Transplanting Cedars
People have been compared to trees and righteous people to cedars in particular. True Jewish leaders in times of exile are like cedars. As cedars they stand proud and majestic even when in exile. TERUMAH TERUMAH
Do Boards Grow in a Desert?
When the Jewish people were told to build a Mishkan, a portable Sanctuary, they were commanded to build it out of wooden boards, which prompts the obvious question: Where did the Jews find such an ample supply of boards to build the Mishkan?
Rashi asks this very question and quotes the word of the Midrash:
Rabbi Tanchuma explains: Jacob our father foresaw with Divine inspiration that the Jewish people were destined to build a Mishkan in the desert. When he came to Egypt, he brought cedar trees with him and transplanted them there. He subsequently commanded his children that when they will depart from Egypt they should take these cedars with them.
TERUMAH
One of the most important teachings of Judaism is that everything we learn about in the Torah has an eternal lesson for us. What, we are entitled to ask, is the lesson to be derived from the story of how Jacob brought trees and transplanted them in Egypt and ordered his children to carry them out of Egypt into the desert?
The Anatomy of a Desert
The desert where the Jews sojourned is symbolic of our own existence in exile, since the destruction of the Temple. While exile has also been compared to the period of Egyptian bondage, because of the suffering that punctuated our exile existence, there is a salient characteristic of exile that is best represented by the desert metaphor.
A desert is a desolate place, devoid of most life forms that can be found in other climes. In Deuteronomy, the Torah describes a desert as a place that is infested with deadly serpents and scorpions and a place that lacks water. These features serve as an analogy for the lethal negative spiritual influences that TERUMAH abound in exile conditions.
To be a bit more graphic, and provide one example of the deadly nature of exile, is our society’s inundation with illegal and life threatening drugs. We are also witness to a breakdown of all of the traditional moral values in so many segments—particularly among the youth—of our society..
Even life, which Judaism has always defended, placing it on a pedestal as its most cherished ideal, has been severely devalued. There is talk in some of the most elite centers of scholarship, albeit, only among a fringe, that unabashedly calls for everyone over the age of seventy be “euthanized!”
More specifically, from a Jewish parochial vantage point, the desert component of exile refers to the lack of interest in spiritual and Jewish matters; the lack of interest in studying Torah, which has been compared to water. The insidious process of assimilation, wherein Jews are oblivious to their own heritage and, in some extreme cases, cease to identify themselves as Jews is but, one more, painful example of the desert characteristic of TERUMAH exile.
All this, and more, is what our Sages meant when they compared our existence in exile to a parched desert.
No Reason to Despair!
However, there is no reason for us to despair.
On the contrary. Where was G-d’s first commandment to build a Sanctuary for Him given if not in the desert? And where was the Torah given to us if not in a desert?
This, however, begs the next question. How? How do we have the ability to transform a G- d-forsaken area and transform it into a Sanctuary for Him? From whence shall our consolation come?
Jacob Planted Cedar-like Leaders in Exile
The answer is provided by the Midrashic Sage, Rabbi Tanchuma. The word Tanchuma is etymologically related to the word that means consolation and comfort. Our source of comfort now lies in his words about what TERUMAH Jacob did before he departed for Egypt. Jacob symbolizes the righteous and ideal individuals who are concerned for the plight of his their people in exile and whose inspiration derives from the Holy Land of Israel, which endows Jacob figures with the ability to transcend the mindset of exile.
Jacob’s transplanting the cedars in Egypt, symbolizes how the first righteous leader took the souls of subsequent righteous leaders, who are compared to the majestic cedar trees, and transplanted them in Egypt, into exile situations, to enable them to rise above the terrible exile conditions.
No matter how difficult our lives may seem, materially and especially spiritually, we can be comforted (“Rabbi Tanchuma”) by the belief and realization that G-d — through the efforts of our Patriarch Jacob — has transplanted the cedar-souls of Israel, into every, including, our generation.
Our generation has been blessed with the unprecedented guidance and leadership of the Lubavitcher Rebbe who has served as a Rabbi Tanchuma, a rabbi and Sage of consolation, TERUMAH who has provided the Jewish people and the entire world with words of comfort and strength to overcome the obstacles of exile and build a Sanctuary for G-d, even in our heretofore parched desert.
The Rebbe’s Consolation
Among all the many forms of inspiration that has come from the Rebbe’s leadership, the one that stands out is his declaration and incessant emphasis that our generation is poised to enter into a new era, the coming of Moshiach and the permanent departure from exile.
The Rebbe also stressed the need for us to prepare for this glorious new era, not by sitting back and waiting for it to unfold, but to be a part of the change, by living our lives now in a “Messianic manner.” This means simply, to live a life that is imbued with increased goodness, kindness and a pursuit of all that is holy and G-dly. All of these efforts are the stuff from which the third Holy Temple will be built, with the imminent coming of Moshiach.
TERUMAH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Terumah by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
