Dodge Family Amphitheatre Opens with Rosh Chodesh Adar Crazy Hat Day Celebration

Last Friday morning we enjoyed the inaugural opening of the Dodge Family Amphitheatre, celebrated with crazy hair and hats at a Whole School Kabbalat Shabbat. Our Mazkirim led us all in cheer and song, filling our spirits with fun and joy in anticipation of Purim.

Last week’s parasha (Parashat Teruma) launches into guidelines for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). A bistle more serious.

The importance of giving from the heart is outlined first: each according to their means, from whatever materials they have. What then follows are the structural requirements for its creation, in meticulous and precise detail. Measurements matter. Materials matter. Order matters. Yet, interestingly, the Mishkan is portable- not fixed to any time or place. It is something that moved with the Jewish people throughout their 40 years of wandering in the desert and into the land of Israel. The mishkan represented change and continuity simultaneously.

The idea at the heart of this enterprise is summarised in the famous verse:

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם
And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell amongst them (Exodus 25:8)

Creation in itself can bring holiness to the mundane and the ordinary.

Dr Aviva Zornberg reads further into this week’s Parasha that this portability was essential to keep Revelation ongoing for the people of Israel and not just a memory. When the Jewish people left the nearness of G-d at Sinai, there was a risk they could lose what they were privileged to witness. The building of the Mishkan was a way to keep that memory alive and pulsating for the people of Israel for future generations.

The transcendent and fiery experience of Revelation, followed by the establishment of laws, and construction of the Mishkan, highlight the need for balance in our lives between creating structures, discipline, systems and routines which provide boundaries which keep us safe, whilst also harnessing a resilient spirit that is both adaptable and relevant everywhere we go, keeping the fire of Jewish life alive and burning, as if it were new.

Through the creation of the Mishkan, Ramban (15th century commentator) shares that “the secret of the Mishkan was to be a version of Mt Sinai that the people of Israel carried with them on their travels.” Zornberg reflects “It is a solution to the problem of retaining Revelation - how to make Revelation central to the people” (in the future). How does one translate grand statements and values into practice?

As educators, we understand that learning is deeper and more enduring when principles and values are translated into concrete, physical expressions in rituals, objects and spaces.

The blessings, singing and Shabbat tunes shared this morning in our new and beautiful expanded amphitheatre was in itself a creation for the sacred to be felt closer among us.

שבת שלום