Musar zu Schemot 31:4

לחשוב מחשבות לעשות. There is a hint here that one should contemplate the deeper significance of the commandment one is in the process of performing.

Let us return to the concept of the basic equality of the concepts of משכן and שבת. It is logical therefore that all the forbidden work-activities on the Sabbath are derived from activities performed in constructing the Tabernacle. This is also why in order to be culpable for transgressing these prohibitions they must have been performed intentionally. The Torah states that the construction of the Tabernacle involved לחשוב מחשבות, thoughtful planning (35,32). This means that everything that was made for use in the Tabernacle was designated to perform its function already when it was merely being processed, long before it became an integral part of the Tabernacle. The various artisans involved had to be familiar with the true significance of the parts they were fashioning, possibly even their mystical aspects. The author proceeds to point out the significance in the wording of the opening משנה of the tractate שבת, (which describes different elements of the act of transferring property from one domain to another), as applicable to the comparison between work performed on the Sabbath and work performed for the construction of the משכן. The work is described as , שתים שהן ארבע בפנים, ושתים שהן ארבע בחוץ, "two categories which are really four, internally, and two categories which are really four, externally." The expression חוץ, outside, is a reference to the negative prohibitions whose purpose is to keep the קליפות, negative, Satan-inspired, influences outside. The expression פנים refers to the positive commandments and their function to bring additional sanctity into our personality. This is also the reason the sages refer to the two different "headlines" of the Sabbath, i.e. זכור ושמור, as having been said בדבור אחד, "in one word." They view the observance of the negative commandments of the Sabbath legislation as no more than the other side of the coin called Sabbath, the first side symbolising the positive commandment זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. [compare Exodus 20,8 and Deuteronomy 5,12 respectively.] Matters concerning the performance of positive commandments are two-fold, i.e. they involve body and soul respectively. Both body and soul consist of hidden as well as revealed aspects. Thus we see that there are a total of four categories. The revealed aspect of the soul is the Torah. Our sages phrased this by stating לא איברי שבתות אלא לגירסא, "The only reason the Sabbath days were created is to enable Torah study to be pursued on those days." The Zohar elaborates that upon its return to the Celestial Regions after the Sabbath, the נשמה יתירה is asked what new Torah insights it had gained during its stay on earth on the Sabbath. By coming up with such new insights the soul is considered as having created new heavens. This is why the Midrash we quoted earlier compared Isaiah 40,22 to the construction of the tent-cloths for the Tabernacle in Exodus 26,1. The message in both statements is that man is able to perform creative acts.

The construction of the Tabernacle may be compared to the construction of the universe itself of which it is written: ה' בחכמה יסד ארץ, כונן שמים בתבונה, בדעתו תהומות נבקעו, "The Lord founded the earth with wisdom; He established the heavens with understanding. By His knowledge the depths were broken up" (Proverbs 3,19-20). We find a parallel statement when the Torah describes the appointment of Betzalel as the architect in charge of building the Tabernacle. Exodus 31,3 tells us that G–d endowed Betzalel with "a divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft; to make designs for work in gold, silver, and copper, to cut stones, etc." Our sages in Berachot 55 say that Betzalel knew how to combine the letters of the Torah, the method by which the universe had been created by G–d. It follows that the Tabernacle was in effect the creation of a microcosm, a duplication of מעשה בראשית. [except that this creation did not start ex nihilo. Ed.] We expect to come back to this in detail when explaining the פרשיות of ויקהל and פקודי.