THE CLOUD COVERED THE TENT OF

MEETING,

AND THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD FILLED

THE TABERNACLE.

MOSHE COULD NOT ENTER THE TENT OF

MEETING,

BECAUSE THE CLOUD HAD SETTLED UPON IT

AND THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD FILLED

THE TABERNACLE.

 (Shemot

40:34-35)

"But will God really dwell on earth? Even the

that I have built!"

 (I Kings

8:27)

There was this man who walked

along, saying: When our love was strong, we could have lain together on the

width of a sword. But now that our love is not strong, a bed with a width of

sixty amot does not suffice for us. Said Rav Huna: This is written in

Scripture: Concerning the relationship between God and His people as it was at

first, it is written: "And I will meet you there, and I will speak with

you from above the covering of the Ark" Now it was taught in a

Baraita: The Ark was nine tefachim high, and the covering on top of the

Ark was one tefach thick. Thus we have here a total of ten tefachim [and

in the beginning, when God loved Israel, the Divine Presence would reveal

itself even in so small a place]. But with regard to the Bet Hamikdash, it is

written: "And the house that King Shelomo built for God, its length was

sixty amot, its width twenty, and it height thirty amot." And in the

end, it is written: So says the Lord: The Heaven is my throne and the earth

is my footstool, what house can you build for me!" After the people

sinned, even the Temple, which was thirty amot high and sixty amot

long, was not large enough to contain God's presence among them.

 (Bavli, Sanhedrin 7a, as translated and elucidated in the

Schottenstein edition)

WHERE

IS THE PLACE OF HIS GLORY?

Pinchas Leiser

It is

told that Rebbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk used to walk around his Bet Midrash

and ask his Hassidim: Where is The Holy One, Blessed Be He?

Each of his Hassidim thought before

answering, and then gave an answer based on this or that passage or on some

dictum of Chazal.

–        

One said:

"There is no place where He is not found".

–        

Another said:

"The Universe is filled with His glory".

–        

The third said:

"Even the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain

You"… and so on… learned answers all.

Then

Rebbi Menachem Mendel rose and announced, in his thundering voice: "You

in!"

The problem of God's revelation in our

world engaged religious thought throughout the generations. In a certain sense,

the question of revelation is tied up with the meaning of its existence for us

today.

Our parasha, which completes

the Book of Shemot and the description of the erection of the Mishkan,

concludes with the following passages (40:33-38):

"And

he set up the enclosure around the Tabernacle and the altar,

and

put up the screen for the gate of the enclosure –

 So Moshe finished the work.

Now

the cloud covered the Tent of Appointment –

and

the Glory of God filled the Dwelling.

Moshe

was not able to come into the Tent of Appointment

for

the cloud took up dwelling upon it –

and

the Glory of God filled the dwelling.

Whenever

the cloud goes up from the Dwelling,

The

Children of Israel march on, upon all their marches;

If the

cloud does not go up – they do not march on, until such time as it does go up.

For the

cloud of God is over the Dwelling by day, and fire is by night in

it, before the eyes of all the House of Israel upon all their marches".

At first

glance, as we read the passages according to their plain meaning [p'shat], one might

understand that following the completion of the Mishkan by Moshe's hands, two

events occurred:

A.     A cloud

covered the Tent of Appointment

B.     The Glory

of God filled the Mishkan

Both the

cloud and the glory are designated "the cloud of God" and "the Glory of God"

– the cloud above the Mishkan testifies to the existence of the Glory

of God inside the Mishkan; as long as the cloud is seen above the

Mishkan, Moshe is constrained from entering the Tent of Appointment and the

Children of Israel are unable to progress on their desert journeys.

Can a contemporary Jew, who studies Torah and is not

meaningful and relevant manner?

This expression appears a number of

times in the Bible, in varying contexts. Most of the traditional commentators

do not deal with the nature of that "glory" in our parasha, but in

other places; explanations pertinent to the specific context are given.

Rabbi Efrayim of Lunshitz, author of

the KLI YAKAR commentary, deems it necessary to

differentiate between the cloud and the glory:

"The cloud covered the Tent of Appointment, and

the Glory of God filled the cloud" – from this it appears that the Glory of God is not

the cloud, but rather the fire and the light, i.e. the Glory of God

was seen from within the cloud; were it not for the cloud, it would have been

impossible to gaze upon it, for man cannot gaze into the light of the sun, kal va-chomer he cannot look at the brilliance of His Presence. Therefore

the holy light was always seen from within the cloud, and when the Mishkan

stood, the two [the cloud and the Glory] were separated from each other, for

the Divine light would enter the Mishkan, for there was the place of His

holiness, and the cloud would remain outside… therefore it says here: Moshe was

not able to come into the Tent of Appointment for the cloud took up dwelling in

it – and the

Glory of God filled the dwelling." For if the Glory of God were

combined with the cloud it would have been able for Moshe to enter into the

cloud, as is recorded at the end of Parashat "Mishpatim" "Moshe entered the

cloud", because then the Glory of God was covered and it was

possible for Moshe to enter the cloud, but now that they were separate from

each other, the cloud being outside and the Glory of God was – without the

cloud – inside the Tent, Moshe was unable to enter the Tent of

Appointment…"

The author of the KLI YAKAR, then, imagines "the Glory of God" as light and

fire, and the cloud serves as a protective shield preventing man from coming

too close to the Glory of God.

