Parshat Teruma

This week’s haftarah selection comes from the fifth and sixth chapters of Sefer Melachim I, and Chazal’s choice of haftarah requires little explanation. Our parsha begins with Hashem’s command to collect necessary materials for the construction of a Mikdash (“V’asu li mikdash”), a Sanctuary. This “Mikdash” built in the desert is often referred to as a “Mishkan,” a Tabernacle, as it was to be a more temporary dwelling that, by necessity, was to be portable, easily set up and easily taken down. The parsha continues describing what the donated materials were to be used for, detailing the blueprint of the building as well as the “klei haMishkan,” the furniture, appurtenances and trappings of the Tabernacle, whose construction took six months.

The enterprise in the time of Shlomo Hamelech that the haftarah describes, however, was a far more grand undertaking. Although it too contained the very same basics as did the Mishkan, the Beit Hamikdash was built to evoke awe and amazement from all who would visit it. A major edifice meant to stand for many years, its construction eventually took almost seven years to complete. And, as described in the haftarah, it indeed was quite a magnificent structure.

But there were more troubling contrasts that our mefarshim note. The Mishkan was built, primarily, by voluntary donations; donations so generous that Moshe had to make a public declaration that more than enough materials had been collected. Everyone participated in this undertaking and gave of their resources and talents: artisans, craftsmen and workers. Women, too, were involved in the task as they took care of the hand weaving necessary for the hangings in the Mishkan.

But, as Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch comments, this was not so with Shlomo’s Mikdash, where the opposite seemed to be true. In describing the task we read “Vaya’al Shlomo mas,” Shlomo raised a compulsory “tax,” i.e., a workforce that included 30,000 who were sent to Phoenicia in shifts, 70,000 porters and 80,000 stone masons. Rabbi Joseph Hertz even suggests that this very “non-Jewish” use of forced-laborers may have well been suggested by Shlomo’s father-in-law, the Pharaoh of Egypt. And, while the construction in the desert was done only by “ovdei Hashem,” monotheistic Israelites, Shlomo contacts Chiram, the king of idolatrous Phoenicians, for assistance in procuring the necessary wood for the Holy Temple.

The differences may seem superficial but the Abarbanel writes that the prophecy shared by Hashem to Shlomo that the Temple would stand as long as the people followed God’s commands was meant to hint that, despite the grandeur of the building, it would not be eternal. And, as Rav Hirsch opines, that Hashem was telling Shlomo that it was not the beauty and magnificence of the building that would define its success, but its ability to inspire sincere worship of God that would guarantee its eternity.

Whether Mishkan or Mikdash, or synagogue, it is what we do within its walls that would create its kedusha.

By Rabbi Neil N. Winkler

Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee and now lives in Israel.