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

V’ah-soo lee mik-dash v’sha-hantee b’to-ham…
Va-anakhnu n’varaykh Yah may-atah v’ahd olam.

That line v’ah-soo lee mik-dash, v’sha-hantee b’to-ham, is from today’s Torah portion. Make for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you. (Exodus 25:8)

Today’s Torah portion is about preparing. It is about preparing for sacred service. It is about building sacred space. It is about brining G-d gifts, terumah, We bring G-d the offerings of our heart. Everyone that so moves him…or her. The text later is actually clear later that the gifts come from both men and women.

We are told to bring gold, silver, copper, blue, red, purple yarn of linen and goat’s hair, tanned ram skins, dolphin skins and acacia wood.

With those gifts, we are ready to start building. What we are building is a sacred space, a safe place where we can meet each other and meet G-d. In the words of our song, becoming a living sanctuary for G-d. A place to meet G-d, to become aware of the presence of the Divine, to become mindful.

How do we prepare for sacred service today? People answered that we open our hearts. We bring our whole being. We open our minds and listen, to the words on the page, to the music, to each other, to the rabbi. We prepare the building. We make sure that there is heat and light and warmth, snow shoveling, food for Kiddush, programs, people who are ready to lead portions of the service

The Israelites built that mishkan that sacred place where they placed the Tablets of the Law, the 10 Commandments, the broken shards of the first set that Moses smashed. Eventually, the Israelites built a more permanent home for those Tablets, that included the Holy of Holies, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. That too was destroyed. Then it was rebuilt again. The Second Holy Temple.

And yet, Judaism has not died out. We still prepare ourselves for sacred service. We do this in a number of ways. One way, is by building our own homes as mikdash me’at, a little sanctuary. That is the basis of the Friday night home table service—candle lighting, Kiddush, motzi, which we looked at last night. We actually do that every time we eat, by saying blessings.

Many of you know I’ve been teaching a daily online Talmud class called Daf Yomi. Never has Talmud seemed so relevant.

As the Talmud teaches, Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Elazar both say: As long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel’s transgressions. Now that it is destroyed, a person’s table atones for his transgressions.

Part of that table service, in fact every time we eat bread we are commanded to wash our hands. Now that hand washing seems very current. The rabbis of the Talmud knew what our mothers knew and what the CDC is now commanding. Wash Your Hands. Every single time. They even tell us that you shouldn’t shake hands with someone who hasn’t washed their hands. They were so concerned with this basic ritual that they discuss it 345 times in the Talmud. Let that sink in 345 times the rabbis teach us about hand washing.

Bread needed to be eaten in a state of ritual purity, or as Anita Diamant, author of the Red Tent and founder of Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh and Education Center, ritual readiness. Because this hand washing is not about cleanliness necessarily—although that is important too. It is about elevating the mundane into something sacred. It is about mindfulness. It is about preparing to enter into a sacred relationship with G-d and with each other. As Chabad explained it, “We are cleansing ourselves of any sense of entitlement, arrogance or complacency. We have bread on the table, but it is G-d’s blessing that brought it to us. We should be humbled and grateful for the dough He provides.” That is part of why when you wash your hands in this ritual you don’t interrupt between washing and reciting motzi, the blessing for bread.

Judaism mandates hand washing before bread. That’s why we are most familiar with hand washing in the Passover seder. In a seder there are actually two hand washings, one towards the beginning without a blessing and one just before eating the matzah. The other times are waking in the morning with the same blessing for washing before bread. Some have the tradition of washing as part of Bikat HaMazon, the grace after meals. In congregations that do the full Birkat Hakohanim, the full priestly benediction, the kohahim doing the blessings wash first. There is no blessing for that. Lastly, we wash our hands after returning from a cemetery.

So how do we wash? The CDC says with soap and water for 20 seconds. There are videos on Youtube if you need a refresher course. Some say that 20 seconds is as long as it takes to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or the ABCs)

For this ritual washing of hands, there are many traditions. My method is to take off my rings—like going to the mikveh there should be nothing between me, the water and G-d. Then I lift the cup and sprinkle three handfuls first on my left and then on my right. The blessing, like all blessings begins, Baruch Atah Adonai, Blessed are You, Lord, Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam, Our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, and since this is something we are commanded, asher kiddishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu, who has sanctified us with commandments and commanded us, al nitilat yadaim, on the elevating, raising, washing hands.

Because with this little bit of ritual, of mindfulness, we have elevated the mundane to something special, something holy. We have prepared ourselves for sacred service.

Wash your hands.