Rashi (Shemot 16:7) explains the Glory of God in the context of the Manna,

which fell every morning as an expression of something justifiably requested

and willingly given:

"At daybreak you will see the Glory of God" – this is not identical with that

glory of (v. 10) "behold, the Glory of God was seen in the cloud." But this is what he said to them: In

the morning you will know that He has the ability to satisfy your craving and

He will provide meat. He will not give it with a smiling countenance because

you asked improperly, on a full stomach. But the bread – which was requested in

order to satisfy a real need – when it will fall in the morning you will see the

glory of the light of His countenance, in that He will bring it down for

you in the morning lovingly – there will be time to prepare it, dew above and

dew below, as though placed in a box."

'The Glory of God', in this context,

man.

Rambam, in GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED (Book 1, Chap. 19) relates to the entire universe as

an expression of the Glory of God:

"The whole earth is full of His glory" – the meaning of this verse being

that the whole earth bears witness to His perfection, that is, indicates it.

Similar is the dictum: "And the Glory

of the Lord filled the tabernacle" – every mention of 'filling' that you will find referring to

God is used in this sense, and not in the sense of there being a body filling a

place. However, if you wish to consider that the 'Glory of the Lord' is the created light that is designated as 'glory' in every passage, and is that which 'filled the tabernacle', there is no harm in it."

Yeshaayahu Leibowitz (SEVEN

YEARS OF DISCUSSION OF THE WEEKLY PARASHA, p. 432)

understands Rambam's words as follows:

"The Mishkan, which was built

by Israel for the service of God, attests to God and to man's cognizance of

God, and this is the 'Glory of God' – there is nothing tangible, no

object filling the Mishkan."

The second part of the Rambam's

words is explained by Leibowitz in the following fashion:

"Rambam posits this assumption

the weak understanding of the student and the reader of the Torah, taking into

consideration his intellectual level and the depth of his faith. This means

that if the faith of the believer requires visualization of the cognizance of

God, he is allowed to explain this passage as pointing out the visible

phenomenon, such as that which Israel recognized. If, however, Man rises to a

higher plane of understanding and his belief is profound, he does not need such

tangible expression, but he well understands the 'Glory of God' mentioned here

is only a stylistic representation of the service of God in the Mishkan."

In any case, this approach has two

components of the concept "Glory of God":

–        

Observation

of the universe as an expression of Divine Revelation; "The Heavens proclaim the Glory of God", and all creation is testimony to His

existence, and Man can study the revelation of the Divinity through study of

creation.

–         

The

Glory of God as

commitment of Man to being an active witness to the existence of God in the

world: "My witnesses are

you – declares the Lord" (Isaiah 43:10)

Perhaps the two components of

"Glory of God" can be linked. Sometimes, everyone needs an external

'light' which makes it possible to see the Glory of God; this seeing provides

an opportunity to serve, by one's actions, as a living witness to the Glory of

God. Sometimes, certain individuals can transform themselves into a Mishkan in

which their behavior reveals the Glory of God. An allusion to this may be found

in the order of priorities laid down in the Talmud in Tractate Megillah (3b),

later codified by Rambam (Laws

of Megillah 1:1):

"Rabba asks: The reading of the

Megilla and the need to attend to burial of a meit mitzvah [a

corpse having no one to bury it] – which takes precedence? [Do we say that]

reading of Megilla takes precedence in order to publicize the miracle?

Or perhaps attending to burial takes precedence – because of respect for

people? After asking the question, he

answered himself: Attention to the dead takes precedence. For the Master

taught: Great is respect for people, for it defers every negative precept in

the Torah."

When faced with the choice of either

publicizing the miracle performed for us on Purim or fulfilling the obligation

to bury a meit mitzvah, we must choose the latter, out of

respect for human beings. From this we may deduce that the sure sign of our

ability to experience – and to give to- the Glory of God is seen through the

respect we give man, every man – for the meit mitzvah is

not someone renowned and important; it may be assumed that he is someone

anonymous and destitute, created in the image of God.

Pinchas Leiser, Editor of

"Shabbat Shalom", is a psychologist.

The Mishkan

The Calf

"Moshe blessed

them" – With what blessing did he bless them? "My it be His

will that the Divine Presence rest upon the works of your hands, and then

immediately "may

the favor or the Lord, our God, be upon us… – our handiwork may He establish

for us" (Psalms

90:17). Rabeinu Bahayeh explained: The Psalm begins with "A prayer of Moshe, the man of

God", and this would seem to be inappropriate if

throughout the entire psalm there is no allusion to the construction of the

Mishkan! But I say that there is a proper allusion to the construction of the

Mishkan both at the beginning and at the end of the psalm, for in the beginning

it says "O

Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation." This refers

to that which Shelomo said in his prayer when he inaugurated the Temple (I Kings

8:27) "Even

the heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You, how much less this

House…" – this corresponds to "You have been our refuge" – You are the

refuge of the world, the world is not place nor refuge for You; how then, can

one consider that they can prepare a place for You to place yourself? And he

provided verification for this, for "Before the mountains came into being, before You

brought forth the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity You are

God." If, indeed, God had to place Himself in a place, where –

before the world was created – could He have placed himself?! But it must be

that the world is not His place. On the contrary, He, May He Be Blessed,

is the place and refuge for the entire world; how then, can it be that The Holy

One, Blessed Be He, commanded to build for Himself a dwelling? This would be

like placing Himself in a set location! But [the psalmist] resolves this by

saying "You

return man to dust; You decreed, "Return you mortals" – The Holy

One, Blessed Be, had to concede his honor and provide a compartment on earth in

order to forgive them the sin of the calf, for – according to the view of

Chazal (Tanchuma, Pikudei 6) the Mishkan in its entirety was an

atonement for the incident of the calf.

 (Kli

Yakar, Shemot 39:43)

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