Parshat Vaykhel- Pekude, Exodus 35:1-40:38 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

The ending double portion of the Book of Exodus seems to repeat those instructions to build the Tabernacle that have already been given in the earlier part of Exodus. But in the opening of this week’s portion that actual order to build the Tabernacle is given and the text tells us that the people began the work to create all the various pieces of the tabernacle from the sockets to poles to curtains and hangings. The artisans and craftsmen and craftswomen made the cloth and built the planks. They covered the wood with gold for the Ark of the Covenant and made the menorah. All of the various vessels and utensils and priestly garments that were described earlier in Exodus are now executed. These hard workers once made sacred objects and built temples for the Egyptians and their gods and goddesses. Now they have the honor to build a sacred space and the sacred objects for their own God. This project of the people and for God helps to bring them together as a people and solidify their focus as a nation. In the final chapters of Exodus of parshat Pekude the Tabernacle is set-up for the first time.

The Torah tells us that in the first month of the second year on the first of the month the Tabernacle was set up and dedicated and initiated for use. Tradition teaches us that this is month is the month of Aviv—in the spring which corresponds to our month of Nisan. Even though Aaron was the High Priest, the Cohen Gadol and would be the one to offer the sacrifices in the Tent of Meeting it is none other than Moses who has the honor of initiating the Tabernacle. “Moses set up the Tabernacle (Ex. 40:18).” It was Moses who placed the Ten Commandments and put them in the ark and he put up the parochet—or screen that divided off the Holy Ark from the rest of the Tent of Meeting (Ex. 40:21). It is Moses who lights the Menorah and offers the first offering of incense and the first offerings both burnt and meal on the main altar at the entrance to the Tabernacle (Ex. 40:28).

It is interesting to note that Moses gets the honor of preparing the final steps and initiating the Tabernacle and not Aaron who is invested and ordained to be the High Priest. Even though in this portion we are told that Moses brought forward Aaron and his sons and anointed them to the priesthood. Moses still God’s chosen representative and the one who speaks with God panim el panim, face to face, has the honor and indeed is commanded by God to set everything in motion. It is only when Moses finishes the final touches that the Divine Presence descends and fills the Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting.
And yet, the text tells us that Moses could not enter the Tabernacle when the Divine Presence, the Glory of God, filled the sacred space. So even while Moses on Mt. Sinai was able to see God’s back and be in immediate connection with God it wasn’t until the Divine home was made that the people Israel could experience something like Moses did. Yes, they heard God’s voice at the moment of Sinai and the saw the smoke on the mountains. But now the people of Israel do get to witness an aspect of that Divine Presence. “For over the Tabernacle a cloud of Adonai rested by day and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journey,” (Ex 40:38). Thus the immediate experience of the Divine Presence filled their lives and no longer was only for mountaintops and leaders. The communal work that built the Divine home on earth and their work as a nation together to create the sacred space brought about a new relationship with the Holy One. It solidified the people and the symbol of the Tabernacle helped to make their relationship to the Divine more concrete. For a God that is invisible and a God whose name is unpronounceable this sacred space builds a unique bond in their lives and in their relationship to the Divine One.

We have no Tabernacle today. No Temple in Jerusalem but the synagogue is the symbol of that Divine connection. This is why the synagogue is the central connector of the Jewish people and must remain the sacred space that unites our people.