Professor Nechama Leibowitz was one of the most influential and insightful teachers of parshanut in the 20th century. From a modest apartment in Jerusalem, she mailed mimeographed parsha sheets all over the world, guiding her students to a greater appreciation of the Torah and of parshanut, the timeless endeavor to understand the meaning of significance of the Torah. It was Nechama Leibowitz who emphasized and highlighted and found new linguistic evidence for the conceptual link between the creation of the mishkan, the tabernacle - the subject of this week’s Torah portion - and the Torah’s description of the creation of the world. Key phrases like, “made”, “saw”, “complete,” “work” appear in the Torah’s narrative of creation, and then again, in the Torah’s description of the creation of this mishkan.
The heaven is My throne
And the earth is My footstool:
Where could you build a house for Me,
What place could serve as My abode?
ישֵׁב בְּסֵתֶר עֶלְיוֹן, אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה בַּר רַבִּי סִימוֹן יוֹשֵׁב בְּסֵתֶר הוּא עֶלְיוֹן עַל כָּל בְּרִיּוֹתָיו, מַהוּ (תהלים צא, צ): בְּצֵל שַׁדַּי, בְּצֵל אֵל, בְּצֵל רַחוּם, בְּצֵל חַנּוּן, אֵין כְּתִיב כָּאן, אֶלָּא בְּצֵל שַׁדַּי, בְּצֵל שֶׁעָשָׂה בְּצַלְאֵל, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר: בְּצֵל שַׁדַּי יִתְלוֹנָן, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לֹא כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאַתָּה סָבוּר כָּךְ אֲנִי סָבוּר, אֶלָּא כ' קֶרֶשׁ בַּצָּפוֹן וְכ' בַּדָּרוֹם וְח' בַּמַעֲרָב, וְלֹא עוֹד אֶלָּא שֶׁאֵרֵד וַאֲצַמְצֵם שְׁכִינָתִי בְּתוֹךְ אַמָּה עַל אַמָּה.
R’ Yehudah bar R’ Simon said: The One who dwells in the hidden place is above all His creations. What does the continuation “…in the shadow of the Almighty,” mean? In the shadow of Gd (b’tzel el). It is not written as ‘in the shadow of the Merciful’ or ‘in the shadow of the Gracious,’ but rather ‘in the shadow of the Almighty.’ In the shadow which Betzalel made, that is why it says ‘in the shadow of the Almighty’. The Holy One replied to Moshe ‘I do not see things the same way as you do. Rather it says twenty in the north, twenty in the south and eight in the west. Furthermore, I will I will come down and contract my Presence within a space of one cubit by one cubit.’
God creates order in the natural universe. We are charged with creating order in the human universe. That means painstaking care in what we say, what we do, and what we must restrain ourselves from doing. There is a precise choreography to the moral and spiritual life as there is a precise architecture to the tabernacle. Being good, specifically being holy, is not a matter of acting as the spirit moves us. It is a matter of aligning ourselves to the Will that made the world. Law, structure, precision: of these things the cosmos is made and without them it would cease to be. It was to signal that the same applies to human behaviour that the Torah records the precise dimensions of the Tabernacle and Noah’s ark.
וְכֵן אָמַר רַב שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר אַבָּא, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁבֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ עָתִיד לֵיחָרֵב וְהַקָּרְבָּנוֹת בְּטֵלִין, לֹא תְּשַׁכְּחוּ עַצְמְכֶם לְסַדֵּר הַקָּרְבָּנוֹת, אֶלָּא הִזָּהֲרוּ לִקְרוֹת בָּהֶן וְלִשְׁנוֹת בָּהֶן. וְאִם תַּעַסְקוּ בָּהֶן, אֲנִי מַעֲלֶה עֲלֵיכֶם כְּאִלּוּ בַּקָּרְבָּנוֹת אַתֶּם עוֹסְקִים. וְאִם רְצוֹנְךָ לֵידַע, בֹּא וּרְאֵה, כְּשֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַרְאֶה לִיחֶזְקֵאל אֶת צוּרַת הַבַּיִת, מַה הוּא אוֹמֵר, הַגֵּד אֶת בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת הַבַּיִת וְיִכָּלְמוּ מֵעֲוֹנוֹתֵיהֶם וּמָדְדוּ אֶת תָּכְנִית (יחזקאל מג, י). אָמַר יְחֶזְקֵאל לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, עַד עַכְשָׁו אָנוּ נְתוּנִים בַּגּוֹלָה בְּאֶרֶץ שׂוֹנְאֵינוּ, וְאַתָּה אוֹמֵר לִי לֵילֵךְ וּלְהוֹדִיעַ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל צוּרַת הַבַּיִת, וּכְתֹב לְעֵינֵיהֶם, וְיִשְׁמְרוּ אֶת כָּל צוּרָתוֹ וְאֶת כָּל חֻקֹּתָיו (יחזקאל מג, יא). וְכִי יְכוֹלִין הֵן לַעֲשׂוֹת. הַנִּיחַ לָהֶם עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלוּ מִן הַגּוֹלָה, וְאַחַר כָּךְ אֲנִי הוֹלֵךְ וְאוֹמֵר לָהֶם. אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִיחֶזְקֵאל, וּבִשְׁבִיל שֶׁבָּנַי נְתוּנִים בַּגּוֹלָה, יְהֵא בִּנְיַן בֵּיתִי בָּטֵל. אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, גָּדוֹל קְרִיָּתָהּ בַּתּוֹרָה כְּבִנְיָנָהּ. לֵךְ אֱמֹר לָהֶם, וְיִתְעַסְּקוּ לִקְרוֹת צוּרַת הַבַּיִת בַּתּוֹרָה. וּבִשְׂכַר קְרִיָּתָהּ שֶׁיִּתְעַסְּקוּ לִקְרוֹת בָּהּ, אֲנִי מַעֲלֶה עֲלֵיהֶם כְּאִלּוּ הֵם עוֹסְקִין בְּבִנְיַן הַבַּיִת...
And so did Rav Shmuel bar Abba say, "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, 'Even though the Temple is destined to be destroyed in the future and the sacrifices to be nullified, do not [allow] yourselves to forget the order of the sacrifices; but rather be careful to read about them and review them. And if you occupy yourselves with them, I will count it for you as if you were occupied with the sacrifices [themselves].'" And if you want to know [that this is so], come and see that when the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Yechezkel the form of the [Temple], what did He say? "Describe the [Temple] to the House of Israel; let them be ashamed of their iniquities, and measure the plan" (Ezekiel 43:10). Yehezkel [responded] to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Until now, we are put into exile in the land of our enemies; and You say to me to go and inform Israel [about] the form of the [Temple], and 'write [it] in their eyes, and they should preserve its form and all of its statutes [and do them]' (Ezekiel 43:11). And are they able to do [them]? Leave them until they emerge from the exile, and afterwards, I will go and tell them." [So] the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Yechezkel, "And because My children are in exile, the building of My [Temple] should be idle?" The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Its reading in the Torah is as great as its building. Go and say it to them, and they will occupy themselves to read the form of the [Temple] in the Torah. And in reward for its reading, that they occupy themselves to read about it, I count it for them as if they were occupied with the building of the [Temple]."
