A Thought on Parshas Terumah

"...v'asisa es ha'mizbe'ach..." "...and you shall construct the altar..." (26:1) Earlier on, the Torah instructs us that, when making an altar of stone in the Mikdash, we must not make it of iron-hewn stones. The verse refers to this prohibition as not "raising your sword against those stones and desecrating them" (20:22). Many of us have heard of the somewhat mystical shamir, which was used to hew or engrave stone and hard substances for Temple use. The Torah does not speak about the shamir, and our sages and commentaries have addressed the conditions and circumstances wherein iron could, or could not, be utilized when constructing materials in the Temple. What we know from the verse cited is that we may not "raise our sword against stone and desecrate the altar." This week, ibn Shu'aib reviews the writings of earlier authorities who sought some meaning or understanding of this prohibition. He begins with a midrash which relates that there is a symbolic meaning to the ban. The altar serves as a medium for prolonging life: when the Jews worship HaShem in the ways which He has instructed, we have a tangible means of offering up our spiritual pleadings. We pray for forgiveness, for atonement, for health, for sustenance, and for life itself. Hence, the altar is a place which is associated with HaShem giving life. Iron, in turn, is in fact used in swords. It is employed by humanity for very un-G-dly endeavors. Swords end or shorten life. Therefore, a life shortener does not belong with a life prolonger. Iron should not come in contact with our altar. ibn Shu'aib then cites the view of ibn Ezra, who looks beyond the contact of iron on stone and instead anticipates the effects of that contact. Hewing stone with iron shortens the stone, which by definition is how we shape and give dimension to the stone, forming it into an altar. However, there will be shards. There will be chips and leftovers, particles and fragments which will not end up as the altar. What will happen to those pieces of stone?They will be discarded. This means that some of stone will become sanctified and some will be useless and rejected. This would be unbefitting - something that had prospective kedusha ending up in the trash heap. This, according to ibn Ezra, would be a reason to ban the hewing of stone. Alternatively, he writes, people might salvage those stone remnants. They might put them to servile use or, worse, they might regard them as sanctified through their having formerly been parts of the present altar stone. People might regard them as holy and worship them, which would mean that the material used in the altar would also be used for pagan worship. Hence, altar stone may not be hewn, based on how the shards might be misused. ibn Shu'aib then cites the Rambam, who explains that the reason to avoid hewing those stones is as a precaution: the cutter might aim at fashioning those fragments, shaping them in the process of removing them from the larger stone. The Torah (VaYikra 26:1) has expressly forbidden the shaping of stones for decorative purposes lest they be employed in pagan rites. Nothing pagan should ever emerge from something sacred. Finally, ibn Shu'aib refers to the Ramban, who was his own rebbe's teacher. The Ramban endorses the view of the midrash, but adds that the wording of the verse may shed light on its meaning. Not only does the verse equate 'hewing' with 'the sword', but it says "using your sword." What is the significance of "our sword"? The Ramban infers that the Torah is signaling that Jews are not supposed to be the people of the sword. The sword, the iron weapon, is the hallmark of Esav. Prayer and worship are the domain of Jews. To bring the tool of Esav to the tool of Yakov would indeed be a desecration. Swords conquer the material world, whereas worship rules the consecrated world. ibn Shu'aib closes by opining that "this is the reason some are accustomed not to leave the knife on the table during the prayers after meals. The table is like an altar and when we worship there, there is no place for the iron of Esav." Good Shabbos. D Fox