O LORD PREPARE ME TO BE YOUR SANCTUARY
PURE AND HOLY TRIED AND TRUE
IN THANKSGIVING I’LL BE YOUR LIVING SANCTUARY FOR YOU

(Exodus 25:8)
V’ah-su lee mik-dash v’sha-chantee b’to-ham…
Va-anakhnu n’varaykh Yah may-atah v’ahd olam.
(Psalm 115:18)
Build Me a Sanctuary that I might dwell among them.
And we will bless G-d from now until forever.

 Give Love Wings
Give your love wings
To soar with the music and the prayers
That dance between us,
That sing around us,
That rise shimmering
To the heavens
In radiance and glory.

Give your heart freedom
To float breathless
In the vastness of the universe,
To become one with the Soul of all Being,
To enter the majesty of light
Pulsing from the ancient yearnings of our hearts.

Give your love wings, to soar.
And when you reach G-d’s holy place,
Opens your hands in blessing.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Today is about love. And building. And love. In Hebrew we have two words for love. Ahavah and chesed.

This text we just sang says that G-d will dwell “Among them”, not in it, the sanctuary

G-d wants them to build a mishkan, a sanctuary, so that G-d may dwell among them, the people, not the sanctuary.

As Cantor Julia Cadrain beautifully teaches, G-d is contained not in the physical space but G-d exists in the spaces between people and the relationships we have with each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_XxCh2b30&index=2&list=RDZHp-jcPlKIY

We celebrate Shabbat to re-create. As Kiddush tells us, to remember two things, the Creation of the World, when G-d rested on the Seventh Day, and the Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites created, built the mishkan, they built it to recreate the feeling of standing at Sinai. At Sinai there was fire, and smoke, lightening, and yes, even fear. But G-d and Moses could have a conversation. They could come face-to-face. G-d and the people of Israel were in a relationship. And it is a relationship based on ahava and chesed.

We, too, even today, have the opportunity to recreate those moments. Our tradition teaches that our houses are a little mishkan, a little sanctuary. A mikdash me’at. When we celebrate Shabbat our houses re-create the mishkan. When we gather at the Shabbat table, the table is the altar, the wine and the challah, recreate the moment in the mishkan with the Shechinah, the Indwelling Presence of the Divine and when we sing, the Divine draws close.

That’s the ideal. That’s in a house filled with “shalom bayit., peace of the house.” What if it’s not? This week many people celebrated Valentine’s Day, a day dedicated to love. Some might feel that it is not a Jewish holiday—and it is not. But it can be fun and break up the doldrums of February which can be a dreary month.

Because of Valentine’s Day, there are two other observances. Jewish Women International sponsors this very Shabbat, Shamor L’Amour, Keep or Guard Love. We’ve participated in this as a congregation before.

And Wednesday found me, Maureen, Gareth, Joy and Barbara at an event started by Eve Ensler, internationally because no one, least of all on Valentine’s Day should be hurt physically, or emotionally in love. Locally it is sponsored by the Community Crisis Center and others here, One Billion Rising—the Long Red Line. I serve on the organizing committee. This year I took a back seat.

This year it was held at Elgin Community College and included a haunting art exhibit and speeches by our own Maureen, our police chief, Jeff Swaboda, a spoken word artist and student at ECC who shared a powerful poem she wrote as a survivor, Elisa Lara of the Human Relations Commission and Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson. It was an event that brought hope. We will not stand idly by while women are hurt.

Because the statistics are staggering. One out of four women will experience sexual violence sometime in their lifetime. Let that sink in—one in four. That’s more than will experience breast cancer. One in four. Regardless of socio-economic, educational, religious, ethnic, cultural background. One in four. Even in the Jewish community.

And in this age of #MeToo, it is critically important to hear women’s stories of abuse, validate them and promise that we will not allow it to happen. So as your rabbi, I say to you, if you are a victim or a survivor, there are resources to help. So I say to you, as your rabbi, we have policies and procedures here as well. Recently I attended a workshop offered by the Chicago Board of Rabbis and JCFS on sexual harassment in the Jewish workplace.

Long Red Line—One Billion Rising was the morning.

Then I had a lovely lunch at Sweet Berries with Simon to celebrate our love. Because really, when I woke up that morning, I realized, profoundly, that I am very lucky to have found Simon and to have Simon in my life. Not everyone is so lucky.

Later that day, while I was teaching Bar Mitzvah students, we got the news about Florida. Oh, no. Not again. Those were my first thoughts. And why? Why? I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

In Hebrew the word for house is Bayit. That’s why we talk about Shalom Bayit. Peace of the house. The word for school is Bait Sefer. The word for synagogue is Bait Tefilah, or Bait Midrah or Bait Knesset. Yes, Kneseth. House of Assembly. Just like this very synagogue, Kneset Israel or the assembly, the parliament in Israel the Knesset.

