This week’s Parsha Terumah is a parsha about gifts. Terumah is biblical Hebrew for “gift.”

Technically, terumah is singular, but it is read as a collective noun. This parsha is about the collective.

Moses tells the people: Bring the Holy One gifts, everyone whose heart is moved to generosity, to thankfulness. And the people respond, with gifts of gold and silver and copper, with gifts of blue, purple, and crimson yards, with tanned ram skins and acacia wood, with oil for lighting, spices for anointing and burning for incense, with lapus lazuli for the ephod and the breast piece, with the means to build a beautiful sanctuary.

It is a parsha of abundance. Chassidic tradition tells us that Parsha Terumah contains the heart and substance of the Torah in its second verse, a verse that asks the people to give of themselves. Tzedakah and good deeds are the core of Torah, we are told. The point of all Tanakh is reduced to this commandment: Give of yourself. Do good things.

Only the collaboration and cooperation of a congregation can create an event to gather gifts for children who have been abused and violated, as we did at Temple Or Olam this past February.

Many, many thanks to all those who helped make this year’s Dinner, Dancing, and Desserts possible. Their hard work deserves appreciation. Please take the time to thank the members of the fundraising committee who particularly sacrificed so much time and energy to make that collective effort! They include (in alphabetical order…):

Michael Berkowitz
Arlene, Rachel, and Michael Filkoff
Ginger Jensen
Bill Jetton
Brenda Marshall
Charlotte Miller
Mark Prince
Robbin and Steve Smith
Bill Spivock

May you be blessed with a week of abundance,

Rabbi Barbara