19. TERUMA

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

On Shabbat Hanukkah, we read the passage from the Prophet Zechariah that envisions the future Great Menorah, taking its sacred place in a rebuilt Holy Temple after the Babylonian Captivity. (We read the same Haftarah for Shabbat Behaalotekha.)

Zechariah, in visionary, prophetic style, goes beyond the Torah's description of the original Menorah (literally, a Light-bearer). That Menorah was planned as part of the portable Shrine, the Mishkan, in the Wilderness.

First Zechariah describes the Menorah of the future that he sees: "All of gold, with a bowl on its top, seven lamps, and seven pipes leading to the seven lamps." It sounds like the original bearer of the sacred Light. But then he adds a new detail: "By it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on the left." (4: 2-3)

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 2/14/2005

This past Shabbat (T'rumah), our congregational Torah-study was exploring the two different sorts of sacred space described in the weekly reading.

And in the midst of our talk, a distraught member of our community came running red-eyed, short of breath, into the room to report that a community member had just died, at home.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Carrying the Sacred Space of Freedom: T'rumah

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow*

Almost fifteen years ago, the gay community in America began to make a Quilt.