What's The Tabernacle Really About?
The construction of the Tabernacle, the portable desert ark is not riveting reading. It is in essence an extremely long shopping list more suited for B&Q than a guidebook for a ragtag bunch of former slaves, learning to live without slavemasters in the wilderness. And yet, the construction of the Mishkan fills not a few verses, not even a few chapters, but one third of the Book of Exodus; it takes five parashiot, read across five Shabbatot to describe everything in relation to the Mishkan. In comparison, the creation of the whole universe, the planet, and everything on it is told in only 34 verses. The story of the mobile impermanent Sanctuary is 15 times longer.
It should make us wonder what this is all for. Why in this preeminent book of freedom do we end with the building of a portable box, even if it is to hold the stone tablets? Surely the construction could have been described in a few verses? And why is the elaborate description of a ritual item not in Leviticus, the book of rules and holiness?
To understand this oddity and why the tabernacle plays such a large part in the narrative we have to look at the wider context.
Once the Israelites have passed through the Red Sea, the book of Exodus describes the change that the newly freed slaves have to go through, leaving behind the societal rules and expectations of Egyptian society, and creating a whole new societal structure that is based on justice rather than slavery. That is a huge task for any group, let alone a people used to being enslaved, with no rights to their own time, own culture, or own choices.
What happens to them after they leave Egypt makes a lot of sense; first they are asked to make a new calendar of festivals – being in control of time is the first step towards freedom, and then we have the rules that help navigate relationships between them and God, and between people, in the Ten Commandments and the Covenant Code. These are all essential laws about how we live with each other, what can break the societal contract- like murder or stealing, the damage lying or swearing falsely can do to a nation.
And then we have the creation of the mishkan which essentially is a large mobile storage box. Its contents are sacred, namely the two sets of tablets. The Miskhan itself is a short term solution, never meant to be a permanent structure, but a storage facility until the Temple can be built. So why does the Miskhan take up one third of the whole Book of Exodus? Were they serious DIY enthusiasts or is there something else going on here?
To understand it we have to look at the behaviour and reaction of the former slaves, learning to live in a whole new environment, with a very different future ahead of them.
What is the reaction we read again and again to the new situations that they find themselves in? What behaviour do we repeatedly read about amongst the newly freed slaves to their new life in the desert? Is it gratitude? Excitement? The answer of course is kvetching.
Before they’ve even left Egypt they complained that Moses was making their life harder. At the Red Sea they complained because they could not see a way through. Three days after they went through the Red Sea they are kvetching again about water and food. A short while after that they complain about the food again and this time about how it is prepared. And as we know there will be several rebellions against the leadership as well. The backdrop to the creation of this new and free nation is fear, anxiety, anger, and regret, and passivity.
It is a really interesting thought that despite all the signs and wonders, despite the enormity of the plagues, despite being freed from Egypt, the sea being split for them, manna falling from heaven and water sprouting from a rock, the main reaction is to sit back and complain. There are no stories of the Israelites stepping up and taking responsibility, of taking charge of their own destiny. There is at this point no sense of them coalescing around the gift of freedom, trying to help in the creation of this new nation.
Even the experience of the receiving of the Ten Commandments does not last long, as we know 40 days later it all goes wrong. This is the background to our parasha – none of the signs and wonders are able to change the former slaves mentality, from reliance/dependency into responsibility.
And then we have the creation of a common project that everyone is invited to participate in, with whatever skills and gifts they have, this project managed to do what none of the miracles achieves. Rabbi Sacks point out that;
“During the whole time the Tabernacle was being constructed, there were no complaints, no rebellions, no dissension. What all the signs and wonders failed to do, the construction of the Tabernacle succeeded in doing. It transformed the people. It turned them into a cohesive group. It gave them a sense of responsibility and identity.
Seen in this context, the story of the Tabernacle was the essential element in the birth of a nation. No wonder it is told at length; no surprise that it belongs to the book of Exodus; and there is nothing ephemeral about it. The Tabernacle did not last forever, but the lesson it taught did”.
What brings people together is what they give and create, not the awe and wonder served on a platter in front of them. It is the act of building something together that changes them. It does not have to be fancy, large, or impressive. By encouraging the former slaves to create something, to become builders, by getting them to give freely, they become more than what they were. Together they become something new.
Sacks sums up the importance of the tabernacle and its construction;
“A free society is best symbolized by the Tabernacle. It is the home we build together. It is only by becoming builders that we turn from subjects to citizens. We have to earn our freedom by what we give. It cannot be given to us as an unearned gift. It is what we do, not what is done to us, that makes us free. That is a lesson as true today as it was then”.
It is quite a startling truth, it is in the giving rather than receiving that they become truly free. It is when we actively participate in building and managing our communities and our society that we become citizens, that we become more than what we were. “It is what we do, not what is done to us, that makes us free” – that is the wisdom of the Tabernacle, and that is the gift we all have within us to give.