BUILDING THE SANCTUARY IN THE DESERT

The English title of the second book of the Torah is “Exodus,” because this is the book wherein the children of Israel leave Egypt. It is also the book that contains the giving of the Ten Commandments. Significant happenings.

This book consists of eleven chapters. The last five chapters are dedicated to the building of the Mishkan, also known as the portable Sanctuary, or Tabernacle, that travelled through the desert for 40 years. The last Parasha, “Pekudei,” containing the final 2 – 1/3 chapters of this book, lists the contents and construction of this sanctuary. The detail of the objects and the placements of all the actors that went into creating this structure and its composition are extensive, specific, and noteworthy.

Why such detail?

The key to understanding this question is that the reason for building this hall of prayer is so that God may ”dwell among them.”  That is, God would be closer to the people as opposed to projecting power, energy, spirituality, and wisdom across the dichotomy that distinguishes and separates the physical and spiritual planes of being. God inhabits a formless universe of spatial infinity, temporal eternity, and uniform harmony. Our material universe is described by its limited boundaries, alarming impermanence, and  continuing divisions.

In a previous blog, I introduced the concept that the nature of God, being the only 100% spiritual entity possible, could not exist within a material world without acquiring some characteristics of that physical dimension. This would be a transformation from purity to polluted. God would become less than 100% spiritual. God would then no longer be God.

To avoid this complication and consequence, God operated from within the spiritual universe, literally hurling Divine power to mold a physical universe and its inhabitants. But there came a point when God needed to be physically close to God’s creation, especially mortal and material and maladroit human beings. Curious creatures who did not seem to grasp that the spiritual wonders God offered were the only truly amazing (i.e.: “awesome”) goals worth pursuing in life. God did not fully understand the drives that accompany a material existence.

God, therefore, sought to bridge into the material universe to understand and empathize with the needs and sympathies of mortal human beings. In this way, God could become attuned to the strivings of the human heart and mind. This ultimate connection between Creator and Creation imbues an instinct of relevance on both sides.

Though God knew all possible outcomes of life in the material universe, God did not know which particular future would actually follow each moment of the present. This is a new experience for God, the all-knowing being who did not have to distinguish various potentials within the uniform, constant, and unchanging spiritual universe.

God recognized that a closer association, akin to the closeness experienced by mortals towards each other, was necessary to teach people the deepest potential of Creation. In order to do that, God had to ”dwell among them.” God sought to accomplish this miracle by having a building erected that would allow God to dwell in the material universe without becoming contaminated, desecrated, and deteriorated. God needed a Holy Sanctuary to protect God from the ravages of this world that God had created.

God created an environment within the material universe that God could inhabit without being affected by that material universe.

Everything in life has an ideal environment. As we study the earth’s biosphere, we see that all plants and animals thrive optimally in the environment in which they developed. It may not seem ideal to those of us who are not constantly concerned with survival at all times. Because, in the animal world, a creature may live in its ideally suited environment and still have to always strive for food, hide from predators, and contend for procreation.

The tiger and the fox both live in the same jungle. Both have to struggle to survive. The former, though predator, must fight for its survival in a different way than the latter, a prey. It’s not meant  to be a cakewalk. But then, neither is a cakewalk a real cakewalk. (slippery, easy to get bogged down in, and ultimately not the healthiest food) Challenges are part of living. The unadulterated jungle gives the best chance for survival of each species, which is the evolutionary imperative. Individual comfort is not assured or even a consideration.

Life is a struggle. Even the word “Israel” means struggle.

God needs a perfect container to dwell in the physical world. Thus, God must spend all this Torah space describing in minute, painstaking detail what  it takes for God to transcend from the Spiritual Realm. Once leaping into the material world, God could be closer to this group of people more perceptibly.

At this juncture of the Bible, the Hebrew people require a more physically intimate experience of the Divine. With God dwelling among them, the Children of Israel could sense the nature of the Deity. The resultant extensive sensory stimulation allowed them to deeply comprehend the prime directive of Torah. This is to know God; to become Holy as “I The Lord Your God Am Holy.” God attempts to show in new ways how these material mortals can be different (i.e.: Holy) in the way God is different (i.e.: Holy).

The perfect container of the Sanctuary was built according to exact specifications that would allow God to be there without diminishing the spiritual and Holy (as defined above) characteristics of God.

Therefore, the descriptions given in Pekudei are necessary. That is why this parasha is so critical: for God to accomplish the development of this people chosen to represent God. Having God dwell among them instilled a sense of eternity and infinity. The rigorous descriptions of Pekudei enabled this to happen.

But all the “things,” the objects, the structure, the tables, that together make up the Tabernacle do not a Tabernacle make. They have to be assembled with loving intention, spiritual firmness, and dedicated purpose. Without the hearts and minds of those who put it all together, the  ”things” are just “things.” The human devotion to wanting to be closer to God is a key element of bringing God to dwell among them.

The interposing and interlacing of key objects with faithful intention created a  spiritual environment within the created physical universe within the infinite and eternal spiritual universe.