Vayakhel: the hidden

A couple of years ago, my wife, Karen, told me about something she had read.  A Jewish kindergarten class was told that: in a few days, they would  be taken  to the synagogue – a very impressive, large, architected room  - ascend the platform in front of the room, open the ornate curtain, open the wood panels and see what is inside! The class was twittering with excited speculation about what could be hidden in this forbidden place. Children speculated. One thought that there would be an entrance to a set of secret passages, one of which led to heaven. Others thought the cabinet would be empty. Some had heard that the Torah scrolls were kept there. One child (the teacher’s pet) thought there would be a large mirror.

This week’s parsha outlines the construction of the mishkan, the portable sanctuary. After 122 verses, 1558 words, describing wood, metals, cloth, sculptures and tapestry, I do not know what it looked like. Its inner sanctum was visited only once per year by the high priest , when it was enveloped in a cloud of incense smoke. In that inner sanctum, the ark, containing the Gd given tablets, rested. The ark was covered by a sculpture of cherubs. Gd said that communications would come from between the cherubs.  No messages have been received in the past two thousand years.

The entire mishkan project is somewhere between subtle and contradictory. After the commandment  forbidding the creation of images, after the golden calf demonstrated the consequence of creating such a representation, the holy of holies  is dominated by a golden (molten?) image. These rules are not easy to understand. Who knows what is right and what is wrong?  The most sacred authorizes the breech of the letter of the law. The priestly robes were made of the forbidden combination of wool and linen. The mishkan was an undoing of the golden calf. Shared characteristics are to be expected.

Most of the mishkan was designed as a museum that stored the tablets in a treasure chest that was never to be opened. Layers of curtains protected the most holy of objects from view, and thus made the fantasy of it more alluring.  One approached the ark and the tablets and the cherubim through a series of veils.

Precious objects are usually locked away. The concealment protects the treasure from thieves and vandals. Hiding  preserves the masterpiece for future generations and for those that can appreciate it.

The mystery that follows from the concealment adds to the appeal. You do not know what it is until you experience it, and even getting close is impossibly hard. My relationship to the inner sanctum is one of unrequited love.

The closest I have come to the experience of the inner sanctum is visiting the great museums: the Louvre, the Metropolitan, etc. and spending a few moments with the most treasured European art works: Mona Lisa, Water Lilies. These are works that incorporate and summarize the height of skills  and technologies of their time in a form that reflects on the viewer and removes the viewer to otherwise inaccessible places. The artworks themselves are protected and enshrined. After viewing these paintings all I have is the memory. The memory is not entirely that of the painting.  It is also the difficult journey required to see them, the crowd taking selfies and phone photos, the jostle. Attendees of the temple never saw the ark and the cherubs.  They only experienced the jostle.

The importance of the object is transferred to the place. The art museum is a weak shadow of the religious temple.

Gd said that the Divine communications would come from between  the cherubs:

וְנוֹעַדְתִּ֣י לְךָ֮ שָׁם֒ וְדִבַּרְתִּ֨י אִתְּךָ֜ מֵעַ֣ל הַכַּפֹּ֗רֶת מִבֵּין֙ שְׁנֵ֣י הַכְּרֻבִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־אֲר֣וֹן הָעֵדֻ֑ת אֵ֣ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֧ר אֲצַוֶּ֛ה אוֹתְךָ֖ אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ {פ}

There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you—from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact—all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people.

The golden ark cover and cherubim were shiny, reflective. They were, in part, a mirror.