Session 12: Parashat Pekudei

"Second Inaugural Address", Abraham Lincoln, 1865

As Exodus draws to a close, we consider the journey ahead. The Israelite narrative started in Egyptian bondage, promised redemption at the Sea and truth at Sinai, and now brings us to the tabernacle. In the midst of this critical section of Torah we witness the trauma of the Golden Calf, prompting Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg to call the Tabernacle a “therapeutic project,” a way of healing.

In the same way, Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address in 1865, facing the terrible disruptions of his day, describes the work of rebuilding unity as a way to find healing. Today, these messages are critically important as the new administration has brought a level of social and political disruption heretofore unknown in modern American history. Both in substance and method, the Trump team is exploding how our country works in government, business, society, and even law, arousing fear and anxiety in wide swaths of the population. Even those who support Trump and his policy aims can agree that after this disruption we will need healing.

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