Dovid Margolin:
In this weeks portion, Vayakhel-Pekudei, the Torah discusses all of the utensils and the materials used in the Mishkan [the moveable Temple]. As we know the Torah is very exact, and every word and every letter is there for a specific purpose. Because the Torah is so precise many times we learn out whole laws from an additional word or letter.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe therefore asks a question. All of the utensils and materials of the Mishkan were already described at length in the Torah when G-d commanded the Jewish people to build the Mishkan in the first place. Why, the Rebbe asks, did the Torah describe everything in detail yet again?
Obviously the description here in our portion is teaching us something, explains the Rebbe. The last time the utensils and the clothing of the priests were described in the Torah, it was when G-d had originally commanded us to build the Mishkan. The command had come from G-d Himself to Moshe the great leader of the Jewish people. Not only that, but Moshe was then on Mt. Sinai in an extremely spiritual state incomparable to even his own level of holiness down below. Now however the Torah describes the commandment of building the utensils and creating the priestly clothing not the lofty way it was commanded, but the way the commandment was actually fulfilled. How was it fulfilled? By the Jewish people, here in the lowly physical world, and with physical gold and silver.
The Torah teaches us that even though the concept was the holiest of the holiest and its execution was just plain and physical, G-d's will was fulfilled only when the Jewish people physically built the utensils and sowed the priestly garments. G-d's will was fulfilled in the physical Mishkan, and not atop the spiritual height of Mt. Sinai.
When we physically do the G-d's spiritual work, that is when “G-d will rest in you,” in each and every one of us, and we will merit to bring Moshiach.
posted by: jrtelegraph
Comments