YOU ARE TO MAKE ITS LAMPS, SEVEN OF THEM,
YOU ARE TO DRAW UP ITS LAMPWICKS SO THAT THEY LIGHT UP THE SPACE ACROSS FROM
IT... NOW SEE AND MAKE, ACCORDING TO THEIR BUILDING PATTERN WHICH YOU ARE
GRANTED TO SEE UPON THE MOUNTAIN.
(Shemot 25:37, 40)
Rabbi Yossi son of Rabbi
Yehuda says:
An ark of fire and a table
of fire and a candelabra of fire descended from heaven; Moshe saw and made
according to them, as is written (Shemot 25) "Now see and make, according to their building
pattern [k'tavnitam] which you are granted to see upon the
mountain."
If this be so, was such also
the case with "So erect the Mishkan, according to its regulation [k'mishpato],
as you have been granted to see upon the mountain" (Shemot 26)?
Here it is written "k'mishpato"
- there it is written "k'tavnitam".
Rabbi Chiyyah bar Abba said
in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Gavriel put on an artisan's apron, and he showed
Moshe the making of the lampstand, as is written: "Now this was the
constructed pattern of the lampstand".
(Bavli, Minachot 29a)
Rabbi Shim'on of Sikhnin
said in the name of Rabbi Levi:
When The Holy One, Blessed
Be He said to Moshe "Let them make me a Holy Shrine" he
was to bring four poles and stretch the shrine upon them, but we are taught
that The Holy One, Blessed Be He showed Moshe from above red fire, green fire,
black fire, white fire, and said to him "Make me a Holy Shrine."
Said Moshe to The Holy One, Blessed Be
He: "Master of all worlds, from whence shall I take red fire, green fire,
black fire, and white fire?!
He replied to him: "According
to the pattern which you are shown on the mountain."
Rabbi Berechya said in the
name of Rebbi, offered a parable: A king who appeared before a member of his
household dressed in a garment of white pearls, and said to him: Make me one
like this. He replied: My master, the king, from where shall I take pearls for
a garment? He answered: You with your materials, and I with my honor. So
said The Holy One, Blessed Be He to Moshe: You make below that which is above.
I will leave my assembly above, and will descend and contract my presence among
them below. Just as above seraphim stand, so below acacia trees stand;
just as there are stars above, so below are clasps.
(Yalkut
Shimoni, Torah, Parashat Teruma 247:369)
"HE WILL MAKE PEACE FOR ME, PEACE WILL
HE MAKE FOR ME"
Concerning
the passage "Speak unto the Children of Israel and let them bring for
me an offering" (Shemot 25:2), Rabbi David El'Adani, author of the "Midrash HaGadol (For information on this
composition, see Yosef Tobi, The Midrash HaGadol - Its Sources and
Structure, A-B, Doctoral Thesis, the Hebrew University, Yerushalayim 5754) offers the following exposition:
"For
Me" - wherever it says "For Me", it exists
forever:
In
the Mishkan - "Let them make for Me a sanctuary" (Shemot 25:8)
With
regard to the firstborn - "For every firstborn in Israel is for Me"
(Bemidbar
8:17); "And you
shall be for Me a kingdom of priests" (Shemot 19).
Regarding
the Levites - "And the Levites shall be for Me, I am the Lord"
(Bemidbar
3:45)
Regarding
the Priests - "That they may be priests for Me" (Shemot 40:15)
Regarding
the Sanhedrin - "Gather for Me seventy men" (Bemidbar 11:16)
Regarding
the Sacrificial Offerings - "You are to be in charge, bringing it for
Me at its appointed time" (Ibid. 28:2)
Regarding
the Anointing Oil - "Anointing oil of holiness this is to be for Me"
(Shemot
30:31)
Regarding
Yerushalayim - "The city which I have chosen for Myself" (I Kings 11:36)
Regarding
the Davidic Dynasty - "For I have decided on one of his sons to be for
Me a king" (I Samuel 16:1)
Regarding
gold and silver - "Silver is Mine and gold is Mine" (Haggai
2:8)
Regarding
contributions to the Holy Shrine - "That they shall take for Me a
raised contribution" (Shemot 25:2)
Regarding
peace - "But if he holds fast to My refuge, He makes Me his friend, he
is a friend for Me" (Isaiah 27:5)
Said
Rabbi Yishmael: Come and see, thirteen things did The Holy One, Blessed Be He,
love, and he called them "li" - "for Me" - but of
them all, he reiterated only one, as is written "But if he holds fast
to My refuge, He makes Me his friend, he is a friend for Me" to teach
you that peace is the most beloved of all (Midrash HaGadol, Shemot, ed. M. Margaliot,
Yerushalayim 5754, pp. 566-568).
Most
of the items recorded in this drasha are familiar from earlier sources,
primarily from Midrash VaYikra Rabba, where the word "li" - for Me
- is expounded as expressing a continuous relationship with The Holy One,
Blessed Be He, who exists forever. This idea is expounded further in Mishnat
Rabbi Eliezer, an Eretz Yisrael composition, which was edited probably no
later that the fourth century, and served as a source for Midrash HaGadol
on many subjects. (See Tobi (note 1, above) pp. 277-283)
A
close comparison between the two versions reveals that the Mishnat Rabbi
Eliezer served as the source for the drasha in the Midrash
HaGadol. There are five conspicuous differences between the two versions:
(1) In Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, the entire midrash is attributed to Rabbi
Yishmael, whereas in the Midrash HaGadol, only the last section is
attributed to him; (2) In Midrash HaGadol, although the text announces
13 items, only 12 appear - in Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, 13 are listed; (3) Mishnat
Rabbi Eliezer mentions Eretz Yisrael among those beloved items, but in the Midrash
HaGadol, Yerushalayim is mentioned; (4) In Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, the
Bet Hamikdash is on the list - in the Midrash HaGadol, it is absent (It is possible that this
lack derives from the fact the text in Midrash HaGadol states "Regarding
the Mishkan - "And they shall make for me a sanctuary", thus
combining the Mishkan and the Temple together; Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer has
"From where [that the offering for the Mishkan [is forever for God]? It is
written "And let take for Me an offering" (Shemot 25:2)); and (5) the two compositions base the
love of the firstborn, the Levites, and the Mishkan on different texts.
