We have a jam-packed week this Shabbas as we read parashat Terumah as well as celebrating Rosh Hodesh and enjoying a special haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim. Terumah is one of my favourite Torah portions of the year. In it, Moses calls upon the people to bring gifts to construct a mikdash, a sanctuary, and if they do, God promises to dwell amongst them. Interestingly, God does not offer to dwell in the mikdash, but rather with the people. So, there is something incredibly special about this building that brings God to rest amongst the people by its mere construction.
When the Israelites are called to build this holy space, they are invited to contribute donations of items needed. A list is provided and there is the understanding that whatever is required already exists amongst the community. The list contains many items which one would expect for a building project: wood, cloth, wool, but then, amongst the mundane we find the request for skins of the “tachash.” So, what is a “tachash?” It has been perhaps mistranslated as dolphin, so asking for dolphin skins, but there is a much more fantastical description. The rabbis say that it was a mythical creature, created just for this moment, that there was only ever one. It was kosher, had a horn and skin of six different colours. In the Aramaic translation it is called “sasgona” because it finds joy in its beautiful rainbow colours.
How wonderful is it, that this Shabbat where we celebrate Mardi Gras and the special uniqueness of our LGBTQI+ community we read about a mythical rainbow creature which brings joy. Also, this Shabbat as we usher in the month of Adar, a time in our calendar for joy, and celebrate Esther who becomes the Queen of Persia, we note a painting found on the walls of a Persian Palace, of this same multicoloured, horned creature!
But I would like to share with you an insight about this parasha from Rabbi Nicole Auerbach who brings the teachings of Rabbi Irwin Keller. They both note that the Israelites were commanded to bring items for the mishkan which they already had in their possession. They were not asked to search for them elsewhere, they already had everything they needed. Rabbi Keller describes that the Israelites had: “odd and awkward items, which at the time they were packed were of no particular use. Hidden gifts, schlepped through the wilderness. Or not quite gifts, but gifts in potentia. Bric-a-brac, awaiting the chance to become holy regalia.”
Rabbi Keller suggests that we also have these hidden gifts which are waiting to become holy. We don’t know which ones will be significant, where we will find our rainbow unicorn, but we have it within us, each and every one of us.
On Sunday night I attended the incredibly powerful UIA event where Rachel Goldberg Polin and her husband Jonathan Polin spoke. They are the parents of Hersh who was one of the group Rachel describes as the “six beauties,” kidnapped and murdered in the tunnels of Gaza. When asked how they found the strength to fight for their son, and when he could not be saved, for the other hostages still in captivity Rachel told a story.
She said that she spent a year in Melbourne on her gap year and one of the experiences which was part of her time in Australia was meeting Holocaust Survivors. She said that growing up in Chicago she had not met any survivors and it was so meaningful for her to meet them, speak with them and hear their stories of survival and rebuilding. She said she did not know it at the time but 30 years later, those encounters are what has enabled her to go on. She saw the ways to go through the depths of unimaginable horrors and survive and then to find courage to go on, to create families, lives, futures. Rachel carried that gift with her and it was there when she needed it: to help her help others, to speak out, to save lives.
We all have gifts. We carry our rainbow unicorns within us. We don’t know when we will be called upon to give them, when we will need them but they are there. Rabbi Keller asks us: “What’s the one gift that you have not offered yet? The one no one knows you carry. The one you might not even have thought of as a gift. The one that’s just been waiting. And ask yourself, ‘When will I offer it?’ When will you use it to build a Mishkan, to make this world a holier place?”
We all have our gifts and the world is waiting to receive them and hopefully our rainbows can bring joy and peace into a world in need of healing.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio
Terumah, tachash/sasgona. Two Hebrew words and the last Aramaic. I hope I will never forget them, for I will always remember this Paasha and your exegesis Rabbi Jacki. So uplifting.