Where Will God Live?

Exodus began with birth in a time of death, when God appeared as midwives'hands and as a path through raging waters. And then Moses became God's mouth, and the rabble became a people. After Sinai, where will God live? The last five parashiyot of Exodus set forth detailed instructions for the creation of the Mishkan, God's traveling abode. But those directions are interrupted by the construction of a molten calf that provokes such fury from Moses that he smashes the tablets containing the words that will guide the Jewish people for the rest of human history. Parashat Vayak'heil begins after Moses descends once again from the mountain, radiant in the light of God's renewed commitment. Now the description of the plans for the Tabernacle can continue.

The first words of the portion direct our attention to Moses's growth:" Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them: . . ." (Exodus 35:1). According to Siftei Tzaddikim,Moses has learned that the people need to be brought together in common purpose before they can begin the work of building the Mishkan (cited in Ma'ayanah shel Torah [Wellsprings of Torah] , ed. A. Z. Friedman [Brooklyn, NY: Judaica Press, 1990], p.188). Robert Alter points out, "This initial clause . . . is a neat reversal of the inception of the Golden Calf episode. . . . Instead of a rebellious assembling of the people, their leader now assembles them" (The Five Books of Moses [New York: W. W. Norton, 2004], p. 514). Moses brings the people together by reiterating the challenge of Shabbat.

Shabbat is the crown of creation:"On the seventh day, God had completed the work that had been done, ceasing then on the seventh day from all the work that [God] had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. . . " (Genesis 2:2-3). When the hungry Israelites find manna in the desert, they are instructed on the sixth day to gather and prepare double the amount of the other days and to refrain from gathering on the seventh day. Not all obey (see Exodus 16:22-30). Later, at Sinai, the people are charged: "Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Eternal your God: you shall not do any work. . . . For in six days the Eternal made heaven and earth and sea . . . " (Exodus 20:8-11). This is the first time that human beings are told that because God rested, we too must cease our toil, making a distinction between production and reflection.

In Ki Tisa, the direction to observe Shabbat comes before the building of the Golden Calf: "One who profanes it shall be put to death: whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among kin" (Exodus 31:14). Again in Vayak'heil, the prohibition against work is stated as a capital offense : ". . .  whoever does any work on it shall be put to death" (Exodus 35:2). Failure to sanctify this time is taken as an act of profanation, which, according to this teaching, merits death.

What does it mean to sanctify the seventh day? The Israelites'response to this seemingly impossible challenge from a God they could neither see nor imagine may have led to the construction of the eigel , the glittering Golden Calf, a tangible representation of divinity. Moses and the people are forever transformed by that experience. When Moses approaches the people at the beginning of this portion, he does so with a greater appreciation of their frailties (and his own) and with a renewed understanding of their strength (and of his, as well). Perhaps acknowledging the incomprehensibility of what it means to cease from work, he adds a single sentence that had not previously been included in any of the descriptions of Sabbath observance:"You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the sabbath day" (Exodus 35:3).

Aviva Zornberg teaches that Sforno "reads the function of fire as precondition to all forms of creative work," and she continues to explore the metaphor of fire, suggesting that the enflamed passions of the people that led to the creation of the molten calf must now be mediated in the construction of the Mishkan (The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus [New York: Doubleday, 2001], pp. 465ff.).

Now, as the chastened people stand ready to contribute both their goods and their energies to the creation of the Miskhan, they are told to hold their fire, to temper their passion, to understand their fervor in light of a greater ideal: Shabbat. Shabbat comes before even the creation of the holy Mishkan. Shabbat, not the Mishkan, is where God lives.

What does this teaching mean to us, who like our ancestors, struggle to understand and observe Shabbat, both as reality and as metaphor? On December 15, 2007, Rabbi Eric Yoffie challenged both the five thousand Reform Jews gathered in San Diego and all Reform Jews who were not present that day (just as Moses addresses Israelites present and not present in Deuteronomy 29:13-14):

For our stressed-out, sleep-deprived families, the Torah's mandate to rest looks relevant and sensible. Our tradition does not instruct us to stop working altogether on Shabbat; after all, it takes a certain amount of effort to study, pray, and go to synagogue. But we are asked to abstain from the work that we do to earn a living, and instead to reflect, to enjoy, and to take a stroll through the neighborhood. . . . We are asked to stop running around long enough to see what God is doing.

What God is doing is looking for a home. Vayak'heil teaches us that that God's home is Shabbat. Week after week, we have the power to build-and to dwell in-that home. In his classic book, The Sabbath (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951) , Abraham Joshua Heschel writes,"Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul" (p. 13). This week, who of us will care for that precious seed that links us to both our ancestors and our descendants? Who of us will emulate God's example and shavat v'yinafash, "rest and renew our souls"? Who of us will welcome God home?

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, PhD, spent nearly two decades working with synagogue leaders to keep congregations healthy and vibrant through the Union for Reform Judaism. The founding director of the Los Angeles Jewish Feminist Center and the first rabbinic director of Ma'yan: The Jewish Women's Program of the JCC of Manhattan, Elwell served as editor of Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation (2001), The Open Door: A Passover Haggadah (2002), poetry editor of the award winning The Torah: A Women's Commentary (2008), and as editor of Chapters of the Heart (2013). She continues her rabbinate through study, teaching, writing, and as a Spiritual Director.