d’var torah
Making a List
BY RABBI DAVID LEVIN
A Parshat Pekudei
ll for one and one for all?
God is in the house!
Every pilot uses a checklist.

This detailed accounting of seeming
minutiae is deliberate and purpose-
ful. Broad categories are broken down
into line items. Everything is checked
and confirmed from this exhaustive
list. The 747-400 Normal Procedures
Checklist is an example:
Checklist Categories
Power Up/Safety checklist
Preflight checklist
Before Starting checklist
Before Taxi checklist
Start Taxi checklist
Taxi Out checklist
Before Takeoff checklist
28 13 Items
48 Items
16 Items
6 Items
3 Items
10 Items
8 Items
These all are necessary to ensure
that everything is as it should be. But
it doesn’t ensure everything will work,
and the plane gets off the ground. But
this thorough and meticulous approach
cannot account for a sudden engine mal-
function, a flock of birds in front of the
engines, an unruly passenger making a
scene over wearing a mask, etc.

Similarly, Moses did all of his “pre-Divine
Descending” checklists on the Mishkan,
down to the vestments of the high priest.

But he did not know if what they had
completed would work or meet with God’s
acceptance until the Cloud descended and
filled the place with the Divine presence. So
Moses ran through the checklist.

But this accounting, Pekudei, the title
of our parsha, is the list.

Pekudei is about God and the people.

For it was B’nei Israel who did all of the
MARCH 3, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
necessary things to build the Mishkan.

The offerings, the creating and the build-
ing were all the work of all the people,
young and old, artisans and laborers,
men and women. Everyone had a role
to play, and all were necessary to create
God’s home. Chapter 39 of the Torah
portion repeatedly states the Children of
Israel did the work.

So Pekudei is driving home the point
that God could be there because the
people did everything, building for a
common purpose. That was the point of
the exercise; it was a Divinely-inspired
team-building exercise facilitated by the
team consultant. But it is not about the
consultant, Moses.

The text shares in Exodus 40:35 that
“Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because the cloud rested upon it and the
glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan.”
Pekudei makes it clear that the creation
of the Mishkan was not about Moses or
built by others so that Moses had a special
place to be with God. However, until the
moment that the Cloud descended, the
average member of the Children of Israel
could not know this was the intended
purpose of their collective efforts.

Often, we do not know if the things we
do matter. These things feel disconnected
from any bigger or broader purpose. We
then also become disconnected, retreat-
ing to narrow and small tribal groups.

We are alienated from others, and we
double down in an emotional response by
alienating others from us. Parsha Pekudei
resonates with us in these troubling times.

We do what we do, disconnected from
those who are supposed to represent us.

As a result, discourse becomes increas-
ingly divisive. We do not build bridges
with each other. Instead, we fortify our
defenses on our side of the chasm rather
than reach out to those different from us.

Where do I fit into it all? This is the
question many of us ask. American folk-
lore celebrated the rugged individualist.

But this vision of the loner is in tension
with the Jewish part of us.

In the good old days, we moved to a
place and joined a community, a syna-
gogue, to be with others with whom we
shared values and culture. We surrounded
each other to celebrate or console, mark
the special occasions in our lives, and
make us all feel as though we belonged as
part of something larger than ourselves.

The synagogue was more than a place
of prayer; it was a place of learning and,
importantly, a place of gathering. As we
acculturated and assimilated, these com-
munities seemed obsolete, and many of
us left them behind.

But politics from both the left and
the right have splintered the oneness of
the American experience. The American
aspiration, E Pluribus Unum, Out of
Many — One, has been under assault as
the culture wars heated up.

The pandemic exacerbated our feel-
ings of alienation, creating an almost
existential radical aloneness. Quarantine
and social distancing, intended to keep
us safe from physical harm, has done
substantial damage both psychically and
emotionally. In the beginning, Genesis
2:18, God realizes it is not good for
human beings to be alone. And here we
are, feeling more alone than ever.

The Mishkan experience shows us that
we do belong to something meaningful.

When we do not see it, we need to try and
take the broader view because it is there.

Our differences are opportunities to learn
from one another and celebrate what makes
us unique. We do things differently, but
each is no less significant than the other.

Differences are not to be feared but
rather to be embraced. When we see
ourselves and our brothers and sisters
as part of something larger, we find we
are all vital in the beautiful enterprise of
bringing God to dwell here with us. JE
Rabbi David Levin is the director of the Jewish
Relationships Initiative focused on using Jewish
wisdom to help people make meaning on their life
journey. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia
is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah
commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions
expressed in this column
are the author’s own and
do not reflect the view of
the Board of Rabbis.