What Blessing Can You Offer Someone Today?
Words of Wisdom with Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
This Dvar Torah for Parashat Pekudei was adapted from one written by Rabbi Becky Silverstein for Hebrew College in Jewish Boston.
Photo by Mboesch/Wikimedia Commons
This Dvar Torah is dedicated to Claudine Ackerman, CAJE’s Operations Coordinator for Teen Programs, who obtained her Master’s in Branding and Brand Strategy (Marketing) from OBS School and the University of Barcelona. May she be blessed in all her future endeavors!
One of the things I miss most about going to shul regularly is the moment when the final line of a book of Torah is read.
In many places, the kahal (community) rises and calls out, “Chazak, chazak, v’nit’chazek” (“Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened”).
These words are then echoed by the Torah reader.
This 30-second ritual takes an otherwise ordinary moment in the flow of Torah reading and transforms it into a reflection of what we have experienced and what we hope is to come.
This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Pekudei, reveals a similar moment of enriching dissonance.
In Exodus 39:32-33, our text reads:
וַתֵּ֕כֶל ל־עֲבֹדַ֕ת מִשְׁכַּ֖ן אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד וַֽיַּעֲשׂוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כְּ֠כֹ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֖ה כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ׃
וַיָּבִ֤יאוּ אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶת־הָאֹ֖הֶל וְאֶת־ ל־כֵּלָ֑יו
All of the work of the Mishkan of the Tent of Meeting was completed. The Israelites did so; just like all that God commanded Moses, thus they did. And they brought the Tabernacle to Moses, the Tent and all its furnishings (transl. JPS, adapted).
I imagine Moses at the edge of a large field, watching as the planks, posts, sockets, and bars that form the structure are laid to one side, then the curtains and coverings that will serve as walls, the ark with its poles and cover, the lamp stand, and so on, until he is handed the priestly garments.
I imagine Moses, perhaps overwhelmed, trying to steady himself, and nonetheless being pulled to set up the mishkan, God’s dwelling place, whose construction was the reason that the Israelites were brought out of Egypt (acc. to Midrash Tehillim 114).
וַיַּ֨רְא מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־ ל־הַמְּלָאכָ֗ה וְהִנֵּה֙ עָשׂ֣וּ אֹתָ֔הּ כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה כֵּ֣ן עָשׂ֑וּ וַיְבָ֥רֶךְ אֹתָ֖ם מֹשֶֽׁה׃
And Moses saw all that was created and behold they had made it just as God had commanded— they had made it thus— Moses blessed them (Exodus 39:43).
Moses responds to all of this labor of the Israelites by blessing the people.
Why does he do this? And with what words?
How can Moses’s action in this moment provide insight into the role that blessings can offer us and our holy community?
In reading this section of the parshah, I imagine that blessing is the best way that Moses knows to reground himself in the present and to express what he is holding in his heart.
We learn in Sifrei Bemidbar 143 that, as he prepares to build the mishkan with the pieces laid out before him, Moses said to the Israelites: “May it be that the Shechinah dwells on the work of your hands.”
And they said to him: “May the favor of Adonai, our God, be upon us; let the work of our hands prosper, O prosper the work of our hands!”
This exchange serves at least three purposes.
First, it provides an opportunity for connection between Moses and the Israelites. Moses can acknowledge that he has met some measure of success in his role stewarding the people out of Egypt to this moment, and he uplifts or appreciates the work that the Israelites have completed.
Second, the blessing allows the Israelites an opportunity to express their own relationship to the work they have completed; to place themselves in their journey from being enslaved by Pharaoh to being participants in God’s service.
Finally, it creates a moment of holy hand-off. The Israelites are acknowledging they have completed a major project.
Blessings create space to breathe, they draw attention to a moment in time, and they facilitate relationship building.
Just like the congregation chanting “Chazak, chazak, v’nit’chazek” (“Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened”) at the end of a book of Torah, sometimes we need to pause to celebrate milestones along the way, even as we continue the work.
The language of blessing may or may not be an intuitive way for each of these to achieve these goals; our words and rituals might not resemble Moses’s, but their presence is just as important.
Linguistically, the building of the mishkan parallels the creation of the world, a world which we are still creating.
To keep people invested in the long project of building a world in which all people can live lives of dignity, we can see Moses as a role model: starting with the language of the heart, honoring steps along the way, and providing opportunities for grounding systemic work in individual experience and relationship.
What blessing can you offer someone today? Your team at work, your kids, your chevruta, your partners, your friends?
In the words of the Israelites (Psalm 90:17), “May the favor of Adonai, our God, be upon us; let the work of our hands prosper, O prosper the work of our hands!”
