"And God's Glory Filled the Mishkan"
STUDENT
SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
Parashat
PEKUDEI
SICHA OF HARAV
And Gods
Glory Filled the Mishkan
Translated
by
In
his Introduction to Sefer Shemot, Ramban explains the momentous
significance of this moment:
And
behold, the exile will not be over until the day when they return to their place
and to the level of their ancestors. When they left
According
to Ramban, even after the Exodus from
However,
a closer look at the verses also reveals the opposite phenomenon: it is
specifically after the inauguration of the Mishkan that Moshe is
prevented from entering the Tent of Meeting, and a sort of barrier appears
between him and God. We may suggest that the words lo yakhol mean that
he was not authorized or not permitted," rather than not able to enter,
such that the text is not describing any deficiency in the relationship between
Moshe and God. However, the literal reading of the verse suggests that Moshe was
simply unable to enter the Tent of Meeting.
The
verses provide two reasons for this inability: For the cloud rested upon it,"
and Gods glory filled the Mishkan." It seems that there is a profound
difference between these two reasons.
The
cloud resembles a locked door: it is a barrier that prevents Moshe from entering
the Mishkan. The cloud, as it were, guards the entrance of the Tent of
Meeting, blocking anyone from passing through. In contrast, Gods glory," which
fills the Mishkan, prevents Moshe from entering for a different
reason. It is not a matter of the
Tent of Meeting being locked; rather Gods glory fills it completely, and
hence there is no room for Moshe to enter, even if the cloud was not preventing
him from doing so.
Either
way, we come back to our question: why is it specifically after Am
Yisrael ascends to such a lofty level that the direct encounter with God is
blocked?
It
would appear that when God came down to dwell amongst His people, He saw fit to
emphasize the barrier separating Him from mortals. While God permits His
Presence to dwell amongst the nation, this dwelling still has barriers and
boundaries. The Divine Presence never descended lower than ten handbreadths
[from the ground] (Sukka 5a). Despite the closeness between Am
Yisrael and God, the Holy One remains transcendent. Even the most unique of
men, Moshe himself, cannot enter the Mishkan while the Divine Presence
rests there.
In
fact, the same concept finds expression in the
And
the tips of the poles [of the Ark of the Covenant] were visible does this
mean that they did not move from their place? [Surely not, and] accordingly the
text teaches, and the poles were long." Does this mean that they tore through
the curtain and protruded? [Surely not, and] accordingly the text teaches, And
they were not seen on the outside." How was this possible? They pressed the
curtain and protruded and stood out like a womans two breasts, as it is
written, a bundle of myrrh is my Beloved to me, lying between my breasts. Rav
Katina said: When Am Yisrael would make their pilgrimage, the curtain
would be rolled back and they would be shown the keruvim, intertwined
with each other, and they would say to them: See how beloved you are before God
like the love of a man and woman. (Yoma 54a)
However,
it is precisely for this reason that it was important to emphasize, right at the
beginning, at the inauguration of the Mishkan, that there remains a great
distance between the Divine realm and the mortal realm:
And
it was, when the kohanim emerged from the Kodesh, that the cloud
filled Gods house, and the kohanim could not stand and minister because
of the cloud, for Gods glory filled Gods house. (I Melakhim
8:10-11)
We
may add that the two obstacles noted above express two distinct differences
between God and man. The cloud represents Gods transcendental nature and mans
inability to grasp His essence or to reach Him. Any attempt to cleave to Gods
actual essence is blocked, as it were, by a locked door. On the other hand,
Gods glory symbolizes the intimacy of Gods closeness. The intensity of this
intimacy is so great that the existence of all of Creation is placed in doubt,
since there is none but Him," and there is no room in the world for any other
entity. It is as though there is no room for separate creations in the world in
which Gods essence is revealed.
According
to the above, the Mishkan expresses the situation that was meant to
prevail in the world had it not been for Gods mercy which facilitates our
existence, and the fact that the world continues to exist only by virtue of
Gods will.
(This
sicha was delivered on Shabbat parashat Pekudei 5755
[1995].)