Reading this Torah parshah made me think of my son-in-law today being furious about an injustice in his son's school. I agreed that arguments for and against the school's actions were reasonable. I didn't agree with the idea of him being furious.
One might think that the act of living the Torah would be to not get furious with the demands of G_d, which I metaphorically take as the demands of life. Today I was pretty upset with myself for making some mistakes in the kitchen which both cost me time and trouble. The upset was probably worst that the flour that I spilled.
G_d is not nice. He threatens the children of Israel with a plague if they don't atone for their souls when counted. It doesn't just want obedience. It wants absolute obedience.
Everyone, rich and poor alike, should give half a shekel. The money will be used to pay for the tent. Everyone should pay!
A washstand should be made, and Aaron and his sons should wash both their hands and feet before they enter the holy tent so that they will not die.
Then we’re told about making an incense as an annoinment to G_d for your generations. It shall not be poured on human flesh. From what I read elsewhere, Orthodox men don't wear fragrances and neither Orthodox men nor women wear fragrances on either Yom Kippur or Tisha’B’Av.
In the next chapter, G_d imbues Bezelel the spirit of G_d so that he can make holy objects.
Then it talks about keeping the sabbath. That would be quite a change in my life to take off one day a week. I've never really taken a day off in my life. What would I do? Perhaps in a meditation retreat I've done that ... though I'd find some time in the evening to do something productive.
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