Terumah: The Copper Culprit

“…and you shall coat it with copper.” (Exodus 27:2).

Rashi explains that the copper coating of the holy altar in the Tabernacle atones for brazenness. Although no human can fully understand the secrets of Torah, we must still try to discover the connection between copper and brazenness.

Amazingly, the English language displays an intrinsic connection between copper and brazenness. Brass is an alloy of copper and the word brazen is a derivative of the word brass. As such, when we say that a person is “brazen”, it’s like saying that he’s copper-coated or covered with brass. Brass is also an informal term for audacity, or chutzpah. Brass is therefore a reminder that our impudent behavior toward Hashem needs to be rectified.

A person might think, “Impudent behavior toward Hashem? Who, me? I eat kosher, observe Shabbat, pray with a minyan, and give charity whenever I can. What are you talking about?”

Imagine that you’re attending a royal coronation ceremony. As the king is being crowned, the royal choir sings, “Long live the king,” accompanied by the 120-piece  royal orchestra. The honor guard stands ramrod at attention. At this hallowed moment, the monarchy’s venerable prophet places the priceless jewel-studded gold crown on the king’s head. Together with the tens of thousands of loyal participants, the orchestra and choir become silent as if a cloud of holy hush descended upon the entire assemblage…

All of a sudden, piercing the sanctity of the historical hour, someone’s cell-phone emits a grating racket with some nerve-racking heavy-metal ringtone. “OK,” the phone’s owner responds in an unabashed voice to the individual on the other side of the line, “schedule the appointment for 2 pm. I’ll take care of the deal as soon as I get out of here…”

Could there be a greater insult to the king? One inane citizen who forgot to turn off his cellphone destroys the once-in-a-lifetime moment of absolute holiness with his mundane conversation. Before one can count to three, two burly honor guards lift him up by the coattails and shackle him with handcuffs. There won’t be any 2 pm appointment, no business deal or anything else – this unthinking and unfortunate person is on his way to prison. He’s about to be prosecuted for his unprecedented effrontery; how dare he disturb the royal coronation and display such disdain to the king?

Yanked into the royal courtroom for trial and sentencing after having spent eight long weeks in prison waiting for his case to be heard, he shockingly hears the judges sentencing him to twenty years of hard labor on the rock-pile. The accused blurts out, “Twenty years!! Is this justice?”

The sergeant-at-arms silences the accused as the head justice responds, “Sir, you fail to realize the gravity of your crime. Such brazen behavior as you exhibited during his majesty’s coronation is an affront to the throne of the worst nature. It is punishable by death…”

“But I didn’t mean to do any harm! I don’t have anything against the king and I didn’t intend to insult him,” cried the accused, thinking about the bleak future that awaits him behind bars, in the chain gang and on the rock-pile.

“The court has taken that into consideration, young man; that’s why you are getting twenty years instead of the guillotine…”

* * *

Is the above allegory an exaggeration? On the contrary, it’s an understatement.

Our sages tell us that wherever ten Jews pray together, the Divine Presence is present. What’s more, in the age where we still lack our Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, our houses of prayer are called Mikdash Me’at, or miniature Holy Temples. Jewish Law stipulates how we are behooved to maintain the sanctity of our synagogues. Why? Hashem is there! Every time a person says “Amen, yehay shmay raba” during Kaddish, he is crowning the King of kings and sanctifying Hashem’s holy Name in the most magnificent manner! No wonder that the holy Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi promised that anyone who says this with intent will be rescued even if he has seventy years of harsh decrees leveled against him. He who crowns the King not only earns a mitigation and absolution of all wrongdoing, but benefits magnificent blessings as well!

Wherever the rewards are great, so are the punishments. One who dares to answer a cellphone or engage in small talk during prayer services is exactly like the young man in our story who so brazenly disturbed the king’s coronation.

Why do people talk in the synagogue? Why do they text-message when they should be praising the King? Most likely, they lack emuna. They don’t believe that Hashem is right there with them listening to their every word. If they would think about their many troubles in life, they’d most surely find that one of the main causes is their insolence to the King – their talking and texting in the synagogue. They can’t understand why their health and/or income are deficient, why they have so much trouble finding a soul-mate or why life just seems to be so very difficult. Could there be a copper culprit of unholy insolence behind all this? Could they be guilty of brazen insolence to the King? Chances are that they most surely are.

So what do we do if we don’t have a copper-coated altar to atone for us? The tiny conductors that activate the cellphone’s SIM card are made of copper. When we show our respect for our house of worship and for our King by turning off our cellphones and devoting all of our attention to prayer, the cellphone’s copper atones for us. This leads to all our prayers being accepted and seeing every single salvation, including Moshiach and our rebuilt Holy Temple, amen!