Sunday, February 9, 2014

This week, Mrs. Perl made an interesting comment that I had never thought about before. She said that Tesha Beav and Eicha are not only about mourning the destruction of Yerushaliam and the Beit Hamikdash, but also about mourning the loss of having a connection to G-d, because the Beit Hamikdash had everyday miracles in it that would remind us of G-d, and showed that He really does exist. Because we don't have the Beit Hamikdash, we are not only mourning the destruction of a building, but we are mourning the destruction of our connection with G-d. 
In last weeks Parsha, Trumah, it talked about the building and placement of the mishkan. In class, we watched a video, that pointed out that not only were the Kalim in the Mishkan set up in a way that it looked like a face, but that each of the Kalim's purposes matches up with the part of the face it seems to be placed on. 
  1. The Ahron Kodesh, which is on top, is meant to be the brain. The Ahron contains the two luchot. The connection to the brain, is that we use our brain to understand and learn the torah.
  2. The Shulchan is meant to be on of the eyes, because it holds the challot, that are just for show. We look at the challot with our eyes.
  3. The Menorah is meant to be the other eye, because in order to see everything and to see the challot, we need light.
  4. The Mizbeach Hazahav is meant to be the nose, because we burn incense on this alter, which gives off a smell.
  5. The Mizbeach for the animals is meant to be the mouth, because you eat the animal afterwards. 
This face of the Mishkan gave us a connection to G-d as well. It allowed us to see "His face" and show us that he really is there. 
Because we do not have the everyday miracles in the Beit Hamikdash and the "face of Hashem" in the Mishkan, it is really difficult to feel a connection to a G-d that you have never seen. Although it is not for a while, this Tisha Beav I will not only focus on the destruction of the city of Yerushaliam and the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, but the absence of a connection between us humans and G-d. 
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3 comments:

  1. RFebruary 9, 2014 at 9:58 AM

    Yehudit, this is a fantastic blog post! I love how you connected what we learned in Parsha class to this class. The thing we learned in Parsha was very interesting and I am glad I can relate to it a little more because you applied it to the loss of the Beit Hamikdash. I really liked this post.

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  2. Shani B.February 9, 2014 at 2:38 PM

    I agree with Rena, I think this was a great way to connect our Megillot class with the parsha! It seems to connect perfectly- the concept of Hashem appearing in our world shows up in both situations. Unfortunately in Eicha, the context is a bit more depressing than the parsha, which is more about us building a place for Hashem to reside in this world. This could even been seen as a metaphor when applied to Eicha- that we need to make a place for Hashem in this world, even if He doesn't make Himself appear concretely.

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  3. Noga F. February 13, 2014 at 11:04 PM

    Yehudit, this was a great blog post. When we watched this video for Parshah, I was fascinated by the connection that was made. Maybe when the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, that "face" created by it was taken away as well, and "hester panim" resulted. I agree with Shani and Rena, that the metaphor of making a place for Hashem in this world is extremely crucial, and it exemplifies itself in Eicha, where we realize that we can't know everything, but we still have to believe in G-d.

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