A Thought on Parshas Teruma

"...v'asu Li mikdash v'Shochanti b'tocham..." (25:8) "...and let them make Me a shrine and I will dwell within them..." Our parsha details the building of the Mishkan and the preparations to be undertaken in order to serve HaShem within it. After a number of architectural instructions, the Torah seems to pause and we read the above verse. This is a well-known, frequently quoted verse. It is absolutely clear: HaShem instructs us on the building of the mishkan, which comes from the word "shochen", which is to dwell in or to dwell near, and our verse then hints at the concept of HaShem's Divine Presence, known as the Shechina (which is from the same root, and means "that which dwells' or "the One Who resides"). When we read that "and I will dwell within them", we infer the notion of Shechina, that sense of HaShem's Presence which symbolically resides or dwells in that Mishkan. Now, many have noticed that the words say "I will dwell within them" rather than "within it." The subject of the verse is the Mishkan yet the focus shifts away from the singular "it" to the plural "them." Many suggest that the intention of the verse is to tell us that once there is a Mishkan, HaShem will have a "presence" among the Jews themselves. According to this, the verse intends that "we shall build a shrine so that HaShem will be among or within us." Now, before commenting about that further, let me introduce another point. When was our parsha given over? When were we instructed to build a Mishkan? Rashi and many early sources hold that the Mishkan was not "Plan A" in the "original scheme." Had we not erred after Sinai with the Golden Calf, we might not have needed a shrine or a place as a central location for Sacredness. Rather, HaShem would have been sensed by all of us as we retained the crown and glory of having been part of that great revelation. With the Egel, tragically, we forfeited our glory. We could no longer take for granted that each one of us or any of us had an intimate communion with the One Above. "Plan B" was to build a three dimensional place of centralized avoda. Through the agency of Mishkan, we could once again have a collective sense, at least, that HaShem was near to His people. However, there is a different opinion about the timing of Parshios Terumah and Tetzaveh. Some hold that Mishkan was always Plan A. We were commanded to prepare that Shrine while Moshe was still atop Sinai preparing to receive the Torah. This is not Rashi's view. This is the view, however, of the Gan. We were commanded about the Mishkan and the avoda as part of the follow-up to getting the Torah, not as a consequence of violating its rules at the Egel. Hence, the Gan does not view our verse as if HaShem is giving us the "consolation prize" of having a sense of Shechina at the collective national level (v'Shachanti b'tocham). That is not the intention of the term "dwelling among them." Rather, the Gan writes that up until Sinai, HaShem and the Torah dwelled apart from the material universe, where the Divine Presence is surrounded by His malachaim alone, the emanations of His Ratzon which are the energy to enact His will on earth and everywhere. With the giving of the Torah in a material form to be present in tangible form on Earth, the lower world now takes on a limited new role: there is a central Mishkan which houses the Torah. It is a miniature "Heaven." The role that the Jewish people now take on is to be the lower "malachim." On earth as on High, HaShem's messengers surround the "abode" of His sensed Presence and they surround the Torah too. There is only this "Plan A", which persisted throughout the existence of the Mishkan and the Bais HaMikdash. Our status, as people, as individuals, was transformed with the giving of the Torah. We now were to regard ourselves as HaShem's messengers. Just as the angels surround the higher representation of the Holy One Above, we who are His messengers below must surround the Torah and the Mikdash, enunciating its Divinity and protecting it. This is the meaning of "and I will dwell among them." HaShem's Divine Presence is sensed within us as long as we maintain our intended image as His malachim on Earth. Good Shabbos. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/