[net.religion.jewish] D'var Torah

naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (03/14/85)

<munch, munch>

	This is the third week I am posting a dvar torah on the parshah.
For those who missed my first posting last month, I am planning to post
a dvar torah every week on the parshah. To be more accurate, I am trying
to coordinate a multi-person effort to see that at least one dvar torah
is posted each week. There are about four people who have contacted me
who are interested in helping out, and their postings should start
appearing in the next month. This brings me to my next point.

I am Avi Feldblum. My site is currently not posting to the net,although
we do get the netnews and I read it. Therefore, my submissions are
posted by friends for me. Therefore --please-- do not reply using r or
some other method that accesses the posters address. They are nice
enough to post for me, don't make them forward messages back to me as
well. My address is:
	{allegra,ihnp4}!pruxa!ayf.
Most major backbone sites talk to either allegra or ihnp4. If you are
not sure how to get to them, pruxa talks to whoever posts for me, so
just strip off his name and add pruxa!ayf. Sorry for the longwindedness,
but I'd like to invite responses from those reading these dvar torah's
or anyone interested in submitting, and have it get to me. Now on to the
purpose of this posting.

	This week's parshah, Vayak'hel-Pekudei, begins with Moshe
assembling all of Bnei Yisrael, to command them about the work of the
Mishkan - Tabernacle. However, instead of starting right with the
instructions for the mishkon, Moshe first says:

These are the words which the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days
work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabboth of
complete rest, holy to the Lord.

Only in verse 4 does Moshe return to the main theme of these two
parsheot, the building of the Mishkon. Before beginning the work on the
Mishkon, Moshe reminds Bnei Yisrael to observe the Shabbos. This is the
second time the Shabbos is connected to the building of the mishkon, The
first was in last weeks parsha, Ki Tissa (31:12-17). In both cases the
commentaries explain that the building of the mishkon does not override
the observance of the Shabbos. To understand why this had to be
emphasized, we need to look at the concepts of Shabbos and Mishkon.

	The mishkon and all that went with it symbolized man's communion
with God, and God's resting of His Presence on the nation of Israel.
Shabbos symbolizes that God created the world and that his presence
exists among us (the connection between Shabbos and leaving Egypt). The
Abravanel explains that man always considers action to be more perfect
than inaction. What we have here then, is a choice between a sacred and
sublime performance of building the mishkon as a witness of faith versus
the cessation from work of observing the Shabbos as a witness of faith.
Which is the more powerful? It would be easy to argue that the positive
active choice should be performed. Thus Moshe had to repeat twice, that
the building of the mishkon does not override the commandment of
observing the Shabbos.

	While we now understand why we would have thought that it does
override the Shabbos, why now are we wrong? Why is the Shabbos the
winner over the mishkon. The answer lies in the perspective of Kadosh -
holy. Man tends to attach importance to things. This thing is bigger
than that thing, this thing is more important than that thing, leading
to this thing is holy, sacred, etc. This is the path of all the early
idol-worshipping religions - these things-idols are holy. If, however,
we look in the Torah for the first mention of the word Kadosh - holy, we
find it at the end of the creation story:

And God blessed the seventh -day- and he made it -holy-.	(Gen.  2,3)

God has just established the heaven and earth. He does not then create a
holy -place-, He defines a holiness in -time-, the Shabbos, the seventh
day. Much later in history, a second holiness is established, a holiness
in -man-, as it is written:

Thou shalt be unto me a holy people.

	The third holiness, that of -space- or -thing- comes with the
mishkon. According to the Medrash, it was at the insistence of the Bnei
Yisrael, following the sin of the Golden Calf, for a -place- to worship
Hashem with objects designated for that purpose, that God commands for
the building of the mishkon. We can see this difference in the way the
term kadosh-holy is applied to each. For Shabbos, we read above (Gen
2,3) that God himself made it holy, but by the mishkon we read:

And it came to pass that on the day when Moshe finished erecting the
Tabernacle that he annointed it and made it holy   (Num. 7,2)

	Thus we understand why Shabbos, the holiness proclaimed by God
from the beginning of creation takes precedence over the building of the
mishkon, a holiness brought about only through the frailty of man.

Avi Feldblum
uucp: {allegra,ihnp4}!pruxa!ayf
-- 

==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259
Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ahuta, maxvax, cbosgd, lzmi, ...]!pegasus!naiman