March 19, 2009
I believe that one of the requirements of adolescence is that each generation of teenagers must find new and creative ways to annoy their parents and other adults. In recent years, one of the annoying habits of teenagers (which has spread to others and, in fact, may no longer be current among teens) is the use of the word “whatever” as a response to almost any statement or question from “Dinner is ready” to “Did you clean your room?” to “Have you thought seriously about which college you’d like to attend?”
“Whatever” means “I have better things to do” or “Don’t bother me with your pitiful little questions” or “I can’t be expected to pay attention to such trivial details.” But, as architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said, God is in the details.
Details are important. After all, Israel and the Palestinians both want peace in Jerusalem — they just differ on the details. The teachers’ unions and the supporters of school vouchers both want excellence in education — they just differ on a few details. Entrepreneurs and identity thieves both want to make money — they just differ on the details of their approach. You get the idea.
Almost the entire second half of the book of Sh’mot is about details. For the past three weeks, in Teruma, Tetzave, and part of Ki Tisa, we have read detail upon detail: the instructions for the construction of the Mishkan (the portable sanctuary) — the ark, the menora, the altars, and its other furnishings — and for making the ritual garments to be worn by the high priest. And in this week’s double parsha, Vayahel-Pekudei, we read them all again. These two portions essentially repeat all the detailed instructions in order to tell us that they were carried out.
The Torah could have told us this in just a few verses — something like, “The Israelites made the Mishkan and its furnishings and the ceremonial garments just as God has commanded Moses” — but instead, we read again the description of each item and that it was made according to instructions. In all, the Torah contains some 400 verses of details about the construction of the Mishkan; in comparison, there are fewer than 40 verses about the creation of the world.
Why is this? Perhaps it’s because it was humans who were to make the Mishkan, but God’s acts of creation are beyond our understanding. But it also comes to teach us that details are important. God is in the details, and not just in instructions for building projects. If you can’t be bothered with details — whether it’s paying your bills on time or remembering to change the oil in your car or checking to see if you need to have had your prescriptions refilled before you leave on vacation — you’re asking for trouble. And this is the least of it, the practical aspect.
God is in the details because it’s often paying attention to details that defines the difference between a mensch and a boor.
- A mensch takes a moment to smile and say “thank you” to a waiter, a retail clerk, or the UPS man.
- A mensch remembers the name of a coworker’s daughter and that she is in the third grade.
- A mensch knows that his hostess loves tulips and asks for them in the flower arrangement he is sending.
- A mensch knows that her mother-in-law’s cousin recently had surgery and calls to find out how he’s doing.
A mensch is someone who pays attention to all these details because he or she cares about other people. Vayahel-Pekudei reminds us that we can find God in the details, that rather than “whatever,” we should respond to those around us with “Really? Tell me more.”
Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a resident of Teaneck, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia and Lancaster, Pa.
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