Musar do Wyjścia 40:17

We have discussed the kabbalistic concept of שיעור קומה in our commentary on פרשת תרומה; the deeper significance of these allusions is bound up with what the משכן represents, the word קומה being a re-arrangement of the word הוקם in Exodus 40,17: הוקם המשכן. We discussed there the 236 thousand פרסאות, and that the measurements mentioned in the ספר היכלות referred only to a region in which Mattatron was at home. Any higher regions cannot be measured even symbolically, as they are spiritually too far removed from our physical universe. The Ari zal finds an allusion to this number 236 in Exodus 40,34: וכבוד ה' מלא את המשכן. When you spell the word משכן using words instead of letters, i.e. מ"ם, שי"ן, כ"ף, נו"ן, the differential between the regular spelling and the expanded spelling is 236, i.e. 410 and 646 respectively. The משכן povides the link between the Sabbath which is essentially part of the עולם הבא, and the ששת ימי המעשה, the six days of the week during which work is to be performed, i.e. during which all the commandments of the Torah are to be performed. Our sages (Eyruvin 22) have already expounded on the verse “היום לעשותם "ולמחר לקבל שכרם that the reward for the performance of the commandments will be received on the morrow, i.e. in the World to Come. The Sabbath is the reward for the work performed during the six days of work. In view of this it is appropriate that also the Courts in our world should refrain from making any decisions on the Sabbath, even when such decisions involve the performance of Divine Commandments.

This was also the secret which enabled the Tabernacle to be erected, as reported in Exodus 40,17. The word הוקם used there to describe the erecting of the Tabernacle is another way of saying that the Tabernacle was given קומה, "substance." The dimensions of this קומה and its significance are discussed in a book called Sefer Heychalot The author, quoting Psalms 132,8: קומה ה' למנוחתיך אתה וארון עוזך writes about the subject of קומה. In order to comprehend the whole subject matter one needs to preface his remarks with a definition of the meaning שיעור קומה as employed by Kabbalists.