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What the Torah Teaches Us About Contributing to Our Communities
A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
We come this week to the end of the second book of the Torah, Exodus or Shemot (as we call it).
For the past weeks, we have been focused on the construction of the Tabernacle in great detail. One may wonder why everything is being repeated three times. We have come across this phenomenon in the Torah before. Often the same subject, narrative, or law is repeated in similar and yet slightly different ways over the course of the Torah. An obvious explanation is that important messages are reiterated to give them greater significance — and very often different nuances and terms help expand fundamental principles.
For the Tabernacle, God gives instructions to Moshe on how the Tabernacle should be conceptually. Then the construction is handed over to Betzalel and Oholiav. Finally, the completed construction is anointed and dedicated with every detail mentioned. It’s not unlike the idea of having an idea of a building that you want to construct. You call in an architect to design it. Then the construction team to carry it out. And finally, when it’s all completed, you check that everything is as you wanted, and that it functions effectively.
We can apply this to ourselves, our actions, and our approach to life. We start off with a view of the world, how we should live within it and encounter it. Then we go through the process of actually experiencing life with its challenges, when all our dreams and ideals are put to the test. And finally, we can look back and see how we have performed and whether we have come up to our own expectations.
Within these chapters, there are some interesting elements that are worth noticing that add different dimensions to the overall picture of the Tabernacle as a metaphor for both our community and ourselves. This week as the Tabernacle is competed, the word Vayechal is used twice (39:32 and 40:34). This word is only used previously with regard to creation and Shabbat. It is used in Kiddush on Friday nights. So that the creation of the physical world and the spiritual are intertwined.
But let’s look at the contributions to the Tabernacle. There are different words for different kinds of contributions. There is Terumah, which is an obligatory sort of poll tax on everyone. But the very rich elders, the Nesiim, were obliged to contribute priceless jewels. Then there is a Nedavah, a voluntary contribution and men and women participated. And finally, the skills of individuals, which applies equally to men and women, so that everyone could contribute one way or another.
It’s interesting how many times the Torah comments on the fact that the women were contributing even more enthusiastically than the men. Towards the end of last week’s reading of the Torah, comes an interesting extra. The Kiyor, the metal laver, a huge copper bowl for people to purify themselves with, was made-up of the contribution of women, donating their brass mirrors, to provide the metal for the construction. The Torah describes the contribution as coming from the women who congregated around the Tabernacle, the Nashim HaTzovot.
A similar phrase is used in 1 Samuel 4:22. The Hebrew word Tzava can mean coming together in general to pray, or to express their religious sentiment. It could equally mean those women who were employed in cleaning and repairing and providing services for the maintenance of the building. And there’s a third interpretation based on the fact that the word can also mean an army, Tzava, as it does in Israel today. Does this mean these women were fighters? It’s a fanciful idea, but does emphasize their importance on so many levels.
We are all responsible for maintaining our communities by contributing to them in any way that we can and using whatever skills we have. It is what we do that counts.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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