Terumah: On Haredim Drafting into the IDF

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“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” -John F. Kennedy

Parshat Terumah emphasizes the act of giving in the command to build the Mishkan. At first glance, the Torah seems ambiguous about this expectation. It instructs, “Take for Me an offering (terumah),” implying obligation, yet immediately adds, “From every person whose heart moves them,” suggesting voluntarism. Was the giving required, or freely chosen? This tension offers a model for one of the touchstone issues confronting Israeli society today: who should be contributing to the defense of Medinat Yisrael?

Rashi resolves the contradiction by explaining that there were three distinct contributions. Two were chovah – fixed, obligatory donations given equally by all through the machatzit ha-shekel – and one was nedavah, a voluntary gift offered according to the generosity of the heart. Participation was not optional; what varied was how each person gave. Everyone had a share in building the Mishkan.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe likewise understood the Mishkan’s diverse materials as representing the full spectrum of the Jewish people – different backgrounds and levels of observance, yet all indispensable. The Mishkan was not the project of a single group, but a collective achievement.

This vision offers a compelling model for the State of Israel. Troubling images from recent days urge us to rediscover our common bond as a society, to strive for what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks called a nation built on a covenant of “We” – a society built on belonging and mutual responsibility. Like the Mishkan, especially in these challenging days, the strength of the State of Israel depends on the willingness of all its people to see themselves as builders of a common home. Shabbat Shalom -Karen Miller Jackson

Vayakhel: What needs to happen for Haredim to join the IDF

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“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” -John F. Kennedy

Parshat Vayakhel emphasizes the generous contributions to the Mishkan, from everyone – men and women – to the point that Moshe needs to stop them from donating. Deeper analysis of the Torah’s description of contributing to the Mishkan can shed light on the current debate about who should be contributing to defending Medinat Yisrael. 

The Torah emphasizes the generosity of the donations. Moshe instructs the people to “take gifts from among you,” and then encourages everyone, whose “heart is so moved,” to bring gifts to the Mishkan. The Hebrew root n.d.v (to donate) appears numerous times, and as Rabbanit Sharon Rimon points out, the word “lev” (heart) appears fourteen times in this section. The Ramban interprets this verse as referring only to voluntary gifts. This highlights that the Mishkan, the center of Jewish life, was built with heart and a spirit of collective giving. 

Yet, we also know that there was an aspect of contributing to the Mishkan which was mandatory for all. The language of “take” implies that everyone had to give gifts to the Mishkan. Elsewhere, the people are commanded to each give a half-shekel toward the tabernacle, a required tax. So which is it then? Voluntary or mandatory? The Kli Yakar says that the words “take gifts” refer to both required giving (the half shekel) and voluntary giving, which were combined to build the Mishkan. 

The idea that contributions to the Mishkan were a combination of mandatory and voluntary was echoed in our nation’s response to October 7th. Our heroic soldiers were called up with a command, a “tzav 8.” And we also witnessed an unparalleled nedivut (generosity) of heart and spirit, of most others giving what they could. This is what Rabbi Sacks zt”l called a nation built on a covenant of “We,” – “bound by a sense of shared belonging and collective responsibility.”

As we face a need to increase the numbers of soldiers needed to defend our country, how can we deepen the conversation to help foster this sense of national loyalty alongside Zionist pride, so that all Israeli citizens feel they are a part of the “We,” and can embrace the call to serve the Jewish nation? Shabbat Shalom – Karen Miller Jackson

Photo credit: Utra-Orthodox Jews walk outside an army recruitment office in Jerusalem, August 16, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) From TOI News site.