Weekly Message

27 February 2025

In this week’s parashah, T’rumah, God gives the children of Israel the task of building a sacred structure. God says to Moshe: “Let them build for me a holy space so that I may dwell within them.”

Rabbi Moshe Alshekh pointed out that the beginning and the end of that sentence do not seem to line up. One would expect God to say, “Let them build for me a holy space so that I may dwell within it.” Instead God says, “within them.” The point, Alshekh explained, is that the only place where God can truly dwell is in our own hearts. We create holy spaces so that God can dwell in us. The purpose of sacred structures is to transform us internally, to make our hearts more open.

May our shul, the space that we strive to make holy, help us to make room within ourselves for God to dwell.