Congregation Agudas Israel
2/15/2013
Parshat Terumah
This has been a tough time for us at Congregation Agudas Israel. In the last few weeks we have had far too many funerals. In my own life, in addition to those, I had two other funerals of family friends. As such, I have been mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted! When we reach that state, we have to think about how to get ourselves back to normal. For me, one way to deal with stress is to go to the gym. Wednesday morning I was at the gym and these ideas came to me! It made me first think of an article I saw last Sunday, which said that more and more studies continue to demonstrate that a brief nap, a longer vacation, and a little more rest make us all far more productive than burning the candle at both ends.
The opening of this week’s parsha includes chapter 25, verse 10 and 11 of Exodus. While discussing the construction of the Tabernacle in the desert, the Sanctuary of the people Israel in the wilderness, we hear:
10 They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 11 Overlay it with pure gold — overlay it inside and out — and make upon it a gold molding round about.
Immediately I wonder, why does the ark need to be gold on the inside. It made me think of a story I once heard about a man painting his fence with his children. The children asked, why are you spending so much time painting BOTH sides of the wood, before constructing the fence. Won’t we only see one side? Won’t the other side be against our neighbors’ fence, and they won’t see it either. (You can say the same about intricate watches, where only the watchmaker knows how beautifully it is constructed.) The man’s response was “integrity and responsibility.” Even if the only one who knows of that beauty is myself and Gd, it is worth it. I will spend the extra time to paint the fence or make the inside of the watch pretty, because it is a representation of myself.
I see this as a midrash on the verse. Just as the ark should be gilded inside and out, so, too, should we be gilded inside and out. We should strive that our private behavior matches our public behavior. We should treat our family and especially our spouses with at least as much respect as we treat others.
Just a few weeks ago in my daily Talmud study, daf yomi, I studied Shabbat 104a. On that page, I found a discussion of truth and lies. In Hebrew, the word for truth is EMET and lies is SHEKER. The rabbis note that those letters have something in common. Each of the letters in truth have two legs to stand on, but the letters in lies have only one. Thus, the rabbis say, truth is stronger (not stranger) than fiction, because it is based on two legs.
שקר
אמת
Yet, when we look around the world, we see many examples of lies seemingly beating out truth. We can think of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a spurious work that claims to be of a secret meeting of Jews who control the world, for their own nefarious purposes. First published in 1903, it was celebrated by the Nazis, Henry Ford, and was even made into a TV series in Egypt. In the 21st century, a previous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the entire education ministry of Saudia Arabia and even a member of the Greek Parliament have claimed it to be truth, even though the New York Times exposed it to be a complete fraud in the 1920s. Even with decades of exposes of its fraudulent nature, it still comes back among anti-Semites!
What prompted my consideration of truth and lies was the issue of the connection between vaccines and Autism. Since Andrew Wakefield (no longer a doctor) published a (now retracted) paper in the Lancet, in 1998, many have argued that Autism is caused by the mercury in vaccines. They do not care that the study was a fraud. They do not care that the amount of mercury in those vaccines was less than in a can of tuna. They do not care that there is absolutely zero factual evidence of any connection between mercury and autism. They do not care that mercury hasn’t been used in most vaccines for more than a decade and autism rates have not dropped AT ALL, in that time. Those who claim this ridiculous lie continue to publicize it and refuse to vaccinate their children, creating a public health risk. No amount of evidence or fact will change their minds.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is another place where fact and fiction are hard to discern. For many, Israel can do no right, and Palestinians can do no wrong. While Israel, like any nation, occasionally makes bone-headed choices, the facts are far more nuanced, yet for many, especially in Arab countries, that is not the case. To them, Israel stole their land and started wars, even though the facts seem to suggest otherwise.
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