Intentional or Incidental
With Parsahat Terumah, Hashem begins giving us the instructions for building the Mishkan/Tabernacle that completes the rest of sefer Shemot. The parshah begins: "... They will take for Me a contribution. From every man whose heart motivates him to give a voluntary gift...... They shall make a Sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them." However, the narrative is interrupted midway to record the sin of the golden calf, notes Rabbi Bernstein. This positioning has led our Sages to discuss whether Hashem commanded us to construct the Mishkan before or after the sin of the golden calf. Was the Mishkan part of Hashem's initial plan, or was it Hashem's reaction to Bnei Yisroel's sin, giving them a path to atonement?
Rav S. R. Hirsch zt”l sees in the placement of of this project a reinforcement of the covenant between Hashem and Bnei Yisroel that was established at Sinai. If Bnei Yisroel live their lives in sanctity, dedicated to My service, then, reciprocally, I will dwell among them both in their individual lives and in their national lives.
Similarly, Ramban zt”l sees the construction of the Mishkan and its establishment and presence as a continuation of the Sinai experience, with Hashem's presence filling both. In support of this thought, Ramban notes that just as there was a hierarchy of who could approach Har Sinai, so was there a similar hierarchy of who could enter the different parts of the Mishkan.
Ramban in his introduction to Sefer Shemot develops this theme. The entire purpose of the redemption from our servitude in Egypt was to repair our connection, and the wold's connection, with God. This was achieved neither at our exodus, nor upon entering the Land. It was achieved at Sinai when Hashem placed His presence on Bnei Yisroel, and it continued through Hashem's maintaining His presence in the Mishkan.
While, according to Ramban, Moshe was given the command to build the Mishkan the first time he ascended Har Sinai to receive the Torah, before the sin of the golden calf, he did not have an opportunity to teach these laws to Bnei Yisroel until after the sin. The Novominsker Rav zt"l uses this timeline to explain a difference in the wording of the Torah. At the beginning of our parshah, the Torah implies that the contributions for the Mishkan were to come only from the men, "... Every man whose heart motivates him..." But later in the Parshah, when Bnei Yisroel actually bring the materials for donation, the Torah says, "The men came with the women; everyone whose heart motivated him brought bracelets,.rings, body ornaments. Every man who raised up an offering... all sorts of gold..." The Novominsker Rav points out that the women brought their jewelry, and their only motivation was love for Hashem. They had not contributed to fashioning the golden calf. The men, on the other hand, having participated and donated gold and silver for the golden calf, now needed to elevate gold and silver to the service of Hakodosh Boruch Hu, to transform these materials from vehicles for sin to vehicles for sanctity and thus atone for their sin. As Shir Hashirim validates, allegorically speaking of Hashem's house, "It was filled with love from the daughters [women] of Yerushalayim."
The Seforno, however, takes issue with this timeline. He believes that prior to the sin, Hashem's presence could be felt in any place, just as every firstborn could initially serve in the Temple as a priest. All this changed with the sin of the golden calf. Then Hashem designated a particular place as a more tangible expression of God's immanence rather than within each individual, and the priesthood was limited to the sons of Aharon..
At Sinai, Bnei Yisroel reached the spiritual level of Adam before his sin. Then, his physical being and his spiritual essence were one complete and integrated entity, writes Rabbi Friedlander zt”l, the Sifsei Chaim. After the sin, Hashem threw Adam out of Gan Eden and put him at Har Moriah, the place of atonement. Before the sin, Adam did not need a specific place for atonement as he himself was holy. Similarly, Bnei Yisroel at Sinai had reached that same level of sanctity as Adam before the sin, and did not require a designated place outside themselves for atonement. Just as Adam was led to a place for atonement, so Bnei Yisroel were now to be given a place for atonement after their egregious sin.
Rashi agrees with the Seforno that after the sin Hashem commanded that the Mishkan be built. Rashi uses the oft repeated mantra: אין מוקדם וםאוחר בתורה/There is no chronological order in the Torah. When Rashi questions the sequence of events as recorded in the Torah, he must be basing his assumption on the Torah itself. For this instance, Rabbi Bernstein cites Rabbi Leib Hyman zt”l who points out that while initially all the firstborn were to be the priests in the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdosh, it is only after the sin of the golden calf, in Parshat Tezaveh that Aharon and his sons were singled out to be the kohanim. By reversing the order, explains Rabbi Bernstein, Hashem is reassuring Bnei Yisroel that although Bnei Yisroel sinned, that sin does not define their essential nature. That lapse was a result of their long immersion and enslavement in Egypt. It is Sinai that truly defines the nature of God's nation.
