Vayak'hel-Pekudei: The kings house (Jesus Christ, Moses, Earth, Torah, HaShem)

[*Paul*]

I received this email recently and was wondering if you guys agree with this rabbi?


Published: 03/14/07, 7:59 PM
Vayak'hel-Pekudei: The King's House

by Rabbi Edward Abramson
Arutz Sheva

Does God need a Tabernacle, a synagogue - a Land?

In the parshiyot of Vayak'hel and Pekudei, the Torah concludes the topic to which it devoted the better part of five parshiyot - the construction and operation of the Mishkan, the portable tabernacle which the Israelites used for sacrifice and prayer in the desert. The Mishkan was the forerunner of the two Temples in Jerusalem, as well as the model for our modern-day synagogues.


One might ask: Why does the Torah spend so much space and effort to talk about building a tabernacle - and, later, Temples in Jerusalem and synagogues all over - to God, who, after all, is everywhere? Why should we "enclose" God within a Mishkan, when the very message of Jewish theology is that God is infinite and cannot be limited to any space or time? By extension, we might ask: Why do I need to go to synagogue? If God is everywhere, then I can pray at home.


The Midrash Pesikta D'Rav Kahana on parshat Terumah presents a fascinating dialogue between Moses and God, relating to these questions:


"At the time that God said to him (Moses), 'And you shall make for Me a holy place (the Mishkan),' Moses said to God: 'Master of the Universe, behold, the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain You [Kings I, 8:27], and yet you say to me "Make for me a holy place"?'

How can we say that God's presence is more immanent here than it is anywhere else on earth?


"God answered Moses: 'Not as you think, Moses, but [place] twenty boards in the north and twenty boards in the south and eight in the west, and I will descend and constrict My Presence amidst you below.'"


What a strange answer! But perhaps not, because God was really saying, 'Yes, philosophically, it is difficult to say that My Presence can be contained, even within a tabernacle. But I am giving you the building blocks. Make the effort, dedicate yourselves to bringing My Presence down to earth; place these boards here and those boards there, and I will find a way to 'come down' and be with you.' This is the reason for a Mishkan, a Bet Mikdash, a synagogue.


Perhaps, it is the same with the Land of Israel. How can we say that God's presence is more immanent here than it is anywhere else on earth? Isn't God everywhere? But God has given us a Land, the building blocks of a society dedicated to His values and ideals. Somehow, if we use the building blocks, the "boards" of society building, and do so correctly, creating a society which reflects Torah values, then God will indeed "constrict his Presence" and dwell within the Land. May this happen soon.
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Rabbi Abramson received semicha from Yeshiva University in 1973 and served first as a congregational rabbi in Saratoga Springs, New York, and then as the principal of Rockland Hebrew Day School and Westchester Day School, both in the New York City area. He came on Aliyah with his family in 1983, and has worked both in the worlds of education and business in Israel. He is presently teaching at the Israel Center of the Orthodox Union in Jerusalem, and completing a book on the origins of Orthodox Outreach as pioneered by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York in the 1960s and '70s
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Isa 66:1 - Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 57:15 - For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

[*Paul*]

Come to think of it, I haven't seen any Jews around here lately. Are there any left on here?

[NoahideHiker]

I got so tired of the anti Israeli crap I didn't come very often and only checked this section. I've seen some of the most lovey dovey, moderates turn in a heartbeat with hate in their eyes when it comes to Israel. I got real tired of other people telling me what my faith has to say and that I'M wrong about my OWN faith. I'm more comfortable on the Jewish boards than here.

That is an interesting commentary on the presence of Hashem. Just like when Matisyahu sang in the song Jerusalem...

"Don’t you see, it’s not about the land or the sea
Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty"

[*Paul*]

Originally Posted by NoahideHiker

I got so tired of the anti Israeli crap I didn't come very often and only checked this section. I've seen some of the most lovey dovey, moderates turn in a heartbeat with hate in their eyes when it comes to Israel. I got real tired of other people telling me what my faith has to say and that I'M wrong about my OWN faith. I'm more comfortable on the Jewish boards than here.

That is an interesting commentary on the presence of Hashem. Just like when Matisyahu sang in the song Jerusalem...

"Don’t you see, it’s not about the land or the sea
Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty"

Well I for one am of the firm opinion that anti-semitism is Satanic. The devil has a special interest in wiping out the Jews and will incite all of humanity to hate them if he can. Nevertheless I still believe that a Jew desperatly needs Jesus Christ as his Saviour .

That song has a lot of truth in it, the land is nothing without God prescence. The temple is nothing if it is ichabod, just bricks and mortar. It is the presence of the Lord Himself that makes a place (and person) sanctified and holy.

[NoahideHiker]

Originally Posted by *Paul*

Well I for one am of the firm opinion that anti-semitism is Satanic. The devil has a special interest in wiping out the Jews and will incite all of humanity to hate them if he can. Nevertheless I still believe that a Jew desperatly needs Jesus Christ as his Saviour .

That song has a lot of truth in it, the land is nothing without God prescence. The temple is nothing if it is ichabod, just bricks and mortar. It is the presence of the Lord Himself that makes a place (and person) sanctified and holy.

Oh I don't the sentiments are all together anti-semitic. Just anti-Israeli. Being a B'nai Noach and a non Jew I don't throw that term around too lightly. What the Jew needs is to return to Hashem just as Isaiah says in chapter one...

16. Wash, cleanse yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes, cease to do evil.

17. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, plead the case of the widow.

18. Come now, let us debate, says the Lord. If your sins prove to be like crimson, they will become white as snow; if they prove to be as red as crimson dye, they shall become as wool.

19. If you be willing and obey, you shall eat the best of the land.

20. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord spoke.