Musar su Abacuc 2:20

Most of the commandments listed in this portion are of the עבודה, service, kind. The Torah therefore legislates that the place for such service must be fixed, i.e. the site G–d has chosen and called בית הבחירה. The Torah (12,5) therefore instructs us לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה, "seek out His Presence and come there." The word לשכנו alludes to the שכינה which resides in the Sanctuary as we know from וה' בהיכל קדשו, הס וגו' "And the Lord is in the Sanctuary of His holiness, be silent, etc.!" (Chababuk 2,20). The name of G–d is the reference to the שכינה, Presence; for it is where His glory and the strength of His תפארת, magnificence, unite. This is what the Torah (12,5) means with the words לשום שמו שם, "to place His name there." the Targum renders it as לאשראה שכנתה תמן. The wicked walk outside the holy place because they are the קליפה, the husk. This being so you must be careful not to offer your sacrifices outside the Holy Temple (12,13), lest it be perceived as if you offered them to these forces of impurity.

The concept of שלמות הבנין and the acquisition by Jacob of the merit of חסד של אמת converge into one overall concept. The word ארץ appears here three times, (verses 3-4-7) We also encounter the expression היכל השם three times in Jeremiah 7,4. The Sanctuary called היכל השם is situated in a sacred ארץ. In commenting on Isaiah 12,6: כי גדול בקרבך קדוש ישראל, "For The Holy One of Israel will be great in your midst," our sages state that G–d will not take up residence in the Jerusalem "above" until He has been able to do so in the Jerusalem "below." The plain meaning of that statement is that the Jerusalem "below" is the Sanctuary in the Holy Land, ארץ ישראל, the Temple whose speedy rebuilding we pine for every day. This Temple is on a site that corresponds to the Sanctuary in the Celestial Regions. The Sanctuary in the Celestial Regions in turn is the סוד, mystical dimension of the ארץ העליונה, the "Earth" of the upper regions, also known as ארץ חפץ. Chabakuk 2,20 says of that land: וה' בהיכל קדשו הס מפניו כל הארץ, "And the Lord is in His Sanctuary, be silent before Him all the earth!" The Sanctuary of G–d, היכל, discussed here is that of the attribute known as א-ד-נ-י, the numerical value of which equals 65, the same as the numerical value of the word היכל. These two words also have the same numerical value as the word הס in the verse from Chabakuk quoted. The היכל is the ארץ של ישראל סבא, the land of the founding father of the Jewish people, Israel, otherwise known as תפארת ישראל a mystical dimension of the Ineffable Name.

We must try and understand why Rabbenu Bachyah was so selective in his comparison of the creation with the construction of the Tabernacle. He could have cited additional parallels. A look at a lengthy Midrash in Shemot Rabbah 33,4 quotes Rabbi Berechyah as presenting a long list of parallels between the Tabernacle and מעשה בראשית. The list includes many items found in the heavens such as ערפל, זבול, עצי שטים, כרובים, אופנים and many others. In each case Rabbi Berechyah demonstrates that the Tabernacle contained something parallel.