Terumah-Rosh Chodesh Adar. Choosing our fight

This year we will read parashat terumah on the day of Rosh Chodesh Adar.

Terumot are the voluntary contributions by which each one of Bnei Israel brought whatever they had to offer, in order to build togetjher the mishkan, the portative Temple in the desert. The mishkan is a space dedicated to inviting the divine presence (shekhina) to dwell 

About the opening verse of our parasha, the Mei Hashiloach tell sus:“take for me an offering [truma], gold, and silver, and copper.”

ויקחו לי תרומה זהב וכסף ונחשת 

On this it says in the holy Zohar (Shemot, 148a), that these elements correspond to the basic elements found in man, meaning that he should deliver all his elements and potentialities over to God, so that He may manage them according to His blessed will. 

ואיתא בזוה"ק (שמות קמ"ח.) 

שהוא נגד היסודות הנמצאים באדם, והוא שימסור האדם כל יסודותיו וכחותיו להש"י שהוא ישלוט בהם כרצונו ית', 

Long after Israel’s wandering in the desert, during the story of Purim, Bnei Israel were once again invited to contribute: before she had the courage to go speak up to the King in the defense of her People, Queen Esther asked everyone to fast together.

Fasting is a deep, misunderstood embodied spiritual practice which changes our conciousness and reminds us of what is essential.

In times of war, we don’t always choose to fast.I just heard this morning an exerpt of an interview of Eli Sharabi, one of the freed hostages, one of those whose weight loss was the most impressive, after more than 500 days of captivity.

Eli has also lost his brother, his wife, and his three daughters, since october 7.

And he tells the journalist: "you don’t understand what it is like, thinking of opening a fridge, and taking from it a fruit.. And egg… a piece of bread.

Opening a fridge, he reminds us, “is the privilege of a free man.”

There is another privilege of a free human.

A privilege we are all called to connect to, today.

It is to choose to be free from despair, and free from hatred.

If bnei israel, in their wandering in the desert, were obsessed with resentment about their slavery in Egypt, they would be incapable of dedicating their energy to building something new together.

They choose to look forward.In a different way, Queen Esther also chose to look forward, to what she could do, instead of giving into fear and despair.

I have just discover andother Queen Esther recently.

Noa Fay is beautiful, young, Black, Native American, and Jewish.

A student at Columbia, she might not have chosen to become a Queen of her generation if,  just like  Queen Esther, circumstances had not forced her to do so.

Since October 7, young Jews on American, European, and Australian campuses have had to choose between fleeing, hiding, or embracing their identity with newfound strength.

In this surreal context—one we never thought would return so quickly after the Holocaust—Noa, like a fire shining with grace and clarity, has come to remind us of an important message:

This is not the first time Jews have had to fight.And we know how a battle is truly won:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

These words, she reminds us, are from Martin Luther King.

This is also the message of many Holocaust survivors who have recently appeared on social media, addressing today’s generations with one of the most important lessons they have learned from their own tragedies:

Resilience implies protecting ourselves from hatred. Hate destroys from within, perhaps even more surely than the hardships inflicted upon us.

Fighting and defending ourselves does not mean succumbing to hatred.On the contrary, we fight with greater strength when it is not to destroy others, but to defend our loved ones and our values.We fight with greater clarity when we look toward life.

That is what it means to choose how we see the world. We have to choose our fight. My fight is choosing to keep having hope, and choosing to keep loving the world and humans.

Even if I have to fight some of them when they don't leave me a choice.

This is what it means to create space for the divine presence to dwell among us.

Let us make this space in our hearts today. And if they feel broken, even better.

This way they will be already wide open.

Chodesh tov, shabbat shalom