Our Torah portion describes in detail the actual building of the temporary movable desert sanctuary that will house the Ark of the Testimony, and serve as the religious center for the people Israel.

Our parashah begins with another reminder of the sanctity of Shabbat, this time warning against “kindling fire in all your habitations…”. Two thousand years ago, the liberalizing rabbinic reading of the Bible interpreted that phrase to allow a fire already kindled on Friday before the beginning of Shabbat to continue to burn or smolder in one’s home throughout the Shabbat. In the eighth century C.E. the fundamentalist Kara’ite movement, which strongly opposed Rabbinic Judaism, insisted that Exodus 35:2 is to be taken literally, prohibiting any flame in the home on the Shabbat day. So in the center of the Karaite movement, in Mesopotamia, there were many deaths because of their ‘strict’ reading of the Torah regulations. Such a price to pay for fundamentalist piety! Join us for an exciting Torah discussion this Shabbat on zoom, and in our synagogue library at 9:30 a.m.