In a world so frenzied that we rarely have time to pause, to contemplate, to connect, it is too easy to pass our lives without savoring the preciousness of our time on Earth. Distracted by our tasks, burdened by a sometimes selfish and uncaring world, we struggle to maintain our own balance, to preserve mindfulness amidst the distractions, to cultivate gratitude with grace.
Today’s Torah portion offers us a tool to sustain that radiance in the commonplace.
The last chapters of the Book of Exodus turn to the consequence of God’s liberation. No longer slaves, the Israelites recognize that relationship entails action, that our connection to others must become visible in our deeds. Now covenanted to the Creator of Space/Time through Torah, the Israelites need a concrete way to demonstrate their love for God and to express their unity with each other. And God graciously accommodates that need.
In the aftermath of the giving of the Ten Commandments, and after the lengthy legislation that fleshes out our brit (covenant) with God, God also provides the structures in which that relationship can flourish and grow. God tells us to build a Mishkan (Tabernacle) in which we can worship freely and articulate our thanks. And God also provides for the Ohel Moed (the Tent of Meeting) in which Moses and God can continue to articulate the detailed consequences and manifestations of that brit. Of the Tent, God tells Moses, there I will meet you, and there I will speak with you, and there I will meet with the israelites, and it [the Tent of Meeting] shall be sanctified by My Presence (Ex 29:42 – 43).
This Ohel, this place of coming together, is a locus of holiness – made sacred by the encounter that happens there. Jewish tradition makes explicit that such a meeting increases the holiness to be found in the world. The ability to come together, to truly know each other, to encounter another as we are, such a meeting leaves us different, ennobled, greater than before. But what aspect of the encounter generates holiness? On that point, the commentators differ.
Rashi (11th Century France) explains the holiness as the result of God’s presence: “For My Shekhinah shall rest in it.” In rabbinic parlance, the Shekhinah is the manifestation of God’s presence in the world. So Rashi’s read of the text’s simple meaning is that the Tent is to be sanctified by the manifestation of God that is revealed there.
But Rashi doesn’t let matters stop there. He also goes on to quote an earlier rabbinic interpretation: “An Aggadic Midrash says, Do not read this as “My Presence” but as “My presences,” through My honored ones.” In other words, it is not God’s manifestation that makes the Tent of Meeting holy, but the presence of Moses, Aaron, and other Israelites whose very goodness and seeking bears holiness in its wake. In the words of Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher (14th Century Spain), “God feels honored and glorified by those who draw near.”
With that insight, we enter the inner core of real relationship – reciprocity. It turns out that we perceive the sanctity of the Tent of Meeting when we encounter God there, and God reveals holiness in the Tent when we are present. Each party to the covenant is honored and glorified by the presence of the other. Holiness emerges between God and Israel, among God and Israel. It comes into the world through our coming together, God and Israel in a mysterious, ancient relationship that has shed light across the millennia. Perhaps it is that sacred secret – the hidden power of coming together – that can decode our third and final explanation for the sanctity of the Tent of Meeting. “I will manifest Myself to the people of Israel when the Tabernacle will be erected and the celestial fire will descend,” teaches Rashbam (12th Century France).
The fire descends when there is One to send it. The Tabernacle is erected when there is one to build it. The fire is celestial when the two come together. It is what we do with (and in) God’s presence that allows holiness into the world.
Shabbat Shalom!