Torah Study 3/5/22 Shabbat Pekudei 5782

אלה פקודי המשכן משכן העדות אשר פקד על פי משה, עבודת הלוים ביד איתמר בן אהרן הכהן. “These are the records of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony, which were drawn up at Moses’ bidding- the work of the Levites under the direction of Ittamar son of Aaron the Priest.”
According to the plain meaning of the text the words אלה פקודי המשכן refer to the Tabernacle and all its constituent parts which formed the subject matter of the last chapter and a half. The supervision of the construction of all these components had been entrusted to the Levites who in turn were responsible to Ittamar, son of Aaron. However, such furnishings as the lampstand, the table, the Holy Ark and the two altars were not part of the items for which Ittamar was responsible but they were entrusted to the supervision of his older brother Eleazar. A Midrashic approach: The reason that the Torah writes the words משכן,המשכן here in succession is to teach us that the Sanctuary on earth has a parallel in the celestial regions. We mentioned previously that all this is based on Exodus 15,17 where the Torah spoke of “the place You made to dwell in, O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord which Your hands established.”
The word מכון which the Torah wrote to describe the place for G’d to dwell in, should be read as מכוון, “prepared for, intended for.” The concept here is that the Tabernacle, Sanctuary, was considered as equivalent in importance and value to the entire world G’d had created previously. There are a number of expressions which have been used in the construction of the Tabernacle which closely parallel expressions we are familiar with in connection with descriptions of the universe such as carpets, יריעות, to name one. When earth was created the Torah spoke about luminaries, מאורות being created. The Tabernacle contained as an essential part a מנורה, a lampstand intended to illuminate the Sanctuary. In connection with the creation of earth the Torah mentioned that the waters congregated in one area, i.e. יקוו המים אל מקום אחד, whereas part of the vessels required for the Tabernacle was a כיור, a basin in which water had been collected. The Tabernacle’s roof consisted of carpets, יריעות, forming sort of a tent-like cover, whereas the sky or heaven covering our terrestrial universe is described as something G’d “spread like a tent over the universe” (Psalms 104,2). The author continues quoting more such examples. The gist of the Midrash Tanchuma 2 on our portion is that there are too many parallel expressions in the creation of the universe and the manufacture of the Tabernacle for them to be accidental; the message must be that we are dealing here with a microcosm, i.e. a miniature “world.” It is therefore easier to perceive of the Presence of G’d feeling comfortable in such surroundings. Thus far the Midrash Whatever the sages mentioned in the Midrash we just quoted which states that the Tabernacle was equivalent to a microcosm, may be understood as a generalization. There are, however, many details which are capable of being derived from the generalizations we mentioned.
In connection with the verse אלה תולדות השמים והארץ, “these are the derivatives of heaven and earth,” Bereshit Rabbah 12,9 states that from the word בהבראם, which appears immediately after these words we can derive that G’d employed the letter ה at the end of the tetragram as the tool with which He created the world, (seeing that that letter was not necessary in that statement). We may perhaps find something parallel in connection with the Tabernacle in the verse אלה פקודי המשכן, i.e. that the letter ה in the word המשכן, is also an allusion to the presence of the attribute כבוד being present in the Tabernacle, i.e. the Shechinah. The last letter ה in the tetragrammaton represents that attribute. This may be further alluded to by the fact that the subject of the Tabernacle occurs five times in the Torah. I have already explained this at the beginning of Vayakhel. The relationship of the words משכן-שכינה-כבוד is further illustrated in the verse לשכון כבוד בארצנו, “for the attribute of Kavod to dwell in our land” (Psalms 85,10).
Just as the world had been planned before being actually created within a space of six days, so the Tabernacle had been planned before being actually constructed. When the Torah speaks about the planning stage of the Tabernacle it writes: לחשוב מחשבות, “to plan designs” (31,4), whereas subsequently it speaks of לעשות, “to carry out (such designs).” Just as the world itself was not a product of externally imposed conditions, so the Tabernacle was a structure built by the free-willed donations of the people constructing it. The Torah underlines this when it writes אשר ידבנו לבו, “whatever his heart will prompt him to donate” (Exodus 25,2). Just as the name of G’d is mentioned at every stage of the creation including His holy name, the tetragrammaton (Genesis 2,4) at the end of the creation of the world, so His name is mentioned repeatedly during the Torah’s report of the construction of the Tabernacle, including G’d’s ineffable name כי ענן ה' על המשכן, “for the cloud of Hashem was above the Tabernacle “(40,38).
Just as G’d employed two separate attributes of His when creating the universe, i.e. the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy, so the Tabernacle was constructed principally by two different craftsmen, Betzalel and Oholivov. The former was from the tribe of יהודה representing the attribute of Mercy, whereas the latter was a member of the tribe of דן, representing the attribute of דין, Justice. It is also possible to understand the word משכן as derived from the word המשכה, “conduct, continuation, etc.” This would symbolise the fact that the terrestrial Tabernacle was an extension, a continuation of the Tabernacle in the celestial regions. The Temple in our regions draws on the spiritual input from the Temple in the celestial regions.