Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la’asok b’divrei torah.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us to study words of Torah

I have seen the narrow place. Where beauty is broken And redemption floats like Moshe in the basket along the River Fate. Here, the tearful triumphs. The destitute prospers. And the beggar becomes the giver of the whole world. Here, God’s words flow from the narrowness. And the prophet is disguised as a human being, Quietly creating the passageways that lead us to freedom’s mighty sea.

Eger, Rabbi Denise L.. Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells: A Celebration of LGBTQ Jewish Life and Ritual - Sunday 10:30 AM

'Terumah commences

“they shall make for Me a Sanctuary and I shall dwell amongst them. The words ושכנתי בתוכם may also be read as ושכינתי בתוכם, “so that My Presence will be amongst them.”

Shai Held: One of the core challenges of loving a friend or a spouse is to learn to be completely present— available, attentive, loving, and nurturing—while also making space for our partner to be who he or she is, independent of us.

Jonathan Sacks The construction of the Sanctuary was fundamentally important because it gave the Israelites the chance to give back to God. Later Jewish law recognised that giving is an integral part of human dignity when they made the remarkable ruling that even a poor person completely dependent on charity is still obliged to give charity.[3] To be in a situation where you can only receive, not give, is to lack human dignity.

Shai Held: A real divine-human relationship depends on God making space for humanity. The covenants between God and Israel and between God and humanity thus depend upon a kind of tzimtzum. In order to summon us as partners, God needs to affirm and respect our independence. ... Jewish theology insists that God wants relationship, and the possibility of relationship only emerges when both partners are honored in their separateness, and then choose to come together.

Buber argues that “the principle of human life is not simple but twofold.” It begins with what he calls the “primal setting at a distance” and continues with “entering into relation.” That first step—recognizing and affirming that the other is not me, and allowing him to be genuinely and fully other than me—is a precondition for the second, and makes it possible, since “one can enter into relation only with a being that has been set at a distance or, more precisely, has become an independent opposite.”

Jonathan Sacks The etymology of the word Terumah hints at this. It means not simply a contribution, but literally something “raised up.” When we give, it is not just our contribution but we who are raised up. We survive by what we are given, but we achieve dignity by what we give.

Rabbi Jonathan Blake. The Torah imagines human beings teaming up to fashion earthly materials (precious woods, metals, fabrics) into a place where God's Presence will abide. The inversion is poetic and brings God's work of creation full circle. In the first chapter of Genesis, God creates a home for human beings to inhabit. In the last chapter of Exodus, human beings, Israelites charged with a holy purpose, create a home for God to inhabit.

“Where is the dwelling of God?“ This was the question with which Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk surprised a number of learned people who happened to be visiting him. They laughed at him: “What a thing to ask! Is not the whole world full of God‘s glory!“ Then he answered his own question: “God dwells wherever we let God in.“ (from Tales of the Hasidim)

Malbim (19th cent. Eastern Europe)- Commentary on Exodus 25:8

...Each one of us needs to build God a Tabernacle in the recesses of our hearts, by preparing oneself to become a Sanctuary for God and a place for the dwelling of God's glory.

Martin Buber (1878-1965) Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher

“Where is the dwelling of God?“ This was the question with which Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk surprised a number of learned people who happened to be visiting him. They laughed at him: “What a thing to ask! Is not the whole world full of God‘s glory!“ Then he answered his own question: “God dwells wherever we let God in.“ (from Tales of the Hasidim)

Humility?

Gifts of the Heart?

Shai Held: If at times there can be tension between presence and separateness, there can also be profound complementarity between them. Far from undermining a relationship, making space is actually what makes it possible. Or, to return to our own terms, tzimtzum and intensified presence go hand in hand. Presence and separateness are—or should be—central to our relationships with God and with one another.

O Lord prepare me

to be a sanctuary

pure and holy,

tried and true

With thanksgiving, I'll be a living

sanctuary for you.