Repair, Revelation and Rededication

^{3 Adar 5780 | February 28, 2020}

Parshat Terumah

Rabbi Marianne Novak

Class of 2019

Long before HGTV programs took over our lives with a constant stream of shows highlighting the design/build process, our Torah, beginning in Parashat Teruma, presents us the original home improvement program. We read this Shabbat about the intricately detailed design and eventual building and dedication of the Mishkan. This entire process takes up four parshiyot and almost a third of the entire Book of Shemot. More verses in the Torah are devoted to this than Matan Torah- revelation at Sinai!

What’s even more curious is that the entire incident of Chet HaEgel, the Golden Calf is bracketed by these parshiyot. In Teruma and T’tzaveh the Torah describes the very detailed blueprints for the Mishkan, its courtyard and all of its fixtures. Ki Tissa then follows with the incident of the Golden Calf. Vayakhel and Pekudei, which relate the actual building of the Mishkan, end Sefer Shemot.

What exactly is going on with the order here?

Rashi, the medieval French commentator, quotes the Midrash Tanchuma and explains that our Parasha and all the subsequent parshiyot detailing the Mishkan actually occurred sometime after the incident of the Golden Calf. It is here the Rashi brings the famous concept:

The S’forno- Rav Ovadiah Sforno, the Renaissance Italian commentator further explains Rashi’s point here by saying:

So, then, the reason for building the Mishkan is that it served as a Tikkun for the building of the Golden Calf. Before the sin, there wasn’t a need for B’nai Yisrael to build a place to worship God. After the sin, after B’nai Yisrael had built something for God that was improper and idolatrous, the Mishkan was necessary to channel any building energies towards something holy for God. After the Torah described all the spiritual heights B’nai Yisrael was supposed to achieve—to be an entire nation of Priests (mamlechet Kohanim) and a Holy Nation- (Goi Kadosh), the Torah now has to explain why all these plans God had laid out for B’nai Yisrael did not in fact happen, so that it became necessary to build a Tabernacle, etc. So, then, the reason for building the Mishkan is that it served as a Tikkun for the building of the Golden Calf. Before the sin, there wasn’t a need for B’nai Yisrael to build a place to worship God. After the sin, after B’nai Yisrael had built something for God that was improper and idolatrous, the Mishkan was necessary to channel any building energies towards something holy for God.

The Ramban, Nachmanides, however, completely disagrees with this analysis. First, he believes that the Torah is in chronological order and so he argues that our Parasha is right where it belongs. Ramban shifts his focus to parshiyot that have come before- Yitro and Mishpatim- that describe Revelation at Sinai, Matan Torah. And he says:

The Mishkan then is not a repair, a tikkun for Chet HaEgel, but is rather a place to continue the experience of being in God’s presence at Sinai.

Professor Umberto Cassuto was an Italian Bible Scholar, who was the Chief Rabbi of Florence and then moved to Israel in 1938 to become a professor at Hebrew University. In his perush on Sefer Shemot, notes the textual parallels between Revelation and the description of God’s presence as it filled the Mishkan. Cassuto goes on to say that the connection between B’nai Yisrael and the Mishkan continues forever the connection that was formed at Sinai between the people and God. The meaning of: "ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם" - "and let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them"; is that God will dwell in the midst of the people wherever they wander in the desert. Towards the end of his commentary, Cassuto states the following:

The Kedushat Levi (Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev-the Berdichever Rebbe)- sees the purpose of the Mishkan as not only to be a reminder of God’s connection with us at Har Sinai but also as a tangible way to recreate that very connection when we pray. He says as follows:

The Kedushat Levi goes on to explain, however, that although other commentators-namely Rashi-understand that when the Torah states in our Parasha (25:8):

This means that as you build the Mishkan now, you will make it again in the future- ta’asu- when you build the Beit HaMikdash. But the Kedushat Levi takes his understanding beyond just the physical building of any future sanctuary. In his view, we continue to build a Mishkan through our prayers and in doing so, we continue the revelation of the Torah. The כן תעשו is a reminder of a future of what prayer will look like beyond being in a building itself.

So, if the true purpose of the Mishkan was to remind us of revelation, then the way to perpetuate it is not by having a structure but rather to continue to reinterpret Torah in every generation.

By incorporating the Kedushat Levi and Ramban’s interpretations, we can see a slightly different interpretation of the purpose of the Mishkan. In (25:2) the verse states:

The use of the word לבו - lev, heart, here is quite interesting. And although נדבת לבו is understood as volunteerism, it also has very strong echoes in how we view Tefillah and how we can maintain one’s relationship to God without a physical structure, without a Mishkan and without a Mikdash.

The accompanying Haftara for Parashat Teruma from Sefer Melachim also hints at what prayer will look like in the future without a Mishkan or a Mikdash. The reading describes Shlomo HaMelekh’s building of the first Temple. Later on in the Navi, Shlomo has a dedication ceremony for the Temple where he gives the following inaugural speech. In the first book of Kings, Chapter 8, verses 46-48 (JPS translation)

At the very outset, on the very opening day of the Beit HaMikdash, King Solomon seems to predict a time when the Jewish people will be in exile and won’t have a Mishkan or Mikdash and in its place will be very the heart of the human being. They, the Jewish people, will take it to their hearts, והשיבו אל ליבם and pray to God for forgiveness.

So, unlike the Kedushat Levi’s idea that to fulfill the requirement of Standing at Sinai in every generation one must actively participate in the continued revelation of the Torah, King Solomon suggests something slightly more accessible - prayer as a group. By standing as a Kehilla and praying and engaging in the intricate choreography, B’nai Yisrael, with all of its n’divat libo/ ndivat libah and deep intention of your hearts- Kavanat HaLev- now will have the tools to reenact and renew its relationship to God. When we turn our hearts- and follow the prescriptions that God has presented to us, we make our own Mishkan-where God can dwell within us and a Mikdash- where we can make ourselves holy.

And lest we think we have forgotten about Rashi, Shlomo HaMelekh also hints that this new space is also to function as a repair, a tikkun for our sins, as his speech continues:

So, we then have in our hands and our hearts the mechanism to insulate ourselves from any outside noise and keep ourselves focused on what I believe the Mishkan means for us today: a way to renew our relationship with Hashem through prayer and serious learning of the Torah. And, it can also serve as we saw from Rashi as a means to ask God for forgiveness and that God help us repair ourselves. When we avail ourselves of the divine tools given to us to simu lev, to truly place our hearts l’shem shomayim, we can renew the awesome experience and connection we had with the Holy One at Sinai. And while we have now been commanded to do this reconnection, and the element of n’divat liboh is somewhat muted, we should have the confidence that not only can we do it but also that God truly wants to hear from us.