Raise a Glass to Freedom
9 min read
GOOD MORNING! A few weeks ago I was visiting a prominent member of the South Florida Jewish community who was sitting shiva (observing the seven-day Jewish mourning period) for his mom who had passed. While there, he spoke about how his mother, even in her nineties, had managed to keep very busy and active. He then said that he had always wondered why so many retired men his age seemed to lack the initiative to continue to grow as people.
"Why aren’t the batei midrashim (Jewish “study halls”) filled with these older men studying Torah?” He asked. “What do they do all day that they can’t devote several hours a day to studying?” In truth, he is absolutely correct. After all, there is no higher ideal in Judaism than the serious study of Torah and Torah principles, which are lifelong obligations.
While men have the responsibility to take care of their families and earn a living, once those responsibilities have been fulfilled and/or addressed (such as in retirement) why aren’t these men spending more time occupying themselves with the study of Torah?
I suggested to him that perhaps the reason is because genuine Torah study is hard work. Anyone can, and many do, attend a Daf Yomi shiur – a class where they study a daily page of the Talmud – and that is commendable. But to sit and devote the energy and many hours it takes to methodically break down different Talmudic passages dealing with complicated issues requires dedication and enormous critical thinking effort. Frankly, and perhaps even sadly, many men don’t have the aspiration for perspiration.
I am reminded of the following joke. A man went to see his doctor complaining that he felt lethargic and wasn’t up to doing things around the house like he did in previous years. The doctor gave him a thorough examination and tested him for all sorts of medical issues that may be causing his general malaise.
When the doctor completed all the tests he came back into the room. The patient said, “Doc, give it to me straight, I can handle it. Tell me, in plain English, what’s wrong with me?” The doctor replied, “Well, in plain English, nothing’s wrong with you – you’re just plain lazy.”
“Okay,” the man said slowly, “Now give me the medical term so that I can tell it to my wife.”
In this week’s Torah reading we find a fascinating lesson regarding the Aron – the Holy Ark of the Covenant that was crafted to hold the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, and which resided in the “Holy of Holies” section of the Tabernacle.
“They shall make an Aron of acacia wood, two and a half cubits its length; a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high. You shall cover it with pure gold, from inside and from outside you shall cover it […]” (25:10-11).
This week's Torah portion introduces the creation of the Tabernacle and the majority of its vessels. Regarding the Ark, Rashi (25:11) informs us that the Ark was actually comprised of three separate boxes; two boxes (one larger and one smaller) were fashioned from pure gold and one box made from acacia wood.
The smaller gold box was placed into the wooden one and then the wooden box was placed inside the larger gold box. Additionally, the inner gold box had an upper overlaid gold rim that covered the wooden box; in this way the Ark was actually completely covered, inside and outside, with gold.
The great 12th century Spanish Biblical commentator known as Ibn Ezra asks (ad loc), “Once they were making boxes out of gold why was it necessary to have a box made out of wood?” Ibn Ezra continues by pointing out that, aside from the Menorah, everything else was crafted out of wood and coated with a thin layer of gold. While Rashi is quoting the view found in the Talmud (Yoma 72b), Ibn Ezra finds this understanding of the Ark’s construction untenable.
Ibn Ezra’s question seems to be compelling. What possible reason could there be to fashion a box out of wood and then place it within two gold boxes? In fact, the Talmud has a principle that governs the attitude toward the different components needed for the Tabernacle and Holy Temple: “In a place of wealth there is no poverty.” If a knife became chipped it wasn’t repaired; it was melted down and re-formed. The priestly clothes weren’t patched; they were shredded to be used for wicks.
In fact, the Talmud (Yoma 39a) specifically points out that wooden vessels weren’t used for any of the services in the Holy Temple and Maimonides rules that wooden vessels were prohibited from use (Yad Hilchos Beis Habechira 1:18). Ibn Ezra seems to be right; what purpose is there in having a wooden box layered within two gold ones?
