Vayakhel Pekudei: Being a community in challenging times
Written by Rabbi Hannah Kingston — 23 March 2020
This week we reach the end of the book of Exodus. The completion of this book echoes the completion of a journey, not a physical one like the one out of Egypt, but a metaphorical journey that the Israelites have been on, as they transformed from a group of individuals into a community.
The book of Exodus is very different to what came before it in Genesis. There we read about a single multigenerational family and their journey from Canaan to Egypt. Whilst the tales of this biblical family build up the layers of our history and teach us many valuable lessons, they demonstrate for us only how to be individuals in relationship with God, not how to form a community that can interact with God together.
As we wander through the book of Exodus with our Biblical ancestors, their tales are familiar to us. We witness their struggles, and experience through them the difficulties faced in the creation of a united people with a common vison. We have seen the Israelites argue, fall out with and lose faith in their leadership, even turn away to the worship of false gods. The Israelites have been on a a transformational journey to end up here, where we find them this week gathering in front of Moses, finally a community united in a single task.
The building of the tabernacle was the final test in the formation of this people. This task was the ultimate community building experience, because it was one in which every person’s individual element was intricately linked with another. In order for the tabernacle to be finished as a whole, every single entity needed to be completed in itself.
Ending the book of Exodus here allows us to see the power of the community that has been formed. We are able to take a step back, marvel at what has been built both physically and among the people, and finally admit how hard it was to get to this point. Our Parasha starts with the word, ‘vayakhel’, and he assembled as finally Moses can gather the individuals and see within them a community.
It feels so poignant to read this verse on this week, the one in which we have been forced to become physically separate. For 87 years Alyth has been forming into the community it is today, it has welcomed in people, and said goodbye to others. Lay leaders and professionals alike have worked tirelessly to create our Alyth family. And now we need to find a new normal, to discover together what it means to gather, when we are no longer able to do so physically.
The word Vayekhel, although in its technical translation means to gather or to assemble, can be loosely translated to mean ‘to community’. To community is still our purpose here at Alyth, not just to be a community, but to act as one. Now we are each given our own individual task as we attempt to negotiate the new normal and try to work out what it means ‘to community’ when all our traditions have been taken from us.
The 19th century rabbi known commonly as the Malbim wrote that the Mishkan that the Israelites completed building this week was not a physical structure or space, but rather a way of being. The verses dedicated to teaching us how it was built, are there to show us that each person should build a Mishkan in the recesses of their heart.
This is the task for each of us now. We must hold our community values and core ideals close to our hearts. We must build an Alyth within ourselves, to live in our own separate spaces as we live in our loving community.
As we learn to community in new and different ways, we continue to pray, learn and be together. We are all walking an unknown road, but together we can create a kehila, a holy community, outside of our beautiful sanctuary walls.
We have been overwhelmed by the responses to our appeal for volunteers for our new care programme, ‘From darkness to light’. Through this we hope to truly be able to support those who need our love, and respond to the practical and emotional needs that are present. Although physically separated, we are here for you.
We will continue to be and act as a community as we negotiate these unknown times, each of us completing our own individual tasks, so that we can create something special as a whole. Together we can be strong, because we can lean on one another when we are feeling weary. Together we can feel supported because we know even when we can’t see our community, we carry them in our hearts. Together we can turn darkness into light.