Kleinbaum Intern and RRC Rabbinical Student Kendra Saperstein, Shabbat Morning Vayakhel, 2025
“Perhaps Moshe’s choice to begin this town hall with Shabbos comes from a recognition of the need to distinguish this type of labor [building the mishkan] from the labor of enslavement in Mitzrayim. I imagine that Moshe is carrying an awareness in his body, that being tasked to build a structure by a man who lived in Pharaoh’s house for a god you are just now getting to know could be enough to re traumatize you. And notably, he doesn’t tell them to keep Shabbos – for a people freshly liberated from slavery, what would that even mean? He says you’re only allowed to work for six days, and then you have to stop. The task of building the Mishkan is spiritual work, but it is work. Unlike in Mitzrayim, however, its purpose is to give meaning to our lives, and perhaps most importantly, it has a time and a place. We get to stop when we need to. It doesn’t demand that we lose ourselves. Rather, it helps us to become who we are.”
Third-year RRC Student and Kleinbaum Intern Kendra Watkins shared this Torah on Shabbat morning, March 22, 2025 / 22 Adar 5785. Watch the full talk above.
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