Miryam's Space

Terumah, 5781

Giving as the gift. When a soul is full of gratitude we may be inspired to give, and in doing gain even more. Gratitude, I am convinced more and more, may be the whole ball game, what we’re here for.

But back to our story. When we Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God redeemed us at the Sea and we became bound in covenant at Sinai. Tradition says we were all of us there in our makom, place around the mountain. When the day came, where it was time to leave the place of our inspiration. I remember saying“I don’t want to go back to work” Oh, we have to go? Then I want to take all of this amazing feeling with us.

What have been your moments of clarity and inspiration, where the one-ness just overwhelms, when we intuit our place around the mountain and G8d calls our name? Maybe you have taken part in protest marches. Or were part of the vast desert sky full of stars, Or that moment of seeing your bashert, or your new born child for the first time How do we leave these Holy encounters and go back to the mundane tasks of life?

Torah’s answer: Give from your heart, make something beautiful– a space where G8d can dwell. Make it to divine specs The word Mishkan, the name for the portable sanctuary we would build, comes  from the same word as Shechinah. Maybe the space you will be building for G8d to dwell will be in your own heart.  G8d spoke to Moses, saying:

וְיִקְחוּ־לִ֖י תְּרוּמָ֑ה

Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.

gold, silver, and copper;

וּתְכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ וְעִזִּֽים׃

blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, goats’ hair;

tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood;

oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and וְלִקְטֹ֖רֶת הַסַּמִּֽים׃ the aromatic incense;

lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell within them.

Reb Nachman of Bratzlav says in that when you open your heart to give, your heart remains open to receive from above. And what you receive in return is something more precious than metals, gems and the other offerings. When you open your heart to give, what you receive comes from the “Supernal Heart”, Noam HaElyon, the Divine Pleasantness.

there is something about giving with all your heart. You get more than you give. In the afterglow of Sinai so many people gave, Moses had to say “stop, enough”! We did it together

Perhaps redemption at the sea and seeing the thunder at Sinai were for actually for this -communal heart opening

What would you give at Sinai – that’s personal and beautiful and real?

For me music. has been my sulam, my ladder to the heavens, healing and heart opening. In the past, my giving has brought me to assisted living facilities for many years to play old time songs, and Jewish songs at the time of the holidays. You should see folks come alive when songs from their childhood are sung. Music has the charm to soothe the savage breast.   And it’s been sad not to be able to give in this way during the past year.  And I just realized the other day, speaking to my spiritual counselor, that my volunteer work on line has come along just at this time, and has become my way to give.

Now in 2026, I hope to build a Mishkan, a dwelling place in where people can sing, and be inspired, connect to the Holy One of blessing and to one another. But it also must be a place where folks can give of their heart, where their talent is needed and appreciated. Anne Gregory Teicher has just stepped forward to volunteer in managing the website. Others of you have begun taking classes, Bonnie will read Torah. I want to sing Halleluyah! Now we can begin to build!

Olam chesed yibaneh. I will build this world from love, and you must build this world from love; and if we build this world from love, then G8d will Olam chesed yibaneh. I will build this world from love, and you must build this world from love; and if we build this world from love, then G8d will build this world from love!

Hear Their cries, for Mishpatim

We have  experienced so much drama in Torah these last weeks, as we have at home: Redemption at the sea, Revelation at Sinai. Now in Parashat Mishpatim, meaning Laws, we learn that Sinai’s inspiration is carried forward by the perspiration of the way we act toward one another, to recognize the tzelem, the image of G8d in the other . 

In the few verses I’m honored to read on Shabbat are laws about taking responsibility for things you set in motion, even if you didn’t do them yourself:

If you let your animals graze and they eat grain or food from another’s field, you must pay double. If you start a fire, and it consumes food in another’s field, you must pay back double, or volunteer to work in their field. You set the fire, or the grazers in motion and you must take responsibility when things went out of control and other people were infringed upon. They might starve b/c of your actions. You are responsible.  

Do I have to say if you incite a riot?  On three things the world stands: Truth, Justice and peace.   Pirke Avot

But  if they are outside your group, a ger,  you should love them, and not oppress them, Why? Because, Torah says twice in this parshah:  you know their soul! you’ve been there – refugee immigrants in a land not your own, And in their eyes you are commanded to see your own soul!

I wrote this song for a drash on Mishpatim two years ago. Earlier that year our misdeeds against the stranger rose in glaring ugliness, as immigrants at our southern border were, and continue to be imprisoned and held in inhumane conditions.  For me the image seared in my mind of John Moore’s photo printed on the cover of Time, of the toddler crying beside a towering border patrol officer. The mother and child had been on the road for a month. Many families were separated, and human beings were called illegals

V’hager lo tilchatz, y’datem et nefesh ha-ger,  ki gerim heyitem

These and many other laws were entered into a contract sealed with the words: naaseh v’nishma – we will do, and we will hear. We do first, act justly, and perhaps then we will really be able to nishma – hear, not be deaf

HEAR THEIR CRIES, Miryam Wolfson December 30, 2018, updated January, 10, 2026

You already know how it goes 

To be so far from safety, from home

To be alone, to be a outcast in a narrow zone

Love the immigrant, you were one too

Love the immigrant, you know their soul

Hear their cries and know

You can be part of the healing, 

make things whole

A little boy cries in the night

Though they hear him no one comes to hold him tight

No one makes it right, or reunites

The world seems far too big and too cold

Without Papa beside her to hold  

Bridge

Naaseh v’nishma, We will help and then truly hear

When we comfort and dry the tears 

It can open the way

To be free, to live in dignity

Naaseh v’nishma,  

Let us open our hearts and our minds

Cause there will always be mountains to climb

We can truly be there, 

even gather a glimpse of Divine

if we..

Love the immigrant, we were there too

Love the immigrant, we know their soul

Hear their cries and know

we  must be part of the healing, 

make ourselves whole