When the Mishkan is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the Mishkan is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up; any outsider who encroaches shall be put to death.
What is going on here? The opening of Bamidbar is a number of chapters of preparing to leave Mount Sinai and begin their thirty right years in the Wilderness.
This verse is the general description of the Levi'im (and Kohanim) in their task of breaking down the Mishkan in preparation for moving from one encampment to the next, and then of setting of the Mishkan in its new locale. When did this happen? In the morning, people would go out of their tents and look for the Pillar of Cloud above the Mishkan. If it was there, they would just begin their day, gathering manna, preparing to eat, etc. If the Pillar had moved, this would have meant a moving day had arrived, and the Levites would begin the task of breaking down the Mishkan for transport, while everyone else is breaking down their own tents in preparation as well.
It is plausible that the Mishkan would the first thing to move when they actually begin to move out (signaled by the blasts on the silver trumpets), and the first thing to encamp, since the Mishkan forms the center of the camp and how all other camps are arranged around it. That exact spot would be determined by where the Pillar of Cloud (or Fire at night) would stop moving.
Things that are odd about the verse:
- On the surface, the verse seems to say: when the Mishkan travels, then the Levites break it down, meaning that the traveling happens and then the breakdown. What is the actual order of events in this procedure? And the same questions applies for making camp. Is the Mishkan set up first, during or after everything else is set up?
- Also the verb "to take down" is in the imperfect tense, which either indicates the future or the present tense.
- This verb is a strange choice: to bring down. Is that literal or figurative? Down from what? Take it down? Bring it down?
- Then there is the matter of the outsider. The outsider who comes near is to die? Who kills them? The. court? God? Right away? After a court trial? Why is this a capital offense? What exactly are they encroaching upon? Why would that be a problem?
- Encroaching into certain areas of the Mishkan leads to death if it is the wrong person and/or the wrong time. When breaking down the Mishkan, how does all of that work? Does it even apply?
The verse needs a few textual corrections (to be properly understood).
Fix #1 - The word "linsoa / to travel" only applies to people, but the Mishkan does not travel, but people help it [travel], and it should have said "and when they make the Miskhan travel," but because when people travel from place to place they help move the Mishkan, it was written "when the Mishnan traveled."
Fix #2 - Not when they actually traveled did they break down the Mishkan, but when they are getting ready to travel, meaning before their travels.
Fix #3 - It is not talking about the first travel only, but each and every time when they travel from place to place, with all of them they Levites were obligated to break it down, and at each campsite they would put it back up.
It also says in the place when they would prepare to travel, when they were traveling, and in the place they would break it down, which is the meaning of "take it down" - they would break it down, in the present tense, to teach about the constancy of this task, because it happened with each and every journey, they would break it down and at every camp, they would put it back up.
It also says they would carry it to the place of the encampment, because it is understood from the verses that it was not an obligation upon the Levites only to break it down at the time of traveling and assembly at the time of camping, not that they would carry it from the place they were leaving to their place they were going, it must be said that they were carrying it...and the verse did not mention here [this fact] because it was relying on the verses at the end of Bamidbar ,and at the beginning of Naso about B'nai Kahat, "and afterwards B'nai Kahat came to carry..." and about B'nai Gershon, "And they carried the curtains of the Mishkan..." and about B'nai Merari, "And this was their second portage..."
יורידו אתו [AND WHEN THE DWELLING SETTETH FORWARD] THE LEVITES SHALL TAKE IT DOWN — Understand יורידו as the Targum does: "they shall take it apart." Whenever they were about to set out on a journey in the wilderness from one station to another (cf. Rashi Exodus 40:38) they took the structure apart (lit., they took it apart from its state of being put up) and carried it to the place where the cloud afterwards abode, and there they encamped and erected it (the Tabernacle).
On the verb: Do not read the verb "take it down" to mean from a high place to a low place. But the Mishkan does go down from a high level of holiness to a lower level of holiness or even completely profane; not the pieces that comprise the Mishkan, but the spaces that the pieces create, with three levels of holiness - courtyard, holy and holy of holies. When the Mishkan moves, its holiness is no longer present, and will be restored when the Mishkan is reassembled.
Take down mean to disassemble it from its state of being assembled. And this is to take place as they camp is preparing to set out. But who stops first? Do the Levites carry it to the location of the cloud, or does they find a good spot to encamp, and then the cloud moves to where they are setting up the Mishkan. The Mishkan's new location would indicate where the holy and holy of holies sit (I.e. the geographic center of the new camp), and they assemble the Mishkan around that spot, from the holy of holies outward.
The comment mentioned in this Rashi tells us a bit more about what makes something holy.
לעיני כל בית ישראל בכל מסעיהם. בְּכָל מַסָּע שֶׁהָיוּ נוֹסְעִים, הָיָה הֶעָנָן שׁוֹכֵן בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יַחֲנוּ שָׁם...
לעיני כל בית ישראל בכל מסעיהם [THE CLOUD WAS ON THE TABERNACLE] … IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, THROUGHOUT ALL THEIR JOURNEYS — At every מסע which they made (according to Rashi this means: at every station at which they stopped) the cloud rested upon the Mishkan in the place where they encamped....
Who determines which spaces are holy? Israel does. Where the Mishkan is set up, the cloud goes there. We determine where our sacred spaces are located and God moves to that spot. Similarly, we are in charge of the Jewish calendar. We are given a structure in time, a calendar filled with festive days, and we determine when those days fall by announcing the beginning of each month (with witnesses and testimony), and God agrees that those are God's festive days. (But not Shabbat. That one is different). Here, we have a physical structure which creates spaces, and we determine where they sit and what spaces the encompass, and then God agrees that those are the sacred spaces - for now.
