A Taste of Torah in honor of Shabbat
from Rabbi Avi Weiss
Parshat Va-Yakhel
March 3-4, 2000/ 27 Adar 1 5760
SANCTITY OF TIME IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN
SANCTITY OF PLACE
The last two portions of the Book of Exodus apply and
repeat information found in previous passages of the Torah. In Parshat Va-Yakhel,
the Taberenacle is constructed in its detail following the prescriptions found in
the portion of Terumah. In the portion of Pikudei, the priestly garments are
made again following the details laid out earlier in the portion of Tetzaveh.
Why is it that the Torah needs to repeat every detail when describing the making of
the Tabernacle and the garments? Wouldn't it have been enough for the Torah to simply say
that the Temple was constructed and the garments were made as God had commanded?
Several reasons for repetition can be suggested. First, the Torah may want to make
the very point that the commands were followed in great details. Presenting the
details of the law shows that nothing mandated by God was overlooked.
Another possibility is that presenting the details again points to a loving
involvement in this process. Each step in making the Tabernacle and the
garments, was an expression of the love that Moshe (Moses) and the people felt
towards God.
But for me, the answer to our question may lie in considering the sequence of events in
the latter part of Exodus. The portion of Terumah deals with the command to make the
Tabernacle. Tetzaveh follows with the command of the priestly garments.
Immediately following these portions, the importance of Shabbat is mentioned in the
portion of Ki Tisa..
Not coincidentally, the portion of Vayakhel, which follows Ki Tisa, mentions Shabbat
at its very beginning. The building of the Tabernacle, found in Vayakhel, and
the making of the garments, found in Pikudei, then follow. The sequence is truly a
mirror opposite with one notable exception. Whereas the command of Tabernacle and
priestly garments was followed by Shabbat, in the actual implementation of the laws,
Shabbat comes first.
In Judaism, there are two sanctities, the sanctity of
place and the sanctity
of time. As important as place may be, time is of even greater importance.
Perhaps then, it can be suggested that the reason why the Torah repeats the commandments
in details is to point out that Shabbat, the epitomy of the sanctity of time, is even more
important than the sanctity of space represented by the Tabernacle and the garments.
In his book "The Sabbath," Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel points out that the
acquisition of "space," is an appropriate human quest. But life goes wrong
when one spends all of his/her time to amass "things." "For to have more,
does not mean to be more."
It is interesting to note that the incident that falls between the command and the
implementation is the sin of the Golden Calf. The keruvim, the angelic forms
atop the Ark were holy objects; the Golden Calf which the Jews may have seen as a
replacement was a defiling of place.
Precisely because of this perversion of the sanctity of space, the Torah deems it
important to repeat the whole sequence, but to place Shabbat first so that its spirit be
infused in every detail of the construction of the Tabernacle and making of the
priestly garments. This teaches that ultimately we are people who carve out our
empires in time and not in space.
Shabbat Shalom
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Rabbi Avi Weiss, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
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