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Pekuday

Leviticus 38:21-40:38

I Kings 7:51-8:21

A businessman heard of a tailor's reputation for fine craftsmanship and precision work and decided to purchase a new suit. He admired the tailor's fine work, ordered a suit and agreed to pay whatever price the tailor asked. The tailor took the businessman into a back room where he kept rolls of fabric and thousands of swatches of cloth.

"Here is the material I use to make my suits," said the tailor proudly. "Which fabric would you like?"

The businessman's eye caught a particularly attractive material. He picked up one swatch from among the others and gave it to the tailor and said, "This is my choice."

"Are you sure this is what you want?" the tailor asked. "This is quite an unusual request for current fashion. But the customer is always right, so I will be happy to make the suit for you."

A month later the businessman returned to the shop to pick up his new suit. But when the tailor brought it out, the businessman found to his dismay that the tailor had made his suit by sewing together hundreds of swatches of the material.

"What kind of suit is this?" demanded the unhappy customer. "I ordered a suit, not a quilt."

"But this is the fabric you picked out," the tailor reasoned. "Did you expect that I would use another?"

Pekuday, this week's Torah portion, focuses on the rites and rituals of the ancient priesthood: a description of the materials used in the construction and dedication of the Tabernacle, a list of the priestly vestments and the anointing of the priests.

It also describes the mysterious cloud that descended on the Tabernacle and served to escort the Israelites through their desert wanderings. It does not provide a particularly remarkable ending for the otherwise dramatic Book of Exodus.

Perhaps the biblical author was simply creating a transition for what follows in the Book of Leviticus, which, to the modern reader, is anything but challenging, colorful or provocative. Leviticus, called Torat Kohanim, the Law of the Priests, also concerns itself with topics that do not excite the imagination. It covers laws concerning leprosy, defilement and purification, menstrual taboos, ritual baths, diet, Yom Kippur, sabbatical and jubilee celebrations, sexual conduct and sex offenses, consanguinity and affinity, sacrifice and priestly perquisites, sin, guilt, well-being and burnt offerings.

On first reading there is not a great deal in Leviticus that speaks to the 20th-century Jew. However, Pekuday as well as Leviticus challenge us to find meaning in these texts.

These uninspiring sections of the Torah lead back to the story of the quilted suit. If, when we read the Torah, we only examine it up close and see just the individual swatches in its rich Torah fabric, then we miss a great deal. That is why rabbis for centuries have written commentaries and even commentaries on the commentaries. They believed that each Torah portion, rich or seemingly uninspiring, provides a tapestry of metaphors about life. To see only the words on the printed page is to have a quilted suit made up of little pieces of fabric. To understand the deeper and greater meaning is to take fabric and create a finely crafted garment.

Such metaphors are useful because they enable a reader to expand upon what is explicitly said. When reading a Torah portion like Pekuday or the Book of Leviticus, uncovering the metaphoric meaning is the central task. For example, the rabbis of the Eastern European yeshivas used to begin children's study of Torah with the Book of Leviticus. They did not begin with the mysterious, absorbing, imaginative, inventive tales of Genesis, nor with the powerful saga of Israel in Egypt. They began with Leviticus because they saw something grand in this book focused on the minutiae of sacrifice and cult function.

They understood and wanted Jewish children to understand that sacrifice is at the very center of the life of a mensch — a human being. It is an important lesson that we can learn only if we can see beyond the simple words and meanings of the text.