The Hugging Cherubs and Dancing With My Wife - Terumah

 דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣ייִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה        Eben Ezra The words ve-yikchuli (that they take for Me) is similar to the form surah elai (turnin to me) (Jud. 4:18). Surah elai means turn from your place and come tome. Ve-yikchu li has a similar connotation. It means let him take fromwhat he owns and give it to me. The same is true of Fetch me (kechi li),I pray thee, a little water (I Kings 17:10).     But if we look at the words   Vyikchu Li   They should take me         וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁוְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃     That I may dwell among(within) them: It does not say'within it,' which means that the place that God will sanctify todwell there is within the children of Israel that encircle the Tabernacle withfour banners.            TheDifference Between The Gentile and Jewish View of The Cherubim  TheTalmud quotes in the name of Rav Katina that when the Jews came up for thepilgrimage festivals, the priests would pull back the curtain in the BeisHaMikdash and show them that the Cherubim (one of which had masculine featuresand one of which had feminine features) were embracing one another. The priestswould say: “See how beloved you are before the Almighty, like the love of amale and female.” [Yoma 54a]     TheGemara continues [Yoma. 54b], Reish Lakish stated that when the Gentilesinvaded and entered the Holy of Holies, they saw the Cherubim embracing likeman and wife and they brought them out to the street and mocked. “These Jewswhose blessing is a blessing and whose curse is a curse, look at what theyoccupy themselves with in their Holy of Holies.” They debased Klal Yisrael andridiculed them for this perceived impropriety. This, Chazal interpret, is themeaning of the pasuk: “All who once respected her, disparage her, for they haveseen her disgrace (ervasah, literally ‘her nakedness’)” [Eicha 1:8].  [TheRishonim in tractate Yoma ask a very interesting question: The Cherubim werenot always embracing. They were only embracing when the Jews 'did the Willof the Almighty”. Their embrace mirrored how G-d felt toward His people. WhenHe loved them, they embraced; when G-d was angry with His people, they wereseparate. The Rishonim ask that when the Gentiles came into the Beis HaMikdashto destroy it, the last thing we would expect to find was the Cherubimembracing. They should have not even have been looking at one another! Why werethey apparently mirroring G-d’s Love for us at that moment?     TheRishonim answer — at that point the destruction (Churban) had happened already.G-d’s Wrath was already spent. The Temple had already been destroyed. 'Nowlet’s make up.” Thus, even while the walls were still burning, the Cherubimwere embracing again. They were back in love.]  Why,in fact, do we have in our Holy of Holies the image of a husband and a wifeengaging in an embrace? This is something that the Gentiles could notunderstand. They mocked it. They used it to make us a laughing-stock.     Howdo WE understand this? The interpretation is that the Cherubim are like thefamous Rorschach inkblot test. Psychologists and psychiatrists take blotches ofink that come out in random form and ask patients to tell them what they see.What a person “sees” says everything about what he is, where his thoughts are,where his values are, where his mind is.  TheCherubim were Rorschach tests. They were a man and a woman embracing in aloving and adoring fashion. What is that? Is that pure or impure? Is it holy orprofane? The answer is — it is all in the eyes of the beholder. A Gentile looksat that and has impure thoughts. There is only one thing that happens when aman and a woman are in such an embrace and it is very far from being holy.Therefore, to the Gentiles it was the biggest demonstration of an incongruity.“How incongruous!” they mocked, “to have such imagery in the Holy of Holies.”     Butto Klal Yisrael, the embrace between a husband and wife does not have to beimpure and profane. It can be the holiest of acts. The mitzvah of onah (havingconjugal relations with one’s wife) of a Torah scholar is specifically on thenight of the Sabbath, the holiest day of the week. If one would ask anuntutored mind “On the holiest day of the week in what activities should aTalmid Chochom engage?” the secular or non-Jewish perspective would be thatmarital relations would be the last thing one should do on such a day.     Thisis the difference between Jews and the nations of the world who destroyed ourBeis HaMikdash. To us, the embrace of the Cherubim represented exactly what theHoly of Holies is all about — holy intimacy. This is what Kedusha[hol[holiness]all about: There is no aspect of human existence that can’t beelevated a nd can’t be made holy. This is symbolic of everything else in life.  RabbiAkiva states: “All Biblical writings are holy, but the Songs of Songs(portraying the love of a male for a female) is holy of holies.” [Yal[YalkutShimoni] unlettered person reads Shir HaShirim with a snicker. The sensualdescriptions seem far from holy writings. Rabbi Akiva states that not only isit holy, it is holy of holies. It symbolizes our relationship with theAlmighty. Holiness or lack of it is all in the eyes of the beholder.            