As we complete Sefer Shemos and begin Sefer Vayikra, the enigmatic Mishkan and its host of animal sacrifices strike the modern mind as archaic, ancient and irrelevant. But regardless of how alien it all sounds, the Mishkan actually normalized the presence of God - not only for our ancestors of old, but also for the Jew of today.
GOLDEN GARMENTS & GENTILE GLOVES
GOLDEN GARMENTS & GENTILE GLOVES
Lineage
alone does not a Kohen make. Before they could serve in the Mishkan, Aaron and
his sons had to be installed into their positions. Moshe was master of
ceremonies.
“And you shall dress them; Aaron your
brother and his sons with him. You shall anoint them, fill their hands and
sanctify them – and they will become Kohanim for Me” (Shemos 28:41).
“And
you shall dress them!” The holy garments of the Kohanim had immense spiritual
power. By dressing his brother and nephews in these special clothes, Moshe
sanctified them and inaugurated them as full-fledged Kohanim. It would be fair to
categorize this event as a mystical ritual that
defies human comprehension - on par with Chalitza and the Para Aduma - but as we shall see, Rashi does not view it this
way.
Rashi
is troubled by the mysterious words in the middle of the verse: “You shall… fill
their hands.” What does that mean? Moshe should fill their hands with what?
Rashi explains that it is just an expression:
“Filling the hands” is always an
expression of inauguration; when one enters into something so that it becomes
his privilege from this point forward. In French, when a person is appointed to
be in charge of something, the ruler puts a leather glove called a “gant” into
his hand and in this way [the position] becomes his privilege. The person who
hands him [the glove] is called a “revestir.” This is the “filling of the
hands.”
The
Ramban is unhappy with Rashi. What possible relevance could the French gant
have to the understanding our verse?
That which the rabbi (Rashi) says
that in French when you appoint someone to be in charge of something the ruler
gives him a leather glove called a “gant” and through this glove he grants him the
privilege [of the position] and this is the “filling of the hands” – I don’t
know if the rabbi means to say that acts of inauguration
are called “filling the hands” because of this glove - in which case he is bringing evidence from the
fools.
The
Ramban is asking an excellent question. Who cares what the French do? Does
Rashi really expect us to believe that the origin of this biblical expression
is to be found in the practices of medieval aristocracy?
The
answer, obviously, is no. Any similarity between a biblical
reference to hands and a French glove is entirely coincidental. Rashi is making an altogether
different point.
It
is natural for us to view the dressing of Aaron and his sons as a mystical
event. Put on these holy clothes and poof, you’re a Kohen. Rashi is telling us
that this reading is incorrect; the Torah uses an expression here that classifies this event as perfectly ordinary. Dressing someone in a uniform is a common
procedure and there is nothing mystical about it. Gentile societies, France included,
use uniforms all the time to install chosen men into military or political
positions of power. This, says Rashi, is how we should view Moshe’s dressing of
Aaron and his sons.
Not
that the priesthood is a political position, God forfend. As the verse makes
clear, we are talking about the sanctification of Aaron and his sons.
But the Torah wants us to know that it is utilizing existing, natural
procedures for the purposes of bringing Kedusha into the world.
I
believe this understanding has profound implications for how we view sanctity and God's plans for the world.
But first another example, this time from the Mishkan itself.
FURNITURE FIRST?
If
we had to assign titles for the different actors in the Mishkan's construction, the closest modern approximations would be Hashem as owner, designer
and architect, Moshe as site manager, and Betzalel as master craftsman. A
craftsman typically takes orders from the manager, but as we shall see,
sometime the craftsman knows best.
“Betzalel, the son of Uri, the son of
Chur, of the tribe of Yehuda, did everything that Hashem commanded Moshe”
(Shemos 38:22).
Rashi
cites a Midrash.
“Betzalel the son of Uri… did everything
Hashem commanded Moshe.” The verse does not say here that he did everything
that Moshe commanded him, rather [it says that he did] everything that Hashem
commanded Moshe. Even things that Moshe did not tell him, [Betzalel’s] own
opinion was in line with what Moshe was told on Sinai. For Moshe told Betzalel
to build the [Mishkan’s] “furniture” first and then the Mishkan itself.
Betzalel responded, “Normal practice (מנהג העולם), would be to build the house
first and afterwards put the furniture inside.” Moshe replied, “You were in God’s shadow! (בצל אל) That is exactly what Hashem
commanded me to do!” And that is what they did. First [they built] the Mishkan and
then they made the furniture.
This is a troubling Midrash. If Hashem told Moshe to
build the Mishkan before the furniture, why did he tell Betzalel to do it the
other way around? The Maharal writes in Gur Aryeh that Moshe “forgot,” but this
is simply untenable. As Rabbi Mordechai Jaffa writes in his Levush Orah, we
would not dare say of a minor prophet that he forgot a divine directive, all
the more so of the father of prophets, our master Moshe!
In defense of the Maharal, we could argue that there was
actually no Halacha here at all. Hashem commanded the Jews to build the Mishkan
and its vessels; there were no directives about order. Free to choose, Moshe
assumed that due to their greater significance (as described by the Gur Aryeh),
the vessels should be made first. Betzalel countered that typically a house
would be built before its furniture. Moshe agreed, and noted that, in fact,
Hashem did tell him about the Mishkan first. This is what the Marahal meant
when he wrote that Moshe “forgot.” Moshe did not forget a Halacha; there was no
Halacha here to forget. It was just that before Betzalel’s insight, Moshe didn’t
think that Hashem’s presentation had any bearing on the ideal order of
construction.
