PARSHAS Teruma 5785
No Place Like Home
Rabbi Dovid Yachnes
Men's Programming
Vacation is great! It’s so good to get away, see wonderful sights, visit unique places, and spend quality time with family and friends in a different setting. But we all know that feeling when it’s over and we get back home, wash up from the trip, and sink our heads onto that very familiar pillow. We’ll take a deep breath and proclaim…”There’s no place like home”.
Home is the place that we call our own. It is where we feel comfortable being ourselves. Often our house and the way we design and decorate it are a reflection of who we are. Even if perhaps it is a bit dirty, at least it’s our dirt. We like being home. And hopefully our home is a place where we have invited G-d to join and live with us.
This week’s Torah portion begins with the mitzvah to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle) – the sacred place where God’s presence would reside. Interestingly, the wording used is “וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי “בְּתוֹכָם – Build for Me a sacred place and I will reside in them. Shouldn’t the verse say “and I will reside in it”? What is the meaning of “in them”?
When the Kotkzer Rebbe was yet a precocious boy his teacher asked him, “Where can Hashem be found?” The future great rabbi of Kotzk answered, “Hashem is everywhere!” The teacher shook his head disapprovingly, signaling that he had answered wrongly. The young boy insisted that Hashem is truly everywhere. Finally, his teacher told him the correct answer to the question: “Where can Hashem be found? Wherever He is allowed to enter.”
Hashem tells the nation, Build a place for Me so I may dwell with you. Create spaces in your home, at your workplace and in your lives so I can be close to you! “Invite me in to those places,” He says, hence the plural of the verse, “will reside in them.”
When we live our lives in a Godly manner, we bring Hashem in. When there is peace in our house, we bring Hashem in. When our home is filled with joy, care, love and spiritual growth, we bring Hashem in. And when Hashem is living with us there really is no place like home!
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