Imagine the drama at the moment when the long awaited Mishkan (sanctuary) was completed. Here is how it described in this week’s Parsha (Exodus, 40:33-34), “…Moses completed the work. The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of G-d filled the Tabernacle.”
After months of contributions and construction, the project was completed. Now the people awaited the fulfilment of Hashem’s assurance, “Make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell within them.” Moses oversaw the final steps of getting everything in place for the inauguration. Suddenly the Cloud of Glory covered the Mishkan and the Glory of G-d filled the Tabernacle.
The surge of emotion must have been overwhelming. Coming from the tragic sin of the golden calf, and now, finally, their efforts were rewarded, and their atonement was accepted.
But how is it possible for a structure made by finite hands to contain the glory of G-d? As Solomon phrased it when he completed the First Holy Temple in Jerusalem (Kings I, 8:27), “But will G-d indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; much less this temple that I have erected.” The mystics explain this verse that the heavens and the heaven of heavens refer to the loftiest spiritual realms, that are inadequate to contain the true Glory of G-d, but somehow a physical building can?
Yet, that is exactly what happened. It happened with the Mishkan. It happened with the Temples. It happens with each of us in the Temple that we construct for Hashem in our hearts and homes. How indeed is this so?
By His own admission, the one thing that Hashem desires more than anything else, is a relationship with us. We cannot say that He needs it, but He does declare that He wants it. For this purpose, Hashem created the universe with all its spiritual and physical dimensions and complexities. For this purpose, Hashem created us people. And for this purpose, Hashem gave us the Torah. So, the heaven and the heaven of heavens, are mere connection points. Just lonely stops on the train ride for Hashem on His way down to earth. The real destination is for Hashem to dwell in our midst. Down here on physical earth, finite humans can utilize the Torah to actualize the relationship with Hashem that He so desires.
We each have a sanctuary in microcosm. We each are a sanctuary in microcosm. Let us maintain our sanctuary so that it can be suffused with the Glory of G-d at every moment.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin