Spiritual and Ethical Issues in the Sh'mot Stories ìBuild for Me a Sanctuaryî [1] "They shall make for Me a Sanctuary, then I will dwell in their midst" (Shmot 25:8). This command to build a dwelling place for G-d seems to be a contradiction in terms and raises many theological questions: it suggests that the invisible and spiritual G-d has also a physical form, that He who is present in all places throughout the world can be placed in a building and worshiped there. That The All-Pervasive can be limited and that there are places and times when He is not present. Furthermore, such a dwelling could easily degenerate into idolatry through the worship of material and physical things as deities or as intermediaries. Therefore it seems strange that G-d should order such a building after numerous warnings against idolatry. Study of what our commentators saw as the purpose of the Mishkan and later the Beit HaMikdash, and the particulars of their construction and of the worship meant to take place there, may help to understand the Mishkan better and make our yearning for a re-established the Beit HaMikdash significant in our lives. "The Mishkan was meant to teach Israel that G-d is not only in Heaven but also exists and is relevant here on Earth" (Abarbanel). "Mikdash denotes a place appointed for meeting; the purpose was therefore for Am Yisrael to have a certain and defined place for meeting with G-d" (S'forno). S'forno is echoing the views of Ramban, the mystics, and the Chassidic Masters who all hold that the obligation to erect a Mikdash appears in the Torah in its chronological order and was intended primarily as a meeting place between Israel and G-d, and then, because of their sin, became also a place of atonement. This is not the view of Rambam and Rashi, who maintain that the obligation only came after the sin of the Golden Calf and was meant as means of atoning for that sin; had there been no sin there would accordingly have been no need for the Mishkan. Irrespective, the materials that the individuals were to bring were not gifts to G-d but rather given to the community-nation for the construction of the Mishkan. Throughout, the Mishkan and the Mikdash were envisaged as places for national interaction and meeting with Him; we have to bear in mind that the daily and festival sacrifices that were offered in the Temple, on which the order of our obligatory daily prayers is based, were purchased from the annual communal tax of the Machtzit HaShekel. This national nature of the Temple service continues to exist today in our shuls that are places for public-communal worship. Just as the shlamim offerings were non-obligatory, free-will sacrifices and could be brought even by gentiles, so are our private petitions and prayers today free-will offerings; in essence they do not require a minyan or a special building or a designated place, since for that purpose, the All Encompassing and All pervading Presence of G-d is sufficient. "The concluding words of the verse commanding the Mishkan shows what its purpose is: "I will dwell in their midst", not in IT and not only in the geographical proximity but within them, within their very souls" (Mechilta). However, it is precisely this idea of the promised Sh'china Presence that can easily deteriorate into worship of the Mishkan itself as just such a presence, and that is idolatry since it ascribes godly attributes to something other than G-d or makes of them intermediaries. After all, relics, holy men, sanctified buildings and historic graves have often in human and in our own history been part of such deterioration. The copper serpent set up by Moshe to serve as a focus for T'shuva and prayer, become at a later period an object of worship (Melachim Bet), while Gideon himself soon worshiped the Eifod that he had made as thanksgiving to G-d for the victory over Midian (Shoftim 8:27). Yirmiyahu had to warn Israel against worshiping the Beit HaMikdash as an insurance against destruction and against their belief that G-d would never destroy Beit Hashem irrespective of their moral behavior. "Vayikchu Li T'ruma; they shall take Me as their t'ruma [gift for a higher purpose, given with complete free will (R' S. R. Hirsch)]; and they shall be to Me menshlachdik kedoshim" (R' Menachem Mendel of Kotsk). "The meaning of the Mikdash can be nothing else but the expression of what is required to bring about this promised Sh'china-Presence in Israel. This protecting and blessing Sh'china is not brought about by the mere correct erection and upkeeping of the Mishkan, it can only be won by implementing in our private, communal and national lives the dictates and obligations imposed by Torah. The task of our giving up the whole of our private and public life to the fulfillment of Torah will turn the promise of Mishkan, the protecting and blessing giving presence of G-d, into a reality in our midst. This is proved by our history; the destruction of the Mishkan of Shilo and twice of the Temple in Yerushalayim as warned clearly in the Torah: sexual immorality (Vayikra 15:31), bloodshed (Bamidbar 35:34) and environmental defilement (D'varim 23:15). So that the sphere within which we have to try and understand and find the meaning of the Tabernacle and its component parts is simply the mutual covenant-relationship between G-d and Israel. It is just because of this meaning that this chapter follows immediately on the preceding Brit with its clear demonstration in Parshat Mishpatim of the foundations of the Nation-religion, that was concluded at Matan Torah" (R' S. R. Hirsch). To protect the true nature of the Mikdash-Mishkan and prevent the slippery-slope to idolatry, all the parshiot from T'ruma till Achrei Mot that deal with its erection, components, priestly garments, tum'a and tahara and kashrut, are anchored between the parshiot of Mishpatim and Kedoshim. Their social and moral laws are the prerequisite for the realization of the protecting and blessing promise of "I will dwell in their midst". [The Parshat Emor Homepage]
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