by RABBI CHAIM FINK | February 17, 2026 6:27 pm
It was more than a dozen years ago when I first met Rabbi Avi Cohen. My wife Shaindel and I traveled from New York to Detroit to interview with Partners in Torah. What Partners was doing in Detroit was unique in the Jewish world. Having Jews from all different backgrounds, hundreds of them, sitting across from each other weekly to study Torah and learn from one another, was not something done anywhere else! We found ourselves in the office of the man who had built up this program from something small to something legendary, and we were taken by his warm inviting smile.
Over the years, Rabbi Cohen has been a mentor to me. Torah is not only something that we teach, but it is something that we live. The beauty of Torah literally radiated from the face of Rabbi Cohen. He has inspired so many Jews here in Detroit with his unique Torah pamphlets that he wrote on the Torah portion each week. This week, I would like to write the pamphlet as a tribute to him. Rabbi Cohen and I shared an office. As I sit by my desk writing these words, I glance over at the empty chair by his desk. The memories flood in. The sadness and loss is real. Hopefully these words of Torah will offer some comfort to us all.
Transcending the Natural
The Torah portion begins by describing all of the materials that the Jewish people were asked to offer as donations for building the Tabernacle; the portable structure of divine service. The donated items included precious metals, beautifully colored fabrics, and precious gems. The total number of items listed for contribution were 15.
Fifteen is an important number in Torah thought. There is a verse in the book of Isaiah (26:4) stating that when God created both this world in which we live and the next realm, the World to Come, He created both of them with the two letters of His name Yud and Hey. The numeric value of these two letters is 15. Fifteen is symbolic of both this physical world and of the spiritual World to Come.
Let’s talk a bit about the natural world. There are many occurrences of the number seven in the natural world. There are seven days in the week, seven musical notes, and seven colors in the rainbow. That is why we say that 7 is representative of the natural. The number 8 symbolizes the supernatural. The human body is something we can see and measure, but the soul, the neshama, is spiritual. The Hebrew word neshama, shares the same letters as the Hebrew word shemoneh, eight. That is why when a Jewish baby boy is born we wait until the 8th day to give it a bris. We take the human body, which physically looks perfect and complete, but is missing something imperceptible to human senses. It is missing spiritual perfection. So on the 8th day, the day that is symbolic of transcending from the physical to the spiritual, we ensure that this new baby is made whole spiritually. That is the number 15, the 7 of the natural world combined with the 8 of the supernatural.
The mishkan (Tabernacle) was this place of transcendence. It was a physical structure, built of wood and metal, covered over by ornate tapestries. But it was in these materials that the Divine Presence resided in this world. It was a place where the physical was enmeshed with the spiritual. The 8 and the 7 combined to make up the 15 materials that were donated to build a material structure as an abode for Godliness.
Rabbi Cohen was definitely a man who lived in the physical world. He knew how to work technology better than I did. He proudly built a swing set for his children by picking up lumber from the Home Depot, cutting it to size, and putting the whole thing together himself. But he always dedicated most of his efforts toward the spiritual. He lived Torah. And speaking of the mitzvah of bris– circumcision: Just about every person in this room has a relative who Rabbi Cohen was the mohel for; he was the one who brought that child into the bris– the covenant of Abraham. Performing the mitzvah of bris- where we surpass the natural world, was something that Rabbi Cohen relished, and passed down that tradition to his family.
A Tree of LIfe
The first and most sacred of the items found in the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a box that rested on the floor in the innermost chamber of the sanctuary. The Ark was actually 3 separate boxes, 2 made of gold and one of wood. The outermost, largest box was gold, in it went the middle box made of wood, and inside of that was the smallest box made of gold. Practically, the Ark was made of wood and plated in gold on both its inside and outside. It’s interesting to note that it was not made of solid gold. There were other items, not as sacred, which were made of pure gold; like the seven branched Menorah candelabra. Why is the Ark, the holiest of all the vessels, made of wood that is plated in gold?
We must begin by exploring what went inside of the Ark? And the answer is that the Ark contained the stone tablets upon which were engraved the Ten Commandments, which really encapsulated the whole Torah. The Torah is referred to as “a tree of life for those who grasp hold of it” (Proverbs 3:18). A tree is alive and grows. As we explore and discover the gems hidden in the Torah, the amount of Torah wisdom in this world also grows and expands. The Ark, which housed the Torah, was made from wood, a substance that had been alive, to convey this idea that Torah is alive.
