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March 27, 2009
A spiritual home renovation
We also must focus on clearing ourselves of anything leavened.
DAVE GORDON
In these weeks leading up to Passover, Jews around the world spend a great deal of time cleaning out their homes. It is not only so that we can be rid of chametz; so much as a speck in our possession is forbidden. It serves as a metaphor. We must not clear our homes without also endeavoring to search ourselves of anything leavened – the puffy, airy, meaningless parts of our lives that are spiritually bereft.
The past number of Torah portions (Ki Tisa, Veyachel-Pekudei and Vayikrah) details how to build the centrepiece for our spiritual home, the Tabernacle, and carries valuable lessons on how to build a spiritual centre within our own house.
Our two spiritual homes today are the synagogue as a temporary Temple and our own homes, where we bring Judaism into our lives. But our spiritual home improvement rarely gets as much attention as the physical home improvements. Many of us spend money on remodeling our kitchen, yet some of us shrug at spending on anything religious-oriented and scoff at remodeling our spiritual lives for the better.
Rabbi Isaac of Slonim brings in an interesting lesson. Impatient for Moses to descend from Mount Sinai, the Israelites took their gold earrings to melt into a calf, which they danced around and worshipped. The Israelites, at least, were prepared to surrender their wealth in the zealous pursuit of spirituality – however misguided. In contrast, most people today are too quick to surrender their connection with God in order to pursue wealth. If only we had half the enthusiasm in dedicating our resources to God as the Israelites did at the golden calf, the Jewish people would be in much better shape.
Our own homes and the Temple have much in common. God commanded that the Sabbath mustn't be transgressed even if to build anything relating to the holy Sanctuary. Thus, when the physical improvements cease, the spiritual improvements have more focus. When we halt our work, pausing our efforts to attain physical wealth, we can easily begin to appreciate our family more and dedicate special time to God.
In their fervor to build a "Temple," or a centre for worship, the Israelites built the golden calf. The Torah says it was made specifically out of earrings. Why not bracelets, finger rings or gold coins? Talmudic reasoning teaches that it is sometimes not enough to ask, "Why this?" but also to ask, "Why not that?"
Judaism teaches that wisdom begins with listening. There is the Oral Law (which is as much the Aural Law), the Shema (Hear, O Israel) as the seminal prayer and the Ten Commandments in Hebrew are called the Eseret Dibrut (the Ten Utterances). As well, the Jewish people took on the law by saying, "We will obey, and we will listen." The jewelry of the ears was the sacrifice of choice, symbolic of the fact that the Children of Israel gave up on listening to the word of God.
Those guilty of worshipping the idol were made to drink a solution of finely ground golden calf, similar to the punishment for adultery in Temple times, the Sotah, a potion that poisoned the stomach. Why did this idol worship and adultery have a similar punishment? They both are the wilful betrayal of a close bond relationship. But there is something deeper. Idol worship is a repudiation of God's word and commandments. God's mitzvot are taught, and nourished in the home. The family relationship, too, is nurtured in the home. The walls of the stomach are like the metaphorical walls of the home, in these cases both polluted and crumbling from the inside.
In the parashah following the golden calf, the Torah reveals that the Israelites had plenty of kinds of gold: bracelets, nose rings, various jewelry and all sorts of gold ornaments worn by both men and women alike. They were then offered by God an opportunity to donate these materials in any quantity they chose to build their spiritual home – in a manner in which they "followed their hearts." One can only imagine the awkwardness and guilt of a nation to be asked to contribute to create the ark and apparatus of the Tabernacle – to donate as their heart desired – mere days after they hurriedly surrendered all of their golden earrings to a false god. It didn't take anyone "head smart" to realize that, in their hearts, they had to offer more than just gold earrings to the house of God. From this we learn that if we spend so much on the "idols" of materialism, we must be cognizant of the resources we dedicate towards the investment of our spiritual selves. Just as sure as we get our monthly bank statement, it is a good idea to balance our spiritual checkbook, too.
Yet, God is pretty clear that even He does not want us deterred and distracted by objects of gold, even in His house. Surprisingly, perhaps, of all of the Jewish things we immerse our entire selves in, a sukkah, a mikvah and a Jewish home, the holy Temple isn't included. The sukkah is made mostly (if not all) from nature, the mikvah contains only natural waters and the Jewish home is most often (if not always) made of plain, natural, ordinary substances of bricks, wood and mortar. As important as God's house was (and is), surrounded by everything in gold, only parts of oneself are exposed to it, and infrequently so. Our dwelling places (whether temporary or permanent), where we surround ourselves with mitzvot, are meant to be humbler, simpler. More importantly, though, we are regularly to put our entire bodies (and resources) into things that are not gold. Doing so makes spiritual home improvement more possible.
Dave Gordon is a freelance writer. His website is DaveGordonWrites.com.
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