I recently watched a documentary about an annual competition
amongst the best baristas in the country.
At first, the notion of a competition among baristas seemed
to me as unusual as a competition amongst those who design men’s neckties. Yes, of course, colors and designs on the
neckties may be different but the tie itself is the same here and all over the
world. In terms of coffee, of course,
there are different beans, milk, no milk, espresso, Americano but in the end it
is a cup of coffee.
As I learned quickly, not so fast…I was too quick to judge…
I was thinking about this film and the craft of designing
tantalizing, surprising, even challenging coffee flavors and presentations of
those drinks as we round out the Book of Exodus and hear this Shabbat the
completion of the Mishkan.
The creation of the Mishkan involves so many crafts,
weaving, wood working, metal smithing, embroidery, and more. All the so-called Melachah, activities
prohibited on Shabbat, come from the 39 types of activities involved in
creating the holy portable Temple that accompanies us through our wanderings in
the wilderness.
God selects the lead craftsmen Betzalel and Oholiav to lead
the way, to show the others what to do and how to make their contributions to
the holy place.
It’s clear that every clasp, piece of fabric, every item is
holy since God gives the instructions and calls this holy place into being from
the hands of the people and from all their precious valuables they
contribute. It is a work of art but more
so a work of heart since the Torah explained at the beginning of its creation
that the people only need to give as they are moved to do so by their hearts,
“Kol nediv libo.”
When I watched and learned about the craft of coffee making
I discovered new depths into something that for me is basically a daily morning
exercise involving purchased coffee grounds, a filter, water, and my tried and
true Mr. Coffee. For the participants in
the competition, coffee is not just morning fuel, or even just a special
espresso or cappuccino from a local café, it’s a palate of flavors, something
from nature that they shape with added spice and additional flavorings, in
which milk, if used at all, is judged by the size of the bubbles in the
milk-foam and the way that the barista tamps the espresso grounds prior to
brewing – they go back to the lots of beans that come in, fixing where and how
they were grown, choosing which set of grounds to use for the competition out
of many possibles.
And we like Betzalel, Oholiav, and the professional
baristas, also have our crafts – what is our craft? Or crafts? Even if we do not sew, or do wood working, or
scuba dive, we each have crafts that are special to who we are that may or may
not coincide with the professional work we do or the professional training we
have –
But each of us has at least one and probably more craft that
makes our lives meaningful…
And the beauty of these elemental crafts is that it’s not a
zero sum game, we know it because when we see others doing it we celebrate with
that person rather than feeling a sense of competition…
A craft can be something as simple as being good a folding
laundry, or using a piece of software, maybe we’re good at remembering names at
meetings and parties or we are good listeners…
I’d like us all to celebrate our crafts in some way this
week – as new week begins let’s think like master craftspeople or
master baristas in competition, how can we make ourselves aware of the beauty
and meaning of our crafts – to appreciate how they each in small ways
contribute good energy into the world and make our whole world a Mishkan, a
beautiful holy place full of God’s Presence.
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