A thought on Parrshas VaYakhel-Pekudei
A Thought on Parshios Va'yakhel-Pekudei
"...u'kvod HaShem malae es ha'Mishkan..."
"...and the Divine glory filled the Shrine..." (40:34)
With the completion of the mishkan, the Torah relates how this sacred shrine would become a "dwelling place" (from which the word mishkan is derived) for the Shechina (which is also derived from the word mishkan.) HaShem is boundless and formless, omnipresent and without limitations. He created the universe and all that abounds within the vastness of space, yet the world does not contain Him. The mishkan nonetheless is described as the place which His glory engulfed. How do we understand that apparent mixing of a physical location with its finite and tangible properties, and the metaphysical Majesty of HaShem's Sacred Presence?
The Rambam (Moreh HaNevuchim 1:19) writes that the key word here is malae. We usually translate this as "full" or "filling." The Rambam explains that it can also mean "to fulfill" or to complete and perfect something. He cites the familiar verse melo kol ha'aretz kvodo (Yeshayahu 6:3). Whereas the usual translation is "the whole world is full of His glory", which leaves us with the same puzzlement which we posed on our own verse, the Rambam understands it as "the whole world is perfected through His glorious Presence." In this way, our own verse should be understood as "His glorious Presence perfected the Shrine."
* * * * *
The Rosh writes that we can appreciate how the mishkan was as sublime a "creation" as was the creation of the universe itself. He spells out the Biblical steps which were part of the formation of the world, and how there are parallels to those steps in the process of building the mishkan.
He observes that part of ma'ase Bereishis - the creation of the universe - was the forming of both firmament and heaven. There is the earth and the cosmos, and in the mishkan, there was the azara - the "commons" or courtyard, and there was the kodesh ha'kadoshim - the Sacred Shrine which represented the higher realm. It was in that place that the Holy Presence was sensed, as we have written in earlier parsha emails. The courtyard was a representation of the firmament. The "heaven" parallel in the physical representation of the mishkan was that kodesh ha'kedoshim.
The Rosh closes with a more mystical message. We have been talking, until now, about how the Divine can "fill" a physical place. We have the Rambam's reframing of the verse, and that helps us. The Rosh offers a very different notion:
"There are four voices which emanate from one end of the earth to the other
yet no one can hear these sounds: when a fruit-bearing tree is cut down; when
a snake sheds its skin; when a wife is abandoned; when the spirit exits its body."
I suspect that the Rosh is alluding to the theological question which we have posed. The four events which he describes involve a living entity being cut off from its lifeline. A fruit tree needs its nutrients which are derived from the ground. When it is cut down, its fruitful life is over. A snake sheds its skin, unlike most animals, and thus is cut off from a part of itself, the case which had been its external body. A wife who is rejected has her heart and soul torn apart as she is ripped away from, and by, her partner. The spirit abandons its body in death never to return. When the Rosh says that these events generate voices which circulate around the globe, unheard, I think that he is referencing the sublime mystery.
What happens to life? Where does that spark disappear to? Whatever kept that tree alive, that body slithering, that person anchored, that essence animated, does live on, and it continues its presence as a power, and energy, although we can no longer see, feel or hear it. The heaven on earth, the higher reality that an earthly shrine is filled with the Divine is also predicated on the reality that there is a sound which pulsates yet cannot be heard. It is energy which we cannot quantify. If life-energy continues to exist despite its loss of all connection to what had once lived and had once contained it, then the Source of all life must exist despite the impossibility of any connection to anything created and formed.
The whole world is full of His glory. May we be fulfilled as well. This is being sent very early because I am departing for London to be at the wedding of my niece, Yocheved Simon, whose mother, Rebettzin Ruthie Simon, is my little sister.
Mazal tov and good Shabbos. D. Fox
"...u'kvod HaShem malae es ha'Mishkan..."
"...and the Divine glory filled the Shrine..." (40:34)
With the completion of the mishkan, the Torah relates how this sacred shrine would become a "dwelling place" (from which the word mishkan is derived) for the Shechina (which is also derived from the word mishkan.) HaShem is boundless and formless, omnipresent and without limitations. He created the universe and all that abounds within the vastness of space, yet the world does not contain Him. The mishkan nonetheless is described as the place which His glory engulfed. How do we understand that apparent mixing of a physical location with its finite and tangible properties, and the metaphysical Majesty of HaShem's Sacred Presence?
The Rambam (Moreh HaNevuchim 1:19) writes that the key word here is malae. We usually translate this as "full" or "filling." The Rambam explains that it can also mean "to fulfill" or to complete and perfect something. He cites the familiar verse melo kol ha'aretz kvodo (Yeshayahu 6:3). Whereas the usual translation is "the whole world is full of His glory", which leaves us with the same puzzlement which we posed on our own verse, the Rambam understands it as "the whole world is perfected through His glorious Presence." In this way, our own verse should be understood as "His glorious Presence perfected the Shrine."
* * * * *
The Rosh writes that we can appreciate how the mishkan was as sublime a "creation" as was the creation of the universe itself. He spells out the Biblical steps which were part of the formation of the world, and how there are parallels to those steps in the process of building the mishkan.
He observes that part of ma'ase Bereishis - the creation of the universe - was the forming of both firmament and heaven. There is the earth and the cosmos, and in the mishkan, there was the azara - the "commons" or courtyard, and there was the kodesh ha'kadoshim - the Sacred Shrine which represented the higher realm. It was in that place that the Holy Presence was sensed, as we have written in earlier parsha emails. The courtyard was a representation of the firmament. The "heaven" parallel in the physical representation of the mishkan was that kodesh ha'kedoshim.
The Rosh closes with a more mystical message. We have been talking, until now, about how the Divine can "fill" a physical place. We have the Rambam's reframing of the verse, and that helps us. The Rosh offers a very different notion:
"There are four voices which emanate from one end of the earth to the other
yet no one can hear these sounds: when a fruit-bearing tree is cut down; when
a snake sheds its skin; when a wife is abandoned; when the spirit exits its body."
I suspect that the Rosh is alluding to the theological question which we have posed. The four events which he describes involve a living entity being cut off from its lifeline. A fruit tree needs its nutrients which are derived from the ground. When it is cut down, its fruitful life is over. A snake sheds its skin, unlike most animals, and thus is cut off from a part of itself, the case which had been its external body. A wife who is rejected has her heart and soul torn apart as she is ripped away from, and by, her partner. The spirit abandons its body in death never to return. When the Rosh says that these events generate voices which circulate around the globe, unheard, I think that he is referencing the sublime mystery.
What happens to life? Where does that spark disappear to? Whatever kept that tree alive, that body slithering, that person anchored, that essence animated, does live on, and it continues its presence as a power, and energy, although we can no longer see, feel or hear it. The heaven on earth, the higher reality that an earthly shrine is filled with the Divine is also predicated on the reality that there is a sound which pulsates yet cannot be heard. It is energy which we cannot quantify. If life-energy continues to exist despite its loss of all connection to what had once lived and had once contained it, then the Source of all life must exist despite the impossibility of any connection to anything created and formed.
The whole world is full of His glory. May we be fulfilled as well. This is being sent very early because I am departing for London to be at the wedding of my niece, Yocheved Simon, whose mother, Rebettzin Ruthie Simon, is my little sister.
Mazal tov and good Shabbos. D. Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 7:49 AM
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