While it’s true that gold is much more valuable and brings greater honor to the service, there is at least one aspect of wood that makes it superior to gold.
In prior editions of the Shabbat Shalom Fax of Life we have discussed that there is a hierarchy within the order of creation. Gold is an inanimate and inert object, while wood is sourced from a living and growing organism – trees. This clearly places wood above gold in the hierarchy. However, even more significantly, trees represent the exercise of free will in this world.
Originally, God ordered the earth to bring forth trees that tasted like the fruit they produced, but the earth refused to cooperate (see Genesis 1:11 and Rashi ad loc). According to our sages, the earth reasoned that if the trees tasted like the fruit then the trees themselves would be consumed and thus be unable to produce fruit.
God punished the earth and later cursed it for its disobedience when Adam himself sinned by exercising his own free will (see Genesis 3:17-18 and Rashi ad loc). Man, who is fashioned from the earth (the name Adam comes from the Hebrew word adamah – earth), has the same attribute: the ability to choose whether or not to listen to the Almighty.
Thus, trees are a true representation of man’s potential. Without the ability to choose man would be unable to grow and refine himself. While having free choice was Adam’s downfall, in that when he sinned he created a fracture in his relationship with the Almighty, it was also his saving grace. This is because man can freely choose to follow God’s laws and earn a relationship with Him. This growth process is actually the purpose of all of creation.
In fact, without man’s ability to choose freely there would be no evidence of the Almighty in this world, for it is up to man to create a presence and a home for God in this world. It is this attribute of having free choice that the Torah is alluding to when it compares man to a tree of the field (see Deuteronomy 20:19) and in the very same verse it prohibits destroying trees that produce fruit (a clear allusion to the sins of both the earth and of man).
Therefore, the wooden box of the Ark is actually most appropriate for the center of the holiest vessel in the Tabernacle inside of the Holy of Holies for it represents the entire purpose of creation and man’s role within it.
The Talmud (Yoma 72b) makes a rather startling statement from this very same verse: “Said Rava – what does the Torah mean by; ‘You shall cover it with pure gold, from inside and from outside you shall cover it’?” This teaches us that any Torah scholar whose “inside” is not like his “outside” (i.e. he merely projects an image of being devout) is not a true Torah scholar.
In other words, we learn from the Holy Ark of the Covenant that a person (represented by the inner wooden box) must refine both his outward behavior (represented by the outer gold box) and his inner self (represented by the inner gold box). This is extremely hard work and many neglect it because real change is very difficult.
Even people who focus on personal growth often succumb to the pitfall of spending their lives working to improve their outer image (e.g. looks, clothes, material acquisitions, etc.) – what they project to others – instead of utilizing their time and energy to refine their key character traits and inner self. Focusing one’s energy on internal personal growth will lead to external change. Eventually, that internal growth actually improves one’s self-image as well since one’s outer image should reflect who they truly are.
The reason the inner box of the Ark is wood, and not merely wood overlaid with gold (as suggested by Ibn Ezra), is because man must always recognize who he really is and constantly strive for growth. Gold cannot be overlaid to create a different object. The essence of man is represented by the freedom to choose and it is he who must create the gold on the inside and the gold on the outside.
Terumah, Exodus 25:1 - 27:19
This week's Torah reading is an architect’s or interior designer’s dream portion. It begins with the Almighty commanding Moses to tell the Jewish people to donate the materials necessary for the construction of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary.
The Torah continues with the details for constructing the Ark, the Table, the Menorah, the Tabernacle (the central area of worship containing the Ark, the Menorah, the Incense Altar, and the Table), the Beams composing the walls of the Tabernacle, the Cloth Partition (separating the Holy of Holies, where the Ark rested, from the remaining Sanctuary part of the Tabernacle), the Altar, and the Enclosure for the Tabernacle (surrounding curtains forming a rectangle within which was approximately 15x larger than the Tabernacle).
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Evan Makovsky