What exactly was Betzalel’s argument? He claimed that the
Mishkan should be built in accordance with ",מנהג העולם" the normal way of doing things. The Mishkan’s construction should
follow the same plan as a house and houses are built before their furniture. This
is what Betzalel said, but it is far from an obvious assumption. The Mishkan is
no ordinary house. Utterly unique, it is God’s palace on earth. Why should it
be subject to the rules of a typical construction project?
Betzalel was making a profound statement. The Mishkan is
not Heaven's embassy. Hashem does not want His sanctuary to be a sealed spiritual fortress divorced from the life of man. Quite the opposite. Hashem wants the
Mishkan to be a beacon of light, radiating Kedusha out into man’s world. The function
of the Mishkan is to facilitate the interaction between man and God – more of a
consulate than an embassy – and for that to happen the Mishkan must be a part
of our world from its very inception. Its construction should follow מנהג העולם, the way that people typically
operate.
In a word, the Mishkan must be normal.
This is very much in line with Rashi’s understanding of
the Kohanim’s inauguration. That too was done in the normal fashion, by way of
dressing them in their uniforms. All this normalcy is central to Hashem’s plan.
Through the model of the Mishkan, Hashem touches and elevates every
aspect of Jewish society and life: from divine service and sacrifice down to the use of gold and silver, bureaucracy, politics and even home renovations.
SANCTIFYING ROUTINE
The Talmud famously tells us that our three daily prayers
were established to match to the daily order of sacrificial offerings (Berachos
26b). This is not to say that prayer is merely a stand-in for offerings; there
is a clear and independent biblical obligation to pray. However, the original Mitzvah
is unregimented – no legislated number of prayers, no liturgy, and no set time
(Rambam, Laws of Prayer 1:1). The Mishkan introduced routine to divine service. The
Mishkan taught the radical concept that approaching God should not be a special
event; it should be ordinary, familiar, regular. When interaction with God becomes commonplace, then all of life is elevated; this was the goal of the Mishkan. The sages took the cue and reformed Jewish prayer, legislating regular encounters with God into the daily schedule of every Jew.
PURIFYING PERSPECTIVE
The Mishkan was equipped with a washbasin known as the כיור, or laver. Prior to performing any service, the Kohanim must do
קידוש ידים ורגלים, “sanctifying” their hands and
feet by washing at the laver (Shemos 30:18-19). In the Mishkan, purity is critical
and there is nothing surprising about washing. What is surprising is the laver’s
origin.
“He made the copper
laver and its copper base with the mirrors of legions” (Shemos 38:8).
What are the mirrors of legions? Rashi quotes a Midrash:
The Jewish women had
mirrors they used for the application of makeup – even these [mirrors] they did
not withhold from bringing for the Mishkan collection. Moshe was disgusted by
these [mirrors], made as they were for [inciting] the Yetzer HaRa. The Holy
One, blessed be He, said to him, “These mirrors are more precious to me
than everything else, for it was through these [mirrors] that the women raised
many legions [of Jews] in Egypt. When their husbands were exhausted [after a
day] of back-breaking slave labor, [their wives] went and brought them food and
drink, and they fed them. They took their mirrors and each [woman] looked in
the mirror with her husband and teased him, saying, ‘I am more beautiful than
you!’ In this way, they aroused their husbands and were intimate with them.
They became pregnant and gave birth there, as the verse states, ‘Under the apple
tree you were awakened…’ (Shir HaShirim 8:5).” This is the meaning of the
mirrors of legions.
The very mirrors that Moshe rejected on grounds of impurity, Hashem declares to be His favorite things and dedicates for the purpose of purifying the Kohanim! Clearly, there is
a novelty here in Hashem’s thinking that eludes even the greatest of prophets.
Moshe felt that women’s vanity mirrors have no place in
God’s sanctuary. That would certainly be the normative approach, however,
Hashem has a different perspective, a positive take. Bucking conventional “religious”
instinct, Hashem proudly introduces a new way of thinking about the Yezter HaRa and reveals the latent Kedusha of marital intimacy. This is another example of the
Mishkan’s unrestricted impact on מנהג העולם: the elevation of human sexuality through God’s unique, counter-intuitive perspective.
CAN WE BUILD IT?
When all its myriad parts were complete and it came time
to erect the Mishkan, Moshe had a problem. The beams were too heavy.
Moshe asked the Holy
One, blessed be He, “How can a human being set this up?”
Hashem replied, “Do
it with your hands and make it appear as if you are lifting it. It will then
stand up by itself.” (Rashi to 39:33)
If the Mishkan miraculously assembles itself, what is the
value of having Moshe go through the motions and act as if he is doing it? And if
Hashem really wanted the Mishkan to be assembled by Moshe, why didn’t He design
the beams to be thinner and lighter so Moshe could easily lift them himself?
As we have learned, Hashem wants His supernatural providence
to coexist with the natural world. This is why the miraculous assembly of the Mishkan – a
symbol of creation itself – hides under the façade of Moshe's hands. But at the
same time, we must be aware that our human abilities are always inadequate without Hashem’s active assistance. This is why the Mishkan was
designed to be impossible for man to assemble alone.
The Mishkan's greatest innovation was the normalization of Kedusha. Experiencing the Shechina should not be foreign or exotic, or even an "experience" at all. If Hashem wanted to isolate Himself, He could have remained in heaven. The Mishkan demonstrates that Kedusha can, nay, must
be routine, familiar and, to all appearances, perfectly ordinary. When
we understand and integrate its lessons, the portable Mishkan becomes the vehicle that achieves Hashem's vision for creation, bringing the Shechina out of the sanctuary and into the daily life of every single Jew.
