By
Rabbi Daniel Roselaar
This week's sidrah introduces a series of sedarot that address the construction of the Tabernacle. This Tabernacle accompanied the Israelites on their travels through the wilderness and served as a focal point for their religious devotions until King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem.
Significantly, two Hebrew words are used somewhat interchangeably in the Torah to describe this Tabernacle. Sometimes it is called a Mishkan whereas other times it is called the Mikdash. The first term implies that it is a dwelling-place for God, somewhere he can "live" among the Jewish people.
The second term emphasises the sanctity of the structure and tells us that the defining feature of the Tabernacle was its intrinsic holiness.
These two terms can also be understood as instructions about how the people were to relate to the Tabernacle. On the one hand it was to be a Mishkan - a home for God and a place where people could be at ease in his presence, somewhere that would give them a sense of closeness to the Almighty.
But on the other hand, it is also described as a Mikdash - a place where the people had to be awed by the presence of God, an environment that focused on reverence rather than closeness.
The Tabernacle no longer exists, but the fact that it occupies so many chapters in the book of Shemot suggests to us that its lessons must be timeless. One such lesson is that our relationship with God should combine the themes of both Mishkan and Mikdash. We should aspire to feel close to God and comfortable with Him in our lives. But at the same time we need to have a sense of reverence for His enormous holiness.
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