This week Yermiyahu's Dad came to visit. We can all recall what it was like when our parents visited us at summer camp or college, their visit meant we got to leave campus! They took you out to eat, to go shopping, to see some sights. Funny thing is, I think Yermiyahu's Dad was in the "Beit Midrash" earlier than I was every day this week! And in the afternoon and evening, he was there learning like one of the guys. Yermiyahu was beaming all week, psyched to have a chance to spend time with his Dad doing what he loved. This morning, I overheard Reuven (Dad) explaining that not only was he getting to see his son and learn Torah during his visit, but he was able to day Kaddish for his recently departed father as well…an opportunity that was hard to come by where he lives in Florida.
My Dad wrote me a letter recently, in which he reminded me of something I said in the "The Daff" a few weeks back. He said that he could understand the need to make space in your heart before you can care for someone else. That space isn't only created by recognizing that I have an end, that I am finite, but it is also formed when I make room for possibilities that I haven't considered -- that I can't even fathom. Last week Amy T. wrote that " We have a sense of what Torah is about, but we don't always and we can't always know what that means, or why G-d wants certain things of us." Life is a constant tension between what we expect and what we never imagined.
This week, G-d gives Moshe instructions for building a holy space in the desert. How exactly does one build a space? I thought a space was something you save from getting filled in, or protect from being destroyed. If G-d really wanted us to have a space where we could connect to him, why not tell us to plant a forest or to create a nature reserve so that we will always have a beautiful natural place to come to in order to find G-d. Instead, we're given directions to build a structure of wood and gold, wool and animal skins. The Gemara explains that one cannot plant a tree within 100 feet of a city in Israel. The reason? Well you wouldn't want that city to block the beauty of the tree, right? Well, the Gemara goes on to say that not only can't you plant a tree, but if a tree exists first and then a city springs up behind it, the tree must be cut down! Guess we're not looking to preserve the beauty of the tree, instead we seem to be preserving the beauty of the city.
G-d loves us, and like any good father, he gets nachas (great joy) watching us build. As far as G-d is concerned, the combined effort of the hundreds of his children that it takes to build a city is far more beautiful than a tree which grew independent of our toil. What we are doing here in Yeshiva is a similar building - together we're building our minds, our character (hopefully), our ability to believe, and our ability to love. Yermiyahu built up his connection to his father this week, as his Dad was doing the same. May we see the day when all fathers and sons are building their relationships, bridging gaps between generations, and sharing in the beauty of that new space they create.