Vayakhel-Pekudei “Corona Chronicles”

This week we end Sefer Shemot with a bang by reading the conjoined parshiot of Vayakhel and Pekudei from one Torah, followed by the special leining from a second Torah that announces the upcoming Rosh Chodesh Nissan.  Unfortunately, like that tree that falls in a forest without witnesses, this bang will not be heard and the beautiful pageantry will be unobserved.  Jews throughout the world will be home-bound this Shabbos by government edicts proscribing gathering in public places.  Baruch HaShem, this edict is being respected and promoted by our Rabbis as a communal Pikuach Nefesh.

It is ironic – but not a coincidence – that our parsha begins with Moshe gathering the entire nation of Yisrael together to continue the conversation that began on Sinai:

What lesson can we, who will be alone and isolated this Shabbos, learn from this verse about communal gathering?

I suggest we look to Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar, the eighteenth-century mystic better known as the Or Ha-Ḥayyim.  He wondered why the Torah, ever frugal with her words, took the time to tell us that Moshe assembled the nation.  Surely he did so each time he addressed the nation!  What was different this time?

After Moshe experienced God’s Countenance directly, the Torah tells us that his face shined so brightly that he had to cover it with a veil.

The people were naturally afraid and thought it wise(r) to stay home.  Keep in mind that this occurred soon after Chet HaEgel, the Golden Calf debacle.  There had just been a national calamity; death and terror invaded the community.  People retreated to the privacy of their tents and invented social distancing.  The fears of the people were genuine and rational.   Seeing Moshe (who, admittedly, had a bit of an anger management problem) lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July did nothing to calm their nerves.

Moshe understood this; he appreciated their contagious fear.  He therefore coaxed them out by simply telling them that the time had come to resume their lives and to hear Torah.  Moshe summoned the entire people, assuring them that they were safe.

The time will soon come when it will be safe for us, too, to leave our self-quarantines and return to work and school.  Normal shopping will resume and products unavailable now will once again fill the shelves.   On that day, our Rabbi will invite us back to shul to worship and celebrate, to see the light of Torah and to once again sing praises to HaShem, with the harmony of our friends and family and neighbors.

As Moshe told Pharaoh:

When we do assemble, we should probably leave our flocks and cattle and dogs and cats at home.  Other than that, on that day, all who are able –man, woman and child  alike – must come we can still sing our tefilot and learn our Torah.

And if anything, this experience must give us a glimpse into the fears that Bnai Yisrael had in the time of Torah, and throughout history, when public assembly and worship was so often a life-threatening endeavor.

Shabbat Shalom!