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More Pekudei Thoughts

3/4/2011

“Within, it was decked with love.”
-Song of Songs 3:10

The rabbis of antiquity wondered why God needed the Mishkan (the Tabernacle in which God's presence rested). God's presence fills all the world, so what is the Mishkan for? We ask the same question when we ask questions like, "What do we need a synagogue for? Why do we need any kind of religious institution to find God? Isn't God everywhere?" One answer comes from a midrash on Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim Rabba 3:20):

Rabbi Yehoshua of Siknin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: To what can the Ohel Mo’ed be compared? To a cave adjoining the sea, which the sea overflows when it becomes rough. Though the cave is filled, the sea loses nothing. So the tent of meeting was filled with the glory of the divine presence, and yet the world lost nothing of the Shechinah [God's felt presence].

There is nothing intrinsically special about the Mishkan (called the Ohel Mo'ed, "Tent of Meeting," in this passage), just as there is nothing intrinsically special about a synagogue. God doesn't need a special place. We do. We need a place to notice God, like we notice the sea filling a cave on the craggy shores of the sea. The sea is always there, but we fail to notice. We fail to notice God in our lives until we set aside a place that we make special for the purpose of experiencing wonder.

Ilana DeBare link

3/4/2011 02:34:46 am

I touched on some similar points in a drash I gave last weekend on Vayakhel:

"Despite that initial bow to the primacy of Shabbat, Vayakhel is about the importance of place and setting in spirituality. There is so much attention to detail – those hooks, those boards, those 400 pomegranates. All these material details are part of creating a very particular setting that will foster a connection to the spiritual.

"It’s a little paradoxical. The idea of spirituality is to get beyond the physical. And certainly people can have transcendent experiences anywhere – on an empty beach, a crowded subway, a seedy bar at closing time. So theoretically, it shouldn’t matter whether we are standing around in the wide open Sinai desert or entering a tent with dyed ram’s skins and golden cherubim and 400 pomegranates.

"But it does. That’s one of the lessons of the golden calf episode – as human beings, many of us paradoxically need physical cues to help us transcend our physical selves. An altar, a priest, a whiff of incense. God and Moses learned that lesson, and gave the Israelites a tabernacle to fill those needs in place of a calf."

It went on, but I'll stop. You can find the full drash at http://midlifebatmitzvah.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/my-dvar-torah-vayakhel/.

Barbara

3/4/2011 05:07:29 am

Beyond having a place, it is also that we have a time, a community, words and songs. I think all of these converge to make us not just aware of the holiness that surrounds us in all places and times, but when it's working right, leaves us completely in awe. Take away any one of these and it can be much harder to reach the same realization of the joy of being alive. Speaking for one creature of habit, anyway.

Susan Le Gresley

3/5/2011 09:00:12 am

39,210 was the number of fireworks that went off the day after my 40th birthday! It was a charity event, and 40 thousand were sponsered at £1 each! 790 did burn up but were not counted as they didn't actually fly! 15 seconds! each one had a whistle and it was like I could hear each and every one of them!It was excellent, and burned on my retinas for ever! I think the record may still stand too!
My Husband and I are going to see the Northern Lights over the next 2 weeks... Its to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so I guess if my 40th is anything to go by, anyone who owns a satelite might get some circuits toasted. Bring on those Sunspots and Solar flares my Man wants to see some spectacular God given fireworks!

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