Take a moment and think about your home. Why do you have the things you have, the artwork on the walls, the furniture you chose, the tablecloth you always set out for company? Some of us decorate for comfort, we want to feel at ease in our own space. Some of us follow a style we love. And many of us simply do things the way our parents did, because certain items or arrangements feel like home, like family, like tradition. No single reason is wrong. In fact, there's something beautiful in all of them.
This week's Torah portion, Parshat Emor, is filled with laws about sacred time and sacred practice. But tucked within the larger conversation about the Mishkan (Tabernacle), the portable sanctuary the Israelites carried through the desert, is a small detail that stops me every time. The Torah instructs that twelve loaves of bread, known as the “Showbread,” are to be placed on a golden table inside the Mishkan: "to be placed before Gd at all times" (Exodus 25:30). Not occasionally. Not only on special occasions. Always.
Why do we decorate? Because deep down, we are always preparing for a guest.
Think about that for a moment. The Tabernacle, Gd's dwelling place among the people, was set like a table in a home. There was a special piece of furniture, and on it, an offering of bread, always fresh, always present. It was, in the most literal sense, a showcase: a way of saying, this space honors the One who dwells here.
That impulse didn't begin with the Mishkan, of course. It began with Abraham, who rushed to greet strangers at his tent and lavished them with hospitality. But what the Mishkan teaches us is that welcoming the guest isn't just a personal virtue, it can be built into a structure, woven into our very walls and furniture. The bread on the golden table was our ancestors’ world's way of saying: you are always welcome here.
That tradition continues today. Here at the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center, the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples works every day to open our doors, both literally and figuratively, to our broader community. Our building is more than a space. It is an expression of who we are and what we value.
A wonderful example of this unique hospitality is something most of our members might not even know about. Each summer, Collier County's Bone Builders program, a free, volunteer-led exercise class designed to help older adults prevent osteoporosis and improve balance, needs to find a new home. Their regular location is taken over by Collier County children's summer programs, and so they look for somewhere to go. We say: come here. Use our space. You are welcome.
It's a small act. But it is exactly what the Showbread was trying to say thousands of years ago. A table set in welcome. A space prepared. A community that says, to anyone who needs it: there is always room for you here. Because we are Stronger Together.
Shabbat Shalom,
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