Shabbat Vayakhel-Pekudei

Written by Rabbi Dr Michael Shire Thursday, 23 March 2006

Shabbat Vayakhel – Pekudei

We have ‘discovered’ almost all of our planet, even to the extent of the deepest oceans. Now we are beginning to explore the outermost parts of our solar system.

According to the theologian Abraham Isaac Herschel (1907-72), time rather than place is sanctified in Judaism, through the holiness that is imbued within Shabbat.

In the very act of creation, God sanctified this time, as it is written (Genesis 2:3) “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.”

Today’s portion details the construction of the mishkan (tabernacle), in which God’s presence dwelt as it journeyed with the people.

Eventually, it would rest in one place – the Temple, in Jerusalem – wherein God’s presence would dwell among them. But why was it necessary to create such a concrete manifestation of God’s holiness that would occupy a space in the centre of the people’s religious experience?

A hint is given in the use of the word vayakhel – Moses assembled the people – at the beginning of the sidrah. The same word is used, in a different form, in Exodus 32:1, when the Israelites approached Aaron to make them a god while Moses was atop the mountain.

They had lost faith in the invisible God of their redemption and desired a golden calf to worship instead. When God realised that humanity needed symbols of holiness that pointed towards the transcendent, the instructions were given to build the mishkan.

Before it was built, however, God ordained the laws of Shabbat – holy time – in the hope that the people would not limit holiness to a specific place or object, even as they built the mishkan.

The repetition of the word vayakhel – with its echoes of the Shabbat laws – reminds us that holy places and objects are mere symbols of a divine presence. Its importance is in the distinction between symbols and that which they signify.

It was Moses who sanctified the completed mishkan in his time. God continues to sanctify the Sabbath forever.

Rabbi Dr Michael Shire