Our houses should be safe. All of our houses. Our homes. Our schools. Our synagogues. My home. My school. My synagogue. This synagogue.

It is our obligation to make each of these houses, a house filled with shalom bayit, a house of peace. They need to be founded on the principles of love and understanding. Respect. Kindness. Compassion. Loyalty. They need to be secure, stable and safe. They need to be built on love.

That doesn’t mean it is always easy. It is not. Sometimes the details are not clear.We need to navigate differences and disagreements, decision making. How do we handle disappointments? Anger and sadness? Life’s ups and downs?

By finding connections between people. By finding the Divine in the spaces between people. By building a sanctuary so that G-d can dwell among us.. A mishkan.

The word Terumah, the name of today’s portion, means donation, or offering, or gift. It is a very detailed portion with the plans of how to build the mishkan and what those gifts or offerings should be. Our part of the portion covers how to make all of the curtains, the material weavings. Debbie Friedman captures the spirituality behind these details in her song, Holy Places:

These are the gifts that we bring
that we may build a holy place.
This is the spirit that we bring
that we may build a holy place.
We will bring all the goodness
that comes from our hearts
And the spirit of God will dwell within…..

These are the colours of our dreams
we bring to make a holy place.
This is the weaving of our lives
we bring to make a holy place.
We will bring all the goodness
that comes from our hearts
And the spirit of love will dwell within…..

These are the prayers that we bring
that we may make a holy place.
These are the visions that we seek
that we may build this holy place.
Let our promise forever be strong,
let our souls rise together in song,
that the spirit of God
and the spirit of love,
Shechinah,
will dwell within.

Debbie Friedman

I want to tell you a story, that Rabbi Larry Karol found online in Reader’s Digest. Written by Glennon Doule Melton.

She told of how she once met with her son Chase’s teacher to receive tutoring so that she could help her son with mathematics (long division) at home. She and her son’s teacher began to speak about the ways in which the teacher tries to assist students in building a strong class community.

The article continued: “And then she told me this.
Every Friday afternoon, she asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student who they believe has been an 
exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, she takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her, and studies them. 
She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else? Who can’t think of anyone to 
request? Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or ‘exceptional citizens.’ Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed 
by their peers. And she’s pinning down—right away—who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.”

She is finding the connections between people. She is making the connections between people. She is building a sanctuary in her classroom. She is not alone.

In this morning’s haftarah, Solomon is enjoined to build another sanctuary and to not use any iron tools. From this we learn the roots of Shalom Bayit. From this we also learn the roots of the tradition of not using a knife to cut the challah on Shabbat.

We have the opportunity to build something very special here. A place, a space, a sacred place where people can find connection. Where people can find G-d.

May each of us build a home filled with Shalom Bayit. And may our homes include our schools, our b’tai sefer and our synagogues, our b’tei kneseth. May they be filled with connections between people and filled with the indwelling presence, the shechinah of the Divine. May we build them on love. Olam Chesed Yibaneh. These beautiful words and tune written by my friend, Rabbi Menachem Creditor, after the birth of his daughter right after 9/11. It says it all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHp-jcPlKIY&list=RDZHp-jcPlKIY&t=103

GATES OF JOY:
“God, be with all who are alone and lonely;
let them know that they have a Friend.
Hear those who speak but are not heard;
let them know that there is One who understands.
Take all who are afraid and give them hope; take those who have been hurt and give them courage.
Give us strength to make this world a place of peace and mercy. Help us know that You are with us and in us, whenever we work for a better life.”
May we do that work every day, knowig that there is always more that we can give.

A Silent Kaddish for Parkland
For our teachers, and their students and the students of the students.

We ask for peace and lovingkindness.
Here and everywhere.
May they be blessed with all they need.
With courage, with strength, with compassion.
At Mount Sinai, the mountain quaked.
The mountain smoked.
The lightening thundered
The thunder was lightening.
The world was upside down.
The people were afraid.

And G-d spoke. The people heard.
There was even a voice for young children.

Today, the world is upside down again.
The people are afraid.
Their children scream.
The blood runs red.

Not again, Lord. Not again.

Why?

Can we hear G-d speak?

G-d said,
Do not murder.
Don’t stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Take care of the widow, the orphan, the stranger.

“Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields,
or mend a broken bridge,
or rebuild a ruined city;
but prayer can water an arid soul,
mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.”

Today there are many voices.
Too many voices.
I want scream.
I have only dry tears.

Whose child will be next?
Whose child will I have to bury?

How did this happen?

Why?

I cannot pray.
In the face of violence
I need silence.

I have no words.
No words will bring comfort.
No words will bring those children back.

In the face of inaction
I need action.
To stop the blood.
To mend the hearts.
To rebuild our wills.
To find courage and strength.

To build our world on love.