to open our hearts to allow God to dwell inside of us. God wants us to want to give charity or Tzedakah…then open our hearts to let God inside. These 3 verses go hand and hand together. If we are not moved to help God and others, we will not be able to let God inside our hearts. If our hearts are not open to God, we will not be able or even willing to help by bringing gifts.

Now, think about how this directly relates to what is going on at the University down the street. The faculty and staff at UTK want to educate and protect their students, all of them, from hate of any kind. Chancellor Davenport said it best when she wrote, “But I am asking you now to change the conversation away from what they stand for and toward what we stand for. We must reanimate our values, our beliefs, and our commitment to the common good. I repeatedly talk about kindness and respect and our responsibility to others because these are the virtues of a civil society and the foundations of democracy.”

Last week, one of our congregants, a professor at UTK, asked me a simple question. She wondered if anyone had reached out to Matthew Heimbach and invited him to have a conversation. Perhaps he had never met a Jewish person before, she remarked. At the time, I did not really understand what I do now. She was bringing gifts to others and opening her heart for God to dwell inside. She was attempting something that maybe never has happened – seeing the humanity through the hatred, even of someone who verbally and ideologically despises her.

Let that sink in a bit.

It is our responsibility to teach and educate about the other in our community. We should reach out across barriers and attempt to embrace the other. The faculty and staff at UTK choose to educate rather than hate. The congregant that spoke with me last week took it even a step further and suggested we reach across the hatred and see humanity. In its truest essence, this is the definition of opening our heart and letting God in. Remember, we are all created B’tzelem Elohim, “in God’s image.”

This Shabbat, let us look for humanity…

Kein Yehi Ratzon, May this be God’s will!