The Middle Bar
Balance is not wishy-washy; indeed it is known as Tiferes-beauty. It is the ability to go to different extremes or to fuse them when appropriate . The ultimate balance we get is from Torah. TERUMAH TERUMAH
Keeping the Boards Together
This week’s parsha – Terumah – discusses, in vivid detail, the manner in which the Mishkan, the portable Sanctuary, was to be built by the Jewish people in the desert.
The Mishkan was to be constructed by placing huge vertical beams made of acacia wood alongside each other. To keep them together they were to be placed into silver sockets. In addition to the silver sockets they were commanded to make five crossbars of acacia wood for each side of the Mishkan. These five crossbars were configured so that there were two crossbars on the outside of the beams on top, two on the outside of the beams on the bottom and the fifth “middle TERUMAH bar goes inside the beams and extends from one end to the other end.”
Two Categories of Bars
From this description we gather that the middle bar differed from the upper and lower ones in two ways:
First, the upper and lower bars were divided into two sections, each one reaching half way across the wall, whereas the middle one extended the entire length of the wall.
Second, the upper and lower bars were fastened to the outside of the upright beams by inserting them through rings that were attached to the beams. The middle crossbar, by contrast, was placed into the beams themselves; holding them together from within.
Our Sages taught us that the Mishkan – though an actual physical structure built by the Jewish people in the desert some 3,300 years ago and was used as their Sanctuary for centuries until the Temple was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem – paralleled the TERUMAH internal spiritual Sanctuary that we are required to build within our own homes and lives. As such, all the details of the Mishkan can be applied to our own lives; showing us how to succeed in transforming our own lives, and making our own bodies a hospitable place for G-d.
What lessons can we derive from the abovementioned configuration of the Mishkan’s sockets and crossbars?
Three Kinds of Support: Sockets, External and Internal Crossbars
First, we see that in order for our internal Sanctuary to be stable it must be held together by three forms of support: sockets, external crossbars and internal crossbars.
The sockets represent our foundation. A person cannot just proceed to build a Sanctuary without having a proper foundation. And that foundation, our Chassidic masters based on earlier sources have taught us is Kabbalat Ol, which translates as: “Accepting the yoke.”
TERUMAH
A Jew cannot expect his or her Sanctuary to stand based solely and primarily on logic or feelings.
To be sure, Judaism does not disparage the role of logic and feelings, on the contrary, as we shall soon see. Nevertheless our feelings are fickle and our logic can be held hostage to these unreliable emotions.
It is therefore imperative that we have the foundation of faith and its corollary: unconditional acceptance of G-d’s commandments.
But, a foundation is not enough to keep a structure intact. There is a need to have the crossbars to keep the beams together. The three layers of crossbars are said to correspond to the three Patriarchs, whose personalities and spiritual makeup reflected the three attributes of chesed, gevurah and tiferes. Chesed is kindness or love. Abraham personified love and kindness. Gevurah is the trait of judgment, reverence, awe and selfrefinement; a trait that is ascribed to Isaac.
To help maintain the stability of our Mishkan, we must access these two traits of love and TERUMAH awe of G-d. We cannot simply rely on the performance of the Mitzvot simply because G-d commanded us to do so. There are three very good reasons for this assertion:
First, without the feelings of love of and reverence for the Commander of the Mitzvot, there is a danger that our commitment to their observance might suffer with the passage of time. When we arouse the feelings of love and awe in our service to G-d it encourages us to want to do more.
Second, without the emotions of love and awe, our observances though valid are bereft of their soul. They are lacking the involvement of an integral part of our personality.
Third, the developments of the feelings of love and awe that accompany the performance of the Mitzvot are themselves mandated by G-d. The Torah has commanded us: “You shall love your G-d” and, “G-d you shall fear (the Hebrew word “yirah” can be translated multiple ways: fear, awe, reverence etc.).” It is not only a more enhanced – and therefore optional – way of doing a Mitzvah;
TERUMAH it is as much an obligation as doing the Mitzvah itself.
But even having succeeded in generating love and deep respect for G-d – represented by the two external crossbars – it does not suffice to keep the structure of one’s personal Sanctuary intact. One must also have the middle, internal crossbar that corresponds to the trait personified by Jacob: Tiferes, which is translated as beauty or harmony, and refers specifically to the traits of compassion and truth.
