Building a Sanctuary in a Time of Sirens

                                          

 

Building a Sanctuary
in a Time of Sirens

 

of Ulpan-Or, the International Center
for Hebrew and Israeli Culture Studies.

 

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This week’s double portion, Vayakhel-Pekudei, arrives together with Shabbat HaChodesh, the Shabbat that precedes Rosh Chodesh Nisan.

This year that convergence falls on March 13–14, 2026, with the regular Torah reading of Exodus 35:1–40:38 and the special HaChodesh reading of Exodus 12:1–20.

 

In Israel, these readings land with unusual force.

We are still living through alerts, protected-space routines, missile launches from Iran, UAV threats from Lebanon, and an ongoing campaign officially referred to in Israeli sources as Operation Roaring Lion.

During March 10–13 repeated missile fire toward Israel, Home Front instructions to enter protected spaces, UAV interceptions from Lebanon, and expanded fighting on the northern front.

 

And exactly here the Torah begins: not with panic, not with complaint, but with gathering. “וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה / Vayakhel Moshe” — “Moses assembled” the people.

 

After the fracture of the Golden Calf, Moshe’s first great act is to turn a broken mass back into a community. Then comes the call: “כׇּל־נְדִיב לִבּוֹ / kol nediv libo” — everyone whose heart is moved should bring an offering. The Mishkan is not built by coercion. It is built by awakened hearts.

 

 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes that Vayakhel highlights the very nature of Jewish community: not a crowd, but a kehillah — community  people joined by purpose, memory, and responsibility. That is one of the deepest miracles in Jewish history: not only that we survived, but that we kept gathering…

 

There is another striking detail. Before the Torah describes gold, silver, copper, tapestries, artisans, and sacred design, it speaks about Shabbat: “On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest.”

 

The order matters. The Torah is teaching that even the holiest project cannot devour the soul that builds it. Before building sacred space, we must protect sacred time. Before productivity, presence. Before accomplishment, covenant.

 

In a world addicted to urgency, Vayakhel whispers a radical truth: if you lose Shabbat, you may still produce — but you will no longer know what you are building for.

 

Then comes one of the most moving scenes in all of the book of Genesis. The people give so much that the artisans come to Moshe and say: “The people are bringing more than is needed.”

 

Moshe must actually tell them to stop. The Torah concludes: “וְהַמְּלָאכָה הָיְתָה דַיָּם… וְהוֹתֵר / their efforts had been more than enough.” What a stunning image.

The same nation that recently fell into confusion is now overflowing with generosity.

This is one of the Torah’s great teachings about human beings: failure is real, but it is not final. A heart that gave itself once to something false can return and give itself even more deeply to something true.

 

The cure for misdirected passion is not apathy.
It is redirection.

 

The Jewish spirit is not afraid of numbers. On the contrary: where there is genuine kedushah, there is also integrity. And only after the work is completed with precision does the climax arrive: “the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of God filled the Tabernacle.” The Shechinah comes not only where there is ecstasy, but where there is disciplined faithfulness.

 

And then enters Shabbat HaChodesh, with its extraordinary verse: “הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם / HaChodesh hazeh lachem” — “This month shall be for you the beginning of months.”

 

Our sages see this as the first commandment given to Israel as a nation. It is not only about the calendar. It is about agency. Slaves do not control time; they are controlled by it. A free people sanctifies time, names beginnings, and lives by renewal.

 

 

That is why HaChodesh comes just before Nisan and Pesach: redemption begins when a people believes that history is not closed, that tomorrow need not be a copy of yesterday, that the moon can thin and return, and so can we.

 

This is where contemporary thinkers help sharpen the Torah’s message.

 

·        Rabbi Sacks reminds us that Judaism distinguishes between types of collectivity and treasures the kehillah — community formed by shared mission, not mob emotion.
 

·        Brené Brown, in a very different vocabulary, speaks of the need to “cultivate belonging.”
 

·        Viktor Frankl’s legacy likewise insists that human beings endure and rebuild when life is anchored in meaning, responsibility, and service to something higher than the self.

 

Put these voices together and you hear a single chord: people are strongest not when they feel powerful, but when they know why they are here, whom they belong to, and what they are building together.

 

That is why these portions feel so alive in Israel right now. In days when families move in and out of protected spaces, when normal plans are interrupted by alerts, when the rhythm of life is broken and resumed and broken again, the Torah does not ask us for grand speeches.

It asks us to build a Mishkan out of whatever is still in our hands.

 

·        A teacher continuing a lesson.

·        A parent calming a frightened child.

·        A soldier standing watch.

·        A medic showing up.

·        A neighbor checking in.

·        A team member working from a shelter.

·        A Jew making Kiddush with a full heart after a hard week.

 

These are not side notes to Jewish life. They are Jewish life. The Mishkan was always meant to be portable, because holiness was always meant to travel with us. 

 

A Chassidic story comes to mind.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once announced that every name submitted for his Yom Kippur prayers would require a small payment: two groschen per name. Late in the day, a poor widow arrived with only enough money for one name. Asked which name she wanted included, she crossed out her own and kept only her son’s. At that moment Rabbi Levi Yitzchak lifted her coins and cried to Heaven: Look what a mother is prepared to do for her child — can You do less for Yours?

 

 

It is a story about compassion, but also about Vayakhel. The Mishkan is built when the heart stops asking, “What about me?” and begins asking, “What can I bring?” That is the offering God desires most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the message of this Shabbat is both tender and demanding.

• Vayakhel tells us: gather.
• Pekudei tells us: be accountable.
• HaChodesh tells us: renew.

 

Gather what is scattered. Count what truly matters. Begin again.

 

 

 

 

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