The Olympics are in full swing and it seems that everywhere you look there are reminders of the competitions going on up in the Great White North. In a bit of cross promotion beyond even NBC, the  Torah reading this week begins with a call to the people Israel to help create a sanctuary by giving those most precious of metals:  gold, silver and bronze. 

Perhaps influenced by watching too many tearful podium ceremonies the question occurs to me: why not just use gold for everything?  It wasn't a budget issue - the Torah tells us that by the end they were turning away gifts!  What is the message in including a range of materials and not just the one's considered the finest? 

One answer might be that the Torah wants to make sure everyone feels welcome, not just the elite.  Still, this seems a little condescending to the silver and the bronze people!  I think the message is deeper.  Gold inspires us to reach for perfection.  There is certainly an important place for that in our lives and the Torah does not ignore it.  (After all a Torah won the gold medal  yesterday!)  However, it is bronze, which is an alloy of metals, which calls our attention to the world as it is, the need to be involved in the real world around us and make it better. 

An incredible detail in the description of the Sanctuary drives this home.  The ornate washing basin at which the high priest would purify himself in order to perform the most sacred rituals was made of bronze. More specifically, it was made from melting down the mirrors that were carried by the women in the desert.  Could any object be more tied to the physical, real world than a mirror?  And yet it is the mirrors that become the implement that is required for the deepest possible connection to G-d!

While striving for a personal best can be important, to truly be the best we can be we can’t forget to go for the bronze.

 
Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Michael

These thoughts are dedicated to my dear friends Matt Eisenfeld and Sara Duker, may their memories forever be a blessing, on the occasion of their fourteenth Yahrzeit.  Matt, my Rabbinical School classmate and his girlfriend Sara, a person of rare gifts, were murdered in a terrorist attack on the number 18 bus the year we studied together in Jerusalem.  They were made of the finest gold, their kindness gleamed like silver, and they lived life unafraid to go for the bronze.