T

his week’
s Torah portion 
invites us to focus on what 
is actually central to our 
Judaism, our relationship with 
God. 
Amidst our busy lives, it 
is easy to lose sight of this 
relationship. Initially, we 
read about Moshe standing 
on Har Sinai encountering 
God. It seems as if each one 
of us as individuals is only 
going to hear from Moshe 
the instructions for building 
the Mishkan, God’
s sanc-
tuary amongst the Jewish 
people. However, a close 
reading of the opening vers-
es through the lens of the 
Midrash reveals that God is 
inviting us to build a per-
sonal relationship with Him. 
Our ultimate task as Jews is to 
connect intimately with the Divine, 
to learn from the Torah and follow 
God’
s ways. This week’
s portion 
begins with God reaching out to us, 
asking us to enter into a relation-
ship.
“The Lord spoke to Moses, say-
ing: ‘
Tell the Israelite people to 
bring Me gifts; you shall accept 
gifts for Me from every person 
whose heart so moves him. And 

these are the gifts that you shall 
accept from them: gold, silver and 
copper.’
” (Shemot 25:1-3)
The Midrash Shemot 
Rabbah explains these begin-
ning verses are really God 
calling out for an intimate 
connection with the Jewish 
people. God is telling the 
Jewish people, take Me, con-
nect to Me. Shemot Rabbah 
(49:2) explains the verse, 
“Tell the Israelite people to 
take Me as an offering.” 
The Midrash continues 
that God is reaching out to 
the Jewish people as if we are 
lovers, citing the famous bib-
lical book of Song of Songs, 
verse 2:16: “My beloved is 
mine And I am his …”

Parashat Terumah is an invitation 
from God to all of us, an opportu-
nity for all of us to enter into rela-
tionship with God. 
Let us take this Shabbat and 
focus and reflect on how we can 
build our own individual relation-
ships with God. Let us embrace 
God with open arms. ■

Rabbi David Fain is rabbi at Hillel Day School 

of Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills.

42 February 7 • 2019
jn

jews d
in 
the
section

Our Divine Relationship 

Rabbi 
David Fain

Parshat 

Terumah: 

Exodus 25:1-

27:19; I Kings 

5:26-6:13.

spirit

torah portion

