parallel parasha

13, 11, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, and 10. 

It reads like a secret code or the gematria for tying tzitzit. When in fact, it is the number of inches between each of the 10 bookshelves that will hold the prayer books in our new sanctuary. 

One of my very specific construction tasks this week was to figure out the optimal spacing of the shelves in our new sanctuary to accommodate our shabbat siddurim, machzorim, chumashim and a few tikkunim. I measured each book an embarrassing number of times and assessed the spacing of all of our various existing bookshelves. I tried to determine how many books would fit on each shelf. I even called a friend to ask about the potential size of a future chumash we might want to buy, lest we need to resize the shelves in 5 years when it is published. Needless to say, I updated the markings on the bare drywall three times.

I cannot tell you how many times in the last year someone has joked, “They probably didn’t to teach you this in rabbinical school!” Commercial lease negotiations, HVAC specifications, permit fitout drawings, soundproofing materials, and the list goes on. I affectionately refer to these details as the parallel parsha. These days you are more likely to find me reviewing MEP drawings than studying Talmud. 

This year as we complete the book of Exodus, the minutia of the Mishkan does not feel abstract or even metaphorical. Even the redundancy makes sense. It is in fact true that you must first design every detail and then build it. Just this morning I revisited an email in December where we decided on the precise handle to be installed on the sanctuary doors. Now it is time to actually purchase it. Every detail has been designed discussed and budgeted for at least twice, if not more. I will not tell you how many times we have reviewed which windows need to be frosted and which tinted, the soundproofing materials, the lighting specifications, the locations of microphones and cameras. 

When this process started, I imagined delegating most of these decisions and staying in my lane as ritual leader. But I quickly learned that every detail was relevant to ritual leadership. How will we orient the room? Where will the prayground go? Will the chairs have a place to store prayer books and will the chumashim fit? (Yes, they will!) No detail was too small to impact the ritual experience of the room. Accessibility was considered for every outlet, every texture, every doorway – both for the varied needs of our community, but also for the Divine. What will most allow us to open our hearts to the holiness in each other? This has been my guiding question. 

These days all of this work is not a parallel parsha. It’s in the parsha after all!
Blue, purple, and crimson yarns. Hammered out sheets of gold. Tanned ram skins and dolphin skins. Many hundreds of cubits of fine twisted linen with their exact number of posts and sockets. 

The parsha begins, 
אֵלֶּה פְקוּדֵי הַמִּשְׁכָּן
These are the records of the Tabernacle…

They brought the Tabernacle to Moses, with the Tent and all its furnishings: its clasps, its planks, its bars, its posts, and its sockets; the lampstand, the gold altar, and the copper bowl for washing.

The book of Exodus ends this week when the Israelites complete the Mishkan and Moses blesses them. One midrash (Bemidbar Rabah 12:9) asks, “Well what was Moses’ blessing?” To which the rabbis respond with the words of Psalm 90, verse 17: 

וִיהִי  נֹעַם אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ עָלֵינוּ 
וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנָה עָלֵינוּ 
וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנֵהוּ׃

May the sweetness of the Shechinah be upon us,
May the work of our hands endure,
O flourish the work of our hands!

I am so grateful to everyone in our community who has and will participate in the building of our mishkan. May we merit to experience נֹעַם אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ עָלֵינוּ - the sweetness of the Holy One in our midst. In the words of Exodus 25,
עָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם.
Make for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in your midst. 

It is with great anticipation that we will be moving into our new sanctuary on April 1. Everyone is invited to mark this moment and make this transition on Sunday March 31 from 3-6 pm. We will begin at Calvary with a Tisch, to say L’chaim to Calvary, our spiritual home for the last 19 years.  And then we will parade with the Torahs and the Simcha Band to 5300 Whitby to prepare the sanctuary for our first shabbat. The first parsha we read will be parashat Shimini. The same week B’nei Yisrael inaugurates their mishkan we will initiate ours. 

May our new sanctuary bring refuge, connection, joy and resilience to all who encounter it.