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"Thus was completed all the service (of construction) for the Dwelling,
the Tent of Appointment. The Children of Israel made according to all
the God had commanded Moshe, thus they made." (Shemot 39:32)

"Thus was completed all the service for the Dwelling" – In Gematriya
(mathematical equivalent of) "On the twenty-fifth of Kislev was it
finished" . . . "Thus was completed" – it can be said that now was
completed the construction of the entire world. (Baal Haturim, ibid.,
ibid.)

Regarding Devotion and the Service of God.

"All that God had commanded Moshe, thus they made." It being common
knowledge that Israel deeply desired that the Shekhina dwell in their
midst, one might be prompted to think that this was the motive for all
their effort; therefore, Scripture explained that only because "As God
had commanded Moshe, thus they made." (Haamek Davar, Shemot 39:32).

These words of the Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin are directed against the
idea of deveikut – of intense devotion, of amazement and fervor — being
the highest degree of service of God. He calls our attention here to the
fact that the goal of service of God is not enthusiasm and exaltation of
the soul or spiritual elation. It should be – "As God had commanded
Moshe," this alone is what is to be done.

When one does something for the purpose of spiritual exaltation, he does
it for himself, there is no service of God in this. This is the case not
only with prayer. The significance of all the mitzvot lies not in the
satisfaction of man's urges as he serves God – service of this sort
ceases to be service of God and becomes service which Man provides for
himself.

(From Prof. I. Leibowitz. Seven Years of Discussions of the
Weekly Parasaha, p. 431)

THE IMPOSSIBLE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MISHKAN

David Leiser

One cannot exaggerate the importance of the Mishkan, which is compared
by our Sages to the entire world. In the Yalkut Shimoni (Pikuday 419),
we read:

Rabbi Nehemiah used to say: The Tent of Appointment which Moshe made in
the desert corresponds to the act of Creation. The curtains correspond
to heaven and earth. The basin and its pedestal to the six days of
Creation. The altar of the burnt offering to all the animals . . . the
menorah to the sun and the moon. The seven lamps to the seven planets
which serve the world." Similarly, (Tanhuma, Pekuday 11) "And Moshe saw
all the work ". . . it does not say "all the work of the Mishkan" but
"all the work" – (thus teaching us that) it was all like the act of
Creation." Even in the practical world, we look to the Mishkan in order
to determine which are major acts of work forbidden on the Shabbat
(Shabbat 96) – " That which was basic in the Mishkan is considered an
Av [literally "father" – a principle category of labor]; that which was
not important in the Mishkan was not considered an Av."

What is the significance of this equivalence? The question becomes
especially interesting against the background of the prevailing
understanding which considers the erection of a Mishkan to be a
reaction, a mitzvah given as a result of the sin of the Golden Calf. The
Sfat Emmet, for example, writes: " The Mishkan was the remedy for the
sin, and before the sin there was no need for the ritual service." So,
too, Rashi (Shemot 38, "Mishkan HaEdut"): "A testimony for Israel that
the Holy One had forgiven them for the act of the Calf." Study of the
issue will reveal that not only does the paradox touch upon the
centrality of the Mishkan; its very existence is problematic. In
actuality, it would seem that the erection of the Mishkan was, and is, .
. . . impossible.

After they completed (the construction of the components of) the
Mishkan, they waited anxiously for the Shekhina to rest there, and all
were unhappy because the Shekhina did not come to rest there. What did
they do? They went to him who was wise in the ways of the heart. He
said to them: "Why are you sitting? Erect the Mishkan and the Shekhina
will come to rest among us." They tried to raise it, but they did not
know how, and they could not raise it, and when they thought to raise
it, it collapsed. Immediately they went to Betsalel and Ohaliav and said
to them, "You come and erect the Mishkan, for you made it. . . perhaps
it is proper that it be set up by you." Immediately they began to erect
it but were not able. (Tanchuma, Pekuday 11)

Let us emphasize that Betsalel, the wise of heart, did all that he did
for the sake of Heaven. This is expressed by the change in order of
activities which he initiated:
When Moshe told Betsalel "Make a Mishkan", he replied, "What is the
purpose of the Mishkan?" He said: "To have the Shekhina rest inside it,
and to teach Israel the Torah." Said Betsalel: "And where will the
Torah be placed?' He said , "When we construct the Mishkan, we will
also build an ark". But he began with the construction of the ark, as is
written, "And Betsalel made the ark."
They began to complain, saying, "Look what the son of Amram did to us .
. . he spent our money on this Mishkan, and involved us in all this
bother, and he tells us that the Holy One will leave the highest places
and come to rest in the midst of goatskin curtains, as is written, "And
I will dwell in their midst!"

The Midrash brings the problem into sharp focus. There is no reason to
think that curtains of any kind or any other physical materials,
assembled at the command of a mortal, can connect us to holiness. Let us
be precise — the people have no reservations about holiness. On the
contrary, they anxiously anticipate — "When will the Shekhina
arrive?" But it is reasonable to wonder how this or any other
construction can be of utility.

The people give Moshe one more opportunity:

"Since they racked their brains, yet were unable to raise the Mishkan,
all Israel gathered before Moshe, saying: "Moshe, our teacher, we have
made everything you said, and we have spent and donated all that you
commanded. Here all the [products of our] labor is before you . . . and
they showed him every article. . . they said to him, "If so, why does it
not stand?"

Hearing this, Moshe did approach — but he, too, grasped the
difficulty. The Holy One ordered Moshe to erect the Mishkan, but "Moshe
said: Master of the universe, I don't know how to raise it." He replied,
"Activate your hands, as though you were raising it, and it will stand
on its own, and I will record that you had raised it."

What an amazing directive! When I becomes clear that Moshe is unable to
assemble the Mishkan, the Holy One tells Moshe to go through the motions
. . . and the Mishkan stands! The raising of the Mishkan by man is an
illusion!

Actually, there can be no other solution. The erection of the Mishkan
is a task which is both essential and impossible. Essential, because
we are obliged to recognize the relationship between the world and the
Holy One. The Rambam begins his magnum opus: "The basic foundation and
the pillar of all wisdom is to know that there exists a First Reality,
and that He creates all realitites, and all that exists in heaven and on
earth, and all that is in between, exist only because of the truth of
His existence." (Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah
1:1) We are commanded – yet we cannot carry out the order. The entire
world, "and all that that exists in heaven and on earth, and all that is
in between" are beyond our range. We need a smaller world, a miniature
world, to which we can relate.

So we build synagogues, with the Holy Ark as its focal point; we place
in it a scroll of the Torah (made of animal parchment). We kiss the
Torah, we lay tephillin (made from the skin of cattle), we pray with
words, and we try to touch holiness. To touch holiness! This is not
something incidental or marginal in Judaism; how would Judaism look
without Mishkan, without Bet Hamikdash, without the mitzvoth? Our
religious consciousness is so bound up with practical mitzvoth. No
other faith has innumerable commands and restrictions, with endless
details and derivations. Take away the holy utensils, the holy places,
the holy books, the holy prayers – and what have you? But all these are
very close to magic and idolatry. The golden calf is not far away. It is
so natural to worship the instrument, the person, the experience, or
even the idea. The agaddah relates that when the yetser hara – the evil
inclination for idol worship — was extricated from extinction with
great effort, his place of residence was in – of all places! – the Bet
Hamikdash! He escaped "like a fire in the form of a young lion from the
Holy of Holies"! (Sanhedrin 64)

Aside from the dangers, the Mishkan solution, essential as it may be,
is also impossible. The idea of Mishkan is intellectually unacceptable –
and this is not a particularly modern conception. "Will God dwell on
earth? Behold, even the heavens and the heaven of the heavens cannot
contain You, how much less this House that I have built!" (I Kings
8:27) said King Shelomo himself, as he dedicated the Mikdash on the
Temple Mount.

He answers his own question: "even the heavens and the heaven of the
heavens cannot contain Him, and who am I that I should build Him a house
– except as a place for making burnt offerings to Him" (I Chronicles,
2:5). The justification for the establishment of the Mikdash lies in its
facilitating Man's service of God, service which comes from the heart.
The midrash explains the phrase "parochet ha-edut" – the curtain of
testimony – testimony to all that the Shekhina dwells in Israel (Shabbat
22) The Sefat Emmet derives from a precise reading of the text: "The
Shekhina dwells in Israel – within the hearts of Israel. Because through
this act [of erecting the Mishkan] the Children of Israel made it clear
that all creation is by the Holy One, Blessed Be He."

We asked how is it possible that the Mishkan be both a reaction and the
equivalent of all Creation at one and the same time. Now it is clear
that the very problem provides the answer. In the beginning, "O Lord,
our Lord, How majestic is Your name throughout the earth, You who have
covered the heavens with Your splendor!" (Psalms 8:2) But because we
are incapable of relating to the totality of creation, because we need a
human scale, He commanded us to erect a Mishkan, and through it we shall
worship God. Thus the Mishkan is in truth the equivalent of the entire
creation – – and the acts performed are the equivalent of all acts. The
fundamental mitzvah is to realize that all creation is by God. We
strive to fulfill this mitzvah through the "Mishkan" – provided that we
remember that its very existence is paradoxical. Our awareness of this
transforms the Mishkan to the Mishkan Ha'edut — the Mishkan of the
Testimony.

Professor David Leiser lectures in Psychology
at Ben Gurion University

"And the Glory of God Filled the Mishkan"

. . . The term [malle – full] is also employed to signify
the achievement of perfection in virute and of the latter's ultimate end
. . . in this sense it is said "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 its 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 that filled the tabernacle,
there is no harm in it. (Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed, I, 19]

. . . This is to say that the Rambam leaves the matter to the
understanding of the student and reader of Torah, according to his
intellectual level and the depth of his faith.

From this it may be deduced that if the faith of the believer requires
physical realization of recognition of God, he is permitted to explain
this verse as relating to a visually perceived phenomenon, such as those
experienced by Israel. But if one can ascend to a higher level of
cognizance, and can deepen his faith, he does not need this physical
expression. He understands very well that the gory of God mentioned here
is only an idiomatic expression of the service of God in the Mishkan.
(Leibowitz, Seven Years of Discussions on the Weekly Parasha, p.432)

"When all the work that King Solomon had done in the House of the Lord
was completed, Solomon brought in the sacred donations of his father
David – the silver, the gold, and the vessels – and deposited them in
the treasury of the House of the Lord." (I Kings 7:51 – the beginning of
the Haftara for Parashat Pekuday, when it does not fall on one of the
four Parashot)

"Solomon brought" — from that which his father had consecrated, he
donated to the erection of the House in honor of his father, even though
he did not need those materials because he had abundant silver and gold,
and copper. But out of respect for his father David he gave some of it
towards the work on the Mikdash and the remainder he deposited in the
treasuries of House of Lord.

Regarding the midrash that states that Shelomo used in construction of
the Mikdash none of the funds which David his father has consecrated,
there are those who say: Since Shelomo knew that that it eventually
would be destroyed, better that the nations of the world not say that it
was destroyed because it was built with materials which David had
stolen and plundered. Others say: Thus said Shelomo – In Father's days
there was a famine which extended three years, and he should have spent
these treasuries on keeping the poor alive; let them be put aside for
times of need. (Radak, I Kings, 7:51)

In other words, if the Jewish people builds its House with spoils taken
from the nations, or in a modern style, using available resources for
splendor and honor – even if the splendor and honor are for religious
purposes – instead of serving human needs and sustaining the
impoverished of Israel, the project will be severely blemished.

The subject is very actual. It is important that all know that the
possessions of the nation and the state exist not in order to glorify
the state and the nation, and not even its holy sites and projects, but
first of all they exist to meet the needs of the nation's deprived.
(Leibowitz, ibid., p, 436)

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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