I am still having a hard time getting writing done. We had a fabulous trip and most of this was done but needed polishing. Here it is…

I was going to start with the theme song from the Love Boat. After all, Helen and Manny have enjoyed cruising and we are here to celebrate that love is in the air. Instead, it is almost baseball season so, instead, look around you. If you build it they will come. And all the more so, if you feed them they will come. And that is appropriate for this celebration also. This is our field of dreams.

Last week as we left the sanctuary and entered the social hall, Helen said to me, “You know next week Manny and I will celebrate our 60th anniversary. I think I’ll sponsor Kiddush.” That was the starting point. And it is nice. Sweet. Generous. And we are delighted that people want to sponsor Kiddush for happy events as well as yahrzeits.

It turns out that her timing is everything. Beshert. Destined.You see this week’s portion is about two things. Two portions really. This is a day with an extra reading. The first reading is as Heschel explains about building a palace in time and space—Shabbat celebrated in the Mishkan and that is what we are doing here, celebrating Shabbat in this beautiful building. Our own fields of dreams.

But the extra reading is about bringing a half shekel. Why were the Israelites commanded to bring a half-shekel to build the mishkan, the Tabernacle?

Because everyone could do it. Whether you were rich or poor you could add a half shekel. And together you create a beautiful place for the dwelling of G-d. That in dwelling presence of G-d we talked about last week, the Shechinah. The Shechinah is related to Mishkan. They have the same root. The In Dwelling Presence of G-d lives in the Miskhan, the Dwelling Place for G-d. The Shechinah dwells in each of us.

In this way, we all have a stake in what happens here. We all have access to the Divine. And that is pretty darn important. Simon’s childhood temple, Congregation Sinai, used to proclaim proudly the words of Isaiah, “My House Shall Be A House of Prayer For All People.” right over the majestic entranceway. That is exactly what we are building here. That is that wide-open tent we talk about, warm and welcoming to all who enter. That beautiful tent. Make no mistake. This building. This very building. Our building.The one that the Franks and the Lindows and others from previous generations had the vision to create and maintain. It is that lovely tent. That beautiful dwelling place. The one that you all have built with your shekels. “Ma tovu ohalecha Ya’akov. Mishkanotecha Yisrael.” How lovely are your tents O Jacob; your dwelling places, Your Mishkan—O Israel.” It is a dwelling place for G-d and for us. A beautiful legacy.

And why just a half-shekel? Maimonides begins to answer that question. “everything that is for the sake of G-d should be of the best and most beautiful. When one builds a house of prayer, it should be more beautiful than his own dwelling. When one feeds the hungry, he should feed him of the best and sweetest of his table. . . . Whenever one designates something for a holy purpose, he should sanctify the finest of his possessions, as it is written (Leviticus 3:16), ‘The choicest to G-d’” (Mishneh Torah, Hil. Issurei Mizbe’ach 7:11).

We still do that. There is a concept of hiddur haMitzvah, the beautification of the mitzvah. That’s why there are so many different seder plates that you can buy in our gift shop. And it extends beyond ceremonial art. Don’t laugh, but when I was first here, some one bemoaned that we were buying cheaper toilet paper. Shouldn’t we buy the very best toilet paper since this was a house for G-d? Why should we settle for second best? That expectation of excellence is something this portion is trying to imbue us with. For our synagogues and our homes.

Because our homes become a mikdash me’at, a little sanctuary. When we celebrate Shabbat at the synagogue and in our homes, Shabbat becomes a palace in space and time, a foretaste of the world to come.

That is what we are doing here today, bringing our whole selves to this mishkan, building a home for G-d on earth, a palace in time and space. We give ourselves fully to G-d and to each other—in this community so carefully built and to our partners. We realize that without this gift of the half-shekel we are incomplete. It was Robin Williams who said, “I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.” We are better here, together, with G-d and the people we love.
But why a half and not a whole? If everything is supposed to be the best?
It goes back to the first wedding. We are better together than apart. We need a helpmate. As the text says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” But even in the first marriage—Adam to Eve—we are told in the midrash that G-d bedecked and bejeweled Eve. It is a sweet story. Yet, it is more than sweet. It is, as the Kabbalists teach, destined. Beshert. When G-d created humans, the first pair, was a single soul separated. Ideally, if we are lucky enough, a marriage is the reunification of that single pair, the ying and the yang borrowing from another tradition. The reunion necessitates our taking a deep breath, experiencing tzimtzum, the Divine room for the other, to experience ourselves as not whole but being completed by the other half, that half-shekel, that partner that makes us whole again, just like in the beginning.
But that is not all. Where else does that measure turn up—a half shekel? And here is where it becomes “Bashert”, destined, that we talk about this this morning. I owe the insight to Chabad. Now some of you are thinking, Chabad, that is not your usual source. But in fact, it can be a very good source, and one I read every week, together with AJR’s D’var Torah, Rabbi Lord Sacks, USJC Torah Sparks and URJ’s 10 Minutes of Torah. I guess you can say…I myself am a pluralistic Jew, plumbing the depths for all 70 faces of Torah. But Chabad seems especially appropriate today since Helen and Manny have a son that is a Chabad rabbi! In fact, Helen and Manny should be proud of all their children and grandchildren who are so active and so knowledgeable. Shortly we will have their son Gene honor his parents by chanting Haftarah.

But back to the question. Where else do we find a half-shekel? In the story of Eliezar finding a wife for Isaac. Who remembers the story?

Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Eliezar stops at the well. Rebecca rushes to draw water for him—and for his camels. In fact, all the verbs are active, rushing verbs.

The man took a golden ring, a half-shekel in weight; and two bracelets of ten shekels’ weight of gold for her hands. (Genesis 24:22)
The story continues and reads like a Hollywood script. He is welcomed into Laban’s home. Rebecca is consulted. She actually says yes. In fact, we derive the Jewish law that the woman has to say consent. She has a right of refusal. More gifts. Dinner. They set out on the caravan. They reach the field where Isaac is meditating. She lifts her eyes. She asks who is that man. She falls off her camel. He takes her to his mother’s tent and he loves her. The first mention of love in the Bible. And is comforted after his mother dies.
To this day a ring, perfectly round and unbroken is part of our wedding ceremony. Look at your hands…look at that ring…think of the promise you made to each other. Now I invite Helen and Manny to stand. And everyone else who is here with their partner to stand as I chant the Sheva Brachot, in memory of that day long ago when you gave each other a half-shekel.