In the first verse of this weeks Torah portion the word Tabernacle appears twice together: “These are the accountings of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony which was carried out by the directive of Moses…” Most of the rest of the portion contains an extremely detailed accounting of all the materials used in the Tabernacle, as well as a very detailed description of the consecration of the Tabernacle on the first day of the month of Nissan.
Rashi comments that the mentioning twice of the Tabernacle alludes to the two Temples in Jerusalem, constructed upon the basic model of the Tabernacle, which would be built and later destroyed. Another allusion is that the two Tabernacles hint to the lower earthly Temple and a heavenly spiritual Temple.
Rashi actually brings this concept in an earlier commentary on the Song of the Sea on the verse: “You will bring them and implant them on the mount of your heritage, the foundation of Your dwelling place that You, God, have made – the Sanctuary my Lord that your hands have established. God will reign for all eternity” (Exodus 15:17-18). Rashi, quoting Midrashic sources, comments that the lower Temple is placed corresponding to God’s heavenly throne of Glory, “the foundation of Your dwelling place.” In the same commentary he brings the tradition that in the future another Temple will be built. When? When, as the verse states –“God will reign for all eternity.”
The idea of a lower and upper Tabernacle or Temple points to a very deep concept relating to all reality: that everything in this world has a correspondence in the upper worlds. Or even more precisely – everything in this world is a reflection of a higher reality.
In this world roots of a tree are below the surface, while the trunk, branches, leaves and fruits grow upwards. In the upper worlds it is just the opposite: the roots are above and the tree grows below in this world. What we call reality in this world is a reflection, a mirror image and a result of what is occurring in the upper worlds.
This idea is sometimes referred to as the macrocosm and the microcosm. Kabbalah and Chassidut explain every detail of the Tabernacle as encompassing all of creation and higher realities. Every material, color, shape and dimension of the Tabernacle contains deep secrets and profound concepts of life and its purpose.
The Arizal explained that man is a big world and the world is a small man. Just as the construction of the Tabernacle contains deep spiritual secrets, so too, the physical anatomy of man reflects a much higher reality. It is significant to note that the ten sefirot, one the most basic Kabbalistic models of how an infinite God both creates and continually recreates the world is likened to both the Tree of Life and the form of man.
The concept of the Tabernacle, which symbolizes all reality, is that although we are the effect of causes taking place in the upper worlds, it is not that one sided, and that we, in fact, also affect by our thoughts, speech and action what takes place in the upper worlds. The service in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple, and now translated into our daily services in the synagogue, teach us that reality is really a two way street – we are both profoundly affected by forces much greater than us and beyond our immediate understanding, yet we also have the ability, and even responsibility, to shape both our own and the world’s destiny by affecting the world in a positive manner.
In a number of places in our tradition we are told that through our actions we become partners with God in creation. This means that creation is not a finished product, it is rather a work in progress and we have a major role in determining its course. This alludes to the paradox of paradoxes where God’s Divine Providence and our free will both operate simultaneously.
The accountings of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of Testimony, symbolizes the physical and spiritual place where we calculate and account for how both dynamics operate in tandem and harmony. It is the place of deep understanding where we make our will His will in order that He will make His will our will.
