TERUMA 5783
Coverups: Good and Bad
Let me share with you a cute story. The Pope decides to visit NYC. The Arch Diocese arranges a limo with a driver to take the Pope to all his appearances. On the last day, when the Pope is preparing to leave, he turns to his driver and says, “As Pope, I never get to drive anymore. On this last day, can we switch places? Let me drive.” So, the driver climbs into the back and the Pope gets behind the wheel.
As it turns out, the Pope is not a very good driver and soon a police car pulls the limo over. The officer walks over to the limo, takes a look inside, then quickly calls the precinct office. “I need your help. I don’t know how to handle this. I pulled someone over who must be extremely important. I do not know who they are, but their Limo driver is the Pope!”
When I heard this story, I thought about a course on Biblical religion I took many years ago in my doctoral program at NYU. The professor was trying to describe Biblical holiness. He said, “Imagine a stretch limo with darkened windows. You don’t know who’s in there, but it must be someone extremely important, a politician or celebrity because they keep themselves covered up.” His point is that covering up and keeping something private is a way we set things apart and make them important.
In our world, when we think of coverups, it usually conjures up thoughts of covering up criminal or embarrassing behavior, and often the coverup can be worse than the behavior. We saw this with Watergate, the Tuskegee Experiments, the My Lai Massacre, Harvey Weinstein, and this week with the Alex Murdaugh trial.
Today’s Torah portion, however, speaks of a different kind of coverup. In the discussion about making the Holy Ark the Torah (Ex. 25:21) declares something is holy by covering it up: “Place the cover on top of the Ark, after depositing inside the Ark the tablets that I will give you.” Here the Torah is teaching us, holy things—like the tablets of the 10 Commandments—need to be covered up.
Imagine a Torah scroll lying uncovered on a table in a synagogue. Anybody with a minimum of Jewish knowledge would walk over and cover it up because it would be improper to leave a Torah scroll uncovered. That’s why we cover the Torah even between Aliyot. The point is, holiness comes from covering up.
The source of this idea is our Torah portion. Gd commands the Israelites to build the Mishkan—a portable tabernacle—to be a symbol of Gd’s presence in their travels. Within the Mishkan compound was a special tent. Inside that tent was the Kodesh Hakdoshim (Holy of Holies)—a compartment containing the Holy Ark. In that ark were the tablets of the 10 Commandments and later the original Torah. Over the Holy Ark was a special cover is made of pure gold to show how precious it is. In fact, this was the holiest spot on Earth! No wonder that on top of this tent Gd instructed us to place 3 special coverings made from animal skins. We see this reflected today in our synagogues with a special cover over the Torah; then there’s a beautiful curtain hanging in the ark to cover the Torahs; followed by doors for 3 layers of cover. Why? Because it’s triple holy, and holy things need to be covered up!
Today, people seem to have lost all sense of modesty and discretion. I remember when my kids started the Atlanta Hebrew Academy (now called the Atlanta Jewish Academy), there was no dress code because the school wanted to attract typical American students. But as time went by, it realized that the way “typical” American students dressed cannot be the way Jewish students dress, and so they adopted a school uniform!
Today, people say and do things in the media and on social platforms that we would never have thought of saying or doing in public just a few years ago, and no one seems to think much about it. As a result, the sense of holiness that used to characterize the relationship between man and woman has been trivialized. A human being is a holy soul and should behave accordingly. Fortunately, in our congregation, everyone comes dressed appropriately.
Judaism is not prudish. It never denigrates a woman’s beauty. Quite the contrary, it applauds it, but with tz’niyut (modesty). There’s a bracha Jews recite every morning: “Blessed are You, Hashem our Gd, King of the universe, malbish arumim, who clothes the naked.” Rav Kook—the 1st chief rabbi of the modern State of Israel—explained that this blessing gives thanks to Gd for the clothes we wear and for the fact that we are humans who need clothes—and not animals who don’t. Rav Kook explains that we are blessed with a refined soul destined to live a higher life than animals. So, don’t behave or dress like an animal! But how can we tell our daughters—and yes our sons too—to dress appropriately when the media and social platforms conspire against it?
In the instructions for making the Holy Ark we find the Torah’s (Ex. 25:11) definition of what is truly beautiful: V’tzipita oto zahav tahor, mibayit u’michutz t’zapenu (You shall cover the Ark with pure gold, within and without you shall cover it). The rabbis ask: We can understand why the Ark had to be covered with gold on the outside—because everyone would see it and be impressed with its majesty and beauty. But why the need for gold on the inside where it would not be seen and make the Ark much heavier to carry in their travels?
From here the Talmud (Berachot 28a) tell us that a beautiful person is one who is tocho k’baro—one whose inside is the same as one’s outside. What one looks like outwardly must match the values by which one lives inwardly. American tradition teaches, “Beauty is only skin deep.” But it was Redd Foxx (Does anyone remember who Redd Fox was?) who said, “Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the bone!” For Jews, beauty must go all the way to the bone.
When Americans speak about the “beautiful people,” they refer to the Hollywood jet-set types who are noted for their ostentatious and immoral lifestyles. But when Jews refer to someone as being a Sheyner Yid, “a beautiful Jew,” that refers to what is inside—the beauty of character.
In this age of social media, where we allow everything to hang out, where we share everything private online, perhaps there’s a valuable message in the curtains and the gold covering of the Holy Ark from this week’s Torah portion—and that is not to degrade ourselves in body and soul. In a world that’s gone crazy, we must be the ones to bring a message of sanity and holiness of the body and the soul. Gd challenges us in the beginning of the Torah (Ex. 25:8) portion: V’asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham (Make for Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you). In other words, Gd is tell us to make a place for Gd in our lives—a sanctuary, a holy place—a place where Gd would like to dwell. Where? In your shul, in your home, wherever you go—and then Gd will dwell among you…because some things belong covered up. Amen!
