Teruma; The Mishkan

Teruma; The Mishkan

This parsha describes the construction of the Mishkan, the (portable) sanctuary. The idea of the mishkan is very foreign to us. A tent for Gd? What is that?  Our concept of Gd is omnipresent,  Gd cannot be contained in a tent.  

The mishkan is further removed from us by the fact of the Temples in Jerusalem.   The mishkna was permanently replaced, its concept uprooted,  by these structures.  When the exiles occurred, there could be  no new mishkan. Only a restoration of the Temple at its sacred site in the Holy Land would do.  The mishkan  was absolutely temporary, tied to its time, never to happen again. 

The last 5 parshioth of Shemoth look like they are motivated by the golden calf. There are 2 1/2 parshioth describing the mishkan , followed by the golden calf story,  followed by 2 more mishkan parshiot.  The story of the golden calf is buried in the mishkan,  It presents the story of the gulden calf as a misdirected need to worship, which can be properly directed by the mishkan.  The amorphous, dangerous desire  for a physical object to worship is channeled in an "appropriate" direction.  Give the people what they want. 

The heart of the mishkan is the tablets, entombed in the ark.  The message on the tablets is public, but the original is never to be accessed. This encasing of words also happens with Tefillin and mezuza. The words have powers beyond the message:  The amulet, the spell.  In a world with so little power, words are the most powerful thing.  In our world , powerful word remain: password,  computer code -  words enshrined in boxes