Building Something That Can Carry the Fire - Parshat Terumah 5786

Transformative experiences, no matter how intense, are insufficient on their own. Memory, while powerful, is unreliable. The human condition is such that even the most overwhelming encounter can recede. The Israelites themselves will demonstrate this repeatedly in the desert, oscillating between trust and anxiety despite having witnessed unprecedented miracles. Terumah anticipates that fragility. It introduces structure as a countermeasure.