This week our Torah study group read Exodus, Chap. 30, Tetzaveh/Ki Tisah. One word that I found interesting was "terumah" which can be translated in the context of the text as "an offering." It appears repeatedly, e.g. verse 13. Compare the word as it was used then and now. Then, terumah was an offering. Today, it is used to mean a contribution.

In this evolution of usage, we can see the span of Jewish history. When we had a Holy Temple in Jerusalem, we made offerings to G-d. When the Temple was destroyed and we lived in exile, our focus was on the community. What once was an "offering" changed to a contribution to the Jewish community and its institutions. We held our people and their faith and traditions together by redirecting our resources to protecting and growing the institutions which would preserve us as a people.

So, in short, the evolution of this word gives us insight into the evolution of the Jewish people.