Parashat Terumah — Offering (contribution)
תְּרוּמָה
Terumah (תְּרוּמָה) means "offering (contribution)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Exodus 25:1-27:19 Read →
Haftarah I Kings 5:26-6:13 Read →
B'rit Chadashah Hebrews 8:1-13 Read →
What Happens in Terumah
Speak to the children of Yisrael, that they take for Me an offering — terumah — from every man whose heart makes him willing. No tax, no quota: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goats' hair; ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices, and onyx stones — all of it freely lifted up by stirred hearts. And then the sentence that gives the offering its purpose, and arguably names the goal of the whole Torah: let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. The God who filled Sinai with fire intends to move into the middle of the camp. Everything must be made according to the pattern shown to Moshe on the mountain — heaven's architecture rendered in tent-poles, thread, and beaten gold.
The blueprint begins at the center and works outward. First the ark of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold inside and out, carried on permanent poles, holding the Testimony. Over it the kapporet — the mercy seat — a slab of solid gold with two keruvim of hammered work rising from its ends, wings spread upward, faces toward each other and toward the covering. And there the promise is located precisely: there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two keruvim. Atonement's lid becomes the address of the divine voice. Then the table of showbread with its dishes and pitchers, bread of the Presence before YHVH continually; and the menorah, hammered from a single talent of pure gold — shaft, branches, cups shaped like almond blossoms, calyxes and flowers all of one piece — its seven lamps giving light.
Next the dwelling itself: ten embroidered curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet with keruvim woven in, coupled with gold clasps; a tent of goats' hair over them, and coverings of ram skins and fine leather over that — glory hidden under plainness. Forty-eight boards of acacia standing in silver sockets, braced by bars, form the walls; and the veil, woven with keruvim, divides the holy place from the most holy, guarding the ark as the flaming sword once guarded Eden. Outside stands the altar of bronze with its horns and network grating for the offerings, and around everything the courtyard of linen hangings on bronze pillars — a hundred cubits by fifty. Graded holiness, from the camp to the court to the holy place to the ark: a mapped path by which a holy God and an ordinary people can live together, exactly after the pattern shown on the mountain.
Main Themes
God's desire to dwell among His people Willing hearts funding the sanctuary Everything after the heavenly pattern Meeting God at the mercy seat The menorah — one piece, seven lights
Key Events
· The call for freewill offerings
· Instructions for the ark and mercy seat
· The table of showbread
· The golden menorah
· The curtains, boards, and veil of the mishkan
· The bronze altar and the courtyard
Key People
Moshe The children of Yisrael
Key Verses
Exodus 25:8 Read →
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.”
Exodus 25:22 Read →
“There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant, all that I command you for the children of Israel.”
Exodus 25:2 Read →
““Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering.”
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