Trumah: Technical Torah

Trumah describes the construction of elements of the Mishkan.  It gives specifications,. details. The core object, the  tablets, were never to be seen again.  And the ark that contained them, with its covers and  cherubim,  was experienced only through a thick cloud of incense once a year, by one person - the Kohen Gadol.  So who needs all these details?  Why are the blueprints a sacred, public document read hundreds of generations later, preserved so closely that  an error in vowel brings shouts of correction from the audience?

The Messianic temple  may not follow these specs:  Solomon's didn't, nor did Nechemia's nor Herod's.  That is not likely the reason for the public preservation. 

The mystics consider the Mishkan in the mind of every Jew. The Candelabra of insight, the Table of sustenance, the Partitions of conciousness.  Maybe, but the symbolism seems forced on the objects. 

 

Then there is attention to detail lishmah,  for its own sake.  This is certainly an core quality of any orthodoxy.  But here is the joke, these  details in the parsha cannot be done! And all the details   the Orthodox person does daily -  in her eating, in his clothing,  are not in the text.  They are derived, calculated or assimilated. 

Function is more important than form, but if you lose the instructions you have to call the Ikea guy.