Holiness is not something inherent in a space or at a certain time. It is something that we determine with our ritual technology, be it a spatial one or a temporal one.
והזר הקרב יומת, “and a common man that comes too near will be executed.” Levites are also considered “common” men in this respect. They may not enter these holy precincts once the Tabernacle had been reassembled. Assembling or dissembling did not require their entering, and when the Tabernacle had been taken apart, the site it had stood on was no longer considered as a holy site.
Who is an "outsider" is a fluid term. When the Mishkan is standing, the Holy and Holy of Holies is reserved for Kohanim, so everyone else is an outsider. When the Mishkan is being taken down and put up again, the task is reserved for Levites, so everyone else, including Kohanim, is an outsider.
This is about being responsible for a sacred task that only you can do.
Holiness being fluid allows the Levites to take on this task without fear of death. Though the cloud has moved on, the Holy and Holy of Holies are still sacred, until the Levites, from outside those spaces, take them down. Once they are down, the holiness is no longer present. Then the ground that was within those walls is desanctified. Once those walls are back up, the ground in the new space becomes sacred, and they cannot go in.
What was in one moment a spot where only the High Preist could do is now just a patch of rocky sand. And one that in one moment was just a patch of rocky sand is now the resting place of the ark and is the center of the holy of holies. Holiness is also fluid. And determined by human action and intervention. But that was different earlier on in our story....
(2) FOR THE PLACE WHEREON THOU STANDEST IS HOLY GROUND. Even though Moses was far from the bush, the angel warned him [not to approach], for the whole mountain became sanctified when the Divine Presence came down upon the mountain—top, just as it did at the time of the Giving of the Torah. Now Moses was on the mountain for he had ascended thereto, as it is said, and he came to the mountain of G-d, unto Horeb, and the bush was on the top of the mountain. Thus the entire site became holy and therefore the wearing of sandals was forbidden. A similar case is found in Joshua. Likewise, the priests ministered in the Sanctuary only while barefoot.
Taking Ramban at face value, the holiness at the Burning Bush and at the Giving of the Torah was determined by God's actions, namely by God's coming down on the mountain at that time. It is also temporal and dependent on this action to make the space holy. But later on (and God presence is more removed and more remote), the power. balance shifts, and Israel now is in charge of determined where and when is holiness to be found, and God agrees.
The being barefoot at the Burning Bush and in the Mishkan is a nice connection that I had not fully seen before.
And the stranger who approaches. Even a kohein who attempts to do the Levite’s service in dismantling and erecting the Mishkan is liable for death, for a kohein is called a “stranger” regarding this service. He will die by the hands of Heaven, because every mention of death regarding the Mikdosh and its holiness are death by the hands of Heaven.
Even the Cohanim if they came upon this Levitical task, they would have deserved the death penalty, for they also are outsiders, they are Levites, and it said "for their task" - this is breaking down the Mishkan and putting it back up, it does not say "the one who approaches the altar to serve" or "the one who enters the heichal" for that it already warned about in Ki Tessa, and in Parshat Pekudei, and furthermore a matter is learning from it discussion where the verse says about the Levitical task that even here it was for the Levites.
There is danger when the Mishkan is setup and running, and there is also a different level of danger and concern in the transitional phases, coming down and going back up. The roles here matter. There is potential for confusion. Spaces are going out and into levels of holiness that call for special attention.
This is about moments of transition, when things are in a state of flux, vulnerable, fluid, liminality. Those are moments to pay close attention to.
My takeaways from this verse
Not only is maintaining a sacred space important, but creating sacred space and even deconstructing sacred space are also important. (And schlepping from one to the next)
Transitions are also sacred times. The moments in-between. The rest between the notes. The pauses in one's day. The establishment of the sacred. The conclusion of the holy.
Time of transition need to be treated with focus and care
These times of transition are so important, that we need to keep out distance if we are not helping out. Let those tasked with this focus on the task at hand. Don't distract them. If you are not helping out, go somewhere else until the task is done. These are times of vulnerability, transition, danger.
We all have a certain role to play in this world.
The trick is figuring out what it is. This is about recognizing your role, your task, your tafkid, and embracing it and leaning in to it. Perhaps it is work task, perhaps it is personal, spiritual, whichever. It's yours and yours alone. No one else can take your place in that task.
Doing one's task transforms one into a Levite / An Accompanier
When we do our own sacred tasks, we are accompanying God, the Sacred, the Divine, from one stage to the next.
Interrupting or taking over someone else's task is terrible.
Let them do their thing. Don't interject yourself into someone else's destiny.
The Gemara relates another incident involving those Sages. On another occasion they were ascending to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. When they arrived at Mount Scopus and saw the site of the Temple, they rent their garments in mourning, in keeping with halakhic practice. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the site of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, and Rabbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: For what reason are you laughing? Rabbi Akiva said to them: For what reason are you weeping? They said to him: This is the place concerning which it is written: “And the non-priest who approaches shall die” (Numbers 1:51), and now foxes walk in it; and shall we not weep?
Hillel said to him, to the convert: Is it not the way of the world that only one who knows the protocols [takhsisei] of royalty is appointed king? Go and learn the royal protocols by engaging in Torah study. He went and read the Bible. When he reached the verse which says: “And the common man that draws near shall be put to death” (Numbers 1:51), the convert said to Hillel: With regard to whom is the verse speaking? Hillel said to him: Even with regard to David, king of Israel. The convert reasoned an a fortiori inference himself: If the Jewish people are called God’s children, and due to the love that God loved them he called them: “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), and nevertheless it is written about them: And the common man that draws near shall be put to death; a mere convert who came without merit, with nothing more than his staff and traveling bag, all the more so that this applies to him, as well.