Today’s portion continues the description about building the miskhkan. The sanctuary. The tabernacle that went wandering with the Israelites. It nd was a home for G-d. 

Recently our congregation learned an old  Shaker hymn,  

Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary,
Pur an holy, tried and true.
In thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.  

It can be a msh up with
Ve’asu li mikdash veshachanti betocham
Ve anachnu nevarech yah Me Atah ve Ad olam 

Note the change in person here. Prepare ME, first person singular with V’anachnu, First person plural. We will bless You. It takes each Indvidual pulling together for the good of the whole to make a community, to build a sanctuary. Then, and only then we can praise G-d.  

Our story unfolds in exacting repetitive detail—but don’t try to build it yourself at home. Any number of years of building fourth grade models tells me that it isn’t possible. And my brother the architect would agree.  

Nor does it answer the question of why we are building this in the first place —or why G-d needs a home.  

In this mishkan, in the Holy of Holies we are to place the 10 commandments. The whole set, and the broken pieces of the first set. Estelle Franke in her book Sacred Therapy quotes a midrash: 

She notes that the original tablets may reflect many of the dreams and hopes, and even spiritual structure of our youth. Then we live our life. Reality sets in and we learn. This story “teaches us that it is important to hold on to the beauty and essence of dreams that we once held dear, for our initial visions contain the seed of our purest essence. Gathering up the broken pieces suggests that we must salvage the essential elements of our youthful dreams and ideals and carry them forward on our journeys so that we can find a way to realize them in a more grounded fashion.  For ultimately the whole and the broken live side by side in us all, as our broken dreams and shattered visions exist alongside our actual lives” ( “Sacred Therapy” p. 43) 

We are building sacred space as a home for G-d, as a home for the Israelite community, for a home for the 10 commandments and for our hopes and dreams—those that we realize and those that we could not realize—yet. 

Today, we call this very space our sanctuary. It is a refuge. A holy space. And we similarly say that our homes should be a mikdash me’at, a little sanctuary. After the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, our homes became the holy of holies, a source of Shalom Bayit, peace of the house. That our Friday night table service to start Shabbat with its hlessing of candles, wine and bread, makes Shabbat time holy time. Holy time and holy space. 

Today we read again about keeping Shabbat. It adds that we are not to kindle fire on Shabbat. Abraham Joshua Heschel called Shabbat a palace in time and space, a foretaste of the world to come. It is both holy time and space. 

Holy in Hebrew is k-d-sh. To be set apart. We call Shabbat Kadosh. We call G-d Kadosh. We call the prayer over the wine, kiddush. We call a prayer Kedusha…Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Holy, Holy, Holy. .We call another prayer Kaddish. We call marriage kiddushin.  

In the opening line of our very long parsha today, the opening word is Vayakhel. And we were convoked, we were called together. We are more used to that word in its noun form, convocation. call together or summon (as in an assembly or meeting). 

We may know the Hebrew word vaykahal from the word kahal. Or kehila kadosha. We are a kahal, a group of people that are called together, or a kehila kedosha, the holy community. 

Ultimately, that is what we are building. A kehila kadoshal Yes, the old joke is true—Goldstein comes to the Beit Tefilah, one Hebrew word for synagogue to talk to G-d—and for some of us, it is easier to do so in this beit. But Goldberg comes to Beit Kneset to talk to Goldstein. 

This building, our sacred space, is a beit tefilah, a house of prayer, a beit kneset, a house of assembly and a beit midrash, a house of study. Our vision statement of being a Jewish community for lifelong learning, building community, meaningful observance and embracing diversity lives out those terms. For each of you there maybe different reasons you come to shul, to this very house, your home. It maybe for services, just like this morning. It maybe for social programs, for community, to talk to Goldberg or Goldstein or even Goldman whose here this morning. It maybe you come to learn more about Judaism and you enjoy things like book group, Torah study, Hebrew or even these weekly discussions. 

Building sacred space,, in sacred time, building a kahila kedosha a sacred community, includes.a little bit more. It includes  

• creating a safe, non-judgmental space, where no one feels threatened, or bullied, or picked on. Where the words of our mouths and the mediations of our heart are kind. Where we open our mouths with wisdom and the law of kindness is on our tongues. I’m still working on that one.  

• Building a sacred space that is accessible to all.  
• Treating peoples, all people with the knowledge that they are created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of G-d 
• Celebraing and mourning with people, all people, in times of simcha, joy, and when times are tougher, by showing up for celebrations or for funerals and shiva minyanim. 
• Helping with other life cycle events, births, Bnei Mitzvah, weddings.  
• Contributing at least a half-shekel as we learned last week or the offering of your heart to keep the place going.  

We know that the nature of community continues to change. But community is still about connection between people, and between people and G-d. That’s what a kehila kadosha is sacred connection between people. That’s what they were really building in the desert. That’s what we are building here. 

Each of you has a skill, a craft as we learn in this portion. Each of you counts. Each of you can help to build this mishkan and make it a sacred place, a holy place in time and space.  

Then as Isaish explained “This will be My house, a house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah’s prophecy continues, “I will gather still more to those already gathered.” Come help us gather the people, all people, together, as we build this house.  

Today is the last reading from the Book of Exodus. Next week we move onto Leviticus. As we do when we conclude any book of Torah, we say, “Chazak chazak v’netchazek. Be strong, be strong and be strengthened.”