TERUMA_EXODUS XXV:1-XXVII:19
As is known, the episode of the giving of the “Ten Commandments”, or rather, the “Ten Words”, the term used by the biblical text, is followed by the fabrication of an Egel Hazahav, the golden calf who was identified as the God of the Hebrew people or, perhaps, as the substitute for Moses, who had not returned from Mount Sinai and was assumed to have disappeared or died.
The epiphany that occurred at Mount Sinai is shrouded in mystery. Divine revelation, God’s direct communication with the people, is an event that cannot be analyzed because it challenges the canons of experience. The event has no date and is not the occasion for a special celebration in the Torah. Centuries later, the Talmud will associate this revelation with the celebration of Shavuot, a holiday that has agricultural significance, as well as the other 2 holidays that make up the Shalosh Regalim: Pesach and Sukkot.
Indeed, in the Talmud there is a discussion about the exact date of Shavuot and not everyone agrees with the accepted one, which is the 6th of Sivan. Even the response of the Hebrews, “Na’aseh venishma, “their willingness to “fulfill even before listening,” implies that it was a singular event. According to the Midrash, God raised the mountain above the Hebrew people and warned them that He would drop Mount Sinai on their heads if they did not commit to the fulfillment of what is written in the Torah.
For many other reasons, the revelation at Mount Sinai is the event that will qualify and define the nature of the Hebrews for all time. However, it must be realized that the revelation was temporary, was made on a certain date of the calendar, and was surely followed by a period of ambiguity, because ecstasy cannot be sustained in time with the same intensity.
Mount Sinai demanded a sequel, an evolution of the cult because it had to respond to how communication with the Creator could be kept alive. The answer is the construction of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle that was erected in the wilderness and that accompanied the Hebrew people during their long journey, and which later served as a model for the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple built by King Shelomoh.
The argument that the Mishkan was a response to the Egel Hazahav should not be ignored. That is, the people needed a concrete element for worship. The notion of a Supreme Being invisible to the eyes, incomprehensible to the intellect of man, that on numerous occasions dispensed incomprehensible Divine Justice, produced the mandate of the construction of the Mishkan, in such a way that the Mishkan becomes a concession for a man who cannot conceptualize an unrepresentable Supreme Being in the physical world.
Without denying the validity of this argument that offers a specific explanation for the Mishkan, we are rather inclined to the meaning of the first conjecture, which offers a reason of substance and essence. The event at Sinai, which was unrepeatable, was away for a continuous and fluid communication with God, the daily and constant worship that will offer a channel for the expression of man’s relationship with his God. The offering of the sacrifice that will be made in the Beit HaMikdash will be the vehicle that will forge a bridge with God, an element that after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is expressed through prayer, the daily and constant Tefillah.
Should the Beit HaMikdash be rebuilt? This desire is part of the daily prayers in which we request it. However, contemporary man cannot easily assimilate the notion of a cult of God that is expressed through animal sacrifice. When this question was raised before Rav HaRashi Kook of Israel, he opined that the reconstruction of the Beit HaMikdash needed direct Divine intervention. There were so many invincible obstacles that without God’s help a new Beit HaMikdash could not be erected in the only suitable site for it, which is now occupied by a mosque.
According to Kook, the same God who will facilitate the third Beit HaMikdash will simultaneously enlighten us in such a way that our contemporary mind will be able to understand the meaning of sacrifices, the Korbanot, for our generation and those of the future.
MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHAH
CONTAINS 2 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 1 PROHIBITION
- Exodus 25:8 Building the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple)
- Exodus 25:15 Do not remove the rods from the Ark
- Exodus 25:30 Arranging the holy breads (Lechem hapanim) and incense