In
Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer this drasha is located in the chapter
praising peace. Its context is clear. The author of Midrash HaGadol lifted
the drasha from there and wove it into the beginning of its treatment of
Parashat "Teruma". Rabbi David ElAdeni's innovation lies not in the
creation of the midrash itself, but in its placement in a new context. Thereby
he expressed his opinion that the Mishkan (and later, the Temple) are beloved
before the Holy One, Blessed Be He, but there is something yet more beloved --
peace!
Whether
or not the entire drasha is the work of Rabbi Yishmael (as in the Mishnat
Rabbi Eliezer version), or only the final portion (as in the Midrash
HaGadol version), it seems to me that the main point lies not in the name
of the speaker, but in the idea. The essential claim of the darshan is
that there are thirteen things which receive special attitude from The Holy One,
Blessed Be He, and therefore they are eternal. No wonder the inclusion of the
special classes in Israel - Priests, Levites, Kings of the Davidic dynasty; the
inclusion of Eretz Yisrael (or Yerushalayim) and the Temple also raises no
eyebrows. But beyond these there is one item alone which is supported by a
passage in which the word "li" appears twice... shalom,
peace. For the darshan, this redundancy expresses special love.
It
would not be an exaggeration to say that the significance of a value is determined
only in confrontation with other values. The drasha before us assumes that
there is more than one important value, but when there arises the need to
choose between values, peace outweighs Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, just
as it outweighs institutions of leadership and organs of government (Sanhedrin
and Kings of the Davidic dynasty).
In
making value judgements, it is obvious what the price to be paid is - it
is always the rejected value, 'the loser'. Will the choice bring benefit? This
cannot be taken for granted. We must work for realization of the preferred
value. Such is the situation with every value judgement; certainly this is the
case with the difficult and complex confrontation between peace on the one
hand, and, on the other, the land of our fathers, security, justice, and other
worthy values.
The
author of Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, followed by Rabbi David El'Adani,
author of Midrash HaGadol, took a challenging position which establishes
peace as a value preferred by God over other values enumerated by the darshan.
Will we be wise enough to adopt this position? Are we prepared to cope with
this challenge? Is it proper to see in the darshan's words on the qualities of
peace a religious principle, and to take positions on its far-reaching
ramifications.
Dr. Nahem
Ilan teaches in the Combined Faculty for Jewish Studies in Bar-Ilan Univ. and
in the Department of Arabic Studies in Haifa U.
"And overlay it with
gold" - It would
have been proper for the ark to be completely overlaid with gold, but
it would have been too heavy to carry, and the law requires that it be
carried on the shoulder, as is written - "Since theirs was the service
of the sacred object, their portage was by shoulder" and so we
found that the altar was made of hollow plates, so that it not be heavy.
(Chizkuni,
Shemot 25:11)
The sin of language is one
of speech, not of thought. It [the priest's robe] had pomegranates and bells
[on the hem] - which made sounds - to atone for the tongue which is
in the mouth, similar to the clapper inside the bell, and the
atonement for speech is that one no longer break his pledge and should speak
only of holy matters, as is written: "And his voice will be
heard when he enters the sanctuary, and he will not die" , because
"lashon ha-ra" - slanderous speech - kills three (Arachin 15), From this we derive that one who is
careful not to speak slanderously will be spared death, as in the story of the
vendor who used to announce "Who wants to buy the elixir of life,
etc."
(Kli
Yakar, Shemot 28:31)
Regarding the Mishkan, it is
written (Shemot
25) "Gold and silver
and copper", no iron whatever was used; regarding the Temple it
is written: "... no hammer or ax or any iron tool was heard in the
House while it was being built." Iron was used for the making of the
sword, which destroys the world, but the Temple preserves the world.
(Rabeinu
Bahayey, Bereishit 27:40)
For the Jewish nation in
general, the service of God is expressed through the observance of the mitzvot,
and one of these is the mitzva of prayer. Prayer is not a statement
about God, but it is an expression of man's relating to the Almighty.
A midrash relates that The
Holy One, Blessed Be He, says to Moshe, that if Israel observes the divine
service in the Mishkan, He "constricts his holy presence into a square
cubit". If a person intends to serve God, he is found inside that cubit,
in the presence of God who 'cannot be contained by the heavens nor by the
heavens of the heavens'. If a person does not intend to serve God, then even
the heavens and earth and all their hosts are - as far as he is concerned -
void of all content, and the Shechina cannot be materialized in them.
Therefore says the later prophet; "And Israel forgot its maker, and he
built halls" (Hoshea
8:14), thus teaching us that
the building of halls is not necessarily testimony to the resting of the
Shechina in Israel.
He did not say "And I
will dwell in it" - but rather "in them" to
teach us that the Shechina does not rest on the Temple because it is the
Temple, but rather because of Israel, for they are the hall of God.
(Tseidah
LaDerech, quoted by N. Leibowitz: Studies in the Book of Bereishit, p.
339).
In my heart a Mishkan will
I build to glorify His honor
And in the Mishkan an
altar will I erect, to the rays of his splendor
And for an everlasting lamp
I shall take the flame of the akeida,
And for a sacrifice I will offer Him my only soul.
(From the Sefer Hareidim of the
Hassidei Ashkenaz)
Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser
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