Why I Love Learning with the Sisterhood (Terumah 02/21/26)

Why I Love Learning with the Sisterhood

As I prepared this week’s Torah reading, Terumah, my annual feelings of crankiness and boredom returned. Do we really need to spend four weeks to learn how they built the Tabernacle in the desert?

While I love the concept of closeness to God, “And let them make a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them,” do I really need to know how exactly many cubits each item was and where to place the rings for the carrying poles? This was a one-time command! When Solomon built the First Temple and Herod the Second Temple, they used entirely different dimensions.

If the Torah is meant to be a sacred text of teachings for all generations, then why spend generous time on the details of a work never to be replicated?

Even the book of Deuteronomy considers the Tabernacle as obsolete:

“You are not permitted to slaughter the passover sacrifice in any of the settlements that the ETERNAL, your God, is giving you; but at the place where the ETERNAL, your God, will choose to establish the divine name, there alone shall you slaughter the passover sacrifice…”

If the Torah was going to give us construction details, shouldn’t it have been for the Temple in Jerusalem instead?

This past Shabbat in synagogue, we discussed the “Documentary Hypothesis.”

This theory posits that around 500 BCE, the Prophet Ezra compiled the Torah from various early Jewish sources. Before the consolidation of the Torah, the laws, history, and beliefs of the Hebrews varied slightly among different groups. These included the Hebrews in Northern Israel, Judah, the Priestly class, and the perspective associated with the Kings.

The Torah readings concerning the Tabernacle are understood to originate from the Priestly (Kohanic) source, whereas those describing the permanent Temple were implemented by the later kings of Judah.

As we questioned the need for the Tabernacle’s details, Iris Lesser proposed a solid solution. Ezra was from the Priestly class, who were proponents of the Tabernacle. He returned from Babylon to establish the Second Commonwealth of Israel. But this return did not include a king of Israel. We were a vassal state of the Persian Empire. It was only through King Cyrus’ grace that we were able to reestablish ourselves in Judah after seventy years of exile.

Iris suggested that, given the returning Jewish exiles’ poverty and the absence of a king, Ezra may have viewed the portable Tabernacle as the most realistic form of worship they could initially establish in the Holy Land. This rationale would account for the four Torah portions detailing construction, providing valuable guidance for the nascent community Ezra was rebuilding. Hundreds of years later, when Herod had the means, he would build the Temple to Solomon’s standards.

This is why I love our monthly Real Housewives of Canaan learning sessions with the sisterhood. These intelligent women, unprejudiced by the traditional rabbinic teachings, regularly offer brilliant and original insights.

While the parshiyot for the next three weeks are still far from a compelling reading, they’re much more significant-thank you, Iris.

Stay warm,

R’ Neil