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Parshat Terumah
2000
A Word
The Talmud says that for us today prayer has replaced the sacrifices. Doing the work of approaching God, exercising the ability of the human to reach beyond and encounter face to face the brute existence of the Most High, is what both sacrifice and prayer are really all about. This is service for no ulterior purpose than encountering the Divine one on One, and standing in relationship with God.
If we experience Being through relationship, as Martin Buber said we do, then the primacy of the experience of approaching, standing before, and interacting with the Divine, may be one of the most powerful and necessary things we can do as humans and Jews.
A famous Chassidic Rabbi once asked, "why does the Torah say, 'Build a sanctuary for me and I will dwell in them (plural)?' Wouldn't it be more correct to say, 'build a sanctuary and I will dwell in it (singular)'?
The answer teaches us that God really desires a sanctuary in each one of us.
Prepared by Rabbi Hyim Shafner, St. Louis Hillel at Washington University.
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