The final verses of the Torah are truly moving and have always spoken to me in a very personal way. Moses dies and is buried by G-d somewhere in the Land of Moab where no one knows his grave site. This was very important, so that no one would turn his grave site into a shrine. Moses was a great man, but a man who was G-d’s messenger. He was not
G-d and it was important that no one would ever worship him as such.

This week is the holiday of Succot, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the fifth Intermediary Day falls on Shabbat, so once again the regular Torah reading is suspended and a special portion for the holiday is read instead.

The Torah portion is uplifting as well. For in this week’s portion, we read the Ten Commandments, as repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy. For this section of the Torah reading the entire congregation stands, as if to relive that incredible experience at Mt. Sinaiso many centuries ago.

Parents are encouraged to do whatever they need to do to arouse their children’s curiosity. In some cases, they dress up as the ancient Israelites with a sack and a stick, and they march around the table until the children question this bizarre behavior. And then, the parents can respond, while quoting Scripture, how their forefathers left Egypt in a hurry, “their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.”

The first verse in chapter 40 provides us with the date that the Tabernacle was completed — the first day of the first month, or the first of Nissan. Nissan is the month which begins the Biblical count of months and it falls at this time of year. It is also known as the month of the spring (Deuteronomy 16:1). It is not the month of Rosh HaShana

This week’s portion begins with the end of Exodus chapter 27 and includes the instructions for Aaron and their priests in their worship roles — their clothes, the sanctification process they will go through, and some instruction regarding the altar, the incense altar and the “tent of meeting.” It is the instruction with regard to this “tent” that I would like to focus on this week.

G-d does not need our worship. He does not need for us to build Him a house. G-d wants us to build that house so that it can be an effective tool for us to come close to G-d. May we never lose our ability to distinguish between the medium and the ultimate goal, between the vehicles of our faith and faith itself.

This week’s portion begins with Chapter 21 of the Book of Exodus. It is a portion full of laws, pertaining primarily to the ethical standards of behavior that a Jew must follow, but which actually form the basis of so much of what has become known as Judeo-Christian law and ethics.

This week’s portion begins with Jethro’s historic visit to the Children of Israel in the desert. The story begins in Exodus Chapter 18: “And Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’s father-in-law, heard of all that G-d did to Moses and to his nation Israel, that He brought Israel out of Egypt.”