The Zohar sheds further light. In the original command, Hashem asked for a contribution "from every man/person; later, Hashem seems to be limiting the group of contributors, "Take from yourselves..." What had changed? Initially, everyone was given the opportunity of contributing to this sacred project, including the erev rav, the motley group of Egyptians who had aligned themselves with Bnei Yisroel at the exodus. However, it was the erev rav who instigated Bnei Yisroel to seek another leader/god to represent Hashem. For this egregious infraction, they were later barred from contributing to the Mishkan -- take contributions only from yourselves. [Every language has linguistic connections to loshon hakodesh/Hebrew. I always thought that riffraff in society was related to the erev rav. CKS]
Expanding on this idea, the Tallelei Chaim explains that before the sin, the Mishkan would have had the potential for the ultimate redemption, including all the nations under its umbrella, represented by the contributions of the erev rav. After the sin, it went from the universal experience to the limited domain of Bnei Yisroel whose mission it would be to bring Hashem's glory to the world.
The Strichtchin Rebbe asks what is the main purpose of the Mishkan? According to the Ramban, the main purpose is to be an abode for Hashem's presence on earth. This view is validated by considering the aron/Ark that contained the luchot as the key element of the Mishkan, as implied in the very name Mishkan. Alternately, Rambam considers the main focus of the Mishkan to be the mizbeach, the altar upon which Bnei Yisroel would offer their sacrifices to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, as represented by the name Mikdosh. The Strichtiner Rebbe proposes that both these views are correct. As the Mishkan, the structure represented the sanctity and glory of God descending from above, as at Sinai.; as Mikdosh., it represented Bnei Yisroel's service down below to bring down God's presence. The effort must begin below, to make us worthy of Hashem's presence.
At the time of the Mishkan and Beit Hamikdosh, that service was through the sacrificial offerings. Today, as Rabbi Mintzberg zt”l notes, we substitute the Beit Medrash for the Mishkan, for there Hashem speaks to us through the Torah we study, as He spoke to us at Sinai and from the Holy Ark. And we speak to Hakodosh Boruch Hu through our Beit Knesset, through our tefillah. These two purposes are part of our daily prayer as we enter the Beit Knesset: How goodly are אהליך/your tents... משכנותיך/your dwelling places. Your tents refers to the places of Torah learning, while your dwelling places refers to your shuls, your places of prayer.
Citing the Maharal, the Strichtiner Rebbe adds a more mystical approach. Each of us has the potential of bringing down the shechinah. Our bodies are the bayit/house for the neshamah. Even if one person is learning Torah, Hashem is coming down, for it is Hashem Himself Who is the Teacher of Torah to Bnei Yisroel. Similarly, during our prayers, Hashem is in front of us. Every one of our blessings begins with acknowledging the immanent presence of Hakodosh Boruch Hu -- Boruch Atah --Blessed are You. Hashem can be found in each of these levels, in the Beit Medrash, in the Beit Knesset, and within every Jew. Each provides a path of connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu. As Rabbi Asher Weiss reminds us, although the Beit Hamikdosh was destroyed, Hashem has never left us. He continues to reside in every Beit Medrash, in every Beit Knesset, in every Jewish home dedicated to His service, and in every Jewish soul.
While we live a physical existence, everything has a spiritual component. Bnei Yisroel before the sin was on the high spiritual level that all things were perceived through their essence rather than through their physical form, writes Rabbi Miller zt”l. That is why Bnei Yisroel could see the sounds at Sinai, not just hear them. Initially, the Sanctuary was to have this indescribable spiritual essence, but after the sin it was necessary that it have a physically perceivable structure. Citing the Shem MiShmuel zt”l, Rabbi Miller suggests that Hashem planned on having a purely spiritual abode on earth. However, after the sin, this vision became untenable, and Hashem gave Bnei Yisroel the plans for a physical structure. The ideal, although not built, was nevertheless not abandoned, just as the ideal, shattered luchot were preserved in the Aron Kodesh. Similarly, while we have full descriptions of the Mishkan and of the Beit Hamikdosh that King Solomon built, we have no physical description of the future Beit Hamikdosh
Before the sin, man himself was a totally integrated spiritual being. Post sin, the integration of body and soul, and indeed of all parts of the body disintegrated. Besides sanctity and physicality often clashing with each other, sometimes different parts of the body have different demands. In one man, the brain and intellect may be dominant, while in another, the emotions and heart may rule, while a third may may inspired by physical action. But each can find his path through his own particular dominating faculty to forge a path of connection to Hashem. Rabbi Miller suggests that we each have one special mitzvah that we connect to most strongly based on our nature. We should embrace that mitzvah, make it our own, and perform it with complete dedication and love, for that is your path to connection with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. That is how you build your personal mishkan, a place within yourself where Hashem can reside. Just as communities and as a nation we can construct buildings dedicated to Hashem, so can each of us dedicate ourselves to Hashem's service, to build within ourselves a sanctuary for Hashem's presence to reside within us.