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February 19, 1999/3 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 21
Nothing is black-and-white
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Terumah/Exodus 25:1 - 27:19
Some observers see Judaism as a religion of stark values and monolithic laws, as black and white as the clothing preferred by many observant Jewish males. Nonetheless, there is an indication in this week's portion of Terumah, which deals with the building of the tabernacle, that our identity as a people and a religion is far better expressed in a complex of colors.
One of the most difficult words in the Torah appears in the instructions regarding the covering of the tent of the tabernacle: "And make for the tent a covering of tanned ram skins, and a covering of dolphin skins (tachashim) above" (Exodus 26:14).
Some translations render the Hebrew tachashim as sealskins, which my Webster's dictionary describes this as "the skin or pelt of the seal, especially with the coarse outer hair removed and the soft undercoat dyed dark-brown or black." Either way, we're talking about the pelt from a fairly large sea mammal. And the Jews were wandering in the desert here, not in the Central Park Zoo.
Although the precise identity of the source of the skins covering the tabernacle may seem academic, the Talmud explores the question. The discussion concerns whether the creature was domesticated or wild, clean or impure. We are told that the skin coverings could well have come from an impure animal - a staggering notion given that the tabernacle represents the highest level of holiness.
In the same sequence of the Talmud, we read that the skins of the tefillin (phylacteries) worn by Jewish males must be made from a kosher animal. The text cites a verse from the Torah: "... in order that the teaching of the Lord may be in your mouth" (Exodus. 13:9).
Tefillin must be made only from material you are permitted to put in your mouth. Is it not therefore strange that the covering of the tabernacle - from a certain perspective the tefillin of the nation - may have been made from an impure, non-kosher species?
In Rashi's commentary on the subject, he notes that: "Even if he tells you that the right is left and that left is right," you must listen to the decision of the highest Jewish tribunal. On the surface, this grates on modern ears. How can we accept a ruling we believe is incorrect?
Rabbi Ephraim Solomon of Luntshitz (1550-1619), the Kli Yakar, explains that the fact that differences of opinion exist throughout the oral law - what one sage permits another forbids; what one says is pure another declares is impure - could lead someone to declare that he cannot study Torah. But the Torah was given by one shepherd, Moses, and has its source in the Divine
Nothing is wholly pure or wholly impure. If the Torah declared it to be pure, that means that its aspects which are pure are more numerous than those which are impure. The same test holds for an object declared to be impure. There is no absolute right or wrong, black or white. There are instead many shades and hues, and the religious authority of the generation must ultimately decide which color is dominant.
Despite the fact that tachashim is extremely difficult to identify, Targum's translation, sasgovna, means "to rejoice in its many colors." Targum may be suggesting that even an impure animal skin may serve a function of purity - and so be redeemed - by being the cover of the Sanctuary. That impure objects have the capacity to become pure is reason for great joy and satisfaction.
The message that every object in the world has the potential for ultimate purity and redemption is especially appropriate during the Purim season. The Bible exhorts us to "blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens." What better way to do this than by influencing the representatives of consummate evil to convert to committed ethical monotheism?
It is on this basis that the sages declare in the Talmud: "The descendants of Haman learned Torah in Bnei Brak and the descendants of Sisera taught small children Torah in Jerusalem." This may be the real meaning behind the declaration that "we are commanded to drink on Purim until we can no longer distinguish between praising Mordechai and cursing Haman."
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Efrat, Israel.
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