The Uniqueness of Tiferes: Balance
To understand the meaning of tiferes and how it is the most vital unifying force in our personal Mishkan, it is important that we analyze this attribute and contrast it with chesed and gevurah.
Chesed, while a noble and crucial trait, has its limits. There are times when chesed in certainly not called for. Giving a drink to an alcoholic is not a good thing even if one does so out of a sense of kindness and love. Likewise, too much discipline and judgment TERUMAH can become harmful and even destructive. A person is in need of a proper balance in one’s emotions.
The trait of tiferes, is identified as a beautiful trait because it is the expression of a wellbalanced symphony of emotions synthesized by a master conductor. This form of balance is evident in the trait of compassion, which is not unbridled love and kindness (which can be destructive), and it certainly is not harsh judgment and discipline (which can backfire and cause the recipient of the punishment to become even more recalcitrant).
Compassion, by contrast, takes the need to judge and discipline those whose behavior warrants it, however, the compassionate person will know how to temper that sense of justice with kindness, so that both ends are served. In the case of the first offense of a criminal, compassion in sentencing will show kindness to the criminal without the criminal failing to appreciate that he was in need of changing his ways.
From this analysis we can appreciate the qualitative difference between chesed and
TERUMAH gevurah on the one hand and tiferes on the other.
The Limitations of Chesed and Gevurah
Chesed and gevurah are inherently limited. To take chesed too far is too distort its benefit and is countered by the trait of gevurah. Likewise, gevurah has its limits and is countered by the demands of chesed.
Tiferes, by contrast, is characterized by a perfect harmony between chesed and gevurah. It is therefore impossible to distort or pervert tiferes, for once you change it is ceases to be tiferes; a perfectly harmonious situation. And since tiferes is the perfect balance between chesed and gevurah, neither chesed or gevurah is a counterforce to it.
Hence, tiferes is also associated with the trait of truth (referred to in Hebrew as emes). Emes is not simply the opposite of falsehood; it is the symbol of consistency; a force that has no end and nothing that could compromise its character.
TERUMAH
We can now understand why the third crossbar was not broken into two parts as were the upper and lower ones. Breaking the crossbars that represented the traits of chesed and gevurah is suggestive of the inherent limits they possess. They can be extended so far and then they cease. Tiferes, which has no such limits, was able to extend from one end of the wall to the other without any interruption. It is interminable.
It is no wonder that the Talmud states that Jacob never really died. His immortality, as opposed to Abraham and Isaac and other righteous people, derived from his spiritual association with the attribute of tiferes. Since tiferes has no limits and “adversaries” that can weaken it, there is nothing that can stop it.
Where does tiferes get its power to fuse two opposite traits of chesed and gevurah endowing it with the seal of emes and immortality?
The answer provided in Kabbalah and Chassidic literature is that it is rooted in a much higher and transcendent aspect of the TERUMAH soul; it is associated with the soul’s inner core. Hence, this crossbar was within the walls of the Mishkan; it represents a more internal aspect of our lives and accomplishments than the more peripheral traits of chesed and gevurah.
The trait of tiferes is also associated with the study of Torah because Torah is a composite of both chesed and gevurah; it is Biblically likened to the flow of water (a symbol of chesed) and fire (a symbol of gevurah). Torah has the capacity to harmonize disparate forces and directions. It is the ultimate synthesizer.
Preparing for Moshiach with Tiferes
The Messianic Age is when the most transcendent forces will be internalized within our lives. Moreover, all the spiritual forces of the world, which are presently fragmented and the cause of strife and disharmony, will then be unified.
What do we have to do to make this process occur and to be prepared for it?
TERUMAH
The answer is the study of Torah, particularly, the parts of Torah that deal with Redemption and the Moshiach. The reason why this is so is based on the above analysis of Torah as the consummate unifier.
Since Torah is tiferes, it assists us in striking the right balance in our lives and thereby synthesizing the “high” and the “low” as well as the right (chesed) and left (gevurah). The study of Torah gives us a taste of this sublime experience that we will realize with the imminent coming of Moshiach TERUMAH TERUMAH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Terumah by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
