A Poem for Parashat Terumah: Raise it Up!

O Lord

To You

I raise it all 

Up

Terum - ah 

Ah Ah Up

I lift it all up in Your name

The joys and the laughter

And the lilting songs

And most of all the

Sorrows

The aching pit in my belly

Long and narrow

Throbbing with 

Some Inexplicable rawness

The tender heart of loneliness

Grief, a hole

Someone 

Something always 

Missing

And the dancing whirling dervish

The one that hides the pain

In restlessness

To You, O Lord

I raise these all up

I take them in for you 

Veyikhu li

For Your sake

I welcome them

Shelter them

And do not 

Dismiss

Deny

Diminish

Though sometimes I 

Do

But today For You

I take them in

Say: I consent

Recieve them as gifts

And in so receiving

I give them 

Back 

Still in me

But Elevated

Terumah

A gift from you, for you.

I lift them 

Along with my eyes

To the mountains

Whence my help comes

And 

Now

See some joy comes out of this sorrow:

From the mountaintop

The pit and the dervish are

Flying, Soaring

 -- Teroooomaaaaah -- 

On the wings of the two cherubs

That cover the Ark.

The space between those angelic creatures

Where You said You would meet me

Forms a heart 

My heart

Broken and Open

To You.

I meet You there.

From the peak i see colors.

I see now

Through Your eyes

That my pit of pain 

is filled with

Gold,

Silver and

Copper.

Blue,

Purple and

Crimson yarns.

Fine linen

Goats’ hair

Dolphin skins

Acacia wood and

Aromatic incense.

Lapis lazuli

Sapphire

Amethyst

Emerald

Jacinth 

And agate.

Precious stones all.

Gifts from You and for You.

And also

Oil for lighting and for 

Anointing

My own head

Dishanta bashemen roshi.

I feel it dripping down me

Through me

I am made of Your

Glory

Your bright 

Shining

Beautiful 

Sparkling

Light.  

Out of these materials --

The sorrows

(and also the joys but they know they can do it) --

We build a home for 

You to

Dwell

Inside us.

Ve’asu li mikdash veShakhanti 

Betokham.

This song is the house

I built for You

Out of Your gifts.

Thank you for dwelling

In it

In me.

There is nothing missing now.  

Some Notes of Explanation:

1. Terumah is the word used for the gifts given by the Israelites for the Tabernacle construction.   It is related to the word rum, meaning “to raise or lift up.”

2. Veyikhu li -- “They should take for Me” the Terumah, the gifts for the Tabernacle (Ex 25:2).  Note the strangeness of the word “take” with reference to a gift; “give” would have made more sense.  The “take” verb  implies that we are both taking/accepting gifts from God and giving to Him at the same time. 

3. Mountains -- a reference to Ps 121: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains whence my help comes.” 

4. Cherubs -- this week’s parsha gives instructions for constructing the Tabernacle, beginning with its heart -- the aron, the ark, which housed the Tablets.  Above this ark was a cover with two keruvim, angelic creatures, leaning toward each other with their wings outstretched.  The Torah tells us that it was in the space between those two figures that God’s voice could be heard.  God says of this space: veno’aditi likha sham, “I will meet you there” (Exod 25:22).

5.  Gold, silver, . . .   -- these are the materials the Torah lists as being brought as gifts for the Tabernacle.  See Exod 25:3-7 and 28: 17-20).  

6. Oil for anointing - one of the gifts listed.   Dishanta bashemen roshi, “You have anointed my head with oil” from Mizmor Ledavid, Psalm 23. 

7. Ve’asu li mikdash veshakhanti betokham, “Let them make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell inside them” (Exod 25:8).   Traditional commentaries note the shift in number from the singular “sanctuary” to the plural betokham, “in them.”  It should have said “in it,” meaning “in the sanctuary that you build.”  One interpretation is that God intends to dwell not so much inside the physical building as inside all of us, that we each are to construct a sanctuary in our own hearts for God to dwell in.