(8) And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (9) Exactly as I show you—the pattern of the Mishkan and the pattern of all its furnishings—so shall you do.
(ב) רַבִּי יְהוּדָה בַּר סִימוֹן אָמַר: שְׁלֹשָה דְּבָרִים שָׁמַע מֹשֶׁה מִפִּי הַגְּבוּרָה וְנִבְהַל וְנִרְתַּע לַאֲחוֹרָיו. בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁאָמַר לוֹ וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם, אָמַר: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, הִנֵּה הַשָּׁמַיִם וּשְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לֹא יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ (מלכים א ח, כז). אָמַר לוֹ מֹשֶׁה: לֹא כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאַתָּה סָבוּר, אֶלָּא עֶשְׂרִים קֶרֶשׁ בַּצָּפוֹן, וְעֶשְׂרִים בַּדָּרוֹם, וּשְׁמוֹנָה בַּמַּעֲרָב, וּשְׁמוֹנָה בַּמִּזְרָח, וַאֲצַמְצֵם שְׁכִינָה שֶׁלִּי וְאֶשְׁכֹּן בֵּינֵיהֶם, וּכְתִיב: וְנוֹעַדְתִּי לְךָ שָׁם וְדִבַּרְתִּי (שמות כה, כב).
(2) R. Judah the son of Simon stated: Moses heard three things from the lips of the Mighty One that confused and startled him. When the Holy One, blessed be God, said to him: Let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (Exod. 25:8), he replied: Master of the Universe, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain Thee. God responded: Moses, it is not as you think. Erect twenty boards on the northern side and twenty boards on the southern side and eight on the eastern side and eight on the western side, and I will contract My Shekhinah and dwell within them; as it is written: And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee (ibid., v. 22).
ועשו לי מקדש למה נאמר? והלא כבר נאמר את השמים ואת הארץ אני מלא, (ירמיה כג) הא מה תלמוד לומר ועשו לי מקדש (שמות כה) כדי לקבל שכר על העשיה.
"and they shall make for Me a sanctuary, etc." What is the intent of this? Is it not written (Jeremiah 23:24) "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" What, then, is the intent of "And they shall make for Me a sanctuary"? For the sake of receiving reward for making it.
There was a certain man who was saying about his marriage as he walked: When our love was strong, we could have slept on a bed that was the width of a sword. Now that our love is not strong, a bed of sixty cubits is not sufficient for us. Rav Huna said: Verses are written that convey these sentiments. Initially, it was written: “I will meet with you there and I will speak with you from above the Ark Cover” (Exodus 25:22), and it is taught in a baraita: The Ark of the Covenant was itself nine handbreadths high, and the Ark Cover was one handbreadth thick. There is a total height of ten handbreadths here. At first, when God had great affection for Israel, the Shechinah was revealed within the confines of this limited space. And it is written: “And the house that King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (I Kings 6:2). And at the end, when Israel sinned, the whole of the space of the Temple was not expansive enough for the Divine Presence to rest within it, as it is written: “Thus says the Lord: The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that you may build for Me? And where is the place that may be My resting place?” (Isaiah 66:1). In times of discord, the Temple is an insufficient resting place for the Divine Presence.
כל מדות הארון היו חצאים כי לקנות דברי תורה צריך לידע שחסר לו והוא עומד באמצע, ובלי דברי תורה אינו שלם, כי אין הש"י משפיע דברי תורה רק למי שמכיר שהוא חסר מהם ונצרך להם להשלים חסרונו, אבל אם רק חומד ומתאוה להם כמו לחכמה אחרת אם כן הרי גם המלאכים חמדו לה, כמו שנתבאר בחלק ראשון (מסכת שבת פ"ח) וזה היה תשובת אליהו זכור לטוב לאותו תלמיד בני לא זכה האיש לדברי תורה אלא א"כ מוסר נפשו למיתה עליה לכבוד שמים...אם תדע שחסר לך ד"ת כמו לחם אז תבין יראת ה'.
All the measurements of the Ark are in halves (i.e. four and a half ammot) because in order to acquire Torah one must know their own lack and standing; For without words of Torah one is not complete. G!d’s abundance flows to those who recognize they are lacking them and need them to help fill in their own lack. However if one is only desirous of them to enjoy intellectually (as is described in Shabbat 88a) they will not enter one’s heart. If however one takes them as a path for one’s soul with the attendant awe… one will experience them as a hungry person experiences bread filling there lack, for knowledge of one’s own gaps is awe of G!d
Exodus 25,9.“Like all that I show you - the structure of the Mishkan and the pattern of all its vessels - thus shall you do.” Rashi (Sanhedrin 16) comments on this verse that these instructions, i.e. that just as the building of the Temple was to be approved by Moses who represented all the judges of the High Court, the building of future Temples would also have to be approved and supervised by the judges of the High Court.
Tosafot on that daf disagree, pointing out that the measurements of the altar of the Mishkan did not correspond to the measurements of the altar in Solomon’s Temple (Kings I chapters 6-7) Ramban also disagree with Rashi’s comment there.
Following this perspective we can see that the words "thus shall you do" do not refer to the measurements of the Mishkan or the Temple at all. There was no need for the Torah to repeat its instructions on these points as all the details had already been spelled out. Moses had received visual instructions from G!d, instructions that could hardly be “confirmed” by a human Court which had not been “shown” the dimensions G!d had shown to Moses. The entire Mishkan, and all its attendant vessels must be viewed as the tangible form of holy spiritual connection expressed by the righteous when they worship G!d, which, as we explained, need a כלי, visible, tangible instrument, in the form of a commandment to be performed by the worshipper... The completed Mishkan is the expression of the collective service of the Jewish people, or the לבוש, the “garment” behind which the holy nature of the collective soul of Jewish people resides.
The Talmud in Sanhedrin 89a already explains that no two prophets prophesy in the same way... This means that Moses and the generation of the wilderness, following the qualities of worship and prophecy they attained at Sinai had to construct there particular form of Mishkan, structuing it this particular way so as to garb its holiness. Thus we can understand "Like all that I show you" according to your experience of prophecy, so should the Temple and vessels be made. Knowing that, we can read "and thus shall you do" - for all generations. In every generation one must channel the will to build the Beit haMikdash through the specific experience of prophecy attained at that time. This is why it is no problem at all the Solomon's altar was different from Moshe's, he was following the commandment, not build it according to the same dimensions as Moshe's but rather to always build according to the flow of prophecy.
The Gemara presents a number of statements based on the idea that the Ark symbolizes the Torah: Rabbi Yoḥanan raised a contradiction: According to the way the word crown is written in the Torah (Exodus 25:11), without vowels, it should be pronounced zar, meaning strange, but according to the traditional vocalization we read it as zeir, meaning crown. These two ways of understanding the word appear to contradict each other. Rabbi Yoḥanan explains: The two understandings apply to two different situations: If one is deserving, it becomes a crown [zeir] for them; but if one is not deserving, the Torah will be a stranger [zara] to them.