Dancing with You - The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidicmovement, was once sitting on Friday night at his Shabbos table with his familyand close disciples. Suddenly at the end of the Kiddush, the Baal Shem Tovbegan to laugh. The disciples were startled, but out of respect for their holymaster, they remained silent. They began the Shabbos dinner and recitedHamotzi, tasting the fish, until the Baal Shem Tov let out another laugh. Thedisciples again were astounded. Maybe there's some humor in the fish, theyreasoned, but there was nothing funny about the fish. As the meal progressedand they began singing the Shabbos songs, the Baal Shem Tov began to laugh forthe third time. It was an absolute mystery.     After Shabbos, one of the students asked his master, “What wasyour laughing all about?” The Baal Shem Tov asked him to summon the bookbinderof town. He was a fine, poor, simple, and G-d-fearing Jew named Shabsi. WhenShabsi arrived, the Baal Shem Tov gathered his students and asked thebookbinder to share with them what had transpired at his home during the Fridaynight meal. Shabsi blushed, feeling very uncomfortable, but the Baal Shem Tovreassured him.     For years shops Shabsi was struggling to earn a livelihood. Lifein 18th century Ukraine was not easy. But he always saved up some extra rublesto be able to afford a beautiful and festive Shabbos dinner for the holy day.Shabbos, an island in time, a transcendental oasis, was his cherished day, andhe wanted to celebrate it with full tranquility and joy. But that past week,due to the heavy snow, there was no business. Nobody came to buy any books.Friday morning, he realized he didn't even have a single ruble to give to hiswife to purchase food for Shabbos. There would be no candles burning, no wine,no Challah, no vegetables, no fish, meat, fruits or dessert. Sadness set intohis heart. So he went to the synagogue and stayed there all Friday day, recitingpsalms and studying the weekly Torah portion.     Friday night after the services, he came home expecting to findit empty and dark. To his amazement, the house was lit up with glowing candles.The table was decorated with the most exquisite of foods. His wife explainedthat when she saw the pain in his eyes, that he would not be able to celebratethe holy day as he always did, she felt she had to find a solution. So shesearched and searched, and discovered an old coat of hers that had goldenbuttons. She sold them and purchased all of this beautiful Shabbos food so theywould have an amazing Shabbat together. Shabsi continues telling the story. “I made the Kaddish, and my heartswelled with gratitude to G-d for giving us the opportunity to celebrate thisspecial, exquisite day, the day of rest, the day of oneness, the day of ecstasyand serenity. The day in which we can connect to our spiritual core. I was sograteful and so moved by what my wife had done. I could not contain my joy, andI asked my wife if she would dance with me. She agreed. So I joined my wife fora dance around the candlelit Shabbos table.     We continued our Shabbos dinner. I finished the fish and againmy wife and I were overwhelmed with so much gratitude. We couldn’t thank G-denough for allowing us to enjoy this beautiful day of exquisite rest and innertranquility, a day saturated with so much holiness, peacefulness, intimacy,love and serenity. I asked my wife, “Would you dance with me again?” And shesaid, “Of course.” So my wife and I, for the second time, went for a fierydance around the Shabbos table. We danced with all our heart and mind and soul.Then we sat down and began to sing the Shabbos songs, both melting in delight.We felt so privileged to have each other in our lives, and to have our G-d, andto have the gift of Shabbos. I felt so grateful for all my years with myamazing wife at my side. We both could not hold back the limitless joy. I askedmy wife if she would dance again with me and she said absolutely. So for thethird time, we joined hands and hearts and we began to dance and dance aroundthe table until the end of evening. “This,” Shabsi said, “is what happened inour home on Friday night.” The Baal Shem Tov looked at Shabsi, the bookbinder,and said, “Shabsi, I want you to know that as you danced with your wife, Heavenwas dancing with you. As the two of you joined hands and hearts and sang anddanced, the angels themselves were dancing in the Heavens. The eternal heartitself heard your music and it was warmed. G-d Himself was dancing andcelebrating with you. And I too,” the Baal Shem Tov said, “participated in yourjoy. On a Shabbos of such perfect, transcendent happiness, who wouldn't laugh?Each time you both got up to dance, I could not contain my laughter and joy.”     The Baal Shem Tov looked at Shabsi and said, “And now I want tobless you. What do you want? What do you need?” Shabsi said, “My dear Rebbe. Wehave been blessed with so much, but my wife and I never had a child. We wouldlove to be blessed with a child.” The Baal Shem Tov said, “I bless you that G-dshould grant you and your spouse a child.” Indeed, a year later, a young boywas born. They named him with the same name as the Baal Shem Tov, Yisrael. Hegrew up to become one of the greatest spiritual luminaries of Polish Jewry,known as the Kozhnitzer Maggid, one of the great Chassidic masters, the authorof a work called Avodas Yisrael. And he brought so much wisdom, depth, love andlight to Polish Jewry.     Sometimes you're sitting alone with your spouse or with anotherloved one or with yourself, enjoying a moment of holiness, of purity, of love,a moment of Shabbos. You're doing a mitzvah or you're engaged in Torah study.And you might think, “I’m just a simple man, a simple woman, unimportant,invisible, inconsequential. Who knows? Who cares?” But as you kindle your flameof holiness in this world, and you dance with your blazing heart, remember,Heaven is dancing with you. And the Tzaddik laughs along.