The Vort - Lose Yourself: Parashat Vayakhel
Do you know this feeling?
“I felt, as the group passed over its metaphorical clif, that I had literally become weightless. I had abandoned gravity, was greater than it. I felt myself to be hovering above myself, capable of perceiving everything in slow motion and overwhelming detail.”
Pretty cool. It’s from “Among the Thugs,” sociologist Bill Buford’s book about the time he spent running with soccer hooligans in the UK. It could also describe experiences at Burning Man, an intense melavah malkah in Jerusalem, or a political rally: all gatherings of people striving to reach something beyond themselves.
The first verse of this week’s parasha, Vayakhel also describes a collective gathering:
וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה, אֶת-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל - “And Moshe gathered the whole congregation of Bnei Yisrael (Shemot, 35:1)”
This spiritual gathering of the people in our parasha this week is for a specific purpose: to join and perform the physical and spiritual work of building the mishkan. Through adding their personal contributions to the efforts of the collective, the Jewish people were able to build something they never could as individuals: a dwelling place for God. Those who have been a part of meaningful service on behalf of a good and just cause know the intense feelings, meaning and power that come as a result of doing the work in a large group. It can be a real high.
But there is an extra significance to this week’s gathering. More »
