מוסר אויף שמות 27:1

I have already explained at length in Parshat Terumah how the Tabernacle was a re-enactment of the work of creation, i.e. a microcosm, and that it served as man's rehabilitation for the damage to G–d's universe brought about by Adam's sin. We have also explained that there was a parallel Tabernacle in the Celestial Regions. Aaron, as High Priest, symbolised the rehabilitation of man who had become distant from G–d as a result of Adam's sin. Concerning Aaron, the Torah writes: ואתה הקרב אליך את אהרון אחיך, "As for you (Moses), bring close Aaron your brother etc." (28,1) Here the Torah expresses a mystical dimension of the verse in Leviticus 16,17: וכל אדם לא יהיה באהל, "No man shall be inside the tent." This is a reference to original Adam. The universe was created under the aegis of חסד, loving-kindness, as we know from עולם חסד יבנה, "The universe was built with loving-kindness" (Psalms 89,3). The בנין של מעלה, "The structure corresponding to the physical universe in the Celestial Regions," contains the secret of the seven days of creation and commences with the emanation חסד down to the emanation מלכות, i.e. seven emanations. We find that in connection with Aaron, the Torah (Deut. 33,8) speaks about תומיך ואוריך לאיש חסידך, that Aaron represented the attribute of חסד. We have explained that the three groups of Israelites, i.e. the כהנים, לוים, ישראלים, corresponded to the three emanations חסד, גבורה, תפארת, respectively.

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.

We have previously demonstrated Israel's relationship to the Tabernacle; here we may add Israel's specific relationship to the Sabbath legislation. Seeing that the Tabernacle was a re-enactment of the work of creation, and Israel, as the carrier of the מרכבה, is closely intertwined with the forces represented in the construction of the Tabernacle, we can understand why the 39 kinds of work prohibited on the Sabbath are the ones which were employed in the construction of the Tabernacle. [In the interest of preventing confusion, I have taken the liberty of considerably abbreviating the intricate series of allusions used by the author in this presentation. I trust that I have preserved the thrust of his argument intact. Ed.] Because the Sabbath represents a mystical element of the Ineffable Name, we have been forbidden to carry items from the "private domain," i.e. the domain represented by the Ineffable Name as י, as we showed earlier, to the public domain (which represents the number 4, as cubits) as we described. In a nutshell, before G–d created the physical universe, there was only a single domain, G–d's domain, the private domain; since G–d created a universe, there is an additional domain, the public domain, since G–d- by having created the universe- "shared" part of His previously exclusive private domain with His creatures. The principle of private and public domain thus became part of the creation, and is reflected in restrictions placed on the interaction of these domains on the Sabbath. Israel is described in numerous Midrashim as the בת זוג, mate of the Sabbath; this is because both Israel and the Sabbath are holy. In this portion Betzalel and the other divinely inspired artisans are commanded to observe the Sabbath regulations even during such a holy endeavour as the construction of the Tabernacle, because the Torah (31,13) says: אך את שבתותי תשמורו, "But you must observe My Sabbath days." We will come back to this subject in our discussion of פרשת ויקהל and פקודי.