There is something else about a tree that makes it comparable to Torah. Think about how many fruits an average tree produces each season. There must be hundreds of fruits and each one contains many seeds. Each of those seeds is capable of growing an entire tree on its own. Think about the fruit producing potential of a single tree- how many trees, identical to itself can it produce over the course of its life span? The number is too vast to contemplate. The same is true when one is a sincere teacher of Torah. We teach students and each of those students are capable of teaching students of their own, and so goes an endless chain. The fruits of our labor in teaching Torah are limitless. Rabbi Cohen was a teacher of Torah to all of us. The insights he shared, the lessons he taught, and the values that he lived, have been embedded in our hearts and minds, and we will continue to share them with others, who will in turn, pass them on to even more people. He was a tree of life whose fruits are still growing more trees.
Two Cherubs Facing Each Other
The cover for the Ark was made of a solid piece of gold. From that solid piece, they hammered out and fashioned on the two ends, cherubs with angelic characteristics, who had the faces of children. The two cherubs faced each other, with their wings touching, serving as a canopy over the Ark.
What is the significance of them being hammered out, and the entire Ark cover created from one single mass of gold? When something is made from two separate pieces that are later connected, either through glueing, sewing, or in the case of metal, welding them together, its weakest point will be at the point of connection. That is where it is most likely to rip, crack or break further down the road. But when it is made of one solid piece, it has no natural weakness. It is one strong mass of togetherness and unity. The Ark is symbolic of the unity shared by those who are connected through the study of Torah.
The great Torah commentary known as the Baal HaTurim writes the following, regarding the fact that the two Cherubs faced each other: “They are like two friends engaged in a dialogue about words of Torah.” The space separating these Cherubs was the part of the Ark that contained the Tablets. The Torah was the medium that connected them and their bond was strong. Such is the nature of bonds built by Torah.
At Partners, we know Rabbi Avi Cohen as the master matchmaker. I always thought that if he was in charge of pairing people up for marriage, the divorce rate would likely plummet! He would pair people up to study Torah and these relationships would endure and continually strengthen with time. Two people sitting across a table from one another, and what is in the middle, between them? The Torah.
Satisfied Yet Insatiable
When it comes to the specifications of the exterior structure of the Tabernacle and its many furnishings, the Torah is extremely detailed. Every last measurement is clearly delineated down to the smallest smidgeon. At first it may seem perplexing why this level of precision was necessary, but upon further examination, we will see that every last detail had a purpose and often a profound lesson for us to learn.
When it comes to the cubit measurements of the Ark, (by the way, a cubit is a Biblical measurement, the distance between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger) we are given many half measures: “Two and a half cubits its length, one and a half cubits its width, and one and a half cubits its height.” There was another item inside the main sanctuary of the Tabernacle, and that was the Table with its showbread. For this furnishing, the measurements prescribed are whole measures: “Two cubits its length and one cubit its width.” Why is the Ark built with half measures while the Table is built in whole measures?
The answer to our question lies in what each of these items represent. The Table with the showbread is symbolic of material sustenance. Bread is the staff of life. Truly something which is vital for human existence, but what should be our relationship with material possessions? We should feel whole with what we have. As the mishna teaches in the Ethics of our Fathers, “Who is the rich man? He who is happy with his lot.” No matter how much we have, there will always be people who have more. If we can find joy in that which is already ours, then we will be well off in life. That is why the measurements of the Table are whole and complete. We must feel satisfied and complete with what we have. The Ark represents the Torah and the mitzvahs it contains. When it comes to our spiritual achievements, we are taught by the half measures of the Ark, that we must never be satisfied. We should always want more, never content and complacent with what we’ve already accomplished. Yes, we should feel good and take pride in our past spiritual growth, but that should never be cause for pause.
When I think of my dear friend and mentor, Rabbi Avi Cohen, I still see a man who had little interest in the physical comforts and luxuries of this world. Of those, with whatever he had, and it wasn’t much, he always felt that he had enough. But when it came to studying Torah and performing the mitzvahs of our Almighty Creator, he was never satisfied. He had this insatiable hunger to always study some more Torah, always just one more mitzvah.
That was our beloved leader. A man who not only taught the Torah, but primarily lived it. His absence will be deeply missed. And I would like to thank everyone who came out this evening to study in his memory.
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