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
heavens to their uttermost reaches cannot contain You, how much less this House
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?
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
don't understand - The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is found wherever one lets Him
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
a mystic, comprehend the expression "the Glory of God" in a
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,
is something given 'lovingly' as an answer to a legitimate existential need of
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 understanding of the concept 'Glory of the Lord'] in order to accommodate
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
As A Concession By The Holy One, Blessed Be He, And Atonement For The Sin Of
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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