The Mishkan
STUDENT
SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
PARASHAT
TERUMA
SICHA OF HARAV BARUCH
GIGI SHLIT"A
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With gratitude and
in honor of the bar mitzvah,
this year b'ezrat Hashem, of our twin sons,
Michael and Joshua - Steven Weiner and Lisa Wise
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The
Mishkan
Translated
by
The
commentators are divided over the question of when it was that Bnei Yisrael were
commanded to build the Mishkan. Some maintain that the parshiot of
Sefer Shemot recorded in chronological order, such that the
command precedes the sin of the golden calf. Others believe that the command was
given after and in response to the sin, after it was clear that for Bnei Yisrael
at least at that time Gods transcendental reality in the world was not
sufficient; they could not maintain a complete physical severance from God and
needed some tangible manifestation of His Presence in their
midst.
Rashis
well-known position (31:18) is that The Torah does not follow chronological
order. The sin of the golden calf preceded by far the command to fashion the
Mishkan.
Ramban
(33:7) disagrees:
Rashi
wrote
and the Torah does not follow chronological order. But this does not
seem correct to me, for what reason is there to mention this [i.e., the command
to build the Mishkan] here, in the middle of the narrative [if it did not
actually take place at this point]?
Rambans
position, here as elsewhere, is that the order of the Torah does follow the
chronology of the events that it records. His approach in our context implies
that the construction of the Mishkan is a fundamental, essential
component in the life of the nation, rather than just an act of repair following
the sin of the golden calf since, in his view, the construction of the
Mishkan had already been commanded before that incident
occurred.
In
his introduction to Sefer Shemot, Ramban develops this idea:
When
they left
Thus,
the redemption of Am Yisrael did not end with the Exodus from
The
presence of the Mishkan is a continuation of the experience of Sinai, and
a foundation for Gods perpetual presence in the midst of the encampment,
creating a life of holiness. Without the Mishkan, Am Yisrael is not
living that life of holiness before God.
Then
they regained the level of their forefathers which forefathers? Avraham,
Yitzchak and Yaakov, who hosted God in their tents, as it were, as a matter of
course: And God appeared to him at Alonei Mamrei while he sat at the entrance
to his tent in the heat of the day (Bereishit
18:1)!
God
cannot be revealed to every individual in the nation of Israel; hence He chose
to let His Presence rest in one place the Mishkan in order to offer
every individual member of the nation the possibility of a redeemed and holy
life with an awareness of Gods Presence in their midst:
Let
them make Me a Mishkan, that I may dwell in their midst
(25:8).