Whoever experiences the weekly parashah as the beating heart of the Jewish tribe knows that this week marks a sharp and surprising pivot. After the thunder and lightning of the Sinai revelation, the Torah suddenly seeks out wooden boards, spans of cloth and skins of the enigmatic teḥashim. It speaks of measurements of width and length.
A single event of revelation will eventually sputter out. For the divine light to remain, it takes an instrument. It takes a Tabernacle (mishkan)!
In that way, an elevated spirit gives way to the art of building — the construction of a spiritual space, a dwelling for the divine Presence, the Shekhina.
And where will the Shekhina dwell? “… And I will dwell in their midst,” says God to Moses. Not in the mishkan, but rather in us.
For such a mishkan only free-will offerings are accepted, “a donation from every man, as his heart may urge him.” And the artisans and artists? These will be “wise-hearted” men and women. Because only a generous and wise heart knows how to make connections that enable the Shekhina to find rest in the world.
Today too, we are in need of hearts — generous and wise — that will know how to connect the pieces into an instrument in which and from which the light of the infinite, the Ein Sof, will shine.
