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God in a Box
A menorah.
JNS.org – Martha Goldberg was a middle-aged Jewish woman from the Bronx, N.Y., on her visit to the Far East. After the long trip from New York, she was exhausted but insisted on continuing her journey to the mountains of Tibet. She was so eager to have her long-awaited audience with the great guru Maharishi that she refused to delay it any further.
Martha arrived at the spiritual teacher’s sanctuary and was told by his assistant that the holy guru was very busy with prayers and meditations, and her audience must be very short. She would be allowed to say only three words. Martha was disappointed, but she couldn’t wait any longer, so she agreed. Ushered into the holy man’s private chamber, she shouted three words: “Sheldon, come home!”
I don’t know if this story really happened, but it certainly could have.
For years, far too many young Jews in search of spirituality ended up in the Far East with Eastern religions. Some never bothered to look in their own Jewish backyard, while many others did go to shul but couldn’t find what they were looking for. It is tragic that so many young Jews did not find spiritual satisfaction in the synagogue because Judaism is the primary source of spirituality.
Perhaps, it wasn’t always that accessible.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, tells the story of how the Jewish people fulfilled the instructions of God to build the very first house of God in history. The Mishkan—“tabernacle” or “sanctuary”—was constructed in the wilderness. It was a portable building that was erected and dismantled many times during the Jewish people’s decades-long sojourn in the wilderness. It was the precursor to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which would be our permanent sanctuary.
In an earlier chapter, Moses was told by God which materials would be needed and how to build it. But this week, we read that the Israelites actually did build it. The Torah reading is punctuated by the words Vaya’as (“And he made it”) and Vaya’asu (“And they made it”). They made the Ark. They made the Menorah. And they made all the sacred utensils. Everything was constructed and put together with the Divine instructions carried out to the letter.
Many commentaries question why there is so much seemingly superfluous duplication in these chapters. Previously, we read how God told Moses to make the sanctuary. And now, we read how Moses told the Israelites to make it. Many of the verses are almost verbatim. As the Torah is always concise, why is there so much repetition here?
Some suggest that since “the longest distance in the world is from speech to action,” the fact that they made it happen deserves repetition. Others argue that the building of a “House of God” on earth by finite human beings is itself so remarkable that it deserves to be said again and again.
Interestingly, the entire story of creation in Genesis takes all of one chapter in the Bible. The revelation at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments take up three chapters. The whole long story of the Exodus from Egypt fills 10 biblical chapters. But the building of the sanctuary takes up no less than 13 chapters of the Torah. Why? Because making a home for God on earth, in this material world, is the entire reason for which the world was created in the first place.
Can an infinite God be housed in a box? Can mere mortals of flesh and blood draw down the Divine spirit from heaven to earth? How is this even possible?
The answer is that we were empowered by God to do just that. He instructed Moses, who, in turn, instructed us exactly how to do it. And when we followed those instructions precisely, it happened. Because He made it happen, and God’s presence filled the sanctuary.
The mystics teach that God wasn’t satisfied with having angels sing His praises up in heaven. Angels are spiritual beings who have no bodies and no physical desires or distractions. It’s easy to be angelic up in heaven. But God wanted human beings, with all our moral frailties and terrestrial temptations, to live a godly life here in the physical realm. When we overcome our creature comforts and material constraints and live with faith and spirituality according to God’s will, that is a huge achievement, one worthy of creation itself!
So whether it is building a physical house for God or taking the most materialistic object—money—and giving it to charity instead of spoiling ourselves, we are doing nothing less than transforming the physical to the spiritual and the earthly to the heavenly. Taking a piece of leather that could have become a pair of Gucci boots and using it for a Torah scroll, tefillin or a mezuzah is transformative, too. Angels singing God’s praises in heaven is quite natural, but human beings praising God in our manmade synagogues here on earth is not to be taken for granted.
When we come to shul and study Torah in-depth, including the mystical sources, we discover how spiritual Judaism is. There’s no need to run to Tibet. We can bring God down to earth and raise ourselves up to heaven, wherever we live. That is earth-shattering stuff.
The post God in a Box first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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