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BETH EL

A Day Of Rest

A New Chapter In Our History

Parshat Vayachel: Exodus 35:1-38:20;
I Kings 7:40-7:50.

As WeWelcome,

Rabbi Mark Miller!

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TO BUILD ARO
TO RE BUILT

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n six days, work may be
done, but on the seventh
day you shall have a Sabbath
of complete rest, holy to the Lord:'
(Exodus 35:2)
Not working on Shabbat
is core. Everyone knows
this, so much so that the
root word of Shabbat has
entered English to mean
rest, as in the notion of
an academic sabbatical.
It begins with the Ten
Commandments, where
Shabbat apart from all the
other Holy Days is explicitly
mentioned.
And the reason is given,
actually two reasons, in Exodus; the
reason is to rest as God rested after six
days of Creation. In Deuteronomy, the
reason is as a response to slavery in
Egypt.
But, asks the inquisitive, what is
work? Perhaps the bricklayer will bake
and the baker will paint houses? To
fix this problem, our tradition noted
that the above verse weirdly occurs
far from the Ten Commandments
in the midst of the discussion of the
Mishkan's (our people's portable tent/
temple) building instructions.
What became understood as work,
for everyone, were the 39 categories of
labor involved in the Mishkan's set-up
and take down. Activities such as sew-
ing and tearing that were involved in
the elaborate curtains of the Mishkan.
Today, a segment of our community,
either pre-tear toilet paper or buy it
pre-torn in order to maintain this pro-
hibition.
But perhaps there is another expla-
nation for the strange placement of

Exodus 35:2. It is not only in the midst
of a long discussion of the Mishkan,
its materials and its plans. The verse
also immediately follows an exceed-
ingly strange passage in
which Moses appears to be
so charged by Divine ema-
nation that he shoots forth
rays of light from his face.
Frightened, the people run
from him and the situation
is only resolved by Moses'
wearing a veil in public.
This is the power of God's
presence; the power of
being close to the Divine.
You glow. Well, I want some
of that glow, too! I want to
radiate the Divine presence. Is this
only available to Moses? Well, Moses
got it the "easy" way, being God's loyal
servant, who knew God face to face
and was a welcome member of His
household. We, on the other hand,
must work for our nearness.
Or rather we must not work for our
nearness. To find even a smidgen of
what Moses fully partook, we need to
follow Moses' example of separation
from the ordinary. Work is ordinary;
everyone does it. Rest is exemplary
and takes us to the higher realm of
quietude and peace.
Work is more than 39 kinds of labor,
and rest is more than "working" not
to do them. Rest is expanding your
consciousness beyond the everyday to
stretch yourself into the universe. Rest
is to radiate forth your soul's desire
for God and to connect to the deeper
truths of the universe.

❑

Robert Levy is a rabbi at Temple Beth
Emeth in Ann Arbor.

•..

Our new lead Rabbi,
Mark Miller, pictured here with his
wife, Rachel Ann, and children,
Mori (9), and Abraham (7).

'

D WI NasS

THE sPEcla

Join us in Celebrating

Rabbi Miller's first Shabbat
at Temple Beth El

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28

6:30 pm Pre-Neg (wine &"lite bites')
7:30 pm Services followed by a festive Oneg

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7- catarrh, a
celebag:m
Can.61 a. 1 So6ie
Rack" Ka6nowz&
y,ears. at 7B5

The evening will include
a vodka tasting bar,
hors d'oeuvres, a little
Purim surprise, and a
musical tribute.

5- bread

word,

most
to /721:5S tLus

0941,

oRce-&-a-ekcack
evatt:

Temple Beth El 7400 Telegraph Road Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 248 851-1100 tbeonline.org

1896060

ebruary 